Twice is Nice; SHRC Make Second Straight Finals Appearance Against Heavy Favorite Samsung White

by Matt “It’s Pure Luck” Lee

New name. New roster (mostly). Same result for Star Horn Royal Club; a trip to the League of Legends World Championship finals. It has been a fairly surprising run for Royal as they were somewhat of an afterthought in this tournament. Before Worlds began, the general consensus about the teams representing the LPL was that if any of them were to make the finals it would have been Edward Gaming. Yet, in the end, it would SHRC who took down EDG in five games, avenging the loss they suffered to them in the LPL regional qualifiers to determine the region’s top seed.



Star Horn then moved on to face off versus another LPL opponent, this time it was surging OMG. OMG looked brilliant in dismantling Najin White Shield in their previous series. This showing had people leaning on OMG as a slight favorite to win this series, but once again SHRC had other ideas. They won what was a very entertaining, back and forth series in five games, including a dominant performance in game five to close OMG out.

Samsung White on the other hand has had about as simple a road to the finals as you could ask for. Not because of the quality of opponents they have faced. Rather, they just look so dominant in almost every performance they have. The series win against Samsung Blue was one of the most impressive performances I’ve seen in League of Legends. Samsung White didn't just win; they absolutely dismantled a team that was one of the top favorites to win this tournament. It was all the more impressive because Blue is a team that has constantly given White trouble in the past. The only loss White suffered was a lackadaisical effort versus Team SoloMid when they held a 2-0 lead in that quarterfinal series.



There is no doubt that this has been a great run for SHRC. They have shocked even themselves as Uzi mentioned that even Star Horn players were not sure they could get this far. But winning this series would require a monumental effort from the entire team, both mechanically and strategically. The biggest name on Royal is Uzi and it’s for a good reason. The argument could be made he is the best AD carry in the world. SHRC has been opting to go with the “Feed the ADC” strategy and it has been working but against a team as strategically sound as SSW it will be hard to win on that alone. And let’s keep in mind that as good as Uzi his, the other half of that “Best AD carry in the world” debate will be his opposite number in Imp. Both of these players are highly aggressive and it should be a fun match-up to watch.

Outside of the bottom lane match-up, one of the biggest keys for Star Horn will be to control their aggression. Dandy is so good and always seems to be in the right place at the right time for a counter-gank. If InSec’s decision making isn't on point, or SHRC as a whole doesn't have great vision control, a poor engage can easily spiral a game into Samsung White’s favor. That isn't to say Star Horn want to play passive. That simply isn't their style. But picking their spots is going to be more crucial in this series than ever before.

As much as I would love for this series to go to five games, I cannot see it happening. SHRC has performed admirably to get this far, especially when you consider things such as language barriers between the players and a lack of extended time playing together. But Samsung White is just playing too well at the most important time of the year. Look for SSW to hoist the Summoner’s Cup tonight and take their place as the League of Legends World Champions.

Prediction: Samsung White 3:0 over Star Horn Royal Club

-----

By Matt "It's Pure Luck" Lee

Season 4 World Championship Finals Preview : Samsung White vs Starhorn Royal Club

by Max

Samsung White and Star Horn Royal Club both entered into the Quarterfinals in the prestigious first seed spots of the two 'easier' groups. White was barely challenged at all, coasting through undefeated. Royal Club dropped a single game to the NA champs, Team SoloMid. So let’s examine the statistics to see how close SSW and SHRC actually are:

Not surprisingly, when you look at KDA ratios at Worlds, the top five players are all from Samsung White. While both teams dropped a game to TSM, that was White’s only loss (holding a 6-1 record), whereas Royal Club did not have an easy path getting to the finals. White dominated all their series with ease; Royal Club’s 6-4 record included two tough series that came down to the final game. If mindset matters, Samsung White will definitely has the upper hand there.

White's laning phase has been completely devastating. Mata's early game roams and Dandy’s amazing counterganks and counterjungling leaves the enemy junglers with no room to breath. Pawn performed really well, teaching Dade how to play that midlane Jayce. It is difficult to analyze SSW's comebacks and how they play with a massive gold deficit, as the team was only placed in that situation once during the tournament (in their single loss to TSM). It was a game SSW arguably lost in the draft phase, by not having any wave-clear and choosing only late game scaling carries.

