South Korean giants T1, headlined by star player Faker, made history on Sunday winning their third consecutive League of Legends World Championship crown in Chengdu, beating KT Rolsters in a nail-biting final.
Touted as one of the world’s largest eSports tournaments, the League of Legends World Championships offers a grand prize of one million dollars along with numerous sponsorship deals worth billions.
The two teams battled to a 2-2 deadlock, but T1 surged ahead in a thrilling fifth game to claim the world title after nearly five hours of relentless, high-stakes play.
Nearly 40,000 fans gathered at the arena in China’s Chengdu to watch the final, with Faker being the star player.
“He is really the god,” Palm, a 28-year-old who had flown from Bangkok, told AFP.
In League of Legends, two teams of five battle to destroy the opponent’s base, known as the Nexus.
The crowd roared and went wild, chanting “T1, T1” as the team made the final winning move.
“I simply focused on the game as a professional player,” said Faker after the final match.
“I’m just grateful that victory followed as a result.”
The all-South Korean clash revived the nation’s famed “telecom rivalry”, a reference to the communications titans that run the two teams whose competition dates back more than a decade to their StarCraft days.
Fans dub their clashes the “telecom derby”.
T1’s history in the league has proven to be unmatched, this was their eighth appearance in the world finals with five titles already.
Their latest win has made them the first team in history to claim three consecutive world titles.
For team star Faker, whose real name is Lee Sang-hyeok, this marks an unprecedented sixth championship, extending his record as the most decorated player in eSports.
The 29-year-old is a multi-millionaire eSports superstar in South Korea, which has given him the title of “national treasure”.
In Seoul on Sunday, hundreds of fans gathered at eSports venue LoL Park as the match was locked in a close contest between the two rivals.
When Faker finally held the trophy high in the air, the arena exploded in cheers and screams.
After all Chinese contenders had been knocked out by South Korean teams — an outcome that stunned home fans in China — the Summoner’s Cup was sure to return to South Korea.
“Either way we brought home the cup,” Park Jin-hyuk, a decade-long fan of Faker, told AFP.
“It’s a good day to be a South Korean.”
Last year’s League of Legends World Championship drew nearly seven million peak viewers worldwide –- excluding Chinese audiences, whose numbers are estimated by experts to reach tens of millions –- making it the most-watched match in eSports history.
