GamingSportsLoL: SKT T1

LEAGUE OF LEGENDS IN KOREA IS BOSS

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<span style="font-size: large;">LEAGUE OF LEGENDS IN KOREA IS BOSS => WHY ?</span></div>
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<b>GAMING IN SOUTH KOREA</b></div>
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<i>South Korea is probably the only country in the world where playing video games is not taboo.</i> In fact, video games are considered to be a major social activity, with most games being cooperative or competitive. Locally developed games such as Role-playing games, MMORPGs and mobile games are very popular in the country. Professional competition surrounding video games, especially real time strategy games, also sees a lot of popularity from Koreans, they even broadcast major tournaments with large prizes on television. There are many big game companies in South Korea, such as <a href="http://www.nexon.net/"><span class="s1"><b>Nexon</b></span></a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangame"><span class="s1"><b>Hangame</b></span></a> and others, but the most popular game there until recently, Starcraft, was created by Blizzard Entertainment. Given Koreans like real time strategy games, it was easy for League of Legends to become one of the best games there.</div>
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<b>LEAGUE OF LEGENDS IN SOUTH KOREA</b></div>
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League of Legends released to the western part of the world in October 2009 and it quickly became one of the most popular video games ever, having fans of the Warcraft 3, Defense of the Ancients map come to play Riot’s new game. After seeing such success, in 2012 the game began to be very popular in the eastern countries as well, such as China and South Korea. Even though the game is older in the west, the Chinese and Korean servers house the most people. <b>By March 2012, the game became the #1 title in Korean PC cafes</b> meaning that the westerners aren’t the only ones who enjoy playing League of Legends very much.</div>
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All servers have their own Championship Series, in Europe and North America it’s called League Championship Series, in Korea it’s <b>League Champions Korea</b> and in China it’s called LoL Professional League. Ever since Season 2, <b>Koreans have been dominant in the eSports scene</b>, being in the finals of all the World Championships and also <b>winning two of them</b>. In Season 2, <b>Azubu Frost</b> was playing the finals against <b>Taipei Assassins</b> and lost, but they still showed great, in Season 3, <b>SKT T1 had won over their Chinese rivals on Royal Club</b> and in Season 4, <b>Samsung Galaxy White beat Royal Club to achieve another World Championship</b> win for Korea. Right now, in Season 5, the teams from <b>LCK</b> are still showing really well, <b>SKT</b> being first again after being in a slump in the fourth season, now they had lost only one match and continue to show increasing potential.</div>
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In season 4, the world championship had multiple buildings assigned to it during the timeframe in which it would be played. It was played in 3 countries: Taiwan, Singapore and Korea, with Korea holding the spot for the grand finals where it won and the fans went wild, cheering for the players they share the same nationality with.</div>
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<b>HISTORY OF LEAGUE CHAMPIONS KOREA</b></div>
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Before Riot Games enforced their rules over all regions and changing the names of their Leagues, the South Korean professional league was called <b>OGN Champions</b> because the Korean cable television company, Ongamenet showed it’s support to the League of Legends fans and professional players by becoming a very important official sponsor at <b>Yongsan eSports</b> stadium and starting from March 2012 it showed live, biweekly broadcasts of League of Legends tournaments with 16 participating teams from Korea, <b>USA</b> and <b>Europe</b>. The prize for the tournament was 200 million won, around $180.000 back then. The fact that League of Legends became so popular in the Korean culture dispelled the stereotype that if you’re a Korean gamer then you have to play Starcraft.</div>
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<b>LEAGUE OF LEGENDS TEAMS IN KOREA</b></div>
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Teams that are foreign to Korea have seen that Korean players are very good at the game and they are really hard working, so they hired several people such as Huni and ReignOver on Fnatic, Ryu on H2k, H0r0 on Unicorns of Love, LustBoy on Team Solo Mid and Fenix and the World Champion Piglet on Team Liquid to improve their roster and become better teams in the big picture. Not all Korean imports were good though, CLG having played with Seraph and failing miserably, losing many matches and almost going into relegation matches.</div>
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Teams haven’t only hired Korean players, but they have also made their infrastructure alike to the one Koreans have, by hiring game <b>coaches</b>, <b>life coaches</b>, <b>analysts</b> and other staff members to help their players improve and receive more money from tournament winnings while keeping their spot in the League Championship Series.</div>
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The most iconic League of Legends Korean teams are images of their former selves, being remembered as how they were in their prime, when they played the most important matches they have ever had and these teams are: <b>SK Telecom T1</b>, <b>Azubu Frost</b>, called <b>CJ Entus</b> now and <b>Samsung Galaxy White</b>, called <b>Samsung Galaxy</b> now.</div>
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<b>History of SK Telecom T1 </b></div>
