Faker's Esports PC Player of the Year at Esports Awards controversy explained

League of Legends veteran Lee Sang-Hyeok, better known as Faker, has established himself as one of the most renowned figures in the esports industry. The 27-year-old, nicknamed the "Unkillable Demon King," became the four-time LoL World Champion in 2023. However, after being named Esports PC Player of the Year at the Esports Awards 2023, Faker became embroiled in a controversy.

In this article, we'll look at what triggered the situation and how the social media community reacted.

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Why did Faker receive flak for receiving Esports PC Player of the Year at the Esports Awards? Reason explored

It all started on December 1, 2023, when esports journalist Duncan "Thorin" took to X (formerly Twitter) to claim that Faker hasn't been the "best" League of Legends player since 2017. He went on to say that the decision to honor the South Korean personality at the Esports Awards 2023 was "pathetic."

Thorin's tweet reads:

"Faker hasn't been the best player in League of Legends for a single second since 2017. He was just given the award for best player in 2023 across all PC titles at the Esports Awards. Pathetic."

Thorin also uploaded a 39-minute video to his official YouTube channel, explaining why he thought Lee did not deserve the title of Esports PC Player of the Year.

At the four-minute mark of the video, Thorin claimed that "experts" would award this award to League of Legends pros such as Zhuo "Knight," Park "Ruler," or Jeong "Chovy."

He said:

"If you went to the experts who watched all of League of Legends this year, the ones I know, are all going to give it to Knight, Ruler, Chovy. These are the people. Chovy is the best before the tournament. Most people were saying Ruler all year long. I, obviously, have a soft spot for Knight, where he didn't win Worlds. No one was saying Faker!"

Thorin also remarked that he did not consider the T1 mid-laner to be a "top-three player" this year:

"Personally, I only care about my opinion. I watched all of this year and Faker wouldn't even be a top-three player for me this year. The joke is - he's not even the best on T1! By the way, no one on T1 would be the Player of the Year."

Timestamp: 04:20

At the six-minute mark, the 40-year-old explained what he thought was the "whack" part of Lee being named Esports PC Player of the Year 2023:

"Here's what so whack about this. Let's just even look at Faker's career that you're all bragging about. He hasn't been the best individual player since f**king 2017. That was six years ago! Six years ago! And, now you're giving him the best - not even just in League of Legends - all of PC Esports! You're giving him the award now. Individual player award. Not a team award. There's a team award that T1 won! You're giving him the individual player award for that."

According to Thorin, Choi "Zeus" was the best player at the League of Legends World Championship 2023:

"He wasn't even the best player on his team at Worlds. The best player, in my opinion, was Zeus. I thought he was f**king unbelievable and he merked all the top-laners. And, I test-checked out, like, a motherf**ker!"

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The online community's reaction to Thorin's take

Thorin's opinions went viral in the online community. Here's how netizens reacted:

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On December 2, 2023, former League of Legends pro and Twitch streamer Christian "IWillDominate" chimed in with his thoughts on the drama. Claiming that Thorin has been a "massive Faker fan for over a decade," IWillDominate said the video was "great" and provided complete context for why the South Korean pro gamer winning the award "makes no sense."