

There, he would wake up at a specific time, get on his computer with the rest of his teammates, and get to work diligently through scrimmages, structured practice and solo queue. It was the fact that regardless of how hard he tried, the culture in China was radically different from the one he'd known in South Korea. The end result was a precarious situation in which a frustrated Mata lashed out at his teammates, and he was even fined following a tournament game in which he was cited for his non-professional behavior in-game.įor Mata, his frustration boiled down to simply not having a good team.

VG was a far cry from Mata's starting five on Samsung White, and he was forced to take on a mentor role for a team that was trying to incorporate newer talent with veterans like Dandy and Li "Vasilii" Wei-Jun. Due to the rules of domestic teams needing to field at least three players from that region, Mata was only able to play with one of his former Samsung teammates, Choi "DanDy" In-kyu, on Vici Gaming. While Faker returned to the forefront of the international scene with his revamped, macro-intensive SK Telecom T1, Mata had to adjust to life in China. While 2014 was a struggle for Faker, the same and worse could be said for Mata in 2015. Failing to make the 2014 Worlds drove the prodigious mid laner to train even harder during the offseason - making him put everything he had into getting back to the throne he wasn't able to defend. It was widely known that Samsung couldn't pay the top team in the world enough money to stick around in South Korea, and Mata decided to embark on a new journey in 2015 - to the region he conquered months earlier at the World Championships.įaker, who also received various offers from Chinese teams, stayed with the better-paying SK Telecom T1 as the face of the franchise. After beating Faker's SK Telecom T1 and winning a Summoner's Cup of his own with Samsung White in 2014, Mata and the rest of his Samsung teammates (including their sister team) decided to move to China's LPL for better wages. Since their constant battles of 20, Faker and Mata have gone down two divergent paths.

When it comes to conducting a field of soldiers on the battlefield and achieving total victory, there might not be anyone better than the 2014 world champion and Worlds MVP.Īs his current teammate Cheng "Wuxx" Wang summarized him best in a recent interview, "It feels as though Mata created this game." As the leader of the "Samsung Dynasty" in 20, he never failed to finish below third place in Korea's Champions league. The two began their careers at the same time, in the spring of 2013, and it was a rookie with the ID "Mata" who walked away as a champion in his first season - not Faker.Ĭho Se-hyeong's genius can be found in his mastery of in-game leadership. While Faker's reputation casts him as a natural, almost instinctive genius, Mata is an intellectual technician. If there was anyone deserving of the title 'maestro' in League, it would be Mata. For League of Legends, it's Lee Sang-hyeok.
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Faker has four domestic titles, two Summoner's Cups and a Worlds MVP - the last of which came just a few short months after he entered the scene.Įvery game has at least one prodigy who entered the professional ranks with all of the expectations in the world and then exceeded them. In April it will be three years since his pro-gaming debut, and he did not disappoint on those expectations - he's the undisputed greatest to ever touch League of Legends. His skill became well-known across the online servers during his time as an amateur, and his first professional game was (and still is) the most anticipated debut in the game's history.įrom the beginning, everyone expected greatness from the teenager known as Faker. He only started playing the game seriously due to queue times forcing him to play against higher-caliber players.

In the chilly spring of 2016 in Poland, their paths have crossed again.įaker is a once-in-a-generation talent. From the two forging their own dynasties in their homeland, to the present where one has stayed loyal to the only team he's ever known and the other has become a leader in Korea's rival region of China. From their rookie seasons together, their careers have been tied together. Two geniuses appeared in South Korea's LoL Champions in the spring of 2013.
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