Team Korea to face USA and Taiwan in Asian Games preparation matches

The South Korean League of Legends national team will face an American and a Taiwanese selection ahead of the Asian Games as part of a training camp for the event. Both matches will be played in a best-of-five format and will take place in Busan on September 19 and 20 in front of a live audience as part of the team’s preparation. The official competition, meanwhile, will be held at Aichi Sky Expo in Japan on October 2.

To prepare for these two matches, as well as for the 2026 Asian Games as a whole, all nine rosters competing across the different disciplines for Team Korea of esports will gather in Busan as part of their preparations for the event. For League of Legends, the players and coaching staff have already met for two preliminary sessions and will return to the major city in southern Korea for one final major training camp from September 16 to 25.

It is on this occasion that Faker and his teammates, including Ryu "Keria" Min-seok, his support at T1, will face and meet an American and a Taiwanese selection. For Taiwan, given the timing, it seems likely that this will be the team that will compete in Japan a few weeks later, with its roster already known, notably featuring the duo of Yu "" Chun-chia and Tsai "" Ming-hong.

The United States’ starting five is also not yet known, although it is possible to imagine that it will be the selection set to compete at the Esports Nations Cup, led by Niship "" Doshi and Eain "" Stearns. Both matches will take place on September 19 and 20, in the middle of South Korea’s training camp, at 6:00 PM KST at the Roof Theater and Dureraum Square at the Busan Cinema Center, although the exact schedule is not yet known.

The reigning League of Legends champions after their victory in Hangzhou in 2023, Team Korea of Esports appear to be the clear favorites for the 2026 edition, particularly after China’s non-participation was confirmed. However, Lee "" Sang-hyeok and head coach Kang "Hirai" Dong-hoon did not hesitate to say during the departure ceremony for South Korea’s national esports team that the Taiwanese team is also an important opponent for them.

The star midlaner revealed that he has been following the LPL very closely and said, “after watching hongQ play recently, I thought he was really good.” Speaking about the young JD Gaming player, Faker added that he realized the South Korean team “absolutely cannot let [it] guard down and must prepare thoroughly.” Hirai shared a similar assessment, extending it to JunJia by saying, “Their mid and jungle lanes are definitely strong.” These were measured comments, with little surprise, as the South Korean coach also added that he had found Taiwanese top laner Chen "1Jiang" Yi-chin impressive recently, and that “The bottom lane can’t be overlooked either.”