Goodbye Brother - The End of an Era in Korea

When I first saw Korean League of Legends, it was MiG Blaze vs. MiG Frost in the finals of the inaugural OGN Champions. Being a man of great intellect and deep thinking, I chose Blaze as the team I would always stand next to. Why? Because I like the color red over blue. That was it. Of course, over time, I would fall in love with CptJack's erratic play, Flame's rise from a total unknown to one of the best players in the world, and Blaze's constant heartache.

What began as the simple picking between colors and elements has now shaped myself as a fan in League of Legends. Blaze were my team from the first time I wrote a League of Legends article, and they will forever be my team as their story is closed at the end of 2014. With the changing of rules in Korea, the kin system of letting an organization have two teams under one roof has come to an end.

With the new era of League of Legends in Korea upon us in only one months time, I took upon it myself to say goodbye to the seven brother combos that have captivated us for the past two years. From clashing Swords and Shields to flying in the air with the Falcons and Stealths, this is their sendoff.

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Let's start with the organization that we don't even know will survive into the new Korean era. While the other six franchises in this memorial have all been confirmed for 2015 Champions Spring Split, Incredible Miracle has not been guaranteed a spot. With the recent news of their SC2 squad disbanding and members like Frozen dropping their IM tag, this might truly be the end of Incredible Miracle.

What else can we say about Incredible Miracle other than failed potential? Since they first bust into the scene at the start of Champions, they've continually failed to reach expectations. Ringtroll's iconic long locks and devilish grin, Lilac's adaptability to any situation, and Kur0's glimpses of genius are what we will most likely remember IM for, but they could have been so much more.

Neither team ever making it to the semifinals of a Champions tournament, the greatest moment in IM's history isn't even from a game they played. It's from the OGN intro where Midlking slickly transitioned into Lilac with the power of Korean video editing.



For each memorial section, I will name a legacy player for each brother team. Not every legacy player will be the best to ever play for said team, but the one that will be remembered long after we forget the placements and results in tournaments.

For IM #1, a team that had almost no success in terms of results, it's an easy choice. Lilac, the most tortured player in Korean history, has played in 160 professional matches. Being the only player to ever play all five positions professionally in Champions, he has racked up a champion pool of forty-five different champions in his long career. Nicknamed 'The Professor' for his wide array of knowledge at all roles, his below .500 record all-time doesn't tell the entire story of his loyalty to Incredible Miracle throughout the years.



With a small list to pick from, Kur0 wins somewhat by default. Now on the Huya Tigers alongside former teammate Smeb, he has an upward swing in wins ever since leaving the IM organization. During his time on IM #2, he went 30-35 with an overall KDA of 3.6. Although he didn't bleed Incredible Miracle like Lilac, it is where he got his first start as a professional player



Another franchise that never got a team into the final four of Champions, they might have only been a season away from that feat. Starting from the scraps of the Korea's trash heap, the Stealths had transformed themselves into one of the best teams in all of Korea by the end of OGN Summer 2014. With young guns like Chaser and Fly stepping into bigger roles and CptJack reviving his career, they really could have been a season away from being the new Samsung Blue or KT Arrows.

The Falcons? Simply put, they were the shittiest long-running team in Champions. Treating Reapered like a guinea pig and putting him in different positions each season until he finally retired, the Falcons were blown out more than any team in Champions history.

Remember Raven 'The Murder Train', who was possibly the worst ADC in Champions lore? Oh, and what about Booroona, the hyped solo queue star that got suspended as quickly as he was signed for stupid comments he made in solo queue? Even when they got a player of extreme talent, Rock, things went sour. He showed the skill to be the next Flame or Save in Korea, but he retired from pro-gaming to be a police officer. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, the Falcons (sadly) fucking sucked.



The obelisk of Stealths, playing in every game the team ever competed in except one, Trace will always represent them. The best Dr. Mundo player in Korea, the word underrated cannot be used enough to describe Trace's play. Being the only bright spot even when the Stealths were at their worst, Trace had led the Stealths from losers to top of the table.



Reapered is the only player in Korean professional history to play more than 20 games for three different organization: CJ, Jin Air and SKT. He started as the best top laner in Korea on CJ. He plateaued as a good veteran leader on an inexperienced SKT S team. Then, when he got to Stealths as a lifeless zombie, he was thrown from top lane, to the jungle and finally the mid lane where his life as a professional player ended.

While Reapered should be remembered fondly as a hero and one of the best personalities to come out of Korea, he is the only thing anyone will ever remember about the Falcons. Getting embarrassed by Flame in lane, playing Gangplank in the jungle, and then dying endlessly in lane as a mid, Falcons Reapered summed up the entire team -- aimless and chaotic with no direction or purpose.

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The story of KT was going to be the organization that tried so hard. And got so far. But in the end it didn't even matter because SKT eliminated them. Luckily, the KT Arrows and SKT's arch-nemesis KaKAO got them the final title in the current era of Korean professional League. He rounded up a team of overly aggressive kids, went blitzkrieg on every team they were put up against, and either won in a gigantic blowout or looked like idiots falling behind massively in the first five minutes.

