As is well known, on the morning of the first day of December, the League of Legends community once again had the chance to “shine” when the Esports Awards were announced and T1 once again “reached the top” of the world. Specifically, Faker won the Esports Athlete of the Year award and “Faker: A Decade of Greatness”, produced by Riot Games, won the Content Esports of the Year award. Along with Faker, T1 also received the highest award – Esports Team of the Year. These are the most prestigious categories in the esports world for the past year of 2023.
However, the achievements of T1 and Faker are not convincing to some, even within the League of Legends community. Many opinions suggest that T1 has come up empty in most tournaments they participated in this year. Aside from two appearances in the LCK finals (and losing), T1 was eliminated in the MSI 2023 after being defeated by Bilibili Gaming in the lower bracket semifinals. Meanwhile, JD Gaming – the team that won 3 out of 4 tournaments they participated in – did not receive an award.
However, according to the argument of some opinions, JDG simply won domestic tournaments and MSI 2023 – a tournament that also has international stature but is significantly lower in scale than the World Championship. Not to mention, T1 itself had a very convincing journey to the championship. Over the past year, they lost to BLG once and JDG once. And at the Worlds 2023, the “debt” was fully repaid in an incredibly convincing manner.
Moreover, with T1’s soaring performance, the Worlds 2023 broke many records for viewership and global reach, not only for League of Legends. Faker himself has proven how talented he truly is, not only in leading T1 to victory but also in performing extremely well against opponents at this year’s Worlds.
Of course, every title will cause controversy, whether little or much. However, T1 put in a tremendous effort at the recent Worlds, and they deserve recognition for the hard work of the entire team.