TheMovieDB.com

Actor

1996-05-07 · Seoul, South Korea · Male

5 series in the catalog

Lee Sang-hyeok (Korean: 이상혁; born May 7, 1996), better known as Faker, is a South Korean professional League of Legends player. Debuting in 2013, he has played as the mid-laner for T1 (formerly SK Telecom T1) for his entire career. He has won a record 10 League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) titles, two Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) titles, and a record six World Championship titles. Faker is widely regarded as the greatest League of Legends player in history, and has been compared to basketball player Michael Jordan for his esports success.

Originally from Gangseo District, Seoul, Faker established an early reputation as a dominant solo queue player before being signed by SKT in 2013 at the age of 17. In his debut year he won an LCK title and the World Championship. From 2014 to 2017, he won five further LCK titles, two MSI titles, and two additional World Championship titles. From 2018 to 2022, he won four more LCK titles but did not win another major international championship. He won the 2023, 2024 and 2025 World Championships, making him the first player to win three consecutive Worlds titles. He represented the South Korean national team at the 2018 and 2022 Asian Games, earning a silver and gold medal respectively.

Faker's individual achievements include accolades such as two World Championship Most Valuable Player (MVP) awards, an MSI MVP award, and two LCK Player of the Year awards. He holds several LCK records, including being the first player to reach 1,000, 2,000, and 3,000 kills, the first to have earned 5,000 assists, and the first to have won 700 games. His accomplishments have earned him recognition as the Best Esports Athlete and PC Player of the Year at The Game Awards, and he was named PC Player of the Decade by the Esports Awards in 2025. He was listed among the Time 100 Most Influential People in Sports in 2026. He was inducted into the ESL Esports Hall of Fame in 2019, and in May 2024, Riot Games announced him as the inaugural inductee for the LoL Esports Hall of Legends.

Faker is a marketing and media figure for esports, appearing in commercials for major brands and on television and talk shows. In 2020, he became a part-owner and executive of T1 Entertainment & Sports. His annual salary, as of 2020, was estimated by the Olympics to be nearly US$5 million.

Early life

Faker was born in Seoul on May 7, 1996. His early years were spent under the care of his grandparents and his father, Lee Kyung-joon, in Gangseo District, Seoul. Described as an introverted child by his father, Faker often challenged himself with Rubik's Cubes and independently learning foreign languages. While he did not play computer games extensively during his youth, he did enjoy playing arcade games such as Tekken and King of Fighters. As time passed, he gradually ventured into the realm of PC gaming, exploring titles such as Maplestory and Warcraft III.

In 2011, when League of Legends made its debut in South Korea, Faker quickly embraced the game and began playing the game's ranked mode after his high matchmaking rating (MMR) significantly increased queue times for unranked matches. While attending Mapo High School (the same school his rival Kim "Deft" Hyuk-kyu attended), Faker asked his father if he could drop out of school to pursue a career in esports. His father granted his request a month later.

Faker is a 39th generation descendant of the Gyeongju Lee clan, and is a distant uncle of former T1 teammate, Lee "Gumayusi" Min-hyeong.

Professional career

Rookie season success (2013)

Faker began his professional career in 2013 when he caught the attention of SK Telecom T1 2 (later known as SK Telecom T1 K), a team affiliated with the SK Telecom T1 organization. Originally competing under the alias GoJeonPa, Faker joined the team as their mid laner, subsequently adopting the name Faker as his gaming handle. He made his professional debut on April 6, 2013, at a televised match held in Seoul, South Korea, where he secured a solo kill against the South Korean All-Star mid laner Kang "Ambition" Chan-yong. In his first professional tournament, OGN Champions Korea 2013 Spring, Faker accounted for 31.6% of his team's kills and secured 133 kills over 20 games, positioning himself as the tournament's third highest performer in both categories. The subsequent split, OGN Champions Korea 2013 Summer, SKT T1 2 advanced to the tournament finals, where they faced off against the KT Rolster Bullets. In the match, Faker was suddenly engaged by Yoo "Ryu" Sang-wook from the Bullets, but Faker performed a "startling set of moves" to reverse the situation and kill Ryu. This play is regarded as one of the most famous League of Legends plays of all time; it not only propelled SKT T1 2 to a reverse sweep 3–2 victory over the Bullets but also marked Faker's first major title win. In Fall 2013, SKT T1 2 represented South Korea and the SK Telecom T1 organization at the Season 3 World Championship, commonly referred to as Worlds. Throughout the tournament, they had a record of 15 wins and 3 losses. SKT T1 2 faced off against China's Royal Club in the finals and won in one of the most lopsided finals in League of Legends history at the time.

Five more international titles (2014–2017)

Faker won his second domestic title in 2014, as SKT followed their 2013 success by going the entire OGN Champions Winter 2013–2014 season without losing a single game. After losing in the quarterfinals of Champions Spring 2014, the team won All-Star Paris 2014, the precursor to the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI). Competing back again in Champions Summer 2014, while the team qualified for the playoffs, they were eliminated again in the quarterfinals. At the 2014 League of Legends World Championship qualifiers, SKT faced Samsung Galaxy White in a deciding qualifier match. In the match, Faker was the first player to die (known as "giving away First Blood") in three consecutive games, as SKT lost the match and did not qualify for the World Championship. In the following offseason, Riot Games introduced new regulations stating that each organization could only have one team participating in each league, leading to the merger of SK Telecom's two teams, SKT T1 K and SKT T1 S, which became simply known as SK Telecom T1.

During the 2015 offseason, Faker re-signed with SK Telecom, despite receiving offers of nearly US$1,000,000 (equivalent to $1,359,994 in 2025) from various Chinese companies. Throughout the 2015 LCK season, Faker shared the mid lane position with teammate Lee "Easyhoon" Ji-hoon. Although Faker started the Spring Split season opening match against NaJin e-mFire, he was benched in the second game after losing the first, with Easyhoon taking his place. However, Faker returned for the third game and led his team to victory by securing a pentakill. In the 2015 LCK Spring Split finals, Easyhoon started all three games, resulting in SKT's victory. Despite SKT winning the split, Faker expressed dissatisfaction with the outcome and stated his determination to deliver a better performance than Easyhoon in the future. During the break between splits, SKT participated in the 2015 Mid-Season Invitational, reaching the finals where they faced Edward Gaming in a best-of-five match. Throughout the tournament, Easyhoon played as the team's starting mid laner, but Faker was subbed in for game four after SKT fell behind 1–2. They won game four, and in game five Faker selected the champion LeBlanc, a character with which he had never lost in competitive play. However, EDG appeared to have prepared for this exact situation, picking an unconventional midlane champion in Morgana as a counter to LeBlanc. SKT lost the final game, resulting in a second-place finish. During the 2015 LCK Summer Split, SKT advanced to the finals against KT Rolster. While Easyhoon had been the primary mid laner for most of the split's matches, Faker played all three games of the finals and won, winning his fourth LCK title. By…