Earlier today, esports legend and professional League of Legends player Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok of T1 has filed charges against negative commenters.

Reported by Ashley Kang of Korizon Esports has posted the full press conference, as well as details of the case.

The Criminal Act Article 311 being referred to here reads:
“A person who publicly insults another shall be punished by imprisonment or imprisonment without prison labor for not more than one year or by a fine not exceeding two million won. <Amended by Act No. 5057, Dec. 29, 1995>”

The full press conference, as well as the transcript are as follows, also courtesy of Korizon Esports:

We are legal representatives of Faker: Park Ji-won and Noh Yu-hyun of APEX Legal LLC. While T1 notified that T1 would like these illegal actions [stopped] multiple times in the past, these individuals continued to increase their acts of insult, in number and intensity, consistently publicly posting texts that insult Faker.

This has caused mental distress to not only the player, but also his family and colleagues, which has left us no choice but to pursue the filing of prosecution today, against a few commenters responsible for such defaming comments.

Respecting Faker's own wishes, we have limited the subjects of this legal suit to these who have caused frequent defamation and in high intensity – therefore requires severe penalties against. This means we are not looking toward leniency or settlements.

Moving forward, [APEX] will continue to monitor text uploads subjecting various players within T1 including Faker and plan to make active legal actions against activities that fall under legal jurisdictions of Insult or Defamation.

Moving forward, we hope to see a mature and sound culture become established within esports so no such further legal actions may have to take place.

How many people specifically are you taking legal actions against?

As the case is still ongoing, it is difficult for us to give you a specific number. I would holistically describe it as “the minority.” Not many.

This legal action is not against every negative comment against Faker.
As mentioned in the earlier statement, we are taking action only against a subset that has committed insults regularly or has committed insults of very high intensity. I will add that, in the process of us monitoring and analyzing the online comments, the majority of extremely negative comments come from a very few individuals who regularly and repeatedly commit such activities of insult.

Therefore, this legal action is against a few number of individuals active online that have committed Insults repeatedly and regularly throughout this year since the beginning of the year.

Which levels of “Insult” did you decide to be “serious” enough?

Depicting Faker with visual imagery so graphic we cannot describe the imagery publicly, or insulting the player's mother. We're talking of that level.

Also, for some individuals we are seeking prosecution against today, they have continued to commit insult against Faker despite warnings from T1.

Are you already pursuing legal actions in behalf of other members of T1 for similar causes?

We are also in the middle of pursuing a legal action in behalf of coach Moment. In the future, we will take further legal action if we decide that it is necessary to respond so on behalf of other individuals within T1.

Are you filing a case for coach Moment today, too?

That case has already been submitted. The complaint was already filed earlier this month.

You said, “no leniency” in your statement. Why has T1 decided to take such a strong stance?

As I have mentioned before, the subjects we are filing a case against continued to spread malicious comments over an extended period of time.

Despite multiple warnings from T1 prior to today these individuals continued their acts of defamation, and we are left with no choice but to file suits.

Therefore, T1 is looking for these suits to lead to legal consequences. We are aware that Faker himself is also very set on this level of stance.

T1 has previously taken strong stances against Insults. What causes T1 to take this legal action now?

T1 has recently founded a legal organization with the aim of taking strong actions of activities. And as mentioned earlier, after 2022 MSI. the intensity of such online post that falls under Insult has gone up significantly which resulted in us believing that a strong measure is in need.

What is the usual sentence for Criminal Act Article 331 (Insult)?

Insult cases usually are sentenced to a fine. However, in the cases of repetitive and malicious Insult, a sentence as serious as prison time may occur. Fines, in usual cases, would be around 1000USD-2000USD

But in today's cases filed, we have cases of Insult that were repetitive and malicious so we believe the sentence will be higher than the “usual cases”

Is T1 also planning to file a civil suit?

For now we are aiming for a criminal prosecution. We may discuss a civil suit following this if we see a need for it, but for now, we are mainly focusing on a criminal prosecution.

Has any of the individuals being prosecuted already reached out to T1?

You may know of a previous instance where an organized “anti-Faker” community was set up. The organizers of the anti-Faker community later sent us a letter of apology.
In regard to today's case, this is the first time we are publicly stating we are pursuing a prosecution, so we have not been reached out just yet.

Will there also seek actions against the management of communities where such negative comments against Faker were posted?

Legally, such online communities do have the responsibility to regulate such posts of hate of extremity. However, the online communities that we are currently liaising with regarding this case have been very proactive in helping us with this case, so we have no concerns around this area.

Yesterday, KT Rolster reported a “dangerous weapon” was posted to their HQ. Has T1 experienced a similar incident?

T1 as an organization has not had a similar incident yet and it is difficult for us to make a statement regarding another organization. However, we do relate to Joe Marsh's Tweet yesterday, in that such incidents must not happen in this industry.

The tweet being referred to in the final question is this, where T1 CEO Joe Marsh quote tweeted a statement from fellow LCK team KT Rolster. The statement “condemns actions that are not acceptable by ‘societal standards,' including abuse and hate towards the team, photographs of a deadly weapon to players/coaches/management, and sending a box containing a deadly weapon to their practice facility. Adding that the actions of a minority of the fans have caused their members to experience ‘pain and suffering,' KT Rolster warns that in the event of a continuation of these actions, the organization will take up a more active approach for dealing with this situation,” citing the same Criminal Act Article as T1, alongside Article 284 (Special Intimidation) and Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection Article 70 (Penalty Provisions).

To this, Marsh said “There is no place for this type of behavior in our sport. There is a fine line between fandom and fanatical – this crosses the line. This behavior should not be normalized. No team should have to deal with this. I hope everyone at KT stays safe and finds the person responsible.”

As of now, no official statement has been released by T1 aside from the press conference.

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