A sigh of relief has been heard from the esports world after T1’s star player Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok revealed that he does not have any plans to retire at this time.
At Worlds 2023, Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok won his fourth League of Legends World Championship title, making him the only pro player in history to achieve such a feat. As he claimed his fourth title and completed ten years in LoL, fans began to speculate that the undisputed GOAT may be considering retirement. A question about Faker’s retirement was posed during the Worlds 2023 Finals Media Press Conference. In response, he stated that he would keep playing with T1 as long as he is under contract.
🏆 @T1LOL ARE THE 2023 WORLD CHAMPIONS! 🏆 pic.twitter.com/Ixovr818cs
— LoL Esports (@lolesports) November 19, 2023
Faker intends to add another Worlds title before he retires
T1’s superstar player Faker won three world championship titles from 2013 to 2016 in a field where few others have won more than one. At the beginning of his career, Faker dominated the competition from the regional to the international scene, but that iron grip has slowly faded away.
T1 has been consistently strong, but they haven’t been the absolute best in the world for a long time. Despite winning domestic and international titles, T1 and Faker fell agonizingly short of another world title on two occasions. After Faker had an injury earlier in the season, many lost hope in the squad and speculated that they would not even qualify for the 2023 World Championship.
But as Worlds 2023 has progressed, the team’s performance has only been better since his comeback from the injury hiatus. Faker led his team to triumph in the Worlds 2023, completing one of the biggest comebacks in esports history, following years of tight defeats. To win the organization’s fourth Summoner’s Cup, T1 defeated the four representatives of China in Bilibili Gaming, LNG Esports, JD Gaming, and Weibo in the finals.
After winning his fourth World Championship, Faker appeared at T1’s press conference to give details about his future plans. The four-time world champion said that he has no intention of retiring. Faker also mentioned earlier in the competition that he masters new things every time he plays, demonstrating how committed and driven he is to keep becoming better at the game.
Faker’s contract with T1 runs until 2025, thus he will continue to wear a T1 jersey for at least another two years. Later this month, the remaining players on the team will become free agents except for Oner, who is bound to his contract till 2024.
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