T1 Faker: ‘The Korean solo queue quality is so low compared to EU’

One of the most recognizable players in professional League of Legends, who is often touted as the greatest of all time, displayed some doubts about solo queue in his region after venturing to Europe for the 2021 World Championship.

Faker, the starting mid-laner for T1 and semi-finalist at Worlds 2021, expressed during his stream that solo queue games on the Korean server are worse than those in EU, where he played while in Reykjavik, Iceland. While saying this, Faker showcased his match history on the Korean server full of losses brought about by AFK teammates and remakes. The list of losses extended far down the match history, almost all of them in Challenger rank.

He alludes to the style of Korean solo queue games, where he believes that games there, more than any other region, are determined within the first few minutes or result in quick finishes due to the performance of teammates. “The thing is, the Korean solo queue quality is so low, compared to EU,” Faker said, according to a translation from Twitter user Gatamchun. “Here, 8 to 9 of ten games are already busted.”

Much of this “low quality” Faker talks about experiencing in his games likely stems from his recognizability as a player, as well as his League username being publicly available on his Twitch streams. Users on a Reddit thread reacting to his comment acknowledged that Faker is often target-inted on the Korean server, where people proceed to make it harder for him to win his games when they realize the three-time world champion is in the game.

The in-game usernames of almost every professional League player are readily available on various websites, though because of the high ranks of these players, most of the player base does not find the opportunity to play alongside them.

Faker and the rest of T1 triumphed through the 2021 World Championship in an attempt to secure the organization’s fourth world title, though were bested by last year’s champs—and fellow LCK rivals—DWG KIA, who fell to EDward Gaming today and became the runners-up of the 2021 World Championship.