Star Horn Royal Club has been playing the "let’s get UZI fed" game, and even though it's worked out for them so far, it might not be enough against White. We have seen that if they fall behind without having a hyper-carry Tristana in their pocket, they have absolutely no idea what to do. Besides being famous for his Lee Sin mechanics, inSec is also famous for his playstyle. He looks for fights and then looks for more. When Royal Club is behind, he is still constantly looking for fights instead of farming up in his jungle and waiting to countergank.

The bottom lane is where Royal Club has the greatest chance of winning. Uzi and Zero can dominate the early game, especially against imp’s favorite Twitch pick. Presumably the weaker draft will do a lane swap, and that will show how well can SRC strategically plan against SSW. Hopefully, Royal Club will bring enough of a challenge to keep the Finals interesting and stave off the 3-0 blow out most are expecting. With over 45,000 fans watching this Sunday at the Seoul Olympic Stadium and millions more tuning in from all over the world, we're hoping for a championship to remember!

A Look at the League of Legends Preseason PBE Changes

By Kennan French

Tons and tons of preseason changes were shipped to the PBE recently. Some are here to stay, some aren’t, and some have yet to be seen. But as with any change, there are trade-offs:

Items

The first item change I want to mention is the addition of Righteous Glory; specifically, I’d like to thank our Rito overlords for adding another item that builds out of Catalyst the Protector. Ever since Season 3, we've only had one option when buying this - Banshee’s Veil. With the new Righteous Glory, we have an option similar to Rod of Ages that helps your team a bit more when sieging. Also, just a hunch, this item on a team with the new Sion will hurt quite a bit.

There’s another new item, though, that I don’t like so much: the Zz’rot portal. This item, intended for tanks who aren’t very good at split-pushing, spawns monsters that act as extra minions for your team and sends them to the nearest lane. A cool concept but, in my opinion, it will greatly devalue the skill of controlling side waves. This is a hard skill to learn and an even harder one to implement, as you can see when the top professional teams lose track of how a lane is pushing and end up losing a tower. If you spend the time and resources building up your side lanes and then your opponent just buys an item to spawn more minions, what’s the point in learning that skill?

There are also a slew of changes to elixirs. Some are good and exciting, but I have some deep reservations about others. The current elixirs are being removed and there are four new elixirs taking their place, so it’s not like that idea is gone. In fact, I think there will be some great uses for these new elixirs. Take the Elixir of Iron for example; paired with the Captain enchantment on a set of boots, your allies can quickly follow up when you engage on the enemy team. Or your Tristana could buy an Elixir of Wrath and stack on extra time to its duration as she gets resets in a teamfight. These new elixirs open up plenty of possibilities.

However, they also added a restriction to elixirs that seems to be pretty much out of the blue. You can no longer buy elixirs before level 9, even though this had never caused problems before. There were very few situations where anyone would do this anyways - one example being the red elixir start on Zed - and doing this was always a choice which had clear strengths and weaknesses.

Note: This item is still bad. Don’t buy it. It got some changes, but it’s still in a very awkward place.

Jungle Changes

There are a lot of changes to how the jungle works, and this is the area where we’re most likely to see more changes in the coming weeks. Little is known about these changes, but I think I can say that the four different versions of Smite will probably turn out to be a good thing. It allows for junglers to play more to their strength and what their team needs. Also, I have a feeling that these jungle changes will benefit Korean teams more than teams from any other region, since the need for “jungle smarts” is going to increase and Korean junglers currently outshine the rest in that department.

However, now you can only buy Hunter’s Machete if you took Smite as a summoner spell. Many of you may not know this (since LPL has a very low English-speaking viewership), but Chinese mid laners had begun building jungle items (usually Spirit of the Spectral Lizard) and farming wraiths every time they respawned. This new restriction on the jungle items eliminates this innovative strategy, which could have even been improved with these jungle changes (i.e. getting faster camp clear).

Read: Always kill wraiths before you go to dragon or Baron. ‘Nuff said.

Objectives/Macro Strategy/Misc.

