Lukas Blankenstein/ Asst. Sports Editor 

League of Legends recently crowned the winner for its highly-anticipated 12th World Championship on Nov. 19. According to Esportscharts.com, a statistics website that covers various esports viewing figures, this year’s League Worlds became the most watched Esports event of all time, with a peak viewership of 6.4 million viewers, beating last year’s world championships, which had 5.1 million viewers, and the previous record holder, the 2021 Singapore World Series of Free Fire, which had a peak viewership of 5.4 million viewers (all numbers exclude Chinese platforms). 

League of Legends is a popular,  Multiplayer Online Battle Arena, or MOBA, that consists of teams of five. The goal of the game is to destroy the opponent’s nexus, which is located on the opposite side of the map. Teams start out by picking the character, or champion, that they wish to play as for the match. Each team member has their own separate job and occupies their own zone, which are the top, middle, and bottom lanes, as well as the jungle. The final player is the support player, who goes where he is needed to support his teammates. Games usually last anywhere from 30-45 minutes long, and the first team to destroy their opponent’s nexus wins. In tournaments, games are best of five, first to win three matches.

 Korean team T1 was able to defeat Team Weibo Gaming (WBG) from China in a 3-0 sweep. The Korean team won the finals in front of a home crowd, as the finals were hosted in the Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, South Korea. With this victory, team T1 cemented its legacy as the most dominant League of Legends in the 12 years that League of Legends has hosted World Championships, picking up their fourth  world title, the most of any team.  It is also the team’s first championship in seven years, as the last one T1 won was in 2016.

T1’s victory was also important for their star player, Faker. Lee Sang-hyeok, better known by his in-game name, Faker, has been dominating the game since he debuted at age 17 in 2013, picking up three other world championships in 2013, 2015 and 2016. The Korean mid-laner has spent his entire career with team T1. In a 2022 interview for the popular sports website, The Athletic, the global head of League of Legends Esports, Naz Alethaha, spoke on Faker’s impact on the sport.

“He is absolutely the GOAT. [greatest of all time] He’s just a complete icon. He is our Michael Jordan,” Alethana said, referring to   iconic   basketball player  Michael Jordan, considered to be the   greatest of all time to many fans.

By winning his fourth championship, Faker now holds the record for the most world championships in League history. 

USD sophomore Anson Chen talked about what a fourth title meant for his legacy.

“Faker is already considered the GOAT (greatest of all time) but this 4th title further cements his legacy,” Chen stated.

However, Faker was the only member of team T1 that had been a World Champion. The other four members of the team, Zeus (Choi Woo-je), Oner (Mun Hyeon-jun), Gumayashi (Lee Min-hyeong) and Keria (Ryu Min-seok) have all been members of team T1 since 2021, but have never won a world championship. T1 had a chance last year to win the championships, making the finals in 2022. T1 was heavily favored against DRX. Typically, Korea is allowed to send four teams to the League of Legends World Championships, and DRX was the last team to make it from Korea.

However, team T1 ended up losing to the underdogs by a final score of 3-2. The lasting image for team T1 would be one of sorrow, particularly for T1’s Keria, who was seen crying after the conclusion of the match. 

This      year, Faker  had a new goal    and motivation in mind: to win    the  championship for his team. Faker summed up his motivation in the Worlds finals teaser trailer.

“The third trophy was for myself,” Faker said. “The fourth trophy is for my teammates.” 

T1 was not the only team that had a chance at making history. In the semifinals, T1 matched up against team JDG. JDG was looking to become the first team to win the “Golden Road,” a colloquial name for winning all four major league championships in a single year, which are the spring, mid seasonal invitational, summer and world championships. JDG is only the second team to have come into the World Championships having won the first three major tournaments of the year, and first since 2019. 

USD sophomore Andrew Chaplin, a member of the Torero Gaming Club, commented on what JDG winning the golden road would mean for their legacy.

“I think if JDG had won, it wouldn’t be hard to argue that they were the best team of all time.”

However, T1 were up to the challenge, winning in the semis 3-1 and ending JDG’s historic season on a loss. 

As for the overall gameplay of the finals, many fans were unimpressed with the over. The finals ended in a straight sweep, with T1 in control the entire time. USD sophomore Anson Chen commented on the finals.

“I thought that this year’s final was really boring, because it was so one sided. After game one, WBG seemed lifeless, they played really poorly, especially in game three,” Chen said.

T1 is the 2023 World Champions for League of Legends, a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena.  

Photo courtesy of @lolesports/Instagram