Korea's T1 take League of Legends crown in hometown Worlds win

Esports

Published: 19 Nov. 2023, 23:09 Updated: 20 Nov. 2023, 17:27

Korea's T1 take League of Legends crown in hometown Worlds win

T1's Lee ″Faker″ Sang-hyeok lifts the trophy, the Summoner's Cup, after defeating Chinese team Weibo Gaming 3-0 in the final round of the 2023 League of Legends World Championship in Seoul on Sunday. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

Korea’s T1 are world champions, again. The fan favorites, beloved at home and abroad, swiftly took down Chinese team Weibo Gaming 3-0 in the 2023 League of Legends World Championship final on Sunday, ending a long road back to glory.

T1 were back on Esports' biggest stage after narrowly losing last year’s final, and crowds across Seoul watched with close anticipation.

Any time any member of the team did literally anything on Sunday night, fans at the sold-out Gocheok Sky Dome would roar, cheering on the hometown team as they inched closer to their first Worlds win since 2016.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Han River, hundreds more fans donning thick coats packed like penguins at Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul for a live viewing party. There, also pandemonium.

Fans gather at Gwanghwamun Square for a live viewing party of the final round between Korea's T1 and Chinese team Weibo Gaming at the 2023 League of Legends World Championship in Seoul on Sunday. [NEWS1]

It was pure elation for long-time T1 fans in Korea and across the world, who had waited six years to see their squad take another crown. Cheers erupted at Gocheok and Gwanghwamun — and wherever hundreds of thousands more watched online — as T1 won the third and final game of the best-of-five final to claim its fourth-ever Worlds title as the most successful team in tournament history.

“It felt like everyone wanted [T1] to win, especially after they were the only Korean team to make semis,” said Gabriel Low, who watched the finals live from inside a transformed Sky Dome where a replica of rock formations from the game surrounded the stage and lasers made the stadium a menacing red.

Low, 29, had been playing LoL on and off since 2012 and had been watching League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) since then but was never able to see the teams play live. He recently moved to Seoul from Australia for work and said this year, he had to try to make it in-person.

“I was very nervous before the start, but the opening ceremony was crazy hype. I relaxed after seeing them draft confidently and how they continued to play proactively,” Low told the Korea JoongAng Daily. “It did start to feel inevitable after the first game, but it was still exciting to see the five of them close in on the trophy that had eluded them for the last couple years.”

Since launching in 2009, online multiplayer game LoL has evolved into a massive international franchise with more than 150 million monthly active players worldwide. The game is especially popular in Korea and China, where even those who don’t play the game cheer for teams whose players are treated just like any celebrity athlete.

This year’s Worlds, which was hosted in Korea and began in October for a six-week tournament, took teams from four global regions and their fans to Seoul and Busan — and back to Seoul for the final.

A four-day “Worlds Fan Fest” gave one of Seoul’s most iconic tourist spots at the center of the city a LoL makeover as the game and its fans took over Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul. From Thursday to Sunday, a giant smiling “Teemo” — a character from the game that looks like a dog-ish chipmunk — donning glasses and a hat with the Worlds 23 logo, loomed behind the bronze statue of King Sejong.

People walk in front of a temporarily installed ″Teemo″ at the ″Fan Fest″ for the 2023 League of Legends World Championship at Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul on Friday. [AFP/YONHAP]

On the eve of the final Saturday night, flashes of blue from a free LoL-themed concert lit up the sky above Gyeongbokgung Palace, which for a weekend bore witness to the loud Worlds commotion from across the street. Security personnel wearing bright orange vests were stationed at every crosswalk as fans flocked to the LoL-adorned Square.

Fans at the Square for the final viewing party on Sunday added the final touches to a long, white “cheerful wall” brandished with a gray T1 logo in the middle. What had a handful of colored messages on a cold and rainy Thursday morning — though crowds picked up as time passed — was full by Sunday, as fans penned messages of support in multiple languages, etched into the writing on the wall.

