Is Faker the most overrated player in the history of LoL?

I would like to preface this discussion by saying that I am a Faker fan and have watched him play in every World Championship he’s been in. That being said, I’ve often had the thought that the road was paved for him to have the legacy he has – I’m not saying he isn’t the GOAT – I’m merely examining whether he has been overrated. Let me explain.

Faker did begin his career with a bang and was definitely the best player in the world during season 3. He came in as a 17 year-old rookie and decimated his competition. This is what really propelled Faker to his stardom. However, the narrative got completely out of control after he won Worlds in 2013 and cemented himself as the best player AT THE TIME.

While he did also smash LCK Winter after Worlds 2013, in 2014 he was NOT the best player in the World. It happened that quick – within a year. In LCK’s most competitive season, the best players in the world included Mata, Pawn, Dade, Dandy, Rookie, Deft, Imp etc. However, by the point, the LCK, South Korea, and the wider LoL community had already made Faker their Golden Boy – the soloqueue superstar who in his rookie year became the best player in the world. The narrative had already been decided. The rookies that burst into the scene a bit after him, like Rookie and Pawn, did not get the same treatment because the narrative had already been decided. Now, don’t misunderstand me – Faker still is very likely the greatest rookie of all time – all I’m saying is that his narrative may have been blown out of proportion.

At the end of 2014 came the Korean Exodus. Many of the best players in the world in the 2014 LCK left to the LPL for the money. You have to understand – moving to a different country where not everyone speaks the same language will of course impact your play. That’s not all either – a different culture and different environment when you’re that young (we’re talking 18 and 19 year-olds) would likely put downward pressure on your play. In addition, we know that at the time, South Koreans were MILES ahead of Chinese players so it’s not like most of those in the Korean Exodus were joining better teams. While EDG was an exception during the first half of 2015, them and the rest of these blended Chinese-Korean teams fell short HARD at 2015 Worlds, because at this point, South Korea had significantly recovered from the shock of the Korean Exodus that had happened about 10 or so months ago. Not to mention, 2 of the other rookie competition he had, Pawn and Deft, actually beat him at MSI despite having career downgrades (yes, I know that in the final Easyhoon played a few games but I’m sure KkOma had his reasons, and anyway, Faker lost in game 5). This brings me back to Faker.

The Korean Exodus meant that Faker’s toughest competition in the LCK had disappeared, and not only that, had had downgrades in their careers (as I explained in the previous paragraph). On the other, Faker firstly stayed in South Korea – no geographic culture shock, language barrier etc. Secondly, he stayed on the same organisation so inter-team culture shock. Third, he was playing with players that he would have been familiar with (Bang, Wolf, Marin) given that they played under the same banner of SKT during the previous year (his right-hand man, Bengi as well). Fourthly, the organisation he stayed on was one of the greatest esports organisations of all-time (because of Starcraft), so he also had the benefit of excellent infrastructure behind him. In other words – the road was paved for him. In 2015, he won Worlds, but again, we have no idea how much of that was because other South Korea superteams were unable to be formed because of the Exodus. Who knows how fucking amazing SSW, SSB, KT would have been had their teams run it back in 2015. What was SKT’s competition in 2015 Worlds? EDG were so weak they lost to fucking FNATIC 3-0. LGD and IG just crumbled, so it’s not like what should have been South Korea’s greatest competition at that Worlds was even playing well. Who do they play in the Quarters and Semis? AHQ and Origen. Are you kidding me? Their toughest competition in Worlds was KOO Tigers, who was a legitimate finalist given they beat the only other team that mattered at that Worlds, which was KT. They still smashed them in the finals (remember that KOO also smashed Fnatic, only further emphasising how weak SKT’s competition was), and only lost game 3 because of a weird right 4 and a half mins where they fumbled and allowed KOO to snowball, without KOO having necessarily played amazing – much like TSM v SSW game 3 at 2014 Worlds. Do you remember that KOO team by the way? AT THAT POINT IN TIME, those players were not some kind of Gods, like the competition Faker versed in 2014. It was Smeb (who was only starting to become a good player), Hojin (who people probably don’t even remember at this point), and Kuro (one of the weakest LCK midlaners to ever attend World Championships). Pray and Gorilla were good, okay, but I mean, they were no Deft or Imp in the previous year. All this is to say, is Faker becoming the first 2-time World Champion in 2015 some kind of God-like achievement? He versed piss in 2015. SSW in 2014 was a God-like achievement – they absolutely decimated every team in 2014 Worlds AND the competition that year was actually fierce.

