The Korean Invasion:
Not even 2 months removed from their last meeting in the SBENU Champions Summer 2015 playoffs, KOO Tigers and KT Rolster are set to face off once again. In the group stage, KOO Tigers finished 2nd after getting upset by Taiwan’s Flash Wolves, while KT Rolster looked dominant in a group with Europe’s Origen and, once tournament favorite, LGD Gaming from China.
The head-to-head record between the two teams currently sits at 8-8 for the year, including 7 Bo2s+ from the Spring Preseason through OGN Summer. Now, in their final showdown of the year, they play for a spot in the semifinals of the 2015 Season World Championship. One side will be a single series away from the coveted World Championship finals while the other will go on holiday and likely make drastic changes to their roster.
KOO Tigers vs KT Rolster
Story of Orphan Kittens
When this Tigers squad was assembled almost 11 months ago, there weren’t many people who truly believed it could be successful. There was Smeb, a one-trick pony Riven player, and Kuro, the silent hero of IM #2, who broke out from IM prison. PraY, once hailed as the best AD carry in Korea, joined after not playing for most of the 2014 Season. The jungler, Lee, was never all that great while on the talented NJBS roster. And finally, Gorilla, the best player from NJWS, a team which OMG wiped the floor with in the semifinals of the 2014 Season World Championship. They were nothing more than a ragtag bunch of orphaned players who got adopted by Chinese streaming platform YY, hired NoFe as their coach, and jumped into the newly branded LCK. As they say, the rest is history.
GE Tigers, as they were known, started off guns blazing. They headed into IEM Katowice with a 10-0 record in matches (20-2 in sets). Of course, that meant they were heavy tournament favorites, predicted to win it all against seemingly lackluster competition. Instead, GE lost to a Spirit-led Team WE, who was at the time the 12th place in the LPL. They returned to Korea as chokers.
They didn’t let that stop them from going on to finish 1st in the regular season. However, they did lose 0-3 to an SKT T1 team without Faker and bengi in the playoff finals. In Summer, now with a new name, KOO was pretty shaky. Despite that, they still managed to qualify for the playoffs where they barely won against Najin and destroyed CJ Entus to advance into the semifinals. They faced Red Telecom, KT Rolster, knowing that even if they lose, they were still likely to advance directly to the World Championship due to the amount of circuit points they acquired.
The stack of kittens found a way to survive. Intelligent and innovative, they managed to succeed in the extremely carnivorous atmosphere of Korean eSports. While they never looked like a championship contender outside of early Spring, they were still a step above the middle of the pack. Decent enough to be a predator but not legit enough to be a lion king. It was time to show their fangs.
The Telecom Diplomats
The timeline of the Telecom War traces back through the last 1.5 decades of eSports history. An endless stream of BW Proleague and Starleague matches transitioned into SC2 and League of Legends. No matter the game, the teams frequently found themselves in the finals. While SKT T1 was undoubtedly the strongest team in Korea this year, for KT Rolster, the path to the World Championship wasn’t so clear.
Many people remember 2013, when KT Rolster Bullets, the second best team in the world, couldn’t go to Worlds because they happened to lose to SKT T1 #2, the eventual best team in history, twice in the span of just a few weeks - first in the famous OGN Champions Summer final followed by the Korean Regionals finals. In 2014, it was arguably even more heartbreaking - KT Rolster Arrows, a team which just won OGN Champions Summer, got destroyed by Regionals-buffed Najin White Shield and was forced to watch from the sidelines as Samsung White hoisted the Summoner’s Cup in Seoul.
In the Spring of 2015, KT wasn’t even considered a contender. Everyone was predicting SK Telecom T1 would be great, and while GE Tigers were rising to the occasion, KT was struggling at the bottom of the table. With the addition of Fixer and the benching of Hachani, Red Telecom almost made the Spring playoffs but fell short in the end. Still, there was hope that KT would be even better in Summer, especially considering that no one was really considered great in Korea at that time. Even SKT T1 lost at the Mid-Season Invitational to LPL representative EDG.
KT started better in Summer, but it became clear soon enough that they needed to do more. Then Piccaboo, former Xenics Storm and SKT T1 support, joined the team. That’s when the ssumday-led squad skyrocketed up the standings. KT finished second in the regular season and was waiting for whoever came to play them. Their eyes were already on the championship. They didn’t even consider the possibility of a loss to any challenger. Piccaboo was eager to prove to T1 that he was undeservedly cut, Score wanted his revenge, and Season MVP ssumday was ready to be the King of Summer once again.
The storied team struggled to rebuild its roster. Their immortal AD carry willingly moved to the jungle, their toplane prodigy couldn’t find himself and the remaining carries were herbivores at best. Getting a support from their rival squad proved to be KT’s best decision since adding Flash to their BW roster. KT wanted nothing more than to prove they are the best Telecom. Then they looked at those kittens, the last team standing in between them and SKT, but what do cats mean when pride is on the line?
The Semifinals
Many people were expecting KT to wipe the floor with KOO. Najin em-Fire and CJ Entus weren’t considered to be top Korean teams at time and KOO struggled against Najin especially, before picking Malphite to dunk ohQ’s all-too-expected Ashe in blind pick. However, the Gorilla-led KOO had other ideas.
