They come, they see, they conquer? Samsung Koreans’ debut in China

If you just want to watch the VODs (which are in Chinese), the playlist is here:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL92i0sTdyr04EZgZCA9NxKtod1MnSrBxn

look for Round of Eight and Four games with WE.A and WE

Demacia Cup Round of Eight

WE vs Snake feat. Spirit

Line-up

One thing to note in this match is that Ninja has been playing in LPL for a long time now, while Beast and Ella just from Korea to China a few days game, so experience-wise neither can match Ninja and Spirit. Both of them have played in NLB and Beast was the jungler for Bigfile Miracle when they qualified for OGN summer 2014 (0-0-3 in group stage).

Another thing to note is that this is also the debut game for Styz, who, kind of like Apdo, is a highly rated ADC who just got unbanned in China.

Game 1 Pick and Bans

Rengar is one of Spirit’s, or some would say, Korean junglers’ most stable picks back in world championship. Honestly, not much to say about this game. Snake was outclassed in almost every aspect. Spirit’s ganks were always effective, and when you fall behind against Kass, Rengar, Ahri and Janna, you literally can’t even run.

If this game says anything it’s that Spirit doesn’t just camp mid cause Ninja also speaks Korean, but knows what lane should be ganked and when to gank. Amazing team fighting and patient, smart ultimate usage, what you would expect from a world class jungler. A really good game to watch if you want to learn Rengar. If you love watching pick comps, this is also a game for you.

Item-wise he went Trailblazer – Mobi boots – Warrior Enchantment –  Randuin’s Omen – Kindle Gem + Chain vest. Not sure what the last item would have been since the game was over at that point. I didn’t watch IEM but I heard it’s devourer heavy, so kinda interesting to see the difference in enchantment here.

VOD:

fun thing to note, Chinese casters actually didn’t know the roster before the game, so when they saw Spirit and Styz, who both just signed with WE recently, they were pretty excited.

Game 2 Pick and Bans

Not sure what’s going on in the pick and bans to be honest. WE drafted a really clear cut pick comp in game one, so I expected clear plan in game two as well, but they kinda drafted a poke-siege comp with a ramping Kassadin, which I don’t like in particular. Especially because Snake has so many engages and Janna, so it’s hard to siege when you the five on five. Kass was first picked though, so perhays they made the game plan after the first pick.

This game didn’t go as well for WE in opening as game one. Spirit give up first blood on an invade pre-creep spawn. But he was quick to bounce back by taking Beast’s red buff right after he took his own Gromp, taking advantage of the long clearing time, immediately recalled and took his own blue buff before Beast can intervene. And he didn’t hurry to his red buff either but made the smart decision to stay on top side of the map and made the plays to put WE ahead.

The Chinese casters mentioned that Spirit was probably the most hard working and intelligent jungler in Korea, and you can tell from the way he made actions happen despite this ramp heavy, little to no early game action meta that we see pretty frequently nowadays.

I’m not going over hype him though. He made some pretty questionable plays and questionable ganks, and WE was behind/even with Snake for a short while. But when it mattered Spirit made the play. Aluka and Styz then made some flashy plays to start the come back, and since it’s a Chinese game, you can probably guess where that is. Ninja also had some amazing plays towards the end.

Overall a really back and forth game, but not your typical Chinese style chaotic game though. Both team’s plays were really objective focused, and nobody started the fight when they had the disadvantage. It was fun seeing a late game with Caitlyn and Xerath involved, because one team is clearly about protecting their back-line, while the other team was helplessly trying to get close. A good test to WE’s shot calling.

Item wise Spirit went Trailblazer – warrior enchantment – sightstone – Ninja Tabi – Randuin – Thornmail – Banshee. So warrior enchantment is not just a Rengar thing.

VOD

OMG vs WE.Academy feat. Dade & Looper

Line-up

Just fun fact, OMG is pretty infamous for switching supports and having a million support players in their line-up, but their secondary team failed to qualify for LSPL qualifier because they had no support who can play and one of their managers had to fill in and they ended up buying a spot in LSPL qualifier. Just before this OMG played in GEC with Dada777 and lost to Royal twice in a BO1 and a BO3. This time they are switching support again, no exception.

