LCK Awards to cap big year for Korean Esports after T1 win

The annual awards ceremony recognizing the country’s best League of Legends (LoL) players and teams of the year will take place Wednesday evening, putting a final cap on a huge year for Korean Esports.

Members of Korean League of Legends team T1 pose with the final trophy after winning the 2023 World Championship at Gocheok Sky Dome in western Seoul on Nov. 19. [RIOT GAMES]

The annual awards ceremony recognizing the country’s best League of Legends (LoL) players and teams of the year will take place Wednesday evening, putting a final cap on a huge year for Korean Esports.

The 2023 LCK Awards, which honor the top players and teams from the League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK), the country’s top-tier professional LoL bracket, will be presented live at the IVEX studio in Gwangmyeong, Gyeonggi.

The ceremony is set to begin at 7 p.m., according to event organizers, and will also be broadcasted on the LCK’s official YouTube channel.

Among the biggest awards up for grabs is Player of the Year, which comes with a 5 million won ($3,800) prize.

Three members of T1, the winners of this year’s LoL World Championship hosted in Korea, are up for the top individual title. T1’s Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok, Ryu “Keria” Min-seok and Choi “Zeus” Woo-je have been nominated for the award, along with Jung “Chovy” Ji-hoon of Gen.G, the winners of the LCK’s 2023 Spring and Summer Split seasons.

Also being awarded 5 million won is the Regular Season MVP, KT Rolster’s Son “Lehends” Si-woo, who was announced as its winner in August following the end of the Summer Split season.

Rookie of the Year and Best Coach were also announced in August, with the winner of each receiving 3 million won ($2,280). Gen.G’s Kim “Peyz” Su-hwan, 18, won the top rookie award and regular season No. 1 KT Rolster’s Kang “Hirai” Dong-hoon was named Best Coach — despite being suspended for two weeks by game developer Riot Games in June after the team was fined 2 million won (then $1,560) for purchasing a disabled item during a match at the Summer Split.

The rest of the awards being presented Wednesday each come with a 2 million won ($1,520) prize.

Wednesday’s awards ceremony marks the official end of the 2023 regular season as player rosters are being locked down across the LCK before competition begins again in 2024.

It was a big year for Korea, a powerhouse of global Esports.

All four of the LCK’s Player of the Year nominees were also members of the gold-medal winning team at the Hangzhou Asian Games. This year was the first time in tournament history where Esports was a medal category.

Korea won a total of four medals at Esports’ Asian Games debut — two golds, from Korea’s national LoL team and Kim Gwan-woo in Street Fighter V: Champion Edition, a silver in Peacekeeper Elite and bronze Kwak Jun-hyuk in EA Sports FC Online.

Soon after the Korean national team’s return from Hangzhou, the 2023 LoL World Championship kicked off in Seoul — arguably the largest annual Esports competition for a game with more than 150 million registered players worldwide.

Worlds 2023 at one point drew more than 6 million viewers, according to Esports data aggregator Esports Charts, breaking the record for the highest number of concurrent viewers by any tournament in Esports history.

LCK Player of the Year nominee T1’s Faker, who at 27 years old is one of the most decorated Esports athletes with four LoL World Championship titles under his belt, has already racked up a slew of awards.

Last week, he was named Best Esports Athlete at The Game Awards 2023 and before that, picked up the title of Esports PC Player of the Year at this year’s Esports Awards while T1 together won Team of the Year.

All five members of the Worlds-winning T1 have also been nominated for LCK awards in the individual categories for their positions, with three total players in each.

And for a sport defined by its non-traditional nature, with the virtual world as its arena rather than a court or field or pool, it seems only appropriate for its end-of-season awards ceremony to come with unconventional awards of its own.

On Wednesday, the “Meme of the Year Award” will be given to the creator of the most popular meme among fans during the 2023 season. And a slew of sponsor-presented titles, including a “BBQ Hwang-Olhan First Blood Award" and "Best Monster Slayer Award" will also find their homes.

BY MARY YANG [mary.yang@joongang.co.kr]