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Faker turned down a $20 million-a-year contract with the LPL to stay with T1
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According to T1 CEO Joe Marsh, League of Legends superstar Lee "Faker" Sang-hyuk allegedly turned down a $20 million a year contract with the LPL team to stay with the organization.
Faker is arguably the greatest player in League of Legends of all time, and virtually no other player has come close to his accomplishments. In particular, during his career, the 25-year-old athlete won the prestigious world championship three times.
In addition, after an impressive 2022-20 record spring 0 split, The Unkillable Demon King now has 10 LCK titles under its belt with T1.
However, things could have turned out differently for Faker, with Joe Marsh revealing on a recent podcast that the League of Legends star was offered a $20 million contract to join a team in the rival league, the LPL, but turned it down.
During the Doublelift Trash Talk podcast on April 6, the CEO of T1 spoke about the importance of establishing a relationship with Faker and his family. The conversation eventually turned to the 2021 offseason with Faker becoming a free agent before re-signing with T1.
According to Joe, the League star turned down an unprecedented $20 million a year offer from Chinese organizations. “He doesn't need money. He has money, he is very successful and has made very large investments in Korea,” Marsh explained. “He literally has a building called Faker Tower and it costs a lot of money.
“He handled the finances very well. It's about where he thinks he can compete the most and win." Joe added that even this off-season, he received generous offers from other organizations: “He always gets offers, even this off-season I had to fly to Korea after free agency started because he was a free agent, and every time, when he was a free agent, the Agent receives an offer from China. You know, $20 million a year."
After such a dominant LCK spring split, Faker's decision to stick with T1 was clearly the right one. Now, the 25-year-old will head to the Mid-Season Invitational in Busan, Korea to try for his third MSI title.
2023 will mark 10 years Faker has been under the T1 banner and one can only guess how many more years we'll see from him.
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