Faker misses out on Player of the Year! LCK awards revealed, BDD surprisingly takes the top spot, Chovy is the best mid laner

Hello to all LPL viewers and League of Legends summoners, this is Tianxia Game Review.

Today, the LCK conducted its annual awards ceremony. Unlike the LPL region, many of the LCK’s awards have distinctive setups. Of course, similar to the LPL, the most watched awards remain Player of the Year and the All-Pro lineup.

In the end, Faker missed out on the All-Pro team, causing quite a stir within the LCK.

LCK awards unveiled, Faker misses out on the best

The two most significant awards in the LCK are the All-Pro team and Player of the Year. The results surprised many because the Player of the Year was not included in the All-Pro team, which is extremely rare in award history. Typically, the Player of the Year is selected from the All-Pro team.

The Player of the Year went to BDD, who achieved an unexpected top spot, while the All-Pro team consists of top laner Kiin, jungler Oner, mid laner Chovy, and bot lane duo Gumayusi and Keria.

Additionally, the LCK also awarded a Regular Season All-Pro team, which featured GEN’s five-man roster. This award was widely accepted since GEN dominated the regular season.

The main point of controversy lies between the Player of the Year and the All-Pro team selections.

Regarding mid laners, the highest honor this year should arguably go to Faker, who won another World Championship. BDD was the world runner-up but lacked league honors. Chovy earned multiple league titles but failed to break through internationally, which led to many viewers expressing confusion in the chat after the mid lane awards were announced.

Faker as a championship supporting role, league prestige rises

It’s worth noting that Faker did receive an award at this ceremony — the Best Sportsmanship Award. This prize suits Faker well, though it’s hard to clearly define ‘sportsmanship’ here. Simply put, Faker has been a veteran competitor for many years, an esports icon constantly battling on the stage, which justifies him receiving this accolade.

In short, the LCK judging panel considered Faker to be more of a supporting champion for T1 this year, while Chovy’s two league titles gave him the edge over Faker.

The underlying evaluation criteria resemble those in Chinese table tennis: winning a world championship doesn’t necessarily mean winning the league. The LCK is fiercely competitive, with top-tier teams battling even harder than at Worlds. Thus, the judges regard the LCK league’s value as higher than expected, sometimes even surpassing the World Championship in prestige.

The reason might be that the LCK region has won so many world titles that the world championship is no longer as heavily emphasized. Especially since Faker has helped T1 win three consecutive championships, many fans have become somewhat desensitized, feeling that the championship naturally belongs to the LCK.

LCK awards interpretation: still yearning for a new king to rise

The main controversy around BDD winning Player of the Year is that aside from being world runner-up, he has no other major honors. Personally, I think it’s somewhat unreasonable for BDD to be named Player of the Year. The LCK might admire BDD’s role as a lone hero for KT, leading a weaker team to defeat GEN and even nearly eliminating T1.

Indeed, such performances are impressive but mostly limited to the World Championship knockout stage, while BDD and KT’s performance during the rest of the year was less remarkable.

Also, the definition of Player of the Year is unclear. It’s uncertain how the LCK defines it, but BDD seems more suited for other awards rather than this top honor.

I believe the underlying logic behind the LCK’s award choices is their hope for a new king to emerge. Faker has won many world titles, so they don’t care much about this award. Instead, they want to encourage players like Chovy and BDD, hoping one day they can truly defeat Faker and lift the World Championship trophy.

This shows that globally, including in the LCK, most people no longer wish for Faker and T1 to continue monopolizing the championship.