After a year of absence from the
2024 League Championship Series (LCS),
Aaron "FakeGod" Lee is now poised to
re-enter the league under the wings of
Shopify Rebellion. Having
joined the team in December, the
23-year-old American top laner is now aiming to enact a personal resurgence with a rekindled vigor. Confident in his abilities, FakeGod sat down with Armand to discuss the upcoming 2024 season and the circumstances around his new tenure.
FakeGod in 2019, playing for 100 Thieves.
| How did your off-season go? A lot of players have been impacted by the league downsizing to eight teams. Has there been any moments of uncertainty for you?
FakeGod: “For me it was pretty uneventful. I moved to Korea early on in order to meet with my family and play some Korean solo queue. During my stay, Sam, the team's coach, reached out to me with a message like, "Hey, do you have a team?" I simply replied with a "no", and he followed up by asking if I would like to play for Shopify Rebellion. I just told him "Sure", and that pretty much summed it up. I wasn't really impacted by the number of teams going down from ten to eight; I didn't even realize that would even happen in the first place, it was a shock to me."
| Did they contact you very in the off-season?
“Yeah, it was when I was in Korea basically. And I went there about three months early, it was near the start of September I believe, somewhere around that."
| Do you have any thoughts on the LCS' decision to move to live patches next year?
FakeGod: “I think it will feel a lot better. Before, we would often be scrimming on old patches while the live servers would get updated, which made it a lot more difficult to practice on the ranked ladder."
“It's something that is pretty unique to esports in general because if you're playing a physical sport for example, it's not like there's suddenly going to be a second ball added up to the game, whereas video games see a lot of changes."
“I do think that if there's something that's really strong or something similar that comes up in new patches, it might become an issue in terms of bugs or for red side bans in particular. Besides that I really like the change though."
| What do you think of the current meta? How is it looking in top lane? Does it favor you currently?
FakeGod: “I think the meta is pretty isolated for top lane and I'm not sure which class is best at the moment. I'm not sure if tanks, bruisers, or even AP champions are better at the moment but, in general the laning phase is the biggest difference as it got extended a lot. The Rift Herald only spawns at 14 minutes now, which in the past was used much earlier to take top towers often. I think that champions which are good 1v1 generally will be prioritized more. Beyond that, it's basically the same: side-lanes, teleport, fights... I'm not sure if split-pushers will be better off but, the addition of voidgrubs will help them for sure."
| Last year, you were in the NACL first with C9 Challengers and later with Disguised. Could you describe your time there and the things you think you improved the most since your last LCS tenure?
FakeGod: “My time in both teams was pretty nice. I didn't expect to get a second chance so fast due to how I left the scene after 2022. When Cloud9 picked me up for their academy team I was really happy since I considered them to be one of the best. I didn't want to waste that chance."
“Going over my gameplay, I tried to play for myself a lot more and just be my own person. I've been trying to rely on myself a lot more to carry and win lanes, I might have went a little too much in that area though. A slight problem in the start of the split though in Disguised is that I wasn't focusing as much on mid-game macro and team stuff. I've been REALLY hard focused on 1v1s and making sure I knew how to deal with my opponents."
"I've been making sure that I could stop relying so much on other people to teach me as it used to be a big issue I had in the past. I would try to ask other coaches that I had about their thoughts on my laning phase even though it was my role."
| Yeah, in the past people have said that you were pretty good at teamplay but had shortcomings in lane.
FakeGod: “I've always been able to follow-up on other people's calls really well in a really selfless manner. The bad part is that I would never make the calls myself and be as independent."
FakeGod, winning the NACL with Disguised.
| Last time you were in the LCS with Dignitas did not go very well. Some people thought that you were put in a tough spot while others thought your level was maybe not up to par. What do you think happened with your last LCS team and what will you do in order not to have a repeat of that?
FakeGod: “I don't think I was put in a tough spot, I just think that I wasn't ready. Rookies that come up really fast need one of two things. They need to either have a really good learning environment or to be really independent and be able to learn on their own. I think I just lacked both and I wasn't able to rise up during my time on DIG and get to my top level."
“We did decently with Dignitas and had some success but it was just not enough to break into the level of the top teams. Thinking back, I think that if I was a better play, I don't think it would have ended up in the same way. For me, I just wanna make sure that I keep focusing on myself and continuously try to evolve and not repeat the same mistakes I did the last time. I will keep getting better and make sure I don't tilt while working on all my past shortcomings."
| Most people are looking at the top 4 teams in the league and see a big divide between both halfs of the LCS. Do you think that SR has what it takes to make it into the top 4 block?
FakeGod: “I think that we do. Because I'm here, I want to believe that we can. I will make us reach top 4."
| The FakeGod is going to turn into the RealGod maybe?
“Just name-change [laughs]. I considered changing my nickname but, there's too much memories related to my current name that I've grown to really like FakeGod. I came up with it when I was 13 and Faker won Worlds, it's still fresh in my mind. It would be really cool to face him with this name, I met him in Champion's Queue a few times."
| Would you say that your goal is to reach the international stage this year?
FakeGod: “My goal is just to perform to the level that I want to reach and go from there, then I can start about what place I wanna be in. Hopefully first place."
| So your goal is to show the best version of yourself first right?
“Yeah, that's a good way to summarize it."
| Your journey in the pro scene has been quite inspiring. You came in first as an exciting rookie, then had your first LCS stint, and now you worked your way back up through the NACL to reach the LCS once more. What would you recommend to someone trying to make it to the LCS in order to have a journey as good as yours?
FakeGod: “There's a lot of advice I could give but it might be too long. Even for myself, I didn't rely on just one piece of advice but rather several thoughts. To give a brief outline of the most important points: Don't worry about the past and the future. That's something I used to do a lot. If I were to have a bad split, I would think about it continuously and constantly find myself in this negative loop of asking myself what I could have done better. You have to prepare yourself for the next steps in your career."
“I often also worried about repercussions on my future, thinking like "oh, it would be so bad to lose that match" and constantly worry. When I was on C9C I did not think about having to work my way back up, I more so focused on playing well and showing up while welcoming anything that would come from it later on."
“One other thing would be not to stress over winning or losing matches. It was a lot of stress when I still thought of that stuff. Lately it's just been: Focus on the present and have some fun along the way. It's been going pretty well so far!"
| Is there any teams or players you are excited to face this year?
FakeGod: “Not really, I'm just excited to play in general and see how far I can go. Maybe Cloud9, they seem like the best team so I wanna see how I will match-up against them."
| Hot-take, where is Shopify Rebellion ending Spring Split?
FakeGod: “At least top three. Right now at LEAST top three, later I'll say top one"
What's next?
One of the dark horses of the LCS, Shopify Rebellion has been working hard this off-season. With FakeGod guiding his team, the newly-formed squad is ready to enter the LCS 2024 Spring Split on January 20th. With FlyQuest and Team Liquid in their way, the team will have to prove themselves against some of the strongest opponents that the league has to offer.
Week 1 SR LCS Schedule:
- Saturday 20th, 14:00 PST - FLY vs SR
- Sunday 21st, 12:00 PST - TL vs SR
