Superstar professional gamer Faker, 27, is out with an injury. It’s an unfamiliar situation in the 11th season of the League of Legends (LoL) esports debut.
“The League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) and the Korean National Team are the biggest rivals for the World Championships (Rold Cup) and Asian Games,” said China’s Yushiday in a joint content with consumer electronics brand Realme on Monday, adding that he hoped Faker would get well soon.
Yushiday is an internet broadcaster specializing in gaming with over 120 million views on a single video. China’s Realme is a sibling company with the same parent company as League of Legends esports global partner OnePlus.
If the LCK leads the Rold Cup in wins, runners-up, and quarterfinal appearances, the Chinese LPL is second. This is why the LCK and LPL are considered the two major stages of League of Legends esports.
Esports is set to debut as an official sport at the 19th Asian Games. It will be held from Sept. 10-25 at a dedicated stadium in Xiaqing District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China, and will feature Battlegrounds Mobile, Dota 2, LoL, FIFA Online 4, Street Fighter 5, Pentastorm, and Mengsheng Guo 2 (梦三国2).
The Asian Olympic Committee (OCA) is said to have been impressed by the success of League of Legends as a pilot sport at the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games and gave a positive response to the official adoption of esports. At the time, the LoL final was won by China’s Wu Ji (Zhen Zhihao-26) in sets 1-3-4, while runner-up Faker of South Korea was named MVP of set 2.
In promotional materials for the Asian Games, the local government of Zhejiang Province, a Chinese administrative region that includes the host city of Hangzhou, called Faker “the foreign athlete who is most eager to see and perform. He is like a star in the sky of esports” and expressed their excitement.
“In the 2023 Rold Cup and Hangzhou Asian Games, the biggest opponents of the LPL and the Chinese national team are the LCK and South Korea,” Yushidadei said, but he was worried that “if Faker is completely absent or his wrist problem negatively affects his performance (as it has so far), the competition will not be worth watching.” 토토사이트추천
The Hangzhou Asian Games Organizing Committee has made it clear that it intends to actively utilize information and communication technology in the Games with its logo depicting radio waves to symbolize wireless connectivity, the adoption of a robot as a mascot rather than a human or animal, and the motto (Heart to Heart, @Future), which includes an electronic sign.
The same goes for the promotion of e-sports as an official sport. The theme of the Hangzhou Asian Games is closely related to the “socialist thought with Chinese characteristics in the new era” that President Xi Jinping has been advocating since 2017, calling for “gathering momentum for a new era”.
“The popularity of Korean esports in China is not insignificant,” said Yoo Si-day. The decline in performance of Eskay Telecom’s T1 after the departure of Faker Power has been the subject of much discussion online,” he said, explaining the reason for the collaboration with the League of Legends Worldwide sponsor.
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) featured the tournament’s mascot playing esports on its largest-ever commemorative coin, a 5 gram silver coin. The Zhejiang provincial government enthused, “The Hangzhou Asian Games will receive international attention if Faker, who has a global fanbase, performs well.”
“Faker’s injury doesn’t seem to be taken lightly,” said Yushiday. It may even affect his professional career. For now, I just want to wish Faker a speedy recovery, regardless of the reason. Do you have any objections?” and suggested that we support his recovery regardless of the competition between Chinese and Korean League of Legends esports.