At just 25 years old, Lee’s ceiling would appear endless in any other sport. But longevity is rare in LoL – mid-twenties is considered teetering on the sell-by date – and players tend to retire soon after owing to slower reflexes and adaptability.

So imagine everyone’s amazement when the man who had already done it all, three times no less, entered his 10th year as a professional looking as good as ever.

Lee’s SK T1 team, which he now leads having spent his entire career with the Seoul-based giants, completed an unprecedented 18-0 perfect regular league season this month. Having won the regular “split”, they continued their run to capture their 12th national title in April.

This season, Lee also became the first player to reach 700 games and 2,500 kills in Korea’s top division, LCK (League of Legends Champions Korea). That is a decade on top of the world’s most competitive league.

Here’s what you need to know about the man who became the face of a franchise that raked in US$1.75 billion in 2020..

Following his passion

Lee Sang-hyeok was born on May 7, 1996, in Seoul and was raised by his single-parent father and grandparents. Lee Kyung-joon, a carpenter, had a laissez faire attitude towards his two sons’ passions.

“They didn’t stop me – they just told me to do what I wanted,” Lee told Korea Now in an interview.

A studious pupil, Lee was an already avid gamer before being introduced to LoL in high school. It did not take long for him to make a name for himself as an amateurs, and for then-named SKT T1 K to come calling.

“As a single parent, it’s my role to support my son,” Lee Kyung-joon told ESPN after his son dropped out of Mapo High School.

“He’s doing this because he wants to. I thought … if I don’t let him do what the wants to do, there might be regret. Then I started thinking, ‘wow, he’s really good at this’.”

Originally playing under the handle “GoJeonPa”, Lee was already showing his potential by 2013. The newly branded T1 team won their inaugural world title, before going unbeaten in the winter season of 2014.

Having failed to qualify for worlds the following season, several Chinese clubs circled with lucrative playing and streaming contracts. It was the prelude to what is now referred to as the 2015 “Korean Exodus”. Lee ultimately declined the offers.

Faker and his team lost just one game on their way to winning their second worlds that season, with his workload shared with Lee Ji-hoon, or “Easyhoon”.

In 2016, a scintillating T1 lifted their first MSI – the only major trophy to evade them at the time – and won back-to-back worlds.

Despite winning their second consecutive MSI, Faker was left in tears at the 2017 worlds after being neutralised by a legendary Samsung Galaxy in the final in Beijing.

“I’ve seen him have a few difficult matches, but it’s the first time I saw him cry,” his father told ESPN.

That the team had cemented themselves as one of the greatest in history was besides the point. Lee had crumbled under the pressure, missing out on a third world consecutive championship amid increased competition.

“Mind control is very important,” he said. “I usually judge myself and try to over come myself, so I make myself a role model and work hard.

“At first, it did feel like a burden [to be called the GOAT], but since I no longer care about how other people see me, I actually feel very proud to have that title.”

Though T1 bowed out of the 2019 worlds semi-finals, a reinvigorated Lee guided them to two more LCK titles and became the first to get 2,000 kills in the league. He was rewarded with a part-ownership of T1 Entertainment and Sports.

He nonetheless re-signed with T1 last November, and is now part of a group that pundits have touted as the sport’s most mechanically gifted team to date.

Longer lifespans

“I can see why the prejudices around the ‘older players’ exist in this scene, because it has been the case until now,” Lee told Korizon Esports after the team’s 12th consecutive LCK win this year.

“Most players’ careers end in their mid- to late- 20s. But I am of the opinion that players currently active in the scene will enjoy longer lifespans. We will continue to see more examples to support this argument in the future.

“Let’s be honest … This is my tenth year as a professional gamer. Most older players, even the players who have not played as long as I, have now retired. The veterans that are left are the ones who can adapt to new meta quickly.

“I would say ‘survival of the fittest’ played a role here. But in the end, I’d say there is no drastic link between a player’s age and performance.”

In fact, Lee had forecast as such four years earlier. “I want to keep on until I’m 27, or even older,” he told The Korean Herald in 2018. “And I’m confident that I can continue to do so.”

After a decade in the game, nobody – not even the dozens of players touted as “the next Fakers” – has even come close.

Champion Ocean

While most elite-level players specialise in a few dozen of the 159 game characters, or “champions”, Lee has a mastery of them all.

In an LCK game in March, Lee broke his own record for most unique picks by a mid-laner with 72. His champions pool is so large that fans refer to it as an “ocean”.

Lee’s adaptability to the continuous updates and patches by the Riot Games developers, and his opponents’ strategic use of the rule allowing each team to ban five opposing champions in the pregame selection, is considered one of his greatest strengths.

“My strength is understanding the flow of the game, when to fight and when not to fight. Regardless of which champion I play, the strength is there,” Lee told ESPN.

Combine with his flawless technical abilities and game knowledge, and you have the Unkillable Demon King. Put him in a team of younger and hungrier players including this season’s LCK MVP, Ryu Min-seok aka “Keria”, and the their opponents have a problem on their hands.

Asian Games experiment

The only one major piece of silverware that evades Lee is an official national team title. And that is only because it will not exist until September.

To add to the intrigue, there is a high potential of a Korea v China showdown – not at franchise level, but directly under their national flags.

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“At the Asian Games, I felt a more diverse demographic of viewers were watching us. We definitely felt more pressure going into the matches,” Lee said after Jakarta.

“But from all the new-found attention, I felt that more and more people were coming to accept and be interested in esports.”

Net worth

“Faker” is as mainstream as it gets. He tops a game played by 180 million monthly active users, with the 2019 worlds finals netting more than 100 million unique viewers – beating the NFL Super Bowl in 2019.

Lee’s first Twitch live stream peaked at 245,100 – concurrent, not overall views – setting a world record at the time.

He has amassed more than US$1.3 million in prize money alone, with the official Olympics page putting his salary at “just shy of US$5 million per year” in 2018.

Lee’s popularity back home is only magnified. He has starred in adverts with footballing icon Son Heung-min, and has been compared to international K-pop sensations BTS in terms of cultural influence.

There is a documentary comparing Lee’s career with that of Brazilian football legend Ronaldo. “O Fenomeno” even put the winner’s medal around Lee’s neck at the 2017 MSIs.

“Every time I get compared to Sonny and BTS I feel grateful. It’s my honour,” Lee told Naver. “Getting this attention from the world just motivates me to work even harder.”