One of the biggest changes announced was the addition of the crab patrolling the two sections of river. Now, Xypherous referred to it as a “scuttle crab,” but the client calls it a “giant enemy crab.” Whichever name goes through (but it should totally be the second one), this moving camp will be important to keep track of. This is likely going to be a good change, as long as they add special interactions between this camp and Urgot.

Still Waters is a buff introduced in these preseason changes. It gives bonus movement speed out of combat and, after standing still for half a second, 25% increased vision range and the ability to see over walls. This will be useful in many situations, from sieging the enemy’s base to contesting Baron. The only player I wouldn't give this power-up to would be a split pusher. If they’re relying on it to avoid getting caught out, then your team does not have the proper map pressure to attempt a split push in the first place.

The new dragon bonuses are certainly a little odd; stacking bonuses for each dragon you kill is an interesting direction to take things. Early dragons will likely become much more important. These changes should be good for competitive play but could go either way for solo queue, since objective control is typically better and more emphasized in competitive matches.

Dragon gets a buff, though, against your team for each time you kill it. As you challenge for your fifth dragon, it will be dealing 180% damage to your team. This means that you either have to be very far ahead of the other team to contest, or you have to rotate in such a way that you can take it without any opposition. This will probably need to be tuned down, but we’ll see.

The new Baron buff is interesting too, but the most striking thing about it to me is the massively improved recall you get when you have it. You recall in half the time and, from what it sounds like, basically get a free Homeguard enchantment on top of it. This may (and I hope, will) encourage more diverse choices when upgrading your boots - assuming boot enchantments aren’t also being updated.

---


By Kennan French

Fashion in Esports

by Louis "Guichex" Lemeillet

Is it weird to talk about fashion if we're talking as subjects of a group of teens who are playing hours of video games? Maybe, although I believe even geeks, nerds or whatever you call them, have their own fashion in some way, despite being far away from the “fashion” world you see in everyday mass media. But is it weird to talk about fashion if we're looking at a sport? Clearly it isn't. Every sports has its own fashion. Basketball, American Football, Soccer, Baseball, Golf, etc. they all have a clear set of clothes which is common only to them. So why not eSports? This discipline is still new and unites a bunch of people who weren't used to being in the spotlight before. Still, every successful team is selling its own merchandise and wants to popularize it. What is different from other sports is that eSports doesn't require a special outfit, and a lot of teams seems to have a different idea of what they have to wear mainly depending on their region.

Asia wants to be classy.

Asian teams (Korean, Chinese, South-East Asian) have somewhat united to wear almost the same outfits when they're performing on stage, or at least for the upper body. A lot of teams we saw at worlds are wearing low-key polo shirts with a little room allowed for the team logo and the sponsors. Regardless, they are still visible especially when Riot is making a lot of interviews and close-ups on players. A small difference is visible for EDG & AHQ where they're wearing classic t-shirts but are almost always wearing sports jackets which follow the same rule as before: subdued logos from sponsors.

In some way, the fashion these teams are putting on is really close to what you'd find in golf. And it's quite logical: golf is a sport, but not as intense as some other sports like Soccer or Basketball. Some might categorize it as “not really a sport,” but the same could be said for eSports. Also, Golf is a sport which requires a lot of focus, mental strength and precision. Same for eSports! The only difference here is on the lower body of our favorite players. Koreans are often wearing absolutely horrible sweatpants. I mean, I wouldn't dare to wear those kind of pants outside of my house nowadays, and I don't think it sends a good image around the world, since it'll keep pro-gamers classified as “geeks in sweatpants.” They also keep wearing them in advertisements like Faker did recently. I mean...come on.

Chinese and South-East Asian players are wearing a bit more classy jeans and you have to give them props for it. I know sweatpants are comfortable for playing in, but man, jeans aren’t that hard either. It's not because you wear jeans that you'll perform worse considering the level of those players.

Europe, too much soccer?

Despite being a fan of Europe's performance in eSports, I still don't understand how some structures think regarding their team clothes. I mean, yes, we like soccer a lot, but it doesn't mean you have to copy it and import it into eSports. Why did sports jerseys, of all clothes, make the cut here? My guess is a lot of people investing in eSports come from an average social class, not especially poor or rich, but with a middle-class culture which is obviously greatly centered around the most popular sport in Europe. No other sports come close to it, and it has a clear and vast influence on a lot of people.

