T1 star Faker turned down multi-million dollar LCS offers, according to report

Longtime T1 mid laner and League of Legends star Lee ‘Faker’ Sang-hyeok turned down multi-million dollar offers from LCS teams, according to a report.

The greatest League of Legends player of all time, Faker, has only played for one team his entire career. The South Korean mid laner got his start with T1 in 2013 and has been with the team for over a decade.

With T1, Faker has secured three League of Legends World Championship trophies, two Mid-Season Invitational titles and won the League of Legends Champions Korea league numerous times. The mid laner has presumably been paid handsomely for his time with the organization, and he has even become a part owner in the company.

Faker turned down multi-million dollar offers from two LCS teams

Faker inked a new contract in late 2022 during the 2022-23 League of Legends offseason after reportedly exploring other offers from teams in China and North America’s LCS. One of those offers from an LCS team, according to a report by blix.gg, was in the range of $3,000,000- $5,000,000 annually.

The two LCS teams in the mix to acquire Faker were FlyQuest and Team Liquid, while the teams from China were Weibo Gaming and LNG Esports, according to blix.

FlyQuest offered Faker an annual salary in the previously stated million-dollar range, while Team Liquid’s was reportedly even higher.

The blix report claims Faker had a genuine interest in playing for Liquid, as the organization was building a Korean-speaking roster. The Liquid roster after that offseason consisted of three players from South Korea including Park ‘Summit’ Woo-tae, Jo ‘CoreJJ’ Yong-in and one of the 2022 world champions in Hong ‘Pyosik’ Chang-hyeon.

T1, according to the report, was considering a replacement for Faker during the offseason but eventually ended up re-signing the mid laner for a sum close to what was offered by Team Liquid.

In 2023 so far, T1 finished second in the LCK Spring Playoffs and third at MSI after losing to the Chinese squad BLG in the lower bracket final.