In 2016 Worlds, admittedly SKT’s competition had improved A LOT. Some of the other South Korean teams had honed themselves and recovered from the Exodus. ROX Tigers was not a formidable opponent and by the end of year, almost beat SKT! Faker didn’t even go to 2016 Worlds being considered the best player in the world! It was Smeb. If I’m not mistaken, Smeb also won MVP in both LCK 2016 splits. Not to mention, SKT fumbled in 2016 MSI, with Xiaohu (wow, another rookie mid-laner playing very well – where have I seen that before?) giving him competition. This team lost to Flashwolves and CLG…I mean come on. Faker didn’t even go to the LCK Summer Finals in 2016 – the org was getting called out HARD for benefitting so much from the Korean Exodus and significant roster shuffles that happened even in Korea in 2015. At Worlds that year, Faker and his team only just managed to beat ROX in the Semis – and yes, that doesn’t necessarily mean that was Faker’s fault, but if he was the God the Golden Boy narrative had us believe, he should’ve been able to handedly hard-carry his team against Kuro of all people. By the time we got to the finals, Samsung Galaxy had a star player in Crown that actually competed very well against Faker – again, challenging the ‘Unkillable Demon King’ idea. Faker and SKT only narrowly won this match as well – these things matter because 2016 was NOT a complete stomp and if things had gone even slightly different, we would be talking about another player being the potential GOAT – a 17 year-old rookie who within the first 6 months of playing the game was in the World final and almost won…Ruler. Where the actual fuck was the rookie, Golden Boy narrative for him? It wasn’t there because God forbid the perfect narrative South Korea, the LCK, and the rest of the LoL community had built of Faker. If things had gone even slightly differently, Ruler and Faker would have the same number of World Championships (2 each).

Faker’s last year of being the best player in the world was in 2017, and I’ll admit, he played amazingly and should’ve won MVP for 2017 Worlds even thought SKT didn’t win, because my God he pulled some corpses over the finish line. In Faker’s last great year as an individual player, he was 21 and a half. On the other hand, Ruler is considered as the best player in the world in 2023, and he is 24, and ALMOST 25! This is all to say, if you are going to go with the longevity argument for Faker even though he hasn’t been the best player in the world since 2018, you have to pay Ruler his dues. My man has had a stellar career. Yes, he and his teams have had fumbles, in 2018 for example, and some other lackluster performances, but he has still bounced back from those and plays like a beast at 24 years of age. Other players with similar consistency/longevity, playing excellent for many years, include Chovy (another rookie who burst into the scene and has played excellently since – again, slightly older than Faker was at end of 2017), Knight, Viper, and soon, I think we’ll also be talking about Keria. I’m sure I’ve missed a few names here, maybe a few of you can help in the comments. Yes, I understand that while Faker was afk during a significant portion of LCK Summer 2023 his team went to shambles, but how much of this is because it was a huge culture shock for this team of young players who lost a good-performing player AND the replacement was a HUGE downgrade – please don’t overhype Faker for T1 being in shambles during this time – Poby was not even an LCK player, has been floating around a bunch of secondary and tertiary T1 teams, and hasn’t even been even close to the best player in any of these leagues…

Remember, that during the era where he was no longer the best player in the world, he was still in the same organisation he has always been in (again, one of the biggest Esports organisations even before LoL) – he has had ZERO culture shock – ZERO language barrier. I think we’d be lying to each other if we said this didn’t impact his consistency. On the other hand, a player like Deft has moved around so much, played with so many different players (not all of which have been great), and still played good-excellently for the majority of his career.

I do have some more to say but I think I’ll leave it at that for now. Yes, Faker is the GOAT and I have the utmost respect for him – what I’m not a fan of is people overrating him and ignoring how the road was paved for him his entire career. Many other players have, currently are, and will likely in the future, be close to his skill and consistency.

Any who wish to comment, please keep the discussion civil.