T1 wins first-ever ‘Rold Cup’ four times…’Faker era’ continues.

A cheering event is being held at Gwanghwamun Square in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on the afternoon of the 19th, ahead of the *League of Legends (LoL) World Championship* finals.ⓒYonhap

Korea’s T1 defeated China’s ‘WBG’ (Weibo Gaming for Audi) to win the *LoL World Championship*. *League of Legends (LoL)* is an online battle game released by Riot Games in 2009.

The ‘LoL World Championship’, held annually since 2011, is the world’s largest e-sports event where the strongest teams from each country’s league gather to determine the world’s best team of the year. It is as popular as the FIFA World Cup among the 2030 generation, hence it’s called the ‘LoL Cup’.

In the finals held at Gocheok Sky Dome in Guro-gu, Seoul, on the 19th, T1 demonstrated a perfect game without any major crisis, achieving a 3-0 shutout victory with overwhelming game power. This is the fourth time T1 has won, following their victories in 2013, 2015, and 2016. T1 made it to the *LoL World Cup* finals in 2017 and 2022 but failed to lift the trophy for six years after losing to Samsung Galaxy and DRX.

‘Faker’ Lee Sang-hyeok of T1 is answering questions from the press at the *LoL World Cup* final media day held at the Banyan Tree Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul, on the 15th afternoon.ⓒYonhap

Notably, T1 includes ‘Faker’ Lee Sang-hyeok, ‘Zeus’ Choi Woo-je, and ‘Keria’ Ryu Min-seok, who are gold medalists from the Hangzhou Asian Games in China.

Meanwhile, from October 10 to November 19, a total of 53 matches were held in Seoul and Busan by 22 teams from around the world. The total offline audience was recorded at 70,000. All games held in Seoul, including the preliminaries, were sold out. Fans fiercely competed to secure limited seats, and even illegal tickets emerged. This year, all 18,000 seats for the final were sold out within 10 minutes of the ticket sales starting in August.

The cheapest Tier 8 seats were sold for 80,000 KRW ($67), and the highest-priced Tier 1 seats were sold for 245,000 KRW ($205). On an online used goods trading platform, Tier 1 seats were traded for up to 3 million KRW ($2,500). Fans who couldn’t go to the venue gathered in Gwanghwamun, Seoul, to cheer on the streets. This is the first time the Seoul Metropolitan Government has granted permission to use Gwanghwamun Square for an e-sports event.

Newzins performing at the *LoL World Cup* opening ceremonyⓒYonhap

Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Yoo In-chon also visited the *LoL World Cup* finals in person. He showed deep interest in the gaming and e-sports fields by attending the Korea Game Awards and G-Star in Busan, and then watching the *LoL World Cup*.

Minister Yoo said, “I am very happy that (T1) made it to the finals, and I thought it would be good to watch it personally,” adding, “The gaming industry meeting, G-Star, and today’s venue are the starting point for upgrading the gaming industry.”