In League of Legends, the South Korean player Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok has been one of the most well-known and best players for 9 years. However, currently, the three-time world champion is dissatisfied with the state of the MOBA, particularly fed up with the solo queue in 2022. He says it is purely a gamble at the moment.
Who is Faker?
- Faker is the “Lionel Messi” of LoL, a global superstar of the game. He collected titles early on in LoL, becoming world champion in 2013, 2015, and 2016. In South Korea, he is seen as the “ambassador of the country”: a politician even called for special treatment for him, suggesting he should be allowed to complete his military service only after his career.
- Faker is a midlaner in LoL; he plays mages and assassins and is known for his exceptionally deep champion pool, spectacular plays, and nerves of steel.
- Currently, Faker is back in brilliant form after some weaker years: he and his team T1 broke the all-time record for a “good season start” in the LCK by winning 17 league games in a row.
Even the best player has too little influence on the outcome of a LoL match
What bothers Faker right now: In a Twitch stream on March 16, Faker stated, according to a translation:
“If I weren’t a pro, I wouldn’t play solo queue anymore because it’s not fun. […] ‘9 out of 10 games are like slot machines. If it stays like this, I see no point in playing anymore”.
Faker
What exactly does he mean by that? Faker struggles with his teammates in solo queue. The midlaner apparently thinks that he himself has too little influence as an individual on the outcome of his matches. Everything depends on the teammates assigned to him in matchmaking.
If he encounters teammates who just “troll”, do not take the game seriously, or tilt and give up, even a superstar like Faker cannot have a decisive influence on the game.
From Faker’s perspective, in 90% of cases, whether he wins or loses is purely based on luck. Like at a slot machine, it’s not the player’s skill that decides but the luck of getting good teammates that determines whether you win or lose.
This is also tied to the fact that Faker plays in the Korean solo queue and there are issues with “foreign players”. While they can play there with all the luxury through special accounts, they often do not take the solo queue as seriously as professionals would wish.
The game is okay – players are annoying and “worse than ever before”
This is being discussed: On reddit, the statement of the legendary Faker is being discussed:
- Basically, it is found that the current meta in LoL is actually fine – but the players are “worse than ever before”.
- One player states that he has been playing since 2017 – he has never had so little fun in LoL. Every game feels like flipping a coin for who gets the worse teammates.
- There is now hope that Riot will be concerned when the “greatest player of all time” says something like “Your game is not fun”. On reddit, people hope for significant change.
What could be a solution? One suggestion is that Riot Games needs to change how players are evaluated:
- Currently, only team success matters.
- However, there is a desire for a system where individual performance counts in the evaluation, such as KDA.
Even though some players are currently satisfied with the meta, Riot Games is adjusting some formulas behind the scenes:
LoL announces systemic changes to the meta to address a major problem
