Chinese fans, reporters, and even volunteers would forget about themselves for a moment whenever Lee Sang-hyuk appeared, chanting for Faker and holding out their pens.

The interesting part was that they would share the autographs they received with 'photos'. They were busy capturing the autographs of others on their smartphone cameras. They also shared the autographs in their smartphone albums and photos with Lee Sang-hyuk. The photos were sent not only to people at the event, but also to people in their contacts. A single photo spread across China in a matter of hours.

Among the many Chinese journalists who traveled to see Lee Sang-hyuk, one female reporter introduced herself as a "fan of Lee Sang-hyuk" and actively interacted with Korean journalists. She was so passionate that she traveled to an LCK game in Korea to watch him play. She had been an exchange student in Korea and spoke fluent Korean.

When asked why Chinese fans would take pictures of Faker's autographs and share them, the reporter didn't hesitate to say, "Because he's so popular."

"Faker's autograph sells for 5,000 yuan (about $920,000)," he continued, "and if there's a video of him signing it, the price goes up even more."

Ahead of the Games, Reuters named Lee as one of the athletes to watch at the Hangzhou Asian Games, saying, "Lee, better known by his professional gaming name Faker, has been dubbed the 'Michael Jordan of esports'. In the past decade, Faker has dominated League of Legends. With esports becoming an official sport at the Hangzhou Asian Games for the first time, Faker has become one of the most compelling cards in the game."

Lee's popularity was also high among the athletes. At the beginning of the Games, social media was abuzz with photos of athletes taking pictures with him in the athletes' village. This was true regardless of gender or nationality. 안전토토사이트

Ryu Min-seok of Keria marveled, "Whenever Sang-hyuk walked by the restaurant in the athletes' village, the waiter would stop him to take a picture," adding, "Sang-hyuk would take pictures of him, even though there were a lot of people. It was really nice to see. It was funny."

When we asked the Chinese fans who had been chasing Faker why they liked him, the answer was nothing special. "Just because he's a legend," they said. It was a way of saying that they thought highly of Lee and appreciated the fact that he's been around in esports since his debut in 2013 and has been playing ever since.

The Chinese journalist also asked the reporter, "Why are there anti-Faker fans in Korea?" He didn't seem to understand that in China, it's like a religion, but in Korea, there are fans and haters.

Led by head coach Kim Jung-gyun and captain Lee Sang-hyuk, the Korean national team won the inaugural League of Legends, defeating China in the quarterfinals and Chinese Taipei in the final.

After returning home with the gold medal, Sang-hyuk is now back on the T1 mid lane, preparing for the League of Legends 2023 World Championship. The tournament will be held in South Korea for the first time in five years, and several Chinese journalists have said they will be traveling to the country to cover the event, with Faker being the top priority for most of them.

The Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games, held in six cities in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China, concluded on Aug. 8 with a closing ceremony after 16 days of intense competition.

South Korea finished third overall, behind China and Japan, with 42 gold, 59 silver and 89 bronze medals. China finished first overall for the 11th time in 41 years with 201 gold, 111 silver, and 71 bronze medals.