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<b>SK Telecom T1</b> is a team that has been around since Season 3 when they had won the <b>World Championship</b>. They have only played bad in the fourth season and now we can safely say that they are in their prime. All Korean teams are improving drastically from what we’ve seen in the past and having only one loss to your name is a huge deal when facing such great players that have trained so hard. Right now, <b>SK Telecom T1</b> is made of <b>Marin</b> in the top lane, <b>Bengi</b> in the jungle, <b>Faker</b> in the mid lane, <b>Bang</b> and <b>Wolf</b> on the bottom lane. They also have two substitutes that they switch around each time they want or have to: <b>T0M</b> and <b>Easyhoon</b>. Each time they swap the players, the whole team plan changes because they are very different from what the players on the starting roster are like. <b>Bengi</b> is a jungler that is more passive and focuses more around farming and taking care of vision, while <b>T0M</b> is more focused on pulling off ganks and making sure that skirmishes are on his team’s terms, by being the deciding factor. In the middle lane it’s the other way around: <b>Faker</b> is the more aggressive player while <b>Easyhoon</b> is a little more passive. Of course, both of them are great players who know when they have to be more passive or when they should be aggressive, but overall, <b>Faker</b> is the more aggressive player, even if their skill is very alike. Besides the substitutes, the team’s other players are also great: <b>Marin</b> is the player who almost never loses his lane, not even when the enemy team initiates a lane swap; he always stays ahead of his counterpart and when the lanes swap back to normal he starts bashing them and thus increasing his advantage by a good margin. <b>Bang</b> and <b>Wolf</b> are two players that play really well when together, being able to beat other bot lanes in 2 versus 2 scenarios and also being able to farm safely when the enemy team focuses their strength on them to make <b>Bang</b> be behind his counterpart. After the lane phase is over, these two become menaces for the enemy team, <b>Wolf</b> putting wards everywhere and initiating team fights where his team has the upper hand at all times and Bang being able to dish out huge amounts of damage while barely getting touched by the enemy team because of his great game knowledge, superior positioning and aggressive manner.</div>
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<b>History of CJ ENTUS</b></div>
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<b>CJ Entus</b> is another team that was very iconic for Korea when it played under the name <b>Azubu Frost</b>. Back then it was made of <b>Shy</b>, <b>Rapid Star</b>, <b>Cloud Templar</b>, <b>Woong</b> and <b>Mad Life</b>. After they changed<b>Locodoco</b> for <b>Woong</b>, they had been sponsored by <b>Azubu</b> and from their former name as <b>MiG Frost</b>they had it change to <b>Azubu Frost</b> and later the same year they had won <b>the first place at Azubu The Champions Summer 2012</b> and after that they had qualified for the <b>World Championship</b> where they had a great showing. They had the shortest straw in the random drawing to determine group stage byes and they had to play in the group stage against <b>Invictus Gaming</b>, <b>SK Gaming</b> and <b>CLG Prime</b>.<b>Azubu Frost</b> wasn’t stopped by the group stage, advancing further into the quarterfinals where they had to face <b>Team Solo Mid</b>. They beat <b>TSM</b> easily and looking unbeatable, they advanced into the semifinals where they had to play against <b>CLG.Eu</b>. The European team had ended <b>Azubu Frost</b>’s winning spree by winning a game against them, but after that win they had lost 2 times in a row, thus making <b>Azubu Frost</b> advance into the finals against <b>Taipei Assasins</b>. Unfortunately for the Korean squad, their reign of dominance would end there as the <b>Taipei Assassins</b> brought home the championship with a 3-1 victory. <b>Azubu Frost</b> settled for second place and a $250,000 dollar prize.</div>
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They are one of the most known Korean teams because Season 2 was the first time the Koreans got to play League of Legends with a really high viewer count and it made them really popular as great players from Europe and North America had lost against them.</div>
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Right now, they are still one of the best teams in Korea, but they seem rather sloppy right now compared to the other Korean teams, even if they are on a good place in the standings and they might get to the World Championship this year.</div>
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<b>History of Samsung Galaxy White</b></div>
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<b>Samsung Galaxy White</b> is a Korean team that was formerly known as <b>MVP Ozone</b>. The team was made of <b>Looper</b>, <b>PawN</b>, <b>DanDy</b>, <b>Imp</b> and <b>Mata</b>. The team had been to two World Championships, once in Season 3 and second in Season 4. During Season 3 they had lost in the group stages to teams such as <b>Fnatic</b> and <b>Gambit Gaming</b>. They had the same amount of wins as <b>Gambit</b>, but they lost the tiebreaker and had came out as 9th-10th along with <b>Lemondogs</b>.</div>
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After another season of playing together and after swapping dade with <b>PawN</b>, they had gone second in <b>OGN Champions Summer 2014</b>, but they qualified to the <b>World Championship</b> by earning enough points. <b>Samsung Galaxy White</b> has been seeded into Group A along with <b>Edward Gaming</b>, <b>Ahq e-Sports Club</b> and <b>Dark Passage</b>, and they had never lost a game, getting coming out of the group stage as 6-0. In the quarterfinals they had to play against <b>Team Solo Mid</b> to which they lost a single game and had the next 3 games be stomps. In the semifinals they faced their sister team, <b>Samsung Galaxy Blue</b>, who were the favorites to win the championship, but White managed to beat them 3-0 and go on into the finals to fight against <b>Starhorn Royal Club</b> for the grand prize. They beat <b>Royal Club</b> 3-1 and took the prize home for <b>Korea</b>.</div>
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After they won the <b>Season 4 World Championship</b>, the players had left the team, all of them moving to Chinese teams because of the higher salaries they would receive. <b>DanDy</b> and <b>Mata</b> went to <b>Vici Gaming</b>, Imp was hired by <b>LGD Gaming</b>, <b>PawN</b> went to <b>Edward Gaming</b> alongside <b>Deft</b> from<b>Samsung Galaxy Blue</b> and Looper went to <b>Team World Elite Academy</b> only to join <b>Master3</b> alongside<b>Dade</b> later the same month.</div>
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<b>Samsung Galaxy White isn’t the only team to disband because the players went to China, their sister team, Samsung Galaxy Blue, did the same thing</b>, Acorn going to LGD Gaming, Spirit going to Team World Elite, Heart being hired by Vici Stand Gaming only to move to Unlimited Potential later the same month. Dade went to Team World Elite Academy, but went to Masters3 later and Deft went to Edward Gaming.</div>
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Right now, <b>Samsung Galaxy</b> is made of <b>CuVee</b>, <b>Eve</b>, <b>Crown</b>, <b>Fury</b> and <b>Luna</b> and they aren’t doing so well, being on the 7th place in the standings and might get relegated into the lesser championship series, where they would have to play for a spot back into the <b>LoL Championship Series</b> where they would need to win games to keep their spot and not be relegated again.</div>
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In conclusion, Korea adopted League of Legends from the beginning of it’s service to Korea and they got really good at it right at the start, being able to show up big in the World Championships.</div>

