Faker Sent You a Friend Request

Every season of the League of Legends professional league ended and began with different joys and sorrows.

This year, as Season 7 drew to a close, SKT, who had once claimed three world championships, tasted the bitterness of defeat for the first time.

Swept 3-0 by SSG, Faker collapsed over the desk and wept soundlessly after the match. Before leaving the stage, he looked back several times, tears falling amid his unwillingness and loneliness.

For SKT's three-time world champion mid laner, the Demon King in countless people's eyes, that moment had undoubtedly brought him to the brink of collapse.

Unlike other teams, who could brag about a runner-up finish for a lifetime and use it as a lifelong shield, a runner-up title was unquestionably a disgrace to Faker.

Not to mention that in the regret-filled Season 7, aside from losing the championship at the end of the season, he had also suffered a tremendous blow at the beginning.

That blow had not come from someone within the team retiring, but from outside the team—or rather, from a certain figure in the hosting world officially announcing her departure from the LCK.

Host Jo Eun-jung had resigned!

At the time, Faker had felt as though the sky was falling. The suffocating feeling had left him deeply miserable.

He had not even had the chance to confess yet. How could she just leave?

Because of that, Faker had stayed depressed for an entire half-season before barely managing to cheer himself up a little.

Who could have expected another massive blow at the end of the season, causing him to stumble in the finals for the first time and painfully claim second place?

Faker had nearly broken down.

No matter how tough and steadfast his mentality was, that string of setbacks in Season 7 had carved an unshakable psychological shadow into his heart.

After that, Huni had proposed his plan to retire peacefully in the North American region, while Peanut had also said he was preparing to transfer, making Faker feel hopeless about the coming S8 season as well.

Thus, after Worlds ended, Faker had first locked himself in his room and remained silent for three whole days!

Three days later, while the other teams were all taking their breaks, he applied for an Alternate Account and officially began climbing ranked on it.

He had been too repressed, nearly unable to breathe beneath the regret-filled Season 7. So he desperately wanted to use his Alternate Account to climb back to the mindset he had once possessed, then take one huge breath and wake himself up.

Yet his climb on the Alternate Account had gone exceptionally poorly. Perhaps it had everything to do with his mood; even though he played ranked for fifteen of every twenty-four hours, his climb remained endlessly difficult.

After nearly a month, someone of his skill had only barely reached Grandmaster with 272 points. It was downright embarrassing.

Thinking back, he had once been full of spirit and spoken boldly, describing bad teammates with the phrase, "You're as bad as a Master." But now, he himself was stuck in the Master tier and could not climb any higher.

Yesterday, he had suffered a frenzied losing streak all day long. In the final few games, he could not even maintain his own form and began playing poorly.

Once again, Faker began questioning his own strength and condition. Should I really not have used an Alternate Account to climb? Was this actually useful? Could it have had the opposite effect instead?

The more he thought about it, the more uneasy Faker became. He had already prepared to abandon this account completely.

But before giving up, he decided to play properly for one more day, as a final farewell.

Ah, what a pity. When host Jo Eun-jung announced that she was leaving the LCK, she had not even come to say goodbye to him. It really hurt...

In any case, Faker gritted his teeth, suppressed the chaos in his heart, and started ranked for his farewell day.

His ranked games that day remained terribly unsmooth, and his own condition was atrocious, leading to a seven-game losing streak.

Faker had already decided that if he lost one more game, he would bid this account farewell for good. Yet in this final match, an unexpected disturbance arose.

Before the game even began, someone in the chat box asked him for mid lane. Faker followed his usual style: if he was not assigned mid, he would not ask for a role and would play whatever he got. But since he had been assigned mid, he would not yield it either. So he did not reply. Any normal person should have understood what he meant by then.

But this time seemed different. The other person kept chattering, saying that he was a professional player from RNG, Xiaohu, and that Faker should give him mid lane.

Faker had some impression of RNG, but Xiaohu? Who was that? Was he famous? Faker could not remember, so he still did not reply.

The chat box suddenly became lively as two other teammates joined the conversation.

Since they were typing in Chinese, he could not understand it. He could only vaguely guess that they had recognized that professional player and were demanding that he give up his role. Those two people kept aggressively calling him out.

His brows furrowed tighter and tighter. He had already been feeling repressed—why did he have to run into such an unreasonable person now?

Feeling both helpless and curious, he copied and pasted what they were saying into a translator. The more he read, the darker his expression became.

These people were truly bored! Just because he would not give up his role, they had forcibly branded him an intentional feeder and even said they would report him.

They were slandering him out of thin air!

That professional player was no better. His fans were being so unreasonable, yet he stood by and watched without saying a word.

Even though he did not know the professional player who was smugly boasting about being someone from RNG, Faker could seemingly imagine the man's ugly face at that moment. His character was obvious at a glance.

Faker frowned deeply and did not want to translate any more. He was ready to ignore it all, but then a fourth person joined the chat.

Faker had thought it was another bootlicking fan of that unfamiliar RNG professional player, here to insult him and accuse him of slander. He did not want to keep translating, but for some reason, he copied and pasted it into the translator again.

The moment he translated it, his eyes lit up.

This person was actually standing up for him, taking his side and viciously tearing into that unfamiliar professional player and his two bootlicking fans.

Even as a bystander, Faker felt that the insults were immensely satisfying. All the more so because this person was venting on his behalf. Faker immediately gained a tremendous amount of goodwill toward him.

However, the game ultimately never started and was disbanded early. Faker could not help feeling regretful; he had originally wanted to coordinate with the top laner who had defended him and play a thrilling, satisfying game together.

But before he had regretted it for long, the two of them ran into each other again in the very next match!

Not only that, that obscure professional player was on the enemy team! Faker suddenly felt as though he had been given a mission.

This was a grudge match!

Before he could fully readjust himself and grow solemn, the game loaded in, and the enemy top laner sent another taunting message in all chat.

After translating it, Faker nearly laughed in anger.

A professional player! Another person nobody remembered, yet who insisted on using his status as a professional player to pressure others.

He was utterly baffled. Since when had professional players become so high and mighty?

He, Lee Sang-hyeok, was already a professional player with three S world championships, yet he had never acted that way. He played whatever role he was assigned, behaved properly, and had always remained humble. How many championships had those people won to be so arrogant?

Seeing that his team's top laner did not reply to the other side, Faker felt even more stifled. He vaguely guessed that the player was worried about facing a professional player in lane, afraid of embarrassing himself if he lost. After all, this was a grudge match.

That person had only gotten into this trouble because he had stood up for Faker. It was all Faker's fault!

Amid his guilt, the depressed state he had been unable to shake for so long suddenly returned to its peak at that moment. Not only did it return to its peak—it directly reached perfection!