[Anchor]

The League of Legends esports national team defeated Taiwan in the finals to secure back-to-back Asian Games titles. Flaunting their status as the world's strongest, they claimed a flawless victory without dropping a single set from the preliminary rounds onward.

Reporting from Nagoya, here is Yu Byeongmin.

[Reporter]

Starting two hours before the finals, fans from various Asian countries lined up at the venue entrance to cheer for our players, forming a never-ending queue.

[Chinese Fan: Flight tickets from China to Japan were expensive, costing 2 million won.]

[Japanese Fan: I love Faker and Keria! Fighting!]

As if keeping the packed crowd in suspense, the final match started 40 minutes later than scheduled due to a system glitch. Our players thrilled fans with exhilarating performances, pulling off comebacks in every set.

Although trailing Taiwan until midway through the first set, they staged a dramatic turnaround powered by Zeka (Kim Geon-woo) and Zeus (Choi Woo-je). In the second set, Gumayusi (Lee Min-hyung) flipped the game in a single stroke with a triple kill.

When they destroyed the opponent's base in the final third set and victory was confirmed, the players hugged each other and basked in the joy.

Securing a 3-0 sweep, the national team claimed their second consecutive gold medal following the previous Hangzhou tournament, displaying flawless form by not conceding a single set across all five matches of this competition.

[Kim Geon-woo (Zeka) / LoL National Team Player: I feel so honored to wear the Taegeuk mark and hang a gold medal around my neck. Because I played with the absolute mindset that we had to win, I was able to maintain intense focus until the very end, and things turned out really well.]

[Lee Sang-hyeok (Faker) / LoL National Team Player: I think the journey, experiences, and processes we went through running toward the gold medal were all very meaningful.]

To rumors regarding esports being dropped from the Asian Games that surfaced during the competition and the lingering negative perceptions about esports, the players responded as follows:

[Lee Min-hyung (Gumayusi) / LoL National Team Player: I believe that as long as there are cheering crowds, athletes striving within that environment, and deep emotions and stories, it can be a sport.]

There were no surprises.

Led by Faker, our national team boasted the world's finest skills, grandly decorating the grand finale of esports at this tournament.

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Ha Jee-min, the living legend of South Korean sailing, finished first in the men's dinghy event, washing away the disappointment of his silver medal from the previous Hangzhou tournament to harvest his fourth career Asian Games gold medal.

(Photo: Yonhap News / Video coverage: Choi Dae-woong, Video editing: Park Choon-bae, Design: Hwang Se-yeon)