LEAGUE OF LEGENDS IN KOREA IS BOSS

LEAGUE OF LEGENDS IN KOREA IS BOSS => WHY ? GAMING IN SOUTH KOREA South Korea is probably the only country in the world where playing video games is not taboo. In fact, video games are considered to …

04 Nov 2016

SKT crowned 2016 League of Legends world champions

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South Korean team SKT Telecom T1 has won the 2016 world championships of the League of Legends (LoL) video game.</div>
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For its 3-2 victory over a team backed by phone-maker Samsung, SKT's five members shared a prize of $2m (£1.64m) between them.</div>
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The win is the third time in four years that SKT has taken the title. It also won the title in 2015.</div>
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The final ran for six hours and was held in front of almost 20,000 LoL fans at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.</div>
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Tense final</h2>
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SKT's Lee Sang-hyeok, aka Faker, was named as the most valuable player of the tournament.</div>
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The total prize pot for the tournament was $5m with $750,000 going to second place team Samsung. The money available to teams taking part was increased by fan contributions.</div>
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<a class="story-body__link-external" href="https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/10/30/league-of-legends-worlds-2016-winners/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(17, 103, 168, 0.298039); border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Writing on the Rock, Paper Shotgun gaming news site</a>, Philippa Warr said the final had been "breathtaking", as the Samsung team had fought back from losing the first two games.</div>
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However, she said, everything had changed in the "beautiful" third game, which lasted 70 minutes and saw Samsung wrest a keenly contested win from SKT.</div>
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Samsung then took the fourth game more easily to set up the decider.</div>
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In the event, Warr said, SKT's "fluidity" and experience had won through, giving them the title, cash and Summoner's Cup trophy.</div>
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League of Legends is a massively popular game involving two teams of five players fighting over a small map</div>
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Each player controls a hero outfitted with a variety of attacks or defence abilities, and the winner is the first to destroy their opponent's base.</div>
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According to <a class="story-body__link-external" href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2016/09/13/riot-games-reveals-league-of-legends-has-100-million-monthly-players/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(17, 103, 168, 0.298039); border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">statistics from Riot Games</a>, which created LoL, about 100 million people play the game every month.</div>
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SKT crowned 2016 League of Legends world champions