Coming from this social class, eSports players and fans wanted to say their passion for video games was as great as some peoples passion with soccer (or as great as their own), and directly imitated its style, importing the sports jersey you can see on a lot of European teams now: Fnatic, Copenhagen Wolves, etc.

I honestly don't think this is the best piece of clothing for eSports. It isn't, properly speaking, a physical sport. It requires a lot of focus, and while you sweat a lot during an official match for sure, I don't think it requires such an outfit. The core “physical” and psychological needs of pro-gaming is mental strength and precision, which are mostly shared within sports like golf, or maybe baseball.

North America went in the right direction but stopped halfway.

North American LoL teams have embraced eSports fashion in a different way than other countries by not trying to make it look like a traditional sport, but almost all the teams have a different style of clothes. White hoodies and sky blue T-shirts create Cloud 9's theme. Dignitas has black hoodies and CLG wears long sleeve cotton shirts. TSM players wear satin varsity jackets and Evil Geniuses scored a fashion knock out in their amazing black leather jackets. Only Curse seems to enjoy the sports jerseys (and they should fit them more, because it looks like they're way too big for some players!)

But unfortunately, the NA teams are almost too convoluted. All of them want to differentiate from the one another too much, and none of them, except Curse, are reasoning as a business by renewing their official clothes regularly. At some point, a new season into LCS should mean a new set of clothes. Fans are generally happy to see those changes and feel like they need to buy the new ones to be a better representative of the team. Yet, a lot of teams are hesitant on this point and just play around with colors to offer more than one set.

In the end, I think eSports clothing styles may actually be too diverse. Hoodies, sports jerseys, polos, t-shirts (and even an attempt at polo-shirts and hoodies from SK) can be a little weird. All these pro-gamers play the same game but none of them are wearing the same thing. It comes across as a bit disorganized. But that just means that eSports has nothing written in stone yet. I like it, because then we can only go up.

Setting up some standardized fashion code might help set values and integrity inside the community. Moreover, it helps show the world that eSports are real, that they are happening here and now and that mainstream industries needs to invest now to get the bigger piece of the cake. I think polo shirts are the best option, but it doesn't really fit with the gamer image we have in our Occidental regions. Nevertheless, it has been shown in recent studies that a lot of eSport viewers are not hardcore gamers, and looking closely into this population might deliver the answer.

by Louis "Guichex" Lemeillet

TOP FIVE EU FREE AGENTS

By Reece "SabrewoIf" Dos-Santos

Europe, for me, has always been a promised land of talent for the League of Legends pro scene. Whenever you think that there won’t be another rising star, three more pop up and burst onto the scene. However, with so much rising talent, sometimes shaky infrastructure, and a tendency to hold onto well-known names too long, EU has a habit of letting some great talent slide into the shadows. So let's take a look at the top five players currently listed as free agents.

In no special order:

Gillius

Gillius technically didn't qualify for Worlds 2014; he was only brought in to sub for Svenskeren due to his unfortunate racial incident in Taipei. Prior to this, Gillius had only garnered experience from playing on SK Prime and Unicorns of Love in the challenger scene. Despite this, Gillius still put up a pretty solid showing for a rookie, at times even looking better than some of the actual team veterans who struggled to adjust and compete at their best level. While one would think that Gillius would go back bringing a wealth of experience and growth for newly LCS bound Unicorns Of Love, the team made the rather shocking decision to bench him, leaving him in the unfortunate position of having played in Worlds...but not the LCS itself.

Best Team Choice: Copenhagen Wolves

The Wolves have always been EU’s hub of promising talent, I believe they would greatly benefit from Gillius’ newly gained experience and solid playstyle.

Nukeduck
Nukeduck, in his prime, was arguably one of EU’s best mid laners and a real force to be reckoned with, especially at the height of the Season Three assassin meta, which greatly suited his playstyle. The whole of the Lemondogs' squad were some of EU’s best in their positions and the degradation of the team and the eventual suspension of Nukeduck and Mithy was a huge waste of talent. However, with his suspension over, Nukeduck now has another opportunity to explode onto the scene and every team should honestly give him a look. The recent rumours surrounding him and Woolite possibly moving to Roccat would be amazing for the team, as a Nukeduck/Jankos partnership has the raw potential to be one of the scariest if they gather good synergy to accompany their individual talent. With so much time off to work on his attitude, his work ethic and mechanics he should now be ready to take the EU LCS by storm.

