‘Faker’ Lee Sang-hyeok is now the winningest player in MSI history — and he picked up the record while sweeping his own tournament’s opening match. On June 28, 2026, at the Daejeon Convention Center, T1 beat LCS team TLAW (Team Liquid Alienware) 3-0 in the opening round of the MSI 2026 Play-In Stage, and Faker’s win in the second game made him the first player ever to reach 100 career MSI wins, according to Inven Global (Jaihoon “Laffa” Jeong, June 27-28, 2026).
Here’s why that number actually means something: this is T1’s first MSI appearance on home soil, in the tournament’s 12th year, with 11 teams from six regions — LCK, LPL, LEC, LCS, LCP, and CBLOL — fighting through a double-elimination, best-of-five Play-In Stage from June 28 to July 1 (Inven Global, Seungjin “Looa” Kang, June 24-25, 2026). T1 has been chasing an MSI title since 2017. They won back-to-back in 2016 and 2017, then spent years as the nearly-team — runner-up in 2015, 2022, and 2025, third place in 2023 and 2024, and missing the tournament entirely from 2018 to 2021 — despite picking up six World Championships in the meantime, per the same Inven Global preview. Faker’s milestone landed inside that drought, not outside of it.
And T1 didn’t back into the 3-0. Game one was tight and cautious until the 10-minute mark, when T1’s bot lane duo of ‘Mell’ and ‘Camille’ started winning skirmishes back to back, closing the game out at 23 minutes (Inven Global, June 27-28, 2026). Game two is the one with the milestone in it, and it almost went the other way — TLAW landed a brutal 4-1 teamfight at the 13-minute mark that nearly flipped the series, before T1 clawed all the way back to win at 35 minutes. Game three was tidier: T1 drafted a Lee Sin–Annie jungle-mid combo against TLAW’s Nocturne-Galio pick, opened with a level-one double kill, baited a Baron attempt at 28 minutes, and closed it out on ‘Phase’ Kim Su-hwan’s Zeri. Kim was named Player of the Series for carrying across all three games on Mell, Kalista, and Zeri.
Faker, for his part, treated the record like a footnote. Asked directly about becoming the all-time MSI wins leader, he told Inven Global: “I don’t think much of it. I believe that winning on the big stage is ultimately more important than just racking up a high number of wins. My goal is to continue showing a strong performance in the remaining matches.” On the closest he had to a wobble all night — TLAW’s near-flip in game two — he credited the recovery to his teammates and named the snuck Baron as his personal favorite moment of the match.
T1 now moves on to the winners’ bracket, where they’ll face the winner of DCG vs. Karmine Corp — a matchup Faker said he isn’t taking lightly: “It’s hard to predict, but since these teams also performed well in their respective regional finals, we will prepare without letting our guard down.” That match is part of the live, ongoing Play-In Stage running through July 1 at the Daejeon Convention Center — which means if you’re reading this on June 29, T1’s next set is happening today.
Sources: Jaihoon “Laffa” Jeong, “Unwavering T1 Sweeps TLAW 3-0 to Advance to MSI Play-In Winners’ Bracket,” Inven Global, June 27-28, 2026; Jaihoon “Laffa” Jeong, “‘Faker’ Lee Sang-hyeok: ‘100 Wins Don’t Mean Much… Winning the Tournament Is More Important,'” Inven Global, June 27-28, 2026; Seungjin “Looa” Kang, “League of Legends MSI in Daejeon Kicks Off on the 28th with T1 vs. Team Liquid,” Inven Global, June 24-25, 2026.