The KT Bullets, the team that everyone thought would win multiple titles but didn't, became a shell of its former self by the end. Kicking two of the longest standing members Ryu and Mafa, they were a laughing stock in their final games as a team in the Korean Regional.

What could have been a possible dynasty if KaKAO and the rest of the Arrows matured, is now in shambles after KaKAO and Rookie decided to take their talents to China. Now holding onto pieces like Destiny, Prime, and some hopefuls like Nagne, KT are in the worst position they've been in since entering the League scene.



The smile. The charisma. The epic rivalry with Faker that waged over the entire year of 2014. He might have been bounced around between Bullets and Arrows his entire career on KT, but he personified the Arrows by the end. With his guns a blazin' attitude and trigger happy jungle style, everyone will fondly remember the Arrows as an exciting team that produced some of the most climactic games in the former era of Korean League.



Let's be honest here, friends. We should remember the Bullets for their brilliant objective strategies and countless stealthy steals of Baron, but most people won't. The real Bullets fans will re-watch their runs from 2012 and 2013, salivating over their potential that could have grabbed them a World Championship if they were just a bit luckier. Sadly, the casual fan isn't going to give a fuck about any of that.

The Bullets will forever be remembered for Ryu getting outplayed by Faker in their mirror Zed duel in the 2013 OGN Summer finals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPCfoCVCx3U

See this video with over 1,000,000 views? It doesn't matter that the game was long over by the time Faker won that one-on-one with Ryu. It will be thirty years in the future and some guy on Reddit will be telling their sister's grandson about the time Faker outplayed Ryu to win the World Galaxy Super Championship.



The only organization to send a team to Worlds three straight years, NaJin should be the most pissed about the rule changes for 2015. White Shield, while disappointing at Worlds with a sweep to OMG, was still one of the best rosters in all of Korea. On the other side of the coin, they had Black Sword -- a team with Duke and ohq, the two players primed to breakout as stars of their position in 2015. If the rules hadn't cut the teams from two to one, both of their teams could have contended to make the Champions final.

Sword quietly had one of the best records of any of the fourteen sister teams. They failed to make the Champions knockout rounds three straight seasons in a row, but absolutely dominated NLB whenever they were dropped down. They made Worlds two out of their three seasons and even grabbed an OGN championship over Azubu Frost in domination fashion. With stars like Maknoon, Pray and Watch on the team for most of Sword's run, they continually were one of the most supported teams in all of Korea.

Shield were the little engine that couldn't. They had been around forever, one of the original Korean teams alongside Frost, but just couldn't get over the final eight hump. Finally, 2014 was the year of their breakthrough and Save along with Ggoong guided them to their first Champions final. They might have not had the fan power (outside of Watch's massive harem), but Shield finished their story as a team that never gave up and almost succeeded by the end.



'DO DIVE!'

That mantra rung true with Sword from their begging to the finish. Always a treat to watch, Maknoon led his troops into battle with only bloodshed on his mind. It didn't matter if his opponents were bigger or had more items. He would dive into any tower with his comrades following his words and go for broke. He got them to Worlds, grabbed Sword their only OGN championship, and will always be recognized as the face of the team.



Shield quite possibly had the biggest pool to pick from when it came to their legacy player. Big Mokuza, Hiro, Locodoco, Save, NoFe, Expession, or even viNylCat. In the end, I went with Watch -- the player that went to three straight World Championships with NaJin.

You can argue that he is more of a Sword player than Shield, but his switch from teams was the start of Shield transforming into an actual contender. You can point to Save and Ggoong for spearheading the movement to the top, but Watch's experience was a key component to getting them to Worlds. Also, when all else fails, you pick the dude who makes the girls scream the loudest, right?









MVP/Samsung is the the most interesting tale out of all the franchises in this rundown. They started out owned by MVP, a medium-sized e-sports organization that was more known for SC2 than LoL. They had lofty goals, but were mostly ignored when the KeSPA giants KT, SKT and CJ came into the picture. Seemingly out of nowhere, they recruited this dude named Mata, he became the God of support, and the rest is history.

White (Ozone) went on to beat Blaze in the biggest upset in League finals history, and they suddenly became the powerhouse instead of Cinderella story. Samsung, the only big KeSPA corporation left without a League team, swooped in and bought both teams for allegedly around $500,000. Samsung would then become the monsters of Korea, making it to each OGN final in 2014 and winning the Masters championship. They didn't stop there, though. Samsung Blue and White both made the World Championships and White ended up atop the mountain when the dust settled.

The monster has now had his teeth pulled, a large part of both the Blue and White rosters departing to China or other teams. The question now becomes: were Blue and White so good because of MVP's scouting and initial training, or can Samsung take any kid from solo queue and make them a champion?



He came onto the team as a rookie and led them to an OGN title. He led them to two World Championships, winning the most recent. While on White, the team has never gotten lower than 3rd in OGN Champions. Oh, and the dude is the best support in the world and won the Worlds MVP. Not only will people be discussing Mata's White career as historic, but it might go down as the greatest tenure of any player on any one team ever.



