Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok is considered one of the best players in the history of League of Legends. He is one of the few who made it to being a world champion three times. Faker is known for being an excellent mid laner, and the main focus of his team. Due to his monstrous experience in League, he has a great variety of champions to pick and can seemingly play any meta. This level of performance has earned him the nickname ‘’The Unkillable Demon King’’.

The positives

Here are some of the great attributes Faker has:

• Aggressive playstyle / Solo Kills / Great Calculation / Hard to be ”read by opponent”

Faker is always ready for game-changing moves and outplays. One of the greatest examples is the famous 1v1 duel on Zed. That moment is simply beautiful, demonstrating Faker’s ability to win a duel without any advantage. Even though he took a few tower hits, Faker played the duel perfectly.

• Wide champion pool

Due to an enormous amount of total games played on both the competitive scene and solo queue, Faker can easily fill in any role the team needs. Whether it’s the teamplay based Galio or assassin Le Blanc or even support Karma, Faker can deliver.

• Monstrous MOBA in-game experience

Faker started his path to glory in the MOBA genre at 14 years. It was a map in WC3 called ”Chaos”. Even his father once stated that he felt that Faker is made to be a professional player in MOBA games.

• Monstrous competitive scene experience

After many years playing in the highly competitive LCK, Faker is no stranger to the stage. With so many seasons under his belt where he led his team all the way to the world finals, the bright lights and big crowds no longer faze him. The competitive League of Legends scene feels like home for Faker.

• Laning

Twelve minions per minute, near-perfect wave control, solo kills in lane, great awareness of the enemy jungler – Faker has it all. He is inspired by the chance that you can dominate your opponent in the lane phase and change the game. In the golden age of the impactful mid champions meta, Faker felt like this game was made especially for him.

Weaknesses

My name is Lee Sang-hyeok. My American fans call me “God.” My Korean fans know me as “the Unkillable Demon King.” I actually prefer God, because it feels just a little bit higher.

• Ego

Amidst all of the strengths Faker possesses as a player, there is one weakness that could ruin it all. Even though he may have every needed attribute for being an esports athlete, success and ego can easily blind. At the start of his career, Faker didn’t have world championship titles or big prize pools secured. He was dedicating all of his power for cold calculations and manipulations of his opponent. He was literally as quick as Flash himself on his moves.

In game, I’m simply Faker.

I’m 20 years old, and I’m the best League of Legends player in the world.

However, success blinded him. His ego started to grow, which made him start to commit easy mistakes. For example, in Game 3 at the 2017 World Championship, he didn’t flash away from Varus’s ultimate, when he had flash ready. That’s not the gameplay one might expect from the likes of Faker.

It seems as though his ego made Faker stop ‘’playing for the win’’ and caused him to start thinking that he is simply the best and he can’t be outplayed, which is a critical error for any competitor. Of course, when a player gets so much attention from journalists and already has a lot of cash in their pockets many people would relax and stop playing hard. There are always going to be young athletes with empty pockets, who are hungry for just a spot on the competitive scene. With players like this working hard on their play style, there simply is no time for playing with ego.

At some point, Faker decided to stop improving, that’s the start of the problem. Fans are waiting for Faker to shine once more, and maybe it will be so.

“I’m called The Unkillable Demon King for a reason. I’ll be back. Long live the king.” – Faker

With all of his strengths, Faker has all the chance to rise once again to be stronger than he ever was before. With the right mindset, there is no doubt that his reign can continue for years to come.

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