Goong and zefa have an absurd level of potential to be two of the best in their roles, save has been remarkably solid and nofe seems to be playing much better than I saw in the past. Gorilla I'm a bit 50/50 on but shield are looking the strongest they have been in a long time.
That being said it's always been a shield thing to smash lesser teams like stealths only to completely collapse at the hands of the A-tier teams, blaze will be the real test to see how good the off-season was for them. Their overall play has been staggering still though this kind of clinical disassembling is what I'd expect out of a true A-tier team.

Slusher

United States19143 Posts

October 15 2013 22:33 GMT

#644

Kinda sad about game 2 being vod length spoiled, still exiting but I knew it was coming.

Fionn

United States23455 Posts

October 15 2013 23:36 GMT

#645

Wouldn't be too surprised if Shield beats Blaze. I really do think Emperor is a massive upgrade over CptJack (except for those one-in-thirty-games game where he becomes the best ADC in the world) and Daydream is overall a better jungler than Helios is in terms of farming, vision control, and team fight orchestration, but they might need a season to work out the kinks before they're an elite team.

Shield's rebuilding season was summer, and they're now ready to make the next step into championship contender territory. Same with Blue, with Deft and the others having another season under their belt, but it'll depend on how far PawN can grow in his rookie season with the team. But Shield should, for the first time since maybe the very first Champions season, be a team that has expectations to make a semifinals for the first time. They've always been the Obligatory Get to Quarterfinals Then Lose 3-0 Team, but they blew up the middling ship, brought in new blood and rebuilt properly like any sports team would do.

As in real sports, it's better to either suck really badly and blow up the ship than to be a middling, mediocre squad that makes the final eight, but has zero chance of ever beating an elite team. Instead of settling for Ro8 3-0's for the rest of their lives, they made the decision to start anew and it's now paying off in full.

Itsmedudeman

United States19229 Posts

October 16 2013 00:40 GMT

#646

Is it just me or have korean teams becoming sloppier? Before this tournament it was pretty rare to have such close games over and over and their snowballing seems to be a lot weaker than it used to be. Maybe it's because the gold gap going into the mid game has been really close so far and also the teams getting adapted to the different team comps that came out from worlds.

oneofthem

Cayman Islands24199 Posts

October 16 2013 01:02 GMT

#647

they are playing with new rosters, so sloppiness is expected. najin sword tried some weird ganksquad comps, but that's not the style of their jungler so it didn't work out.

blaze for one showed pretty big improvement from the group stages to brackets. they got destroyed by frost in their first game.

Itsmedudeman

United States19229 Posts

October 16 2013 03:31 GMT

#648

Also anyone find it funny how SKT T1's team used to be considered "Impact's team" when they first started playing in OGN?

oneofthem

Cayman Islands24199 Posts

October 16 2013 03:52 GMT

#649

did koreans call it that? kind of hard to believe given faker's immense hype as an amateur, and also faker was the first member of the team i think

besides faker, mandu was probably the most famous player as an amateur in korea given his legend status from chaos

Fionn

United States23455 Posts

October 16 2013 03:59 GMT

#650

All Impact did during SKT's rookie season was play Zac. I mean, he was by far and away the most experienced player of SKT, but I don't think he was ever seen as anything more than a utility top until he broke through in SKT's second season.

Anyways, each of the past three seasons we've seen the rise of a new AD and a signature champion. In Winter of last year, it was Pray and Twitch. Spring it was Imp and Vayne. Summer it was Piglet and Caitlyn.

Fusilero

United Kingdom50293 Posts

October 16 2013 06:01 GMT

#651

Iirc impact was the top for the xenics team that came 4th in OGN once so there's some note for impact when SKT T1 first came on.

Letmelose

Korea (South)3227 Posts

October 16 2013 07:11 GMT

#652

On October 16 2013 15:01 Fusilero wrote:
Iirc impact was the top for the xenics team that came 4th in OGN once so there's some note for impact when SKT T1 first came on.

While Impact was indeed playing for Xenics Storm while they were arguably the third best team in Korea, he was playing from a support position, then switched to the top lane position when Xenics Storm was a mere shadow of their former selves.

SK Telecom T1 #2 got tremendous amount of hype mainly due to Faker, who was by far the most sought after amateur player at the time. Their bottom lane also got praise from Imp, who himself was part of probably the best bottom lane partnership in Korea at that time, who commented that SK Telecom T1 #2's bottom lane was probably gave them the most trouble during practice. Add in PoohManDu, the unorthodox support player from GSG, as well as being a former legend in another MOBA genre, Impact, seemingly the only quality player in a struggling Xenics Storm team, and Bengi, one of the most highly respected amateur jungler in solo-que, you've got yourself a team that is insanely high in terms of individual skill level.

I remember the caster for the Ongamenet, Kim Dong Jun, talking non-stop about how amazing team was going to be, when SK Telecom T1 #2 first went through the qualifiers, and this guy watches more professional scrims and solo-que of top level Korean players than almost anybody in the world, so you know when the guy says somebody's legitimately good, he's not kidding around.

bierko

119 Posts

October 16 2013 07:18 GMT

#653

Are there any games later today?

Itsmedudeman

United States19229 Posts

October 16 2013 07:21 GMT

#654

That's all true, but most of the west didn't really know that. I think a lot of people didn't think impact was their best player, but he was their "leader" because of his experience. I think back in the beginning of spring the OGN following in the west was a lot smaller than it was in summer and the growth from the beginning of spring to the end of summer was quite huge. Now everyone hears about all the rumors circulating in korea.

Fionn

United States23455 Posts

October 16 2013 07:23 GMT

#655

Yes, tonight is Blue vs. SKT Bo3. Tomorrow is Blaze vs. Shield Bo3. Winners of those two games play the day after that in a Bo5 for a trip to WCG in November.

bierko

119 Posts

October 16 2013 07:25 GMT

#656

On October 16 2013 16:23 Fionn wrote:
Yes, tonight is Blue vs. SKT Bo3. Tomorrow is Blaze vs. Shield Bo3. Winners of those two games play the day after that in a Bo5 for a trip to WCG in November.

Ooo good matches. What time will it start?

Fionn

United States23455 Posts

October 16 2013 09:31 GMT

#657

We are beyond the game.