Everyone knows who Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok is: the world champion, Korea’s pride, the God of midlane. But how many people remember Ryu “Ryu” Sang-wook, the one who was on that path, but continuously shut down by Faker himself?
Once there was a time, when Ryu was known as the best mid laner in Korea. He had few competitors, amongst of which were other legends such as SSONG, Rapidstar and Ambition. Although his only first place victories were against Gambit in early 2013 and Team WE in July of the same year. Everyone anticipated Ryu was the final boss of mid lane. He was cursed with always placing third, but all of that changed when SKT T1 picked up their new lineup in August.
In spring of 2013, SKT’s old lineup actually lost to Ryu on KT Bullets for third place. The next season, however, SKT picked up a whole new lineup, which included the new kid on the block by the name, "Faker." KTB had one of their best showing in Korea the same split, reaching the finals to face SKT's new squad. Pushing the series to game five (where the draft was a blind pick), Faker, in his first competitive season, decided to challenge Ryu to a Zed 1v1. A glorious outplay from Faker solidified Ryu’s infamous title of, “The other Zed”.
SKT won their first split ever. Combine that with their previous season’s circuit points, they received an automatic bye into the finals of the Regional Finals for third seed at Worlds 2013. KTB beat both CJ Blaze and CJ Frost 3-0 in Round 1 and Round 2 respectively, where they meet SKT in the finals once again. SKT anhililated KTB 3-1, crushing any hope Ryu had of Worlds. The next year, both KTB and SKT did not find much success, leading to the loss of many players on both teams.
Ryu left Korea and jumped around European teams until he secured his spot on H2k-Gaming as their starting mid laner for the LCS 2015 Spring Split. In both that split and the next, Ryu’s curse crept back upon him, placing third place both times and obtaining the second European seed to Worlds 2015. Unfortunately for Ryu, he got placed in Group C, where SKT T1 is participating. Edward Gaming, from China, is also in that group, making them and SKT the likely two teams to make it out, leaving Ryu in the dust yet again by his old rival.
One question remains: Will Ryu continue being Faker's shadow?