Best Team Choice: Roccat

The more I think about it, the more I believe Nukeduck can take Roccat to higher levels. I’m really excited at the prospect of a huge playmaker and arguably EU’s best Season 3 mid laner paired with arguably the best jungler from EU Season 4. I also believe Overpow might be able to properly benefit from the more farm-centric style of the top lane, where there will be less expectation to hard carry Roccat games.

Forg1ven

After the Copenhagen Wolves had to give back Rekkles to Fnatic, many people doubted their ability to gather another AD carry who could have anywhere near the impact that Rekkles had. Then Forg1ven was picked up and all the doubt was silenced. Forg1ven was a monster AD Carry during his split with the Wolves, setting GPM, Total Gold, CS per min and Total CS records for EU and he was hailed by many as the best AD Carry in EU. Unfortunately, his fall out with the Wolves management left him unable to play during summer, but he is now free to be picked up and, in my opinion, is one of the biggest free agents EU currently has on the market to offer. His wealth of talent, fierce achievement-driven nature and prior LCS experience will get great assets to any team that take it with a pinch of salt.

Best Team Choice: Roccat

AD Carry-wise, most EU LCS teams are in a good spot. Every team expect Roccat, who currently doesn't have one. If the rumoured acquisition of Nukeduck is any kind of upgrade, the further acquisition of Forg1ven would catapult them into godly levels of potential. It would also likely leave Woolite on the Wolves allowing for Unlimited to actually play more than one split with a particular ADC.

Mithy

Mithy, like Nukeduck was a member of the overnight sensation team, LemonDogs, and was one of the three who transferred to NIP only to lose their slot in the LCS, eventually leading to Mithy’s suspension with Nukeduck and Zorozero’s retirement. Regardless Mithy’s suspension time is also nearing its end and with his eligibility for the 2015 LCS spring split, he should be a big consideration for teams in need of a solid support. It should be remembered that Tabzz and Mithy were one of the best, if not the best bottom lane in Europe by the end of Season 3.

Best Choice: Supa Hot Crew (now Meet Your Makers) or Millenium 

It would just so happen that Supa Hot Meet Your Makers are missing a support player following the teams rebranding and its release of Impaler and Kasing. It has also been heavily rumoured that Amin and Mithy will be the ones to fill in the newly freed up roles. Personally, I’m not too sure whether Mithy will gel well with the rest of the team, especially Amin, but MrRallez has shown himself to be the ADC equivalent to Unlimited, putting up good performances and easily building synergy with any duo lane partner he’s presented with. Alternatively, if MYM doesn’t work out another good destination for Mithy would be Millenium. With the departure of Kerp, Millenium is a team in dire need of a leader and a fresh start. Kev1n, Kottenx and Creaton are all top class players on the right day and I feel on most days, Jree just doesn’t allow them to perform to a peak of their (especially creaton’s) potential.

Kerp

As briefly mentioned, Kerp has now left Millenium in search of a fresh start. If he doesn't find a new team to settle down with, LCS casters and broadcast producers will surely be fuming at the loss of all the script they have to discuss his famous use of a trackball mouse. Despite how attractive it is to discuss, it isn't Kerp’s only asset. His raw talent is absolutely amazing and his ability to hard carry on assassin type champions is next to the best in EU. On top of this, his careful play on champions like Ziggs also provides a healthy switch between mid lane playstyles, which is impressive considering he was a top laner one season ago. Its also worth noting that Kerp was a Fantasy LCS superstar - bringing huge numbers (on his good days) for anyone who played him

Best Choice: SK Gaming or Copenhagen Wolves

If there was a better way to say I think Kerp is better than Soren and Jesiz, I would say it - but I can’t really find one. All three look the same in terms of being rather inconsistent, but generally Kerp can do a lot more a lot better and I think both teams would do well to consider how serious they are to be competing for the top spots with their current mid lane choices.

 -----

by Reece "SabrewoIf" Dos-Santos