Similar to Mata, Blue were hopeless pretenders before Dade came along. They had a few good results in online and non-OGN tournaments, but nothing substantial. Dade got switched over to Blue and suddenly they went to back-to-back OGN finals, captured the #1 seed in Korea, and only got stopped by White at Worlds. He might have not left his mark like Mata did with White, but this two-time Champions MVP was the general that Blue needed to push them to the next level.

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Unlike MVP/Samsung, there was never any doubt SKT would be a champion in professional League. They've time and time again shown they will do whatever it takes to get ahead. They pay their players well, hire the best coaching staff possible, and will scout for the diamonds in the rough that play in solo queue. With legendary players in other games such as Boxer, Iloveoov and Bisu, you knew that SKT would find a player that would come along to become the next crown jewel in their franchise.

Enter Faker. A boy hyped up to death, joins the biggest e-sports franchise in SKT and has the hopes of a brand on his back. He busted through the ceiling people set for him, and he is now considered the best player in the world with a world championship in his back pocket. Now in phone commercials for SKT and rumored to have Chinese teams willing to pay over $500,000 just to have him on their team, he is the brightest star in all of League of Legends.

SK Telecom T1 S were pretty much the red-headed stepchild compared to Faker's group. They tried the same things they did with K, even bringing in solo queue superstar Marin to take the lead role, but it never worked out quite as planned. They were a heavily defensive, team first oriented squad that never dazzled with their play. Their story ended with them actually doing better than K, getting to the semifinals of OGN Summer 2014, but that fact will most likely be forgotten with time.



Best player in the world on Korea's most decorated e-sports organization. Countless OGN finals and titles, world title and MVP, and has even shown the ability to be a Hollywood actor when he retires. There is not a lot else what you can say about Faker. Mata might have had a better track record so far in terms of achievements, but he had nowhere close the pressure Faker had when he came into the scene. Faker was expected to be the best and that's exactly what he has done so far.



Marin kinda busted. Wolf and Bang weren't there long enough. Easyhoon will always be remembered as a maniacal Ziggs prolonging games thirty minutes past their expiration date.

H0R0, now on Millennium, played in 126 of the 129 games SKT T1 S played. He was constantly targeted in the pick/ban phase as one of the strongest members of the team. We might not write novels about his career on SKT like we will with Faker, but he was solid as they come in a jungle. On a team that ended up with less than a 50%, that's good enough.



And at last we come to CJ Entus. The two teams played the most games out of anyone in Korea. CJ was also the only organization to end with two teams both having records over 56% win-rate. Each team had their share of legends -- still some on the team and others who have gone to new teams or retired.

Frost, the original Gods of Korea before Faker and Mata came along to ruin the party, are still cherished as the most legendary team in Korea. Madlife and Shy have continually be voted to all star events even while Frost has been on a steep declined. Along with Woong, Rapidstar, Cloudtemplar, the original Frost that beat CLG.eu from a 0-2 hole to win Champions is still talked about today. While the dark days have come over Frost, with Shy becoming a sacrificial lamb and Madlife declining in power with Space aside him, Frost's reign will never be forgotten.

Blaze's arc will always be heartbreak. Their highs were never as high as Frost's, but they were always the more consistent of the two teams. They won the first OGN Champions, but never grabbed another title after the first go around. IEM and WCG titles have come to Blaze over the past two years, but not a single appearance at the World Championships for either Ambition or Flame. Right when you thought Blaze was going to turn it on and blow everyone away, they would falter and let you down one last time.



I could have copped out and given it to both Shy and Madlife, but I had to go with the one they call God. No matter if you think his decline in play is from 'Space Prison' or because he is simply getting passed by a newer generation, you have to respect Madlife's impact in Korea. Even at times when you think he is washed up and on a Frost team going nowhere, he will flash hook over a wall and lead his team to a comeback team fight victory. 215 games he started for Frost, and I don't think fans would have wanted it any other way.



Ambition or Flame? This could be a debate that could wage on for a lifetime. Ambition has only ever missed three games in Blaze's history, starting 226 of the 229. He has been there from the start and was there for their first and only OGN championship. Flame, who came a little bit later down the road, had to fill the shoes of Reapered and became one of the most recognized players in the entire world.

When you have to choose one or the other, recency bias will most likely win out. Ambition's best days were in 2012 and early 2013, while Flame's peak came right after Ambition started to cool down. With Flame's growing popularity and Ambition's scapegoat status growing by the end of Blaze's run, you would have to give the edge to Flame slightly.

Neither has made it to a World Championship, and be it on CJ, a Chinese team or somewhere else, both will be motivated to change that fact in 2015.



With that, we are at the end of our trip down memory lane with the fourteen KeSPA teams that shaped an era. So what happens now? Who knows. Champions moves from a tournament format to more of an LCS-style season league. Top players in Korea are deciding on either moving away from their home country or to stay put. When the preseason of Champions 2015 starts up in December, we'll be looking at the start of a new era in Korea.

Goodbye brother, we'll never forget you.