Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok is the greatest of all time. Truly. He cements this fact with every new accomplishment, and has done it again at the highest level of competition at the League of Legends World Championship.
He is now a five-time world champion after T1 defeated Bilibili Gaming at the Worlds 2024 final, 3-2. With the same T1 roster, Choi “Zeus” Woo-je, Mun “Oner” Hyeon-jun, Lee “Gumayusi” Min-hyeong, and Ryu “Keria” Min-seok, they qualified for the Worlds final in 2022, finished second, then proceeded to win back-to-back championships in 2023 and 2024.
Unlike their 3-0 sweep in 2023, the final series against Bilibili Gaming at Worlds 2024 was much more memorable. T1 were down 2-1 while their opponents were at match point in game four — it was then that Faker the playmaker stepped up to save them from elimination.
T1 Faker definitely deserves Worlds 2024 final MVP
At the 20-minute mark in a crucial do-or-die game four, Faker found himself in a favorable position on the side of mid lane. Creeping up on Luo “ON” Wen-Jun’s Rakan, he made a quick decision to steal his ultimate with Sylas’ Hijack.
Everything that happened after was pure cinema. Using the increased movement speed from The Quickness, its innate charm, Flash, and Hextech Rocketbelt, he caught out BLG’s AP and AD carries.
The rest of his team followed up with an entourage of spells and killed them swiftly.
In the final game five, despite not playing a carry, Faker’s Galio soared high. His positioning and timing of every spell was immaculate, and he was again a deciding factor in an important mid game team fight.
This is actually Faker’s second final MVP award. His first was at Worlds 2016.
“I actually can’t remember that I won it back in 2016. It’s far back in my memory,” Faker commented on the Worlds 2024 broadcast after receiving his award. “Today I wasn’t paying much attention about winning the finals MVP. What matters to me the most is winning the final and I’m very happy. Comparing the me in 2016 and the me right now, I don’t see a big difference because still, I am surrounded by wonderful teammates. I was able to accomplish this great result together with my team and it’s exactly the same back then.”
Worlds 2016 is also the last year legendary head coach Kim “kkOma” Jeong-gyun was present. He left the organization then and returned seven years after to win his fourth trophy together with T1 and Faker.
When asked about what keeps him striving all these years — 11 in total — Faker replied, “My biggest motivation is my fans because I believe spreading positive energy and influence to my fans is the most important thing to me. That’s always my biggest goal.”
As to what he would say to his 2016 self? “Go ahead and have fun,” said Faker.
