The best League of Legends player of all time, Faker, is not dating aespa's Karina. So where did this notion come from?
League of Legends GOAT and six-time world champion Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok is not in a romantic relationship with South Korean singer and aespa member Yu “Karina” Ji-min, although a social media post made many think so, at least at first glance.
The Faker and Karina post
The post in question was made by fan account AESPA BASE (@aespapopbase) on X, captioned “aespa’s Karina was allegedly seen with Faker, one of the greatest esports players in the world, in Seoul filming content.” The post also contained photos of the two personalities in a similar style and pose.
Karina’s photo was from a photoshoot with the luxury Swiss jewelry brand Chopard, while Faker’s photo was for UNICEF and the women’s fashion magazine Marie Claire Korea.
The post quickly circulated and broke the K-pop containment, reaching over 4 million views in under 24 hours. Most of the reactions to this post can be categorized into one of the following:
First, the ones who thought that Karina and Faker were dating.
Second were those making fun of both Karina and Faker’s gamer statuses. According to many, Faker is not just one of the greatest, but the definitive greatest esports player internationally.
As for Karina, she is known to be a top-ranked Gardenscapes player, with many believing that she is in the top 5, maybe even the highest-ranked player on the mobile game.
The third category was the ones poking fun at the fact that it was Faker seen with the aespa member instead of the known aespa fan in the team, support Ryu “Keria” Min-seok.
Keria has been a fan of the group since its early days, even reportedly missing streams to attend some of the group’s activities. Another X post by @aespapopbase shows Keria singing and dancing to aespa’s Drama on-stream.
Unverified reports suggest that Karina and Faker were seen at Heyri Art Valley, potentially for aespa’s imminent comeback.
Meanwhile, T1 fans can look forward to seeing Faker and the squad back on the Rift when the LCK 2026 Season begins on April 1.