"Met the goat": Sumit Nagal on his interaction with LoL professional Faker at Asian Games 2023
Sumit Nagal, a professional Tennis player from India, is currently experiencing a strong run at the Asian Games 2023. He shot past Macau's Ho Tun Marco to proceed to the pre-quarter-finals. In a recent post on X, he mentioned being a die-hard League of Legends fan and expressed his excitement upon meeting Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok, who is one of the best professional players of the game.
Faker is a South Korean athlete and partly owns T1 as well, which is also a popular League of Legends organization. He will be representing his country at the Asian Games 2023.
South Korea and India could meet each other in the League of Legends Grand Finals at the Asian Games 2023
India and South Korea have their contingents in Tennis as well as League of Legends. Interestingly enough, both these countries could face each other in the Grand Finals, provided they make it through their quarter- and semi-final opponents.
As for their quarter-final fixtures, South Korea will be going up against Saudi Arabia, while India will be facing Vietnam. It will be interesting to see how these fixtures turn out to be.
While that's on the esports side of things, on the Tennis side of affairs, Sumit Nagal has made his way to the Men's Singles pre-quarter-finals. And South Korea's Soonwoo Kwan lost to Thailand's Kasidit Samrej 2-1 in the Mens Singles Round 2.
It's really interesting to see both sports and esports being celebrated and played on the same stage. Despite having huge viewerships and a large fan following globally, esports was never considered to be a formal sport. That, however, is changing off late. A total of seven esports titles are being held as medal events at the Asian Games 2023; these are
- League of Legends
- Dota 2
- Street Fighter V
- FIFA Online 4
- Arena of Valor
- Peace Elite
- Dream Three Kingdoms 2
Out of these seven titles, India will be participating in four. Unfortunately, the Indian FIFA Online 4 contingent has already been ousted from the tournament. How the athletes' performance in the remaining three remains to be seen. India, however, won't be participating in Arena of Valor, Peace Elite, and Dream Three Kingdoms 2. While the first two titles are banned in the country, the third isn't available at all.
Every single individual on the roster is very talented. While the Indian sports contingent has already bagged a couple of medals, the Indian esports contingent has yet to open their account in the Asian Games 2023.