Fans brave the rain as LoL fever ramps up ahead of finals

Sunday’s packed viewing party at the Square mirrored the scene from almost exactly one year ago, where Korean fans of football cheered for the national team during the 2022 World Cup.

T1 merch and green mushroom-esque Teemo hats made their way into subway stations and other parts of the city as fans from all around the world came and went as thousands had migrated to Seoul for the final.

Every member of the five-man team on T1’s side of the stage on Sunday was looking for redemption.

Despite constantly changing rosters in the professional world of Esports, it was the same five players who saw victory vanish last year as they lost 3-2 to fellow Korean team DRX, who had entered the tournament in a lower seed but emerged champions in a now-famous underdog storyline.

And for star player Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok, known among LoL fans as the Michael Jordan of the sport, who had seen every single previous T1 win in 2013, 2015 and 2016, victory was even more sweet.

“The result at this year’s LoL Championship as well as the process and our team’s play was good. I am just thankful that there is support and attention from a lot of people,” he said at a news conference following the final round.

T1's Lee ″Faker″ Sang-hyeok speaks to the media after winning the final round of the 2023 League of Legends World Championship against China's Weibo Gaming at Gocheok Sky Dome in western Seoul on Sunday. [AP/YONHAP]

Faker, 27, is the oldest of the group, with the other players all in their late teens and early 20s. His teammates affectionately call him “Hyung,” which translates to older brother in Korean.

Choi “Zeus” Woo-je, who was later named the finals’ MVP, is only 19.

“I did achieve a lot at such a young age, but since there is no guarantee that I will do well in the future, I will not get overly confident and be humble,” Choi “Zeus” Woo-je, who now has a gold medal and world championship under his belt, said.

T1's Choi ″Zeus″ Woo-je stands on the stage ahead of the final round at the 2023 League of Legends World Championship, where he would later be named MVP, at Gocheok Sky Dome in Western Seoul on Sunday. [RIOT GAMES]

T1’s Worlds victory, with Faker in tow, comes on the heels of Korea’s gold-medal victory against China at the Hangzhou Asian Games, where Esports — including League of Legends — debuted as a medal category for the first time.

Korea takes League of Legends gold despite Faker absence

For fans of Esports, the annual LoL World Championship, colloquially called Worlds, is analogous to football’s World Cup and baseball’s World or Korean or Nippon Series.

Sunday’s final round transformed Gocheok Sky Dome, a typical baseball stadium of the KBO’s Kiwoom Heroes, into an off-screen Summoner’s Rift where artificial rocks surrounded the competition stage, a circle in the middle of the stadium.

The inside of Gocheok Sky Dome, home to the KBO's Kiwoom Herores, was transformed for the final round on Sunday. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

Ahead of the final match on Sunday, a flashy opening ceremony blended the virtual world with reality as animated members of the virtual LoL boyband, Heartsteel, performed alongside their real world counterparts in front of a captivated audience.

K-pop girl group NewJeans then took the stage, performing live for the first time this year’s Worlds anthem, “Gods,” which blasted on repeat outside and inside the dome.

Then the games began. It was a stark contrast to last year’s final round in San Francisco, which was pushed to five games and lasted upwards of four hours. Throughout the match, T1 played confidently and remained stone-faced as they reached the final seconds of each game of the best-of-five series, with smirks peeking through as they secured their victory.

None of them held back as they lifted the Summoner’s Cup in the Sky Dome on Sunday, forming a circle on the stage and jumping up and down to celebrate their win, surrounded by the sound of their fans’ roars.

Next year’s World Championship final will take place at The O2 arena in London, Riot Games announced Sunday ahead of the match — and rosters could change before then.

Low, the LoL fan who attended his first Worlds live, said he felt relieved after T1’s five-man team secured their Sunday win.

“At least none of them had to try from losing in a finals again,” Low said.

BY MARY YANG AND PAIK JI-HWAN [mary.yang@joongang.co.kr]