South Korea completed a flawless run to win the League of Legends tournament at the Asian Games 2026 without dropping a single game.
Faker, Zeus, and Keria win second Asian Games; Stars gain military exemption
The victory gave T1 duo Lee ‘Faker’ Sang-hyeok and Ryu ‘Keria’ Min-seok their second Asian Games golds, with their former teammate HLE’s Choi ‘Zeus’ Woo-je also bagging his second gold at the event.
Gen.G Jungler Kim ‘Canyon’ Geon-bu, and HLE Mid and Bot pair Kim ‘Zeka’ Geon-woo and Lee ‘Gumayusi’ Min-hyung, earned their first gold medals at the event.
Victory at the Asian Games is highly prized in South Korea, as it proves to players exemption from South Korea’s mandatory two-year military service.
The importance of that exemption is not only important in esports, but extends to all major sports, with athletes across baseball, golf, and football.
For example, Son Heung-min’s victory with South Korea at the Asian Games 2018 provided the football star with an exemption from the service.
Team Korea completes flawless run at Asian Games 2026
After a 3-0 Group Stage, which saw Zeka and Faker share the mid-laning duties, South Korea faced a relatively straightforward bracket, facing Saudi Arabia in the semi-finals.
The South Korean roster easily defeated Saudi Arabia in the semi-final, setting the South Korea team up with a Best of 5, Grand Finals rematch with Chinese Taipei, who they defeated in their Best of 1 Group Stage opener.
Featuring Yu ‘JunJia’ Chun-Chia, Tsai ‘HongQ’ Ming-Hong, and Chiu ‘Doggo’ Tzu-Chuan, the roster was undoubtedly the stiffest competition available at Asian Games 2026.
That being said, without their traditional rivals of China at the event, South Korea were huge favorites for the title, and they proved why in the Grand Final.
Lining up as Zeus, Canyon, Zeka, Gumayusi, and Keria, Faker later clarified that he took a more coaching role in the roster on their way to Asian Games gold, playing only against India in the Group Stage.
The South Korean roster swept Chinese Taipei in 34, 34, and 30 minutes to capture the Asian Games gold, with Zeus and Gumayusi celebrating once again with Faker and Keria.
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Darragh is an Esports Journalist for Insider Gaming specialising in Counter-Strike. He loves to explore how esports teams work, or why they very often do not.
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