In the match on March 11th (Vietnam time), Faker’s T1 officially set a new record for the unbeaten streak in the LCK by defeating Kwangdong Freecs. With this victory, T1 achieved 15 consecutive wins, surpassing the previous record set by SKT T1 in the Summer of 2015. If they win the remaining 3 matches against Fredit BRION, Liiv SANDBOX, and DRX, T1 will be the only team in League of Legends history to have a perfect group stage.
In a post-match interview, Faker was also asked about the incident that has been stirring up the League of Legends community recently, specifically the actions of Qingtian from Top Esports disrupting the game while ranked with Faker. Faker clearly explained this incident as well as his comments during that stream and shared his thoughts on Qingtian: “As a professional player, I always want high-quality ranked matches. He (Qingtian) played well in the following match. I believe this punishment will help him become a more serious player, try harder, and succeed in the future.”
At the same time, Faker also stated: “While I say that Chinese players tend to troll games, sometimes, players from Korea also pretend to be Chinese. The line between trolling and poor play is very blurry, and thus the quality of matches will decline significantly.” Faker believes that appropriate punishments should be in place so that LCK and LPL players can rank better in the future. He also hopes that everyone will take ranked matches seriously, as there are many Korean players in the LPL who are trying hard every day, and this contributes to ensuring their rights.
However, Faker’s seemingly normal remarks on the incident were used by a faction of overzealous LPL fans to attack him. Their argument took issue with Faker’s statement that “Chinese players often have a tendency to troll games.”
However, some astute fans point out that Faker’s comments are completely reasonable and carry no ulterior motives. Additionally, these fans believe that there have been some translation errors by social media outlets in the Chinese League of Legends community that led to misunderstandings of Faker’s intent. On the other hand, most opinions on Reddit reflect support for Faker.
The situation remains quite heated within the Chinese League of Legends community. However, the punishment for Qingtian has been issued and Faker has spoken out. It is up to everyone playing League of Legends to refrain from trolling or disrupting games to help build a clean environment for League of Legends.