KOO was resilient and able to withstand almost everything KT was throwing at them (pre-blind pick game). A prime example was Game 2, where KOO was down and out but almost pulled out a victory before ultimately succumbing to defeat when Smeb died to Nagne. Likewise in Game 3, the way they tried their best to find a win, which they had no rights to find, was truly breathtaking.
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KT focused on getting ssumday ahead, as they should, but were overly passive and unnecessarily careful at times. They gave KOO openings here and there, as in Game 3 where, despite ssumday’s Riven having an advantage and having Azir, they lost 2 inhibitors to KOO’s Varus & Kog’Maw siege comp before closing out in style.
Both of KOO’s wins in the series came from keeping ssumday down. In Game 1, where he played Gnar against Lulu, he got shut down and couldn’t make a difference against the Freljord botlane combination of Ashe & Braum alongside Ryze. Then he was forced into a Maokai vs Fizz matchup in Game 4 and thanks to a botched teamfight by KT Rolster in the botlane, it was all over.
However Red Telecom grouped up and prevailed in the end. They won the blind pick game due to Piccaboo’s efforts on Leona and KOO being unable to unleash their beloved protect the Kog’Maw composition. It was a pretty anticlimactic ending to a close series, but the better team won out in the end.
While the series was on patch 5.15, it will still be the main resource for both coaching staffs in preparation for the showdown in London. The meta has changed (both ssumday and Smeb heavily prioritizing Darius, Kuro playing a better Azir than in the LCK, Nagne being lackluster on anything but the Shuriman Emperor, etc) but the patterns are still the same.
London’s Showdown
Roster-wise, these teams are insanely close. Carry toplaners who are the main stars in their respective squads, supportive midlaners who seem to be pretty limited, playmaker supports who will do everything to help their midlaners, and overlooked AD carries (although PraY should have an edge there) - everything points to the jungle.
Score has marginal advantages in gold share (16.6% vs 16.0), damage to champions (241 per minute vs 214), and cleared wards (0.32 vs 0.16 per minute), while their KPR and wards placed are almost the same (63.8% vs 63.1% KPR and 1.06 vs 1.05 wards per minute for Hojin). However, it’s his synergy with Piccaboo which should scare KOO.
KOO has the best early game from any team at Worlds thus far (+3.5k gold at 15 minutes on average), given that their games vs paiN and CLG were stomps. It’s hard to deny that the team looks way better in the early game right now than they did in the LCK. Add to that, Kuro playing very safe in mid, and KOO can negate Piccaboo’s early roams, one of the main advantages Red Telecom has in this matchup. Due to that, KT is likely to just focus on keeping Nagne/Arrow alive, leaving ssumday to be self-sufficient on his Darius/Olaf picks, and relying on teamfights to win the game. Essentially, they’ll try to beat KOO the same way Flash Wolves did.
KT will be playing 3 games on blue side. On patch 5.18, where Mordekaiser & Gangplank are must bans unless you have something special prepared, purple side is limited to an unheard of degree. KOO should prioritize Azir bans in order to force Nagne onto LeBlanc, Diana, or Lulu (with Lulu being flexed by KT to toplane) due to Smeb basically only playing Darius and Arrow prioritizing Kog’Maw & Jinx-style hypercarries at Worlds. Also, I’m expecting KOO to throw at least a few curveballs, or else blue side just might prove too strong (even if KT’s only loss so far at Worlds was on blue side).
Staff Opinions
oo_Wonderful_oo
While KT took last bo5, it wasn't a confident win. They got beaten hard twice and weren't very impressive in closing out games with advantages before winning blind pick due to ssumday being more impactful on Lulu than Smeb.
Also KT looked extremely cocky from time to time in their groupstage matches (ssumday no armor Olaf builds vs Origen/TSM anyone?) and considering that KOO is coming from getting 0-2'd by Flash Wolves, I don't expect anything less.
Also Kuro > Nagne, #kittensintosemifinals.
739
Except Nagne shitting the bed occasionally, KT looked really solid in their group stage games. Adding the fact that Ssumday in current shape is a monster and have Score to back him up, I don't have to worry about the outcome of this match. Remember that KT is 2nd best SKT.
thejuju
As good as Koo looked in their wins, they looked bizarrely off in their losses to the Flash Wolves. KT, on the other hand, might just be the second best team at Worlds this year. Even though I think that Koo has been underrated by nearly everyone coming into this year's Worlds, KT feels like safely the second best Korean team after the monsters that are SKT
Fusilero
It's a bit weird to assess KOO because of how circular group A was. KOO ultrastomps pain/CLG then gets rekt by FW who went 1-1 with pain/CLG like what am I supposed to make of any of this. That being said just looking at the quality of opposition and play KT easily stands out. While it's true nagne got azir a disturbing number of times in the group stages KT's ability to plow through the early game and set up vision to snowball a win should be able to overcome KOO especially considering that FW did basically that to them.
keithasante
KT is my pick to finish second to SKT. That can't happen if they lose here. The 3-0 scoreline isn't predicting a one-sided series, I expect each game to be close. KT will just find a way to win each one.
Staff Predictions
739 (3-1) thejuju (3-1) Fusilero (3-1) keithasante (3-0) JonGalt (3-2) | oo_Wonderful_oo (3-2) |
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