Faker to Caedrel: “Time Will Heal” Europe’s Struggles

Following the end of a tiring series against Anyone’s Legend, Faker joined Caedrel in the co-streaming booth to share his insights on the series, MSI, and why he thinks Europe is struggling.

Faker is diplomatic as usual

With both European teams bowing out early in the tournament, Caedrel asked Faker for his thoughts on the region’s state. “Every region cannot have a stable or consistent player pool… even the LPL has been down at times. Time will heal things,” he said.

The mid laner also commented on the upcoming arrival of T1’s academy mid laner Poby to Fnatic in the upcoming LEC Summer split: “When he played for me, I tried to teach him a lot. I think he can carry those lessons into Fnatic,” Faker added.

Faker explains the picks in the series

Caedrel asked the Korean GOAT to explain a few things about T1’s drafting approach in the series against Anyone’s Legend. In Game 3, the mid laner decided to go with Aurora instead of the usual Viktor, whom Faker is usually very comfortable on.

“Teamfight-wise, Aurora was probably a better pick at that time,” he explained, although he admitted that “it didn’t really work out” in the early and mid-game stages. In Game 5, Kassadin was hovered by T1, but even though the team considered it, in the end he went with Hwei to counter AL’s relative short-range comp.

The mystery around Champion Win rates in officials

Caedrel also touched on the coincidence of several champions like Twisted Fate, Renata, and Kalista having low win rates at MSI. Faker was pragmatic in his answer: “I think the statistics actually have a very small sample size. It’s hard to tell from just the numbers in a short international tournament.”

When asked about his favorite series of all time, Faker didn’t hesitate to name last year’s Worlds Final, when he lifted the trophy in front of thousands of fans in London. Faker also explained that, despite his legendary career, Faker continues to be very critical of his own performance. “Until the past few days, I thought I was the best player,” he admitted. “But for the last couple of games, I wasn’t at 100%.”

Faker will face Gen.G in the Finals rematch. Will he be able to lift his third MSI trophy? Tune in to the series when the MSI final kicks off at 03:00 CET on July 13.