S. Korea's esports national team shares ambitions ahead of Asian Games

SEOUL, Aug. 25 (Yonhap) -- Ahead of the upcoming Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, South Korea's national esports team convened for a kickoff ceremony, sharing their aspirations for the quadrennial event. Esports was included as a demonstration sport at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta and will once again be a medal sport during the current edition, set to begin on September 19 in Japan.

South Korea will field a team of 44 members, comprising 36 athletes, to compete in nine out of 11 esports categories. This represents a significant increase from the 2022 Asian Games held in Hangzhou, China, where the team consisted of 22 members.

Leading the team is Faker, the renowned esports star, who aims to secure his second gold medal in League of Legends (LoL) for the national squad. Faker expressed his commitment to fulfilling the hopes of the South Korean people, stating that he feels more excitement than stress about the competition and intends to secure a championship win for the team.

In addition to the LoL genre, the South Korean team will participate in Puyo Puyo, a Japanese tile-matching puzzle game, and eFootball, a Japanese soccer video game, among other new game genres. South Korea's national esports team will also feature its first female athlete, Park So-yeon, who will compete in the survival horror game Identity V. Park emphasized her responsibility in paving the way for future female athletes in esports, stating she intends to give her all without any regrets.

Esports competitions are scheduled to commence on September 22 and continue until October 2. South Korea is targeting a total of five gold, two silver, and two bronze medals at this year's Asian Games.