{"id":54425,"date":"2025-11-28T18:56:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T09:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=54425"},"modified":"2025-11-28T18:56:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T09:56:11","slug":"erotic-gay-web-novel-suspended-for-allegedly-basing-protagonist-on-pro-league-of-legends-player-faker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/erotic-gay-web-novel-suspended-for-allegedly-basing-protagonist-on-pro-league-of-legends-player-faker\/","title":{"rendered":"Erotic gay web novel suspended for allegedly basing protagonist on pro League of Legends player Faker\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A South Korean BL (boys love) web novel titled A Mad Dog Catches the Tiger<\/strong> (unofficial translation) got embroiled in controversy and ultimately suspended from digital publishing platform Ridibooks due to some very unusual circumstances. As reported by Insight<\/a>, the adult (19+ rated) novel drew criticism soon after it was published on October 24, due to one of its protagonists \u201cclosely resembling\u201d famous League of Legends esports champion Lee Sang-hyeok, known as Faker. The similarities seem to lie in biographical details rather than looks. The author has denied intent and apologized multiple times. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The character in question, \u201cTiger\u201d is described as a legendary player who has won five championship victories (something Korean netizens argue only Faker has achieved in the League of Legends esports scene). Additionally, the character seems to have a nickname in the story that people think is too evocative of Faker\u2019s nickname \u201cUnkillable Demon King.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The overall storyline also fueled criticism, as the protagonist succeeds in achieving two consecutive championship victories, fails a \u201cthree-peat\u201d attempt, and then ten years later attempts the three-peat again and succeeds. People found this to resemble the timeline of Faker\u2019s career too closely, as he achieved a repeat victory in 2015 and 2016, failed the three-peat in 2017, then won back-to-back titles in 2023, 2024 and 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, the esports team in the novel is described as suffering a disastrous defeat due to the protagonist\u2019s absence. This detail is supposedly evocative of the poor performance of Faker\u2019s team after his wrist injury in 2023. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to these similarities \u2013\u00a0combined with the fact that the web novel contains sexual depictions of the characters \u2013\u00a0A Mad Dog Catches the Tiger\u00a0ended up causing an outrage. According to Koreaboo<\/a>, the author initially explained that the similarities were coincidental, and the novel was entirely fictional, but later issued a formal apology addressed to Faker and fans.\u00a0The title is currently delisted and cannot be viewed or purchased.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A South Korean BL web novel has been delisted following controversy over its protagonist, which people think is based too closely on Faker.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":54429,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[18],"class_list":["post-54425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-global-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nErotic gay web novel suspended for allegedly basing protagonist on pro League of Legends player Faker\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A South Korean BL web novel has been delisted following controversy over its protagonist, which people think is based too closely on Faker.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/erotic-gay-web-novel-suspended-for-allegedly-basing-protagonist-on-pro-league-of-legends-player-faker\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Erotic gay web novel suspended for allegedly basing protagonist on pro League of Legends player Faker\u00a0 - 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Currently devoted to growing Automaton West to the size of its Japanese sister-site, while making sure to keep news concise and developer stories deep and stimulating.","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/author\/amber-vjestica\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54425"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54431,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54425\/revisions\/54431"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}