South Korean team SKT Telecom T1 has won the 2016 world championships of the League of Legends (LoL) video game. For its 3-2 victory over a team backed by phone-maker Samsung, SKT's five members shar…

04 Nov 2016

Faker, Miss Fortune and an unforgettable Friday night at Worlds

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NEW YORK -- Walking out of Madison Square Garden onto the chilly New York streets Saturday morning, the only way I could express the spectacle of the League of Legends World Championships semifinal between defending champion SK Telecom T1 and reigning South Korean champion ROX Tigers was with a simple smile.</div>
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SKT T1 and its prodigy ringleader, Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok, had just overcome an unprecedented Miss Fortune curveball ROX threw at them, advancing to next week's finals in five games by the skin of their teeth.</div>
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Later that same day, exiting the Garden following Samsung Galaxy's thrashing of H2k in the second semifinal (which went half as long as the first), my thoughts were still swimming of the series I had witnessed less than 24 hours earlier.</div>
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Out of the two semis in New York this weekend, one delivered while the other was a lopsided snoozefest in which the MSG crowd partook in the wave and endless chanting of "T-S-M!" -- a team, mind you, that didn't even make it out of the group stages -- to appease its boredom from the expected South Korean dominance.</div>
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Regardless of how trite the semifinals as a whole might have ended, it didn't matter: SKT T1, the Tigers, and Friday night made it all worth it -- and then some.</div>
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At that point it was clear: we witnessed the best match we'll see at the World Championships; not only at the 2016 edition, but in the entire legacy of the tournament. ROX and SKT T1 played a best-of-five series that was worthy of being a final in any league in the world.</div>
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And it was obvious SKT T1 knew that, too. Usually when SK Telecom wins -- even if it's a major championship -- you rarely see much reaction on the players' faces. To the contrast of the ROX Tigers' fun loving, boisterous personalities, SKT T1 is seen as the cold, business-like surgeons that personify the methodical South Korean League of Legends style. However, this time, after SKT T1 completed their comeback from a 2-1 deficit to finally eliminate their greatest rival from the tournament, even Faker broke into a smile, the team converging into a sequence of hugs and laughter as they realized their defense of the Summoner's Cup would move onto the final stage in Los Angeles this Saturday.</div>
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No disrespect to the two teams that took the stage Saturday night -- South Korean club Samsung Galaxy dispatching Europe's fiery H2k, 3-0 -- but the real Summoner's Cup Final might have been played the night before.</div>
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After two years without a playoff series at Worlds going the distance, the fans on Friday night received the best possible match to end the drought.</div>
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In the first game, SKT T1 and Faker flexed their muscles to put the Tigers, the current domestic champion of South Korea, in their place with a lopsided victory.</div>
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The next two games, though, it would be the Tigers getting the jump on SKT T1 with a never-before-seen Champion pick that shook SKT T1 to its core. In a move that no one -- and if you say you did, please tell me some lottery numbers pronto -- saw coming, the Tigers chose an unprecedented ultra-aggressive composition with two marksmen in the bottom lane at once, in place of using a traditional support. Kang "GorillA" Beom-hyeon played the AD carry Miss Fortune in the "support" role while Kim "PraY" Jong-in settled on his signature Ashe.</div>
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Imagine the <a href="http://www.espn.com/nfl/team/_/name/hou/houston-texans" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0066cc; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px !important; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Houston Texans</a> playing <a href="http://www.espn.com/nfl/player/_/id/13979/jj-watt" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0066cc; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px !important; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">J.J. Watt</a> at tight end or a right-handed pitcher suddenly throwing lefty, or the <a href="http://www.espn.com/nba/team/_/name/sa/san-antonio-spurs" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0066cc; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px !important; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">San Antonio Spurs</a> playing five seven-footers. Faker said after the match he had not seen Miss Fortune used in that fashion in any professional match in his career.</div>
