According to T1 CEO Joe Marsh, League of Legends player Lee ‘Faker’ Sang-hyeok allegedly rejected down a $20 million per year contract with an LPL team in order to remain with the organization.
Faker is widely regarded as the best League of Legends player of all time, with few players coming close to matching his exploits. Most notably, the 25-year-old has won the renowned World Championship three times in his career.
Furthermore, after a record-breaking 20-0 2022 Spring Split, ‘The Unkillable Demon King’ now has 10 LCK championships under his belt with T1.
However, things may have gone differently for Faker, as Joe Marsh claimed in a recent podcast that the League of Legends player was given a $20 million contract to join a club in the rival LPL league, but he declined.
On April 6, the T1 CEO addressed the importance of establishing a connection with Faker and his family on Doublelift’s Trash Talk podcast. The debate eventually switched to the 2021 offseason, when Lee Sang-hyeok became a free agent before re-signing with T1.
According to Joe, the League player rejected down a whopping $20 million-per-year offer from Chinese organizations. “He doesn’t need money. He has money, he’s super successful, and he’s made really strong investments in Korea,” Marsh added. “There’s literally a building he owns called Faker Tower, and it’s worth a lot of money.
“He’s done really well financially. It’s about where he thinks he can compete the most and win.” Joe also stated that he had outrageous offers from other companies during the off-season. “He always gets offers, even this off-season I had to fly to Korea after free agency started because he was a free agent and every time he’s a free agent the offer from China comes in. It’s you know, $20 million a year.”
Faker’s choice to continue with T1 after such a successful LCK Spring Split was certainly the correct one. Now, the 25-year-old will compete in the Mid-Season Invitational in Busan, Korea, for his third MSI crown.
Faker’s tenth year under the T1 banner will be in 2023, and it’s anyone’s guess how many more years we’ll see from him.