The coronavirus causes event cancellations all over the world. Even sports are affected by it. The League of Legends leagues in Europe, China and Korea are taking a break, and now LoL superstar Faker has announced that he will fight the corona virus.
Sang-hyeok “Faker” Lee has donated 30 million won to contain the virus. The T1 player’s donation is about US$25,000. But that’s not enough. His teammates also announced to donate all streaming revenues of the current week.
Faker "이상혁" 선수가 코로나 19 확산 예방을 위해 기부 행렬에 동참했습니다.
모두 함께 힘을 모아 어려운 시기를 이겨내자는 페이커 선수의 뜻을 함께하기 위해 T1은 금주 진행되는 소속 선수들의 모든 스트리밍 도네이션을 기부하기로 결정하였습니다. 팬분들의 따뜻한 응원 부탁드립니다. https://t.co/DCqtRFAUQz
— T1 LoL (@T1LoL) March 9, 2020
For Faker this is not the first action of this kind. In 2017 he already gave his SKT uniform to a charity organisation. This brought the charity a handsome 2,700 US dollars.
Not the first at Esports
Already last week, Ji-hoon “Chovy” Jeong, the mid-lancer of the Korean team DragonX, together with the general manager of the organization donated 8,000 US dollars. However, the Koreans are not the first to take action against Covid-19.
Already in January, FunPlus Phoenix donated two million Chinese Yuan. That is approximately 288,000 US dollars. But this money was not paid by the organization. The players and coaches raised this sum out of their own pockets. Here, the money was not donated to fight the virus, but to help those affected by the pandemic.
No detail in gaming
Over the years, the German gaming scene has also proven its willingness to donate. Formats such as “Friendly Fire” and “Loot for the World” raised over 800,000 euros last year alone. Although nothing has been announced yet, such an event is not unthinkable in times of the corona virus.
Esports and gaming events worldwide cancelled
Whether it is the Dota Major in Los Angeles, the LEC, the LCK or even the E3: more and more fairs, tournaments and leagues are falling victim to Covid-19. In the best case, they only take place without an audience, like the IEM Katowice in Counter-Strike, or are held directly online. Other major events such as the Mid-Season Invitational are being postponed, while with E3 even the world’s largest gaming fair has been cancelled.
Cancel your E3 flights and hotels, y’all.
— Devolver Digital (@devolverdigital) March 11, 2020