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The risky decision worked like a charm and ROX easily won both early games in commanding fashion, and SKT T1 were not able to adjust to the double-marksmen bot lane for Games 2 and 3.</div>
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PraY on Ashe would slice the air with the perfect arrow to freeze a target in place, then GorillA would let loose with Miss Fortune's barrage of bullets from her ultimate. The Tigers didn't miss a beat with this strategy, and they accomplished what they had to do to make it work: never stop moving forward. If the paper-thin composition had stopped rolling at any time during the game, SKT T1 could have caught their bearings, defended a bit, and then held on until the late game where SKT T1 would have won in spades. Instead, the Tigers would jab, move to another part of the map, take another large swing at SKT T1, and then follow that up with another brash play. For every one stop SKT T1 made on the map, the Tigers would make five plays to top the failed attempt.</div>
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Predictably, SKT T1 banned Miss Fortune from play in Games 4 and 5, opening the door for a comeback. SKT T1's rookie jungler Kang "Blank" Sun-gu lost both games he played in the middle of the series, and he was rotated out for the actual starter of the night, Bae "Bengi" Seong-woong, the two-time world champion veteran that started the match with a victory before being subbed out.</div>
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Faker was his usual godly self, which is great for SKT T1. Generally, when Faker plays at that level, SKT T1 wins. Except, against ROX, a team that is just as good as SKT T1 and even better in some aspects, Faker winning his lane every game wasn't enough to bring them victory. It took Bengi, the maligned, often cast-aside jungler, to come in to be the hero that not only SKT T1 needed on the night, but the one they deserved. Bengi returned from his two-game benching in Game 4 with his team's back firmly against the wall. He picked Nidalee, a strong champion to be fair, but one he had never played in his long history as a jungler.</div>
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Ice in his veins. Bengi played like a man possessed in the final two games, and the Tigers couldn't contain both Faker and Bengi at their best. At the end of the deciding Game 5, when ROX was on its deathbed, SKT T1 didn't let up. Faker and Bengi, the two coldest gunslingers in the wild west, put down one of their greatest rivals, and they embraced as the packed Madison Square Garden crowd appreciated their greatness.</div>
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Not Faker's greatness -- their greatness.</div>
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To the Tigers, who never stopped, be it attacking or singing, this is their end. While it remains to be seen what the future holds in the offseason, Friday night, like all the others, they will leave wondering what they need to do rid themselves of the demon that is SK Telecom T1.</div>
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The only thing left to be said is from ROX's Song "Smeb" Kyung-ho, who talked about his teammates -- what his friends meant to him before the tournament began:</div>
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"I don't know how to describe the members of the Tigers," said Smeb. "Family, friends, I could describe my teammates that way. The things I don't show my family, the things I don't show my friends -- there are those things -- but I can show those things to them. It's hard to describe, but I don't think I'll ever have a team like this again. The people who let me comfortably show the best that I can play. I'm so lucky to have come to where I am. I think I'm so lucky to have met these teammates. While they are players with tremendous skill, even without their abilities, they are really good people with whom I am fortunate enough to have shared and pursued a dream."</div>
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No, Smeb. We were lucky. We were lucky to watch you to fight for that dream.</div>
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<span style="font-family: BentonSans, -apple-system, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;">ROX Tigers comes in for a group hug after defeating SK Telecom T1 in Game 3 of the 2016 League of Legends World Championship - Semifinals on Oct. 21, 2016 at Madison Square Garden. </span></div>

Faker, Miss Fortune and an unforgettable Friday night at Worlds

Faker, Miss Fortune and an unforgettable Friday night at Worlds NEW YORK -- Walking out of Madison Square Garden onto the chilly New York streets Saturday morning, the only way I could express the sp…

