Date published: 31/10/2024 – 09:10Changed: 31/10/2024 – 09:08

3 minutes

The 28-year-old has been officially given the title of “national treasure” in his native South Korea, along with the likes of football player Son Heung-min and K-pop mega group BTS.

He is said to earn an estimated 10 billion won ($7.2 million) a year and is said to be the most well-known name in professional gaming.

The bespectacled Lee hopes to add to his fame and fortune by winning his fifth League of Legends (LoL) world title when his T1 side take on China’s Bilibili Gaming in London on Saturday.

But despite all this, this is not the life Lee initially imagined for himself.

“I wanted to go to college and make good money like any normal kid,” he once said.

As a high school student in 2011, Lee decided to try out the hugely popular multiplayer online battle video game League of Legends.

It was to change the course of this young man’s life.

Within a few months, his talent caught the attention of eSports team SK Telecom (currently T1).

Lee became the first player to hold every international LoL title and helped transition the game beyond teenage bedrooms into the mainstream.

“League of Legends, eSports and Faker somehow needed each other,” Belgian television presenter and gamer Eefje Depoortere said in a documentary.

“There was this platform that League of Legends had that went professional and had all these leagues, and then one person stood up and said, ‘I’ll be that icon for you,'” he said.

global audience

Lee’s journey was not without disappointments.

After winning the world title in 2015 and 2016, Lee’s streak ended at the hands of the rival South Korean team in 2017.

Many fans vividly remember the scene where Lee hangs her head and shakes with tears.

“Many fans were eagerly waiting and countless people were watching,” he said later, reflecting on the crushing defeat.

“I struggled with this pressure in the beginning, but these days I’m trying to overcome it on my own, regardless of what people think.”

Won the title on home soil in 2023; it was something he always wanted to do.

In addition to the global television audience, tens of thousands of fans also gathered in the capital Seoul.

Among many accolades, Lee won a gold medal at the Asian Games last year, earning himself an exemption from military service.

Now in his late 20s and with comparative experience in the gaming world, this year has not been Lee’s best as his team finished fourth in the South Korean league.

In August, videos emerged of a frustrated Lee head-butting the wall several times after his T1 team lost.

‘Everyone knows Faker’

Lee’s influence inspired a new generation in South Korea to pursue careers as professional players and helped convince parents that it was a serious profession.

A “Faker Temple” (a pop-up installation) was erected in his honor in Seoul in May.

He attracted thousands of fans who waited for hours to see pictures of him and videos of his best plays.

“Lee Sang-hyeok is my religion,” devotee Park Jung-min told AFP.

“He is the legendary GOAT (greatest of all time).”

E-sports has become a source of national pride for South Korea, and the country has been at the forefront of the emergence of gambling as a profession.

But the industry has changed in recent years, with Chinese teams recruiting top South Korean players and coaches and defeating the Koreans in major championships.

T1’s general manager Joe Marsh said that Chinese teams have repeatedly tried to sign Lee.

“Every time he’s a free agent, there’s an offer from China and that’s $20 million a year,” Marsh once said.

Despite surprising offers, Lee chose to stay with T1, saying he only wanted to play for his home country.

There is a saying in South Korea that sums up Lee’s legend.

“Not everyone knows the game League of Legends,” he says.

“But everyone knows Faker.”

© 2024 AFP