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Korea make short work of Saudi Arabia to reach LoL semifinals

Published: 27 Sep. 2023, 12:05 Updated: 29 Sep. 2023, 21:00

Korea’s all-star League of Legends team defeated Saudi Arabia 2-0 in a quarterfinal match on Wednesday, putting Korea through to the gold medal qualifying round at this year’s Asian Games, the first-ever Asiad to include Esports as a category.

Korea will next face China in a semifinal match set for Thursday at 9:00 a.m. local time, or 10:00 a.m. in Korea.

The stakes are high for Korea’s six-man team. If any Korean athlete brings home gold, they will be exempt from mandatory military service, which all Korean men must complete between the ages of 18 to 35.

The team is led by Korean star 27-year-old Lee Sang-hyeok, known by fans as “Faker,” who recently recovered from a right arm injury that hindered his play. Faker, already a household name in Korea, is perhaps the biggest figure in global gaming, the emerging sport's Lionel Messi, Novak Djokovic and Tom Brady all rolled into one.

But Faker was absent from the quarterfinals due to sickness. Instead, the baton was carried by his teammates Choi Woo-je, Seo Jin-hyeok, Park Jae-hyeok, Ryu Min-seok and Jung Ji-hun.

Choi, known as “Zeus,” and Ryu, or “Keria,” along with Lee are members of top esports team T1.

Their coach at this year's Games is Kim Jeong-gyun, known as kkOma, who was a three-time world champion.

In League of Legends, which is one of the world’s fastest-growing sports with around 150 million monthly players, two teams of five battle it out to defend their half of the game map.

Earlier at the Games, Korea beat Hong Kong and Kazakhstan to advance to the quarterfinals.

BY MARY YANG [[email protected]]