03 Nov 2016

Esports' Michael Jordan: the global Faker phenomenon

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<li><span style="line-height: 1.6;">League of Legends' Lee Sang-hyeok, known as "Faker," is one of the greatest athletes in sports today.</span></li>
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If you want to be a stickler over competitive video games versus traditional sports and debate over the word "athlete," fine. Faker, 20, from South Korea, is one of the best competitors in the world today. Really, if we want to make it even more simple: Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok is one of the best people at his job in the world today.</div>
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However you want to categorize Faker in the world of sports, he's special. Generational talents, regardless of what competition you talk about, don't come by very often. In the world of video games, the South Korean phenom with such nicknames as "God" and "The Unkillable Demon King" might be the greatest of all time.</div>
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Last Friday night, inside Madison Square Garden in New York City, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MwEX4eMFA4">Faker</a> delivered another of his iconic performances in front of a sold-out crowd of thousands. It was the semifinal of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MwEX4eMFA4">2016 League of Legends World Championship</a>, and Faker, the defending champion with his team SK Telecom T1, faced off with their greatest rival for the past two years, fellow South Korean club ROX Tigers, who came in second place last year behind SKT.</div>
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The series was ripped out of every Hollywood sports movie you've ever watched. Stoic, bulletproof Faker was the villain. The ROX Tigers were the lovable group of misfits who had overcome adversity the past two years to reach the top. The team's star player, Song "Smeb" Kyung-ho, came into the World Championship as the competitor chosen to usurp Faker as the best in the world. In the domestic league of South Korea, SKT had failed to pull off an unprecedented four-peat due to a loss in a semifinals; instead, the Tigers won their first major championship by beating SKT's semifinals opponent.</div>
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"<i style="box-sizing: border-box;">In the world of video games, the South Korean phenom with such nicknames as 'God' and 'The Unkillable Demon King' might be the greatest of all time.</i>"</blockquote>
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Friday's World Championship semifinal had higher stakes for the Tigers. They had failed time and time again for two straight years to defeat SKT T1 in a major playoff match, and this could have been their final chance to take them out with this particular roster. ROX threw everything and the kitchen sink at the defending world champion, even deploying trick strategies that could be equated to a "Statue of Liberty" play in American football or the "Flying V" formation in "The Mighty Ducks." Although the Tigers pushed Faker to the brink using these crowd-pleasing strategies, even up 2-1 in a best-of-five series, they weren't capable of putting him away.</div>
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SKT T1 rebounded, inserting veteran member, two-time world champion and Faker's right-hand man, Bae "Bengi" Seong-woong, into the lineup for the final two games. Although the crowd backed the Tigers, urging on the underdog to dethrone its personal white whale -- chants of <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">"LET'S GO TI-GERS!"</i> with rhythmic thunderous clapping raining down from the rafters to the ground floor -- it wasn't enough. Faker and SK Telecom T1 won, and the Tigers sat at their desks, hands in faces, wondering how, after all the planning, after all the tireless work and after throwing everything they had at their enemy, how they didn't couldn't defeat him. The core of the Tigers stayed intact during last year's offseason while receiving bigger offers from foreign clubs. Why did they stay together? They were best friends, more family than teammates, and they wanted to overcome SKT T1 once and for all.</div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #48494a; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.6;">In his signature red jacket, Faker faced the press after the matchup, calling it one of the most difficult series he had ever played in. "I'm not really affected by long series, but I did get a little hungry after Game 4, so I had a chocolate bar and was all good," he admitted with a grin, his every word being scribbled down by the worldwide media covering the event. Every simple quote or throwaway line is magnified when coming from "God" himself.</span><br />
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The difference between the Tigers and Faker is that while the Tigers, one of the best teams to ever play professionally in League of Legends, dreamed of victory, living for the moment they could win it all, Faker doesn't dream.</div>
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He either believes he is not good enough to win, or he will win. And more often than not, including this year's World Championships, he not only believes he can win it all -- he knows, without an inkling of doubt, he'll win.</div>
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To understand the legend behind the name, you have to look to the past.</div>
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The first spark of greatness</h3>