Game 1 Pick and Bans

For this game hype is definitely in the top lane. Looper’s Maokai vs Gogoing’s Irelia is not something you get to watch everyday. Well, of course it’s not Singed vs Ryze, and top lane is farm fest a lot of the times, but I went into this VOD pretty excited, I have to say. Mid lane is also pretty exciting, considering we never really got to see what Xiyang can bring, since he was a sub for most of season four and we only caught a glimpse of him at Paris.

It was the bot lane though, which drew the first blood. At around four minute WE.A’s bot lane ran right into a Lovelin counter-gank. WE.A clearly played the mid-game better though. They traded dragon for two kills, and then took many good skirmishes using their long range Yasuo ult and Pantheon engages, and it feels like a beautiful team fight at dragon sealed the fate of OMG almost, as afterward Looper and Ruo was always able to find the engages without fear every team fight, since Looper’s Maokai was just so tanky, and Dade was just blocking everything with his wind wall.

Item-wise I guess the only surprise was that Looper going for a locket, but even that isn’t so rare these days. Overall Dade showed everyone what he was famous for: beautiful team fighting.

VOD

Game 2 Pick and Bans

Same ban phase from both teams. OMG taking a champion that’s been gaining popular of late in both China and Korea, Lissandra. After an skirmish at mid, Dade wed into a q from Xiyang and give up first blood to OMG. WE.A immediately retaliated though by taking down Gogoing at top lane shortly after. For the next few minutes the teams were just trading kills left right and center. Neither team had a clear advantage until a fight post dragon, where Gogoing had a beautiful engage toward end of the fight and scored an ace for OMG.

Afterward WE.A took more questionable engages, which definitely point, possibly, to the communication problem they might have between three Chinese and two Koreans. Rest of the story? WE.A got rolled over when OMG grouped.

VOD

Game 3 Pick and Bans

Honestly, I think this game is probably a bad game if you want to evaluate the Korean players, since WE.A lost in the drafting phase. One of the things that got more important in the new season is the objectives, both early-mid game objectives and late game objectives. And if you don’t contest a dragon at all, you might lose every fight you take afterward for five minutes or you have to give up turrets one after another, while if you split push you risk getting dived, and coordinating split pushes while half your time might have trouble speaking with the other seems a liability as well.

Not to mention that WE.A got off to a bad start by giving up a first blood on Looper with a gank from Lovelin, which only accelerated the process. WE.A bounced back by taking down Xiyang in mid, but just a few minute later a successful wrap around give OMG two kills on Ruo and Dade. A nice skirmish just a little later closed the gap a little for WE.A. But then Looper give up a solo kill to Gogoing, and when it finally came down to the dragon fight, WE.A took a really unfavorable engagement, but they were still somewhat in the game. The second dragon fight though, was the nail in the coffin.

To be honest, I think WE.A was making the right calls during the game. At the first dragon fight they were close in gold and probably had the most chances. But their picks just didn’t do them the favor. Shot calling and pick/ban phase is definitely WE.A need to focus on if they want their top/mid super stars to really shine in the new season.

VOD

Demacia Cup Round of Four

OMG vs WE feat. Spirit

Game 1 Pick and Bans

From the pick and bans it seems like WE did their homework while OMG did, considering Lissandra which played a considerable role in OMG’s victory over WE.A was banned while Rengar, which Spirit did spectacularly on, was not. And they payed immediately, before the minion even spawned. The play, or rather, what happened, was pretty ridiculous, so I will not spoil it for you guys.

Spirit’s first gank didn’t yield much result, but it brought San low enough to allow WE’s bot lane to score a kill just shortly afterward, which is rather important in my opinion against a Caitlyn, since if you are behind she can just right click you none without getting punished. But with a lead Styz forced San to lane swap, to which he replied by following. Afterward WE bot lane was just able to play with so much more comfort than they should have.

By the way, I don’t know how Spirit keeps finding these Rengar ganks pre-six….and the fact that he was just boldly invading OMG’s jungle none stop was also impressive. OMG was still able to take an okay fight at bot though, considering how far behind they were. When Chinese teams actually team fight each other, it always feel good to watch. If only Deman and Joe is casting this, one would think.

Overall the game felt like game 1 against Snake. No where to run, so you eventually you get run over.

