Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok isn’t too concerned about the competition he will face during this week’s Rift Rivals tournament because he has history against just about everybody. Faker and SK Telecom T1 will compete starting Thursday in the inaugural Rift Rivals, a series of international tournaments. SKT, KT Rolster, Samsung Galaxy and MVP will compete against teams from the Chinese and Taiwanese regions.
In a video interview with Fomos, Faker said he wasn’t largely concerned with the international mid laners he will face. “I don’t have a player I’m particularly wary of since I’ve faced all of them before, so I think I’ll be able to comfortably compete,” he said. The mid laner of Team World Elite, Su “xiye” Han-Wei, has been of particular interest stemming from analysis that his play style might be similar to Faker’s. But Faker rejected that notion, likening xiye more “similar to the aggressive mid laners in Korea,” according to his past experience of facing xiye. As EDward Gaming will also be present at Rift Rivals, Lee “Scout” Ye-chan has been playing as the mid laner after Heo “
Pawn” Won-seok’s departure to Korea for the 2017 season. Faker has some history with Scout, as Scout was a mid laner for SKT for almost two years before moving to China last year. Faker didn’t have much to say but seemingly interested in how Scout was doing. “I want to ask him ‘How is China?’” he said.