Chovy: 2025 Esports Athlete of the Year

Chovy won Esports Athlete of the Year at the 2025 Game Awards. The Gen.G mid laner is hailed as one of the best players in League of Legends. Chovy is Faker’s rival, and in 2025, many said that he had dethroned the GOAT. So who is Chovy? Is he really better than Faker?

The new blood to take the LCK by storm

Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon began his career in the 2018 season, and he did not waste any time before making an impact. The mid laner spent his first split in the Challengers Korea league, and he did not lose a single game there. His team Griffin was promoted to the LCK for Summer 2018, where they finished second. From that point on, his results never dropped.

A new king to dethrone Faker?

Chovy’s regional records are outstanding. The mid laner started out strong, and has remained at that same level through a whole 8 seasons. Whereas many players shine over a period then fall from grace, he has the consistency. That same consistency that makes Faker so unique. The fact that no matter the year, these two players will be among the best regardless.

Chovy is mostly known for his farming. Gen.G’s mid laner averages creep scores per minute that everyone aspires to attain. In the 2025 LCK, he got 9.54 cs per minute. This is an insane number as the goalpost figure of 10 cs per minute cannot be kept in every game, or on every champion.

Ji-hoon’s farm comes from being very precise in his play and making no mistakes. These numbers don’t show a player that makes one excellent play, they’re the consequence of near-perfect play all throughout the game. Capitalizing on every small detail, grabbing every single advantage.

Chovy started as an exceptional laner that would need to rely on his early prowess to win the game. However, over the years, he also turned into a teamfighting monster. Chovy’s fans perceive him as a god of League of Legends. As such, his fandom is called the Church of Chovy.

Alongside Ji-hoon’s fast rise to glory, Faker lost part of his panache. As of today, the Unkillable Demon King is not the mechanical genius that he was in his early years. Faker doesn’t rely on flashy assassin plays anymore. In fact, this year, many LCK mid laners got the better of him in lane. Chovy ended up beating him in all matches save for one single Best of 3.

So, is Chovy better than Faker? 

Chovy, the 2025 MSI MVP. Image Source: Colin Young-Wolff / Riot Games

The crownless one: A history of disappointments

Chovy is the best in the LCK, there’s no doubt about that. Be it through results or in-game performance, he eclipses all the competition on home turf. However, what happens on the international stage is a different story.

Chovy, the would-be best League of Legends player, has never won Worlds or even reached Worlds finals.

In 2024, he reached the finals of an international event for the first time, and won the 2024 Mid-Season Invitational. Chovy continued with these achievements and won both the MSI and Esports World Cup in 2025.

Yet in spite of these achievements, the Worlds trophies remained out of reach. Gen.G and Chovy swept through every competition in 2025, and even then, they fell short before reaching the finals. Korean fans even call him “8884844”, referring to his placements at Worlds.

Faker’s mechanics have dulled over the years, and he loses his lane to the likes of Chovy. However, he keeps his cool at all times. Where most players do worse on the big stage, every international stage is Faker’s home turf. League’s GOAT knows how to find the game-changing play no matter the stakes.

This ability to remain clutch is one that Chovy lacks. Chovy falters on the World stage, and he makes mistakes that he would never make back in the LCK. Because of that, Gen.G’s mid laner has never reached Worlds finals no matter how good he looked through the rest of the year.

Chovy at the 2025 MSI, a tournament that specifically isn’t the World Championship. Image Source: Colin Young-Wolff / Riot Games

Is Chovy the best player in the world?

In the end, that answer is up to anyone, based on their own standards.

Most people consider that one’s level is defined by how well they do when the stakes are highest. It doesn’t have to be about titles, since titles reflect a team’s power rather than an individual’s. However, performance in these internationals and most of all in the World Championship is what most people see as the measure of strength for a player.

In that case, Chovy definitely isn’t the best player in the world – and he especially isn’t better than Faker.

However, there are also people who claim that performance at Worlds alone shouldn’t weigh more than results over the rest of the year. Worlds only lasts for a month, so it shouldn’t erase ten months of games. That version also makes sense, and it definitely changes the response to who the best player in the world is.

Coincidentally, most of the people who say that year-round results matter more than Worlds are also fans of Chovy.

Regardless, Gen.G’s mid laner did earn the title of 2025 Esports Athlete of the Year. Whether he is the best player or not, he is without a doubt one of the best players that League of Legends has ever seen.

Featured Image Source: Colin Young-Wolff / Riot Games

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