Faker is easily the greatest League of Legends player of all time. At the World Championship, he always makes the international League community remember why he’s the best ever to play the game.
In his seven appearances at Worlds, Faker has won the tournament three times, and he’s never been eliminated earlier than the semifinals. Faker has also never emerged from the group stage as a second seed. In each group he’s been in, he’s won, while his group stage record sits at an eye-watering 38-6 all-time.
Each year when Worlds season rolls around, Faker evolves into a different beast. His play on the international stage is unrivaled by any other League talent in history. Here’s a breakdown of his accolades, titles, and accomplishments at the World Championship across his 10-season-long career.
Worlds 2013: Won first World Championship
Faker won Worlds in his rookie season, a feat very few other players have accomplished in their inaugural year as a pro. At that World Championship, SK Telecom T1 dropped only three games during their entire run and swept Royal Club in the grand final.
Worlds 2015: Won second World Championship
After missing Worlds in 2014, Faker returned to the event with a vengeance the following year. SKT’s 2015 Worlds run is often viewed as the most dominant performance by any team at any League event in history. The team dropped just one game in the entire tournament, which came in the grand final to KOO Tigers.
Worlds 2016: Won third World Championship
Faker went three for three in winning championships at Worlds 2016, but it didn’t come easily. That season, SKT were pushed to their limits in both the semifinals and finals by ROX Tigers and Samsung Galaxy, respectively. Both of those series featured rematches of domestic rivalries, and each went five games. Many League fans view the semifinal series between SKT and ROX as the greatest, most competitive series ever played.
Worlds 2017: Runner-up
In 2017, Faker and SKT went to Worlds, but failed to win the tournament for the first time in history. The team’s loss to Samsung Galaxy in a rematch of the previous year’s grand final showed that SKT’s chokehold on international League events had been loosened.
Worlds 2019: Semifinalist
For the first time in his career, Faker was eliminated from Worlds before the grand final. SKT’s elimination in 2019 came at the hands of Europe’s G2 Esports, who would lose to FunPlus Phoenix in the final.
Worlds 2021: Semifinalist
Faker made another deep run at the tournament in his first Worlds appearance in the “T1” era of his organization. The team reached the semifinals of the World Championship but was knocked out by the defending champions, DWG KIA. DAMWON owned T1 that season, winning five of the six matches in which they played against each other,
Worlds 2022: TBD
Faker and T1 are currently competing in the 2022 World Championship. They will face JD Gaming, the number one seed out of the LPL, in the semifinals on Oct. 29.