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It's the spring of 2013. Faker's stardom is more of a hope than a reality. Faker is a highly touted prospect signed by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj2iyLZ7yY0">SK Telecom T1</a>, Korea's most respected esports organization, and makes his debut in the country's premier tournament League Champions Korea.</div>
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In his first professional game, Faker plays against South Korea's best mid laner in Kang "Ambition" Chan-yong of CJ Entus Blaze, one of the tournament's favorites. In the 7th minute, Faker secured his first kill as a pro, pouncing on Ambition with the champion Nidalee to solo-kill the South Korean All-Star. SKT T1 would go on to win the game thanks to Faker's immaculate 6/0/7 kills/deaths/assists debut.</div>
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"I had a lot of preparation with Nidalee before the game, so I chose her," Faker said afterward. "At the moment of the solo kill, I felt like Ambition had made a mistake, and that's when I went in and got the kill. After that, I just kept on throwing spears and the game was over."</div>
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Ambition and Faker will once again meet more than three years after that fateful solo kill in the middle in the 2016 Summoner's Cup Finals. Since the mistake that was seen as a passing-of-the-torch moment between the world's best mid laner at the time and Faker, the one to take the crown, Ambition has changed everything but his ID. He's a grizzled veteran now on the youthful Samsung Galaxy roster that has a 17-year-old rookie starter in the form of Park "Ruler" Jae-hyuk. He's also changed positions from mid lane to the jungle, meaning that in the final it will be Ambition's job to protect his mid laner, Lee "Crown" Min-ho, from meeting the same fate he did in 2013 against Faker.</div>
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Like the Tigers, this could be Ambition's best (and last) chance of getting revenge on Faker and winning a world championship.</div>
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For Faker, also like with the Tigers, he doesn't mind being the bad guy. He's going for the jugular, and a third world title.</div>
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Faker turns international superstar</h3>
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Back to 2013. A few months after his debut as a professional, Faker is in his first major finals. He's made the final of the summer season of Champions against the feared KT Bullets roster that played the perfect all-for-one team style. It's a clash between Faker and SKT's individual raw brilliance versus the Bullets and their tenacious objective-focused play that ground teams to the bone.</div>
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After falling down 0-2 in the series, SKT T1 made a spirited comeback and tied up the series with one game remaining. In the last game, per South Korea's rules at the time, both teams were able to blind-draft whichever five champions they wanted in their composition with no pick or ban phase. Faker and KTB's mid laner Yoo "Ryu" Sang-ook both pick the assassin Zed in the middle lane.</div>
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At the end of the match, Faker's Zed pulls off the greatest individual outplay in League of Legends history against Ryu, capping off his first championship victory and launching him into superstardom across the globe following the clip going viral online.</div>
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<span style="color: #1d1e1f; font-family: BentonSans, -apple-system, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 28px;">"</span><i style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #1d1e1f; font-family: BentonSans, -apple-system, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 28px;">After the final, I found out the clip went viral and I got really famous from it, so I was really happy. But I thought it was a bit of luck, as well.</i><span style="color: #1d1e1f; font-family: BentonSans, -apple-system, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 28px;">"</span></div>
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Faker becomes two-time world champion</h3>
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In the fall of 2013, Faker wins his first World Championship Summoner's Cup on SKT T1 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. A month after the clip that went viral to make him a superstar, Faker journeyed abroad for the first time to make himself known in the Western market. SKT T1 went 15-3 throughout the competition en route to the title, and it swept the final against China's Royal Club in one of the most lopsided major finals in League history.</div>
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What was that first World Championship final like for him? "Honestly I can't really remember because we had a pretty easy win. The only thing I remember is the stage [at Staples Center]. The crowd was cheering really loud, that's it. [To compare] I still remember how I felt when I won the summer split [against KTB], though."</div>
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Two years later in Germany, Faker wins his second world title with SKT T1. This time, SKT defeats fellow South Koreans the ROX Tigers in the final. SKT T1 ends up with a record of 15-1 for the entire campaign, and its only loss is the third set of the series against the Tigers.</div>
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"I don't particularly remember the champions I picked," he said. "The only memory I have about that moment was that me and my teammates did great."</div>
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Esports' Michael Jordan: the global Faker phenomenon

