In the final days of the 2023 season, it seems that the audience’s attention is solely focused on the last-minute transfer deals or the meaningless show matches. It isn’t until 2024 that Riot will release the League of Legends Pre-Season patch. Meanwhile, the earliest the tournaments will return is mid-January 2024. Therefore, entertaining fans with show matches has also become a factor in drawing audiences, especially when T1 has a very packed schedule for fan interactions.
However, in the LPL, fans have even organized a show match specifically for the fan clubs of teams and players. Recently, it was a grand battle between the “Faker Fan” team and the “Faker Anti-Fan” team in a tournament named the Faker Cup. The result was that the team formed by Faker’s fans won almost entirely, losing only 1 game and winning all 6 remaining games in 2 BO5 matches.
Notably, not only did the Faker anti-fans demonstrate inferior skills, but they also exhibited shameful behavior that was heavily criticized. After the victory, players from the Faker fan team accused the anti-fan side of deliberately using “smurf” (players of higher skill level than allowed) during the match. It is worth mentioning that these anti-fans had previously lost to the Faker fan team once, and the match being complained about was merely a rematch.
Not only in this light-hearted tournament, but anywhere the presence of “smurf” players also frustrates other players immensely. These players possess skill levels far superior to the average, but for some reason (often to satisfy personal preferences), they create new accounts to drop to lower ranks to dominate their opponents. These players also deny their teammates any chance to enjoy the game when they have already “done everything from A to Z.”
The tournament named Faker is just a fun event within the framework of fan club tournaments that are set to appear in the LPL in the future. However, issues arose, all due to the selfish intentions of a portion of players.