Faker: "It's Tough Being a Morning Person"… Fighting Sleep to Secure Semifinals Spot

[Anchor]

The League of Legends national team, led by Faker Lee Sang-hyeok, easily advanced to the semifinals with three consecutive wins in the preliminary round. Although they struggled with drowsiness due to playing outside their usual schedule, it proved to be no major issue.

Reporter Yu Byeongmin has the story from the venue.

[Reporter]

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

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

In the first match, those worries became reality.

With matches starting as early as 9:00 AM, even the world's best players could not hold back yawns, and Lee Sang-hyeok even closed his eyes briefly during the game.

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

Overwhelmed by sleepiness, he eventually leaned against a wall to catch some brief shut-eye 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 is a time when I would normally have fallen asleep not too long ago. Even though there is no time difference between Korea and Japan, it felt like there was one, so it was a bit difficult to adjust...]

Still, the South Korean warriors were invincible.

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

[Lee Sang-hyeok (Faker) / Asian Games Esports National Team: The match against Taiwan was actually the most important one, and I'm glad we could win because the players did so well, which seems to increase our chances of winning the gold medal.]

With no rivals in sight, Lee Sang-hyeok and the national team will face Saudi Arabia in the semifinals today (October 1) as they aim for their third consecutive appearance in the finals.

(Video 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.