Faker Hits A 100 LoL Worlds Games Milestone

Widely known as the greatest League of Legends player of all time, Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok, has played his 100th LoL World Championship game on Sunday, October 9. With that, Faker became the first LoL player to hit the milestone, setting another record in his illustrious career.

Faker added another accolade to his impressive resume on Sunday when T1 played against Cloud9 in the third round of the League of Legends World Championship 2022. It marked Faker’s 100th official LoL Worlds game, surpassing his peers by a significant margin. His track record at LoL.

As it was expected, T1 defeated the home crowd favourites, in part thanks to Faker, who had a solid performance on Lissandra, ending the game with a 0/1/9 score. With that, Faker also improved his LoL Worlds record to 72-28, now boasting an impressive 72% win rate at the LoL’s premier tournament.

Faker made his LoL Worlds debut in 2013 when he attended Worlds Season 3 as a part of SK Telecom T1 (now T1). Initially, Faker was signed to SK Telecom T1 as a substitute for Lee “Easyhoon” Ji-hoon, who he would eventually replace permanently, having served as the Korean esports team’s starting mid laner ever since.

Notably, in his debut LoL Worlds, Faker led SK Telecom T1 to the organization’s first Worlds title, with strong showings. The team finished the group stage with a 7-1 record and then completed their playoffs run with wins against Gamaina Bears (2-0), NaJin Black Sword (3-2), and Royal Club, who SK Telecom T1 defeated 3-0 in the grand finals.

Since his debut LoL Worlds appearance, Faker has attended every single LoL Worlds from 2015-2022, except in 2018 and 2020, when SK Telecom T1 didn’t qualify. But regardless of missing two LoL Worlds, Faker boasts an impressive win record.

He helped the Korean LoL team win three LoL World Championships in 2013, 2015, and 2016, and has also reached finals in 2017 and made the semis in 2019 and 2021. In other words, Faker has never finished LoL World Championship worse than the top four.

By qualifying for the LoL World Championship 2022, T1 now have a shot at winning the organization’s fourth LoL Worlds title, and many believe they can do it. Still, their road to the top was met with some bumps in the road.

T1 kicked off their LoL Worlds 2022 campaign in Group A, alongside EDward Gaming, Cloud9, and Fnatic, and have met some tough resistance from their opponents. However, while T1’s results are a bit all over the place, this has been a trend of this year’s World Championship, where seemingly any team can beat anyone.

The Korean squad started their quest with a dominant victory against the reigning LoL world champions, EDward Gaming, who they beat on Saturday, October 8. However, despite crushing one of the world’s top teams, T1 couldn’t deliver on day one when they lost against Europe’s third seed, Fnatic.

But despite starting the tournament with a 50% win rate, T1 couldn’t afford to lose in Faker’s 100th Worlds game, and the former world champions made sure they left nothing to chance. In a commanding fashion, they blew away North American champions, Cloud9, handing them their third group stage defeat.

With that, Faker and his crew put North American champions in a rough spot as they head into the second half of the group stage winless. Meanwhile, T1 are in a fairly comfortable spot, but they’re not in the clear yet.

Sitting tied with EDG and Fnatic at 2-1, T1 still need to win at least one more game to qualify for the knockout stage. However, knowing how strong EDG are and that T1 already lost to Fnatic, their shot at the fourth title is anything but guaranteed.