The LCK kicked off their season with a short fun tournament where each team consisted of players from a single position. Team Mid were the clear favorites, but with Faker in the jungle, things might not have gone their way.
Faker is the undeniable GOAT in League of Legends. The mid laner has managed to win four World Championships and multiple LCK titles while playing for T1. Well, on January 9, he showed that even the unkillable demon king can bleed.
To kick off the 2024 LCK season, a show match was hosted in which five teams consisting of players from the same role played against one another. This means five mid laners on one team against five ADC players on another team, for example. Well, Faker made some pretty rookie mistakes.
LoL: Faker Does Not Need Smite
The first match that the mid laners played was against team bot lane. These were the two strongest teams going into the series, so it was crazy to see them go up against one another in the first round already.
Faker, who was the jungler for team mid lane, picked Gragas due to the synergy the champion has with the mid lane pick of Yasuo. As the teams loaded into the game, a pause was called right away. The reason? Faker did not take Smite.
Rookie mistakes happen even to the best of us, eh? While there were some protest from team ADC, the game ended up being remade, with Faker picking Smite this time around.
The end result? Team mid lane managed to win, with Faker having the most damage on his Gragas out of anyone on his team. AP Gragas is coming back in Season 14?
After the match, Faker explained that he thought the system would automatically assign Smite to him, hence why he didn't manually add the Summoner Spell.
Faker Vs. Rift Herald
Things #Faker has done as Jungler:1. Not taking Smite2. Crashing Herald into wallExactly what you'd expect from a GOAT pic.twitter.com/dcRL0BCloU
— candycandy (@candy_dandy24) January 9, 2024
Team mid lane managed to make it to the grand finale, which was against Team junglers. While the game was mostly carried by none other than Gen.G mid laner Chovy – this time playing as a top laner – Faker did have some highlight reel plays as well.
Team mid lane managed to get the Rift Herald. A new function of the Herald is that you can jump into it and ride it, knocking up enemies you hit along the way. Well, Faker accidentally let Shelly out in a weird top lane alcove, tried to jump into her and... steered her right into a wall. This probably won't be the last time we see this happen in a pro game.
Faker Redeemed Himself At The End
While he did have a few mishaps, he did manage to steal away the Baron from under the nose of a team comprised of junglers. While this steal wasn't enough to save the game, it was impressive to see.
In the end, Team junglers won the entire show tournament, but Team mid lane came in second. Overall it was a super fun tournament, and hopefully we get to see stuff like this more often, since Riot has gotten rid of the All Star games.