Yawning and Closing Eyes, It Was a "Meditation Routine"… Faker Eventually Catches a Nap

[Anchor]

The League of Legends national team, led by Faker Lee Sang-hyeok, has cruised into the semifinals with three straight wins in the group stage. For players accustomed to evening matches, the early morning games proved to be another battle against sleepiness, but they dominated the matches with overwhelming skill.

Reporter Yu Byeongmin has the story from the field.

[Reporter]

On his very first day arriving in Nagoya, Faker Lee Sang-hyeok said that becoming a "morning person" would be the key to winning the championship.

[Lee Sang-hyeok (Faker) / Asian Games Esports National Team: Since it's not the time we usually play matches, we have to move our wake-up time forward by 6 to 7 hours.]

In today's (30th) opening match, those worries became reality.

With the match schedule kicking off at 9:00 AM, even the world's best players could not hold back their yawns. Lee Sang-hyeok, who briefly closed his eyes during the match, explained,

[Lee Sang-hyeok (Faker) / Asian Games Esports National Team: I wasn't dozing off just now. I always have a routine of meditating before a match, so I was meditating.]

Overwhelmed by sleepiness, he eventually leaned against a wall to catch a quick nap during the afternoon match when another player stepped in.

[Lee Sang-hyeok (Faker) / Asian Games Esports National Team: I think I woke up around 6:30. It's a time when I would normally be fast asleep, so even though there is no time difference between Korea and Japan, it felt like there was one, making it a bit difficult to adapt...]

Even so, the Taegeuk warriors were unbeatable.

They defeated gold medal rival Taiwan in just 25 minutes, the weakest team India in a mere 18 minutes, and Hong Kong in 22 minutes to claim three consecutive wins and advance to the semifinals as the top seed in their group.

[Lee Sang-hyeok (Faker) / Asian Games Esports National Team: The match against Taiwan was practically the most important one, and because the players did so well, I'm glad that our chances of winning the gold medal seem to have increased.]

With no rivals in sight, Lee Sang-hyeok and our national team will challenge for their third consecutive appearance in the finals tomorrow (the 1st) against Saudi Arabia in the semifinals.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
(Reported by Park Jin-ho | Video Editing by Park Chun-bae | Design by Kang Yoon-jung)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.