Build wise Spirit went for Sun-fire this game. He was so far ahead I think it’s pretty legit.

VOD

Game 2 Pick and Bans

So OMG learned by banning Rengar and Kassadin, but it does leave Ninja with Jayce, which is one of his better, if not the best, champions. The early lead goes to OMG this time, since Lucian Nami is a strong lane and Styz had an early back, but he didn’t fall behind in cs at all and WE had a beautiful bait in their red side jungle, which brought them to an early 2-0 lead.

Afterward though the game slowed down a bit. The fact that Spirit was a farm heavy champion probably played a factor in that. There were close fights in which people survived on double/single digit health though. Fight at dragon went in favor of WE with WE taking the dragon as well. Overall a relatively slow pace, low kill game, with a little trolling, gifting kills to support (somewhere Doa is smiling). I think at a certain point WE knew they won and they were playing pretty relaxed. OMG never gave up though and it took a while for WE to close the game out. In the end Spirit baited OMG out of position and they closed the game after a 3-0 fight.

Item wise – Trailblazer – mobi boots – warrior enchantment – hex drinker – last whisper – giants belt + chain vest

VOD

Overall Impression on the Samsung Korean Debut

In general Spirit is definitely the best performing Samsung Korean at Demacia Cup so far. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that Ninja was already on the team and had some synergy build up with Conan. Also, Ninja was playing with a Korean jungler before this as well (OldB), so maybe he knew how to help a Korean jungler to fit into a Chinese team. The fact that jungler mid synergy have a bigger impact on the game and might be easier to build probably also helped WE to produce the better performance than Dade and Looper.

One thing to note is that they did play a team that’s relatively new and just had two new Korean members, and while WE had the same, one of WE’s new addition is Chinese (Styz). On the other hand, OMG was a downward streak before this, losing to Royal twice at GEC and losing to King at NEST. So playing against EDG will be their biggest test yet.

However, I do think Spirit to WE is a really good addition along with Styz. On Samsung Blue Spirit was sometimes, if not often, overshadowed by players like Deft and Dade, but on WE he is the one people expect to carry, so it will definitely boost his confidence.

Back in Korea, Spirit wasn’t known for his mentality. In fact, we’ve seen him cry after winning a game because he died a lot on Jax because it was his job to engage so he had to. Considering China is not a region that’s known for strong junglers, so even with the presence of Korean junglers like Kakao, Dandy, and Insec, he should find enough good games to build his confidence. The fact it’s league format for most of the season definitely helps as well, as there are more games and less pressure for each. So moving to China is definitely a good move for Spirit as a player, I believe, even though there are arguable more strong team in China than any other region this season.

I hope he can win Demacia Cup to prove himself. I personally think WE going into this is the favorite. But even if he doesn’t win I think he will do really well in LPL.

Compare to Spirit, Dade and Looper didn’t have as good of a showing. The fact that they were streaming quite a bit before this could have played a factor in this as well, since streaming does take away one’s concentration and time from practice. Overall I think Spirit probably got the head-start because Ninja was familiar with how to play in a Chinese team and helped Spirit in someway, so with time Dade and Looper can probably do as well if not better.

Looking Ahead

So Spirit, Dade and Looper have already made their debut. But that’s not all of Samsung’s players, and I imagine we might see a few more make their entrance before LPL starts on January 16th, as China does have a lot of third party tournaments. In general I expect Korean junglers like Dandy and Kakao to do really well for their team, since the game, like season four, is heavy tempo based, and whichever team gets the first jump or dictate the tempo usually win the game, and it feels easier to dictate a game when you are in the jungle/support position.

The one concern I have for VG is that it’s pretty ambiguous who’s the mid player for them yet. But I imagine they won’t settle for a low profile Chinese mid, considering the players they’ve picked up till now.

As for EDG…nobody knows how they are going to use Deft and Pawn. There were rumors of them sending Clearlove and Deft to EDG.f, as Clearlove was Deft’s new man-crush. But for now they are playing with the all Chinese roster.

I think Imp and Acorn will do well on LGD as well. People say LGD’s weak link is Quan though, and surely it will be a point people that teams with these star junglers like VG and WE will exploit.

Closing thought

Is this is the end of Korea, or the beginning of a conquest?.