League of Legends icon Lee ‘Faker’ Sang-hyeok shocked many esports and K-pop fans by appearing in Stray Kids’ latest music video, ‘Ceremony’.
The current T1 player, who recently signed a new deal for the organisation, makes a cameo at the very end of the video on his PC before shushing the camera.
Faker’s inclusion in Stay Kids’ new music video is a testament to the player’s popularity both in esports and his native homeland of South Korea. In 2024, the five-time World Champion became League of Legends’ first-ever Hall of Fame nominee.
At the time of this writing, Stray Kids’ new music video has amassed over 3m views on YouTube in under 5 hours, with a lot of fans commenting on the player’s inclusion in the platform.
Faker’s cameo comes in the midst of T1’s 2025 League of Legends campaign, as the esports organisation looks to qualify for this year’s World Championship in China. Currently sitting third in LCK’s Legend Group, the organisation has advanced to the competition’s playoffs with four games to go in the Group Stage.
The Esports and K-Pop Convergence
Launched in 2018, Stray Kids is a popular K-pop group that consists of eight members. Interestingly, this isn’t the first time the group has come into proximity with the esports space. Stray Kids were also part of the soundtrack for League of Legends’ Arcane Season 2 with ‘Come Play’.
Many other K-pop artists have also had varying involvements and ties to esports; however, most of these have been through collaborative songs. Earlier this year, girl group Aespa teamed up with PUBG to perform at the 2025 PUBG Nations Cup in Seoul.
More so various K-pop artists have performed ‘anthems’ for esports events, including the likes of New Jeans (2023 League of Legends World Championship), THE BOYZ (Worlds 2022 for T1) and KISS OF LIFE (VALORANT Champions 2024).
However, perhaps one of esports’ biggest collaborations with K-pop still remains the creation of Riot Games’ virtual group K/DA in 2018. Using League of Legends characters, K/DA features two members of popular girl group I-DILE (Miyeon and Soyean).
