Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok said SK Telecom T1 has never really had an “easy group” at the League of Legends World Championship.
SKT took part in a special event Wednesday with K-Pop group Gugudan in a campaign to raise awareness about missing children. After the event ended, Faker spoke with Fomos in a video interview to share his thoughts about the team’s group draw for worlds.
“We’ve never really had an easy group for worlds, and this year’s group has a collection of formidable opponents,” he said. “I am thinking that it’s a group that will help us improve on our form.”
SKT is part of Group A, in the same group as China’s EDward Gaming, LMS’ ahq e-Sports Club and one team from the play-in stage. EDG and ahq are perhaps the strongest teams from their perspective regions, though SKT remains the favorite to win the group and reach the playoffs in an attempt to win a third world championship in a row. As SKT now touts three world championships, it’s become rather difficult to judge whether or not any particular team will be able to give them enough trouble to be considered a difficult matchup.
Faker will be facing one of his ex-teammates, Lee “Scout” Ye-chan, who is the starting mid laner for EDG. Scout emerged this summer as one of the best carry players in China, and his recent success isn’t lost on Faker, who still fully intends to take him down.
“I heard Scout is doing very well in China lately, so I’m looking forward to playing against him,” he said. “I will enter the match with the mindset that I have to beat him.”
Although Faker will play a number of familiar faces at worlds, he said he doesn’t have any certain player that fancies his eye.
“I don’t have a particular player I really look forward to face,” he said. “I do look forward to seeing what kind of play the teams we faced before will show on stage.”
Longzhu Gaming is the first seed from Korea after it took down SKT in the finals of the summer split, and the third seed is Samsung Galaxy, which earned its spot after winning the regional gauntlet.
Cover photo courtesy of Riot Games