For Faker, the superstar in League of Legends, the only thing that matters is the world championship title. He has no time for a relationship. However, many fans now jokingly suggest that this might be his mistake.
How is Faker doing? Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok is a legend in LoL. He is considered extremely ambitious and for him, only the world championship counts.
The mid-laner of SKT1 is doing everything to play better and to win the title again after 2013, 2015, and 2016. He is also willing to forgo a relationship.
In 2019, however, he failed to win the title. SKT1 lost to the European team G2 Esports. The world champion was, however, the Chinese team Funplus Phoenix.
And they seem to benefit from a superpower that influences the games from the outside.
Partners – the superpower of champions?
What is the reason for Faker’s failure? In various tweets and comments, fans of League of Legends noted that Faker has a significant disadvantage compared to some other LoL stars.
After all, he has no partner by his side.
Accordingly, it seems that a partner can sometimes unleash unexpected powers. Fans refer to the current world champion and mid-laner of Funplus Phoenix, Kim “Doinb” Tae-sang. His wife Umi supports him and even witnessed the finals of the Worlds live in Paris.
Many appreciate her for her open yet emotional nature. During the semifinals, she even shed tears, as can be seen in a video on Twitter:
As @FPX_Esports wins the semifinals, Umi, Doinb’s wife, tears up in the crowd pic.twitter.com/J85uCSJNxW
— Ashley Kang (@AshleyKang) November 2, 2019
Doinb himself also commented in an interview about his wife. In it, he said:
- “My wife always told me that if you work hard, you will be rewarded accordingly. […] I also asked her if I wasn’t good enough. She comforted me. But this year I finally stand in the big final. I think this is proof of my wife’s statement – I worked harder and got the reward.”
Waifu Buff occupies LoL fans
The power of a woman? In comments below the Twitter video, other tweets, or on reddit, fans note that Faker might be missing this “buff”. They write:
- Lialia: “Faker should give up singledom and find a woman as well.”
- Dellley: “Faker doesn’t go on dates because if he had a wife buff, he would be unstoppable and it wouldn’t be fun to beat everyone.”
- Pureply101: “There really is a wife buff in professional sports. Even newborn babies give a buff. All NA players need to get married quickly to get the buff for Worlds.”
- Swiollvfer: “He [Faker] just doesn’t understand how the wife buff works.”
As early as 2017, there was discussion about the “waifu buff”. Back then, it was all about Kang “Ambition” Chan-yong and his girlfriend Solji. She was referred to by Invenglobal as the “buff girl of the LCK 2013”.
Ambition succeeded in winning the All-Stars, IEM Season 7, the World Cyber Games, and NiceGameTV Battles. He repeatedly emphasized how much Solji had supported him.
In 2017, the two got married. Exactly in that year, Ambition won the Worlds with Samsung Galaxy against none other than Faker.
Faker remains focused on the world championship
What does Faker think about a relationship? At an event in Shanghai, where next year’s Worlds will be held, Faker revealed that he will aim to reach the Worlds again in 2020 and will want to become the world champion this time.
- He is focused on his career and is therefore currently not looking for a relationship.
- He currently values the world championship above everything else.
Faker is now 23 years old and he must soon complete his military service. It is unlikely that he will celebrate further major successes afterwards. Perhaps the 2020 Worlds will even be his last.
Yet next year will be tough for him and SKT1. The old team, which at least made it to the top 4 of the 2019 Worlds, has lost several players.
Nevertheless, Faker has extended his contract until 2021. It will be exciting to see if he can fulfill his dream of the title again in 2020.
While Faker is competing again in 2020 to win the Worlds, a former teammate is now hanging up his career:
