Perhaps anyone who has followed League of Legends for a long time knows that Faker and SKT T1/T1 are always seen as the “nemesis of LPL” in international tournaments, specifically the World Championship. In fact, at a tournament that was supposed to be “easy” since all LPL representatives were in high form, such as at the recent Esports World Cup 2024, both representatives from League of Legends in China were defeated by Faker’s T1.
Therefore, Faker is not only one of the most popular foreign players at LPL but also has a huge number of anti-fans here. And as anti-fans, these people sometimes use harsh language to refer to Faker, especially after some of his actions have led Riot Korea to tighten rank accounts of foreign players on the LCK server.
Anti-fans may insult Faker, and not many people will pay attention to it, but if it comes from LPL, it’s a different story. Recently, the personal Weibo page of LPL, which has over 2 million followers, made a controversial post. In it, they used a term that anti-fans often use to disparage Faker, targeting his background (Faker was raised by his father and grandmother, with no presence of his mother). Immediately, this post ignited anger within the LPL community and LCK fans on platforms such as X, Facebook, and Reddit.
According to many opinions, posting on social media platforms is not just a single individual but involves multiple reviewers. Sensitive language that has become too common cannot be unknown to the LPL organizing committee, yet they still approved it for posting. In fact, the LPL allowed this post to remain for up to 8 hours, attracting numerous comments from LPL fans, and as of now, the post is still intact.
Of course, the post is still attracting a lot of interactions and is one of the most interacted posts on LPL’s Weibo page. However, it is trending in a negative direction and does not bode well for the image of the tournament.