In League of Legends the 27-year-old South Korean Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok is regarded as the greatest player of all time. He is nicknamed “The Undying Demon King,” many simply see him as a god in LoL: But even the Demon King can get injured. And without him, his Uber team T1 looks really bad.
What kind of injury did he have?
- A month ago, T1 reported that their star midlaner Faker is suffering from an injury. He has been having arm problems, has been in pain for 2 weeks and needs to undergo treatment.
- At the time of Faker’s injury, his team T1 had already won 6 games and only lost 2. They were on track for the playoffs and everything seemed to be going well.
- Faker was to be replaced by a 17-year-old rookie player, who “started the hardest e-sport in the world.”
Without Faker, T1 loses 7 out of 8 games
How did it go without Faker? Terribly. Although T1 was staffed with world-class players in every position and the coach had consciously left Faker out in 2020, nothing went right now. With the new midlaner, T1 lost consistently, winning only 1 out of 8 games.
T1 looked completely out of sorts, dropping from 6-2 to 7-9. Although they were secure in the playoffs, T1 had now slipped to an unwanted 5th place and looked completely off track.
This was the turning point: Surprisingly, T1 announced this morning that Faker is back in the lineup. His substitute player Poby will return to the academy team.
It was said to be Faker’s decision to return to the team.
Faker then played his first match after a month on the bench against the Kwangdong Freecs, the bottom team in the standings. With 0-3-5 and 2-0-8 on Jayce, he had two rather quiet games in the midlane, but his team seemed to bounce back to great form immediately.
Especially the bot lane of Keria and Gumayusi, the crown jewel of T1, played exceptionally well and gave up no deaths in both games.
As Dotesports writes, T1 looked completely transformed, already appearing ruthless in the early game, and took apart their opponents without hesitation. That was how the team had seemed even before Faker’s injury.
A player on Reddit compares the feeling that T1 players must have when playing with Faker to his experience when he has a really good player alongside him in LoL:
I feel like I play so much better because I don’t have to focus on the map. I just follow his pings and play around him, and can focus on my skill shots because I can place most of my attention on micromanagement.
via Reddit
Apparently, the “leader role” that Faker assumes is essential for this version of T1.
Fans are worried about their idol
How is this being discussed? The fans on Reddit are already somewhat concerned that Faker was forced to end his recovery phase “too early” due to the poor performance in his absence.
Many fans have been seriously worried about Faker. Such an “arm issue,” as he described, had already ended the career of ADC legend Uzi far too early in 2019.
LoL: Uzi (22) is considered the best ADC in the world, has broken “arms like a 50-year-old”
