“Supremacy” — noun : the state or condition of being superior to all others in authority, power, or status.

Few words would better define SK Telecom T1 mid laner Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok. The 21 year old South Korean is already a three time world champion and by many accounts is the undisputed greatest League of Legends player in history. Drawing universal praise from casters, journalists, players and analysts alike, Faker has been compared to the likes of traditional sports superstars Michael Jordan and Lionel Messi in his dominance of the sport. Earning the “Unkillable Demon King” nickname and having his own hashtag, #ThingsFakerDoes, goes to further show just how dominant and consistent Faker has been throughout his career.

It seems no matter the meta, his teammates or the event, Faker remains consistently ahead of the competition and nearly always on the receiving end of the victories. With arguably the deepest effective champion pool in professional League of Legends, Faker has been able to make picks such as Master Yi, Olaf, and Riven work in the midlane, and although the sample size is small, he has a 100% win rate on those 3 champions. Faker has played an incredible 43 unique champions in his competitive League of Legends career. No matter if he is needed on a damage oriented assassin or utility focused supportive mid, Faker is known for his ability to pressure his lane opponent with his aggressive style, gain early cs leads and snowball games.

In previous seasons, the way the League of Legends meta worked allowed for one player to single handedly take over and carry games. In recent times the game has shifted towards more team play and less of this 1 vs. 9 sort of style. Faker has adapted his play along with the meta and has on countless occasions used his priority in lane not to secure more advantages for himself, but to ensure his teammates win their lanes and the entire team can dominate the game. This ability to adapt to meta changes so quickly highlights yet another facet of why Faker is the best to have ever logged on to Summoner’s Rift.

Now, with this almost Superman-esque description, there has to be the proverbial Kryptonite, or an Anti-Faker, if you will. As of the morning of May 19th 2017 there were only two organizations to have positive win rates against SKT T1, and subsequently, Faker. Those two were the LCK’s Afreeca Freecs and the LMS squad Flash Wolves. SKT T1 went into their MSI semifinal match against Flash Wolves as the clear favorite. To put it simply, it’s SKT, at an international event, in a “best of” series. You’d have to be crazy to bet against them. But, there were murmurs and rumblings of the possibility of an upset. Flash Wolves were able to take a game off SKT in the group stages, and one of only two teams with a positive overall record against them.

This was the first “best of” matchup for SKT and FW, putting Huang “Maple” Yi-Tang against Faker. An excellent player in his own right many analysts rank Maple highly among mid laners in the world and some had him as the second best mid laner at MSI behind Faker himself. This set the stage for what seemed like Faker’s biggest challenge of MSI.

And to put it lightly, Faker demolished it.

Expanding on his domination of the group stage, where he led all mid laners in almost every major category, Faker rolled through Maple and the Flash Wolves, putting on a mechanical clinic. While only dying a single time throughout the entire series, Faker showed the world how insignificant kills can be at the highest level of League of Legends. In game 2 of the series Faker showed his dominance, not with an early solo kill, but by pressuring Maple off the wave and disallowing him access to precious early minions. Faker jumped out to a massive CS and EXP lead. While the opponent may have been different, this is nothing new for Faker. He is so good at the game, it has gotten to the point to where if Faker casts an ultimate and it does not find its target a single time, casters will note how uncharacteristic that occurrence was.

This MSI was full of talented mid laners to try and defeat the king: Maple, Soren “Bjergsen” Bjerg, Luka “Perkz” Perkovic, and Su “Xiye” Han-Wei. Xiye was able to solo kill Faker a few times in their group stage matchup, and aside from that, Faker has shown why he is king.

With one more series left, the 2017 MSI Final, will Perkz establish his lane kingdom and have what it takes to give Faker and SKT their first loss internationally since 2015 MSI, or will the true king feast on his foes yet again?

Photo Credits: Riot Games

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