Jensen Huang and Faker meet, celebrate mutual rise

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang began his five-day Korea visit Friday not in a boardroom but in a packed Hongdae gaming cafe, paying tribute to the Korean gaming culture he says built his company.

Fans clutching phones had massed outside T1 Base Camp, a "PC bang," or internet gaming cafe, run by esports organization T1 in the Hongik University area of western Seoul. Staff held them back from the corridor and EDM pulsed through the venue.

Huang, fresh off his 1 p.m. arrival at Gimpo International Airport, made his way slowly through the cheering crowd to where T1's five League of Legends players waited: Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok — widely hailed as the greatest player in the game's history — along with Choi "Doran" Hyeon-joon, Moon "Oner" Hyeon-joon, Kim "Peyz" Su-hwan and Ryu "Keria" Min-seok.

Gaming, Huang told the crowd, was where Nvidia began, and Korea was where it took off.

"Korea has been very close to my heart, and very important to Nvidia, for a very, very long time," he said, crediting Korean games with turning GeForce into a major business. "Because all of you were so good and wanted to win, you chose the best GPU, which is the Nvidia GPU."

It was in Korea, he recalled, that he first saw people watching other people play games on television, with so many players excelling at StarCraft and so many more tuning in to watch.

"Korea was the country that not only made gaming, but also spectating the game," he said. "You invented spectator sports for esports."

"You have supported us through the years," he said. "We are big fans of yours as well."

When Huang asked the players what graphics card they play on, Faker answered the RTX 5070.

He then raffled off an RTX 5090 autographed by himself and Faker to one fan — "Faker uses 5070, and this is the 5090," he said — and vouchers for the RTX Spark, an unreleased compact machine, to two more.

Introducing the Spark, a lightweight laptop-class device with 5070-level performance, Huang said it could overturn a PC architecture that has gone unchanged for decades — changing, he said, the very concept of the computer.

"It's not released yet. It will be released this fall," he said. "If you bring the card, you will get the RTX Spark."

Sebastian Calvo, a 23-year-old who flew in from Ireland for a two-day visit, won one of the vouchers and got all five players to sign a T1 poster he had brought from home.

"It feels like a dream. I'm actually going to frame the poster and put it on a wall," Calvo told The Korea Herald. "With the RTX Spark, I'm gonna start grinding in League of Legends, and hopefully reach Grandmaster. I'm so happy."

Before leaving, Huang asked Faker how many hours he practices a day. Ten hours, Faker answered. Asked whether he feels he is still improving and whether he is still inventing new strategies, Faker said yes to both.

Speaking to reporters shortly after Huang left the 40-minute meeting, Faker called the meeting "a meaningful time," saying graphics cards matter greatly to gamers and that many people had helped him succeed as a pro gamer.

Huang's visit to T1 Base Camp to meet Faker was kept secret until the early hours of Friday, but it was no accident. Huang has said that PC bang culture helped build Nvidia's GeForce business and chanted Faker's name onstage during his last visit in late October.

In the evening, Huang is expected to move on to Hyeongnim Jeoyo, a samgyeopsal (grilled pork belly) restaurant just 400 meters from T1 Base Camp, for a dinner with SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Chung Euisun, LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo and Naver founder Lee Hae-jin.