League of Legends' Lee Sang-hyeok, known as "Faker," is one of the greatest athletes in sports today. If you want to be a stickler over competitive video games versus traditional sports and debate ov…

03 Nov 2016

SK Telecom T1 wins World Championship again - 2016

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When winning becomes a routine, routine becomes a Championship. For the second year in a row, Korea's SK Telecom T1 has claimed the Summoner's Cup, defeating Samsung Galaxy in a tense 3-2 series.</div>
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SKT1's back-to-back Championships are unprecedented. They’ve now won three out of the last four World Championships. At the core of each of those victories lie <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MwEX4eMFA4">Faker</a> and Bengi. The two of them are easily the most accomplished duo in League of Legends history. Bang and Wolf also enter an elite pantheon, having now picked up their second World Championship titles on SKT.</div>
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Throughout the 2016 World Championship, SKT has demonstrated their ability to control the pace of the game -- it is a slow, methodical roll that flattens any would-be challengers. But this was their toughest year yet -- both the ROX Tigers, in the Semifinals, and SSG, in the Finals, pushed them to match point. Both series went the distance.</div>
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Their flashiest plays might be tied to their elusiveness. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MwEX4eMFA4">The 2016 World Championship </a>MVP is, once again, Faker -- he laughed and said the people who picked him for the award must really know League of Legends. He is frequently the target of ganks, but he sidesteps so many abilities with ease. Time and again we’ve watched him dance away from situations that seemed hopeless. It’s as if he’s telling his opponents he doesn’t have time to play their games. This attribute extends to SKT as a whole. They are experts at denying opponents a fight. They’ll kite and kite until the situation is favorable for them. Then they strike.</div>
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"Our team plays the macro by the books. We play the game properly," says Faker. "To beat us, you need to win mid lane first, then work around that." </div>
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Samsung was the final challenger for SKT this year. Game 1 of the Finals of Worlds 2016 saw SKT dominate the pacing of the game for vast swaths until it extended to a 50 minute slugfest. On his signature champion, Viktor, SSG Crown helped his team stall the game.</div>
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"Crown seemed to be in really good form today," Faker nods. </div>
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But it wasn't enough. Some late picks allowed Samsung to swing the game into a situation where one bad team fight could have cost SKT the game. But SKT never allowed SSG the opportunity.</div>
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The next two games saw Samsung try a couple different picks -- most notably Kindred in the jungle for Ambition in Game 2. Being down 0-1, it was perhaps the most important match for SSG all tournament. They’d won 10 straight games before that defeat, but after facing a loss, they were forced to adjust for the first time. The Kindred pick, though, didn’t spark the change they needed. SKT crushed the second game, thanks to Faker’s Ryze. Every time SSG made a play, it seemed SKT -- and Faker in particular -- were ready to deliver a counterblow.</div>
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When they dove a turret, he responded. When they showed aggression on one side of the map, he returned the favor on the other. The difference was Faker was capable of turning aggression into kills -- over and over without fail.</div>
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Game 3 started with SKT smashing SSG. They methodically killed each lane and each turret. But just as SSG looked like they were about to take their last breaths, they managed to win a fight and take a Baron to knock SKT off kilter. From there, the game spiraled out of SKT's control.</div>
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And it spiraled until it became the longest game at Worlds this year. The teams traded blows in fight after fight. If SKT took an arm, then SSG took a leg. The back and forth continued for over half an hour as the momentum swung from one team to another. Then, just as it seemed SKT would regain a firm grip by taking Elder Dragon, SSG’s Ambition lept into the pit and stole it. That would eventually convert into a game-winning fight for SSG. They would survive -- at least for another game.  </div>
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Blank picked Zac with hopes of being able to initiate with more ease, but failed to generate enough pressure in the early game to put a dent into SSG -- in fact, SSG managed to win the early game for the first time. SKT, though, would manage to remain within range for the duration of the matchup in spite of him -- and his team -- being caught out on multiple occasions. However, SKT was unable to stop the bleeding. SSG knocked them out again to push the series to Game 5.</div>
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SKT subbed Bengi back in for the final game. And just like the series against ROX, Bengi proved to be the difference. Again, the two teams went back and forth in a tight game. For all the talk of a gap existing during this Worlds, here were two teams that very evenly matched -- at least for the final three games of the series. But SKT managed to secure Baron after a pick, and the ensuing fight also allowed them to pick up the Elder Dragon. This provided them with the space they needed to close.</div>
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From there, they constricted the life out of Samsung Galaxy. Their last gasp was silenced. There would be no miraculous comeback -- SKT was mortal only in individual games here or there. But over the course of the series, they were too composed. Faker says he's simply satisfied with ending the year with the highest possible achievement.</div>
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And in terms of where he stands in the world -- whether there's any lingering doubt about him being the best or not -- he says, "The answer is out there. And you know it." </div>
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SKT stands atop the League of Legends world for the second year in a row -- cool and collected. Dominant. Historic. They are your 2016 World Champions. </div>
Watching video here: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MwEX4eMFA4">Video</a>

SK Telecom T1 wins World Championship again - 2016

When winning becomes a routine, routine becomes a Championship. For the second year in a row, Korea's SK Telecom T1 has claimed the Summoner's Cup, defeating Samsung Galaxy in a tense 3-2 series. SKT…

03 Nov 2016