It was always going to be WE
It was supposed to be Team WE from the beginning.
Following a devastating 2-3 loss to I May at the 2016 World Championship Regional Qualifier, Team WE’s players took a short break. Then, as a team, they journeyed to South Korea for an offseason bootcamp.
It went unspoken, but WE wouldn’t make a significant change to their starting roster.
EDward Gaming lost star player Kim “Deft” Hyukkyu and allowed Ming “Clearlove” Kai to take a break. I May altered the chemistry of a delicate squad hamstrung into a Top 3 team. Vici Gaming swapped out star player Choi “DanDy” Inkyu. Snake eSports made the decision to almost entirely rebuild the bottom half of their roster. As the only team to retain their starting five amid several talent downgrades, WE had a sure path to their first LPL title.
A few surprises made it far less simple than an effortless LPL victory. In Week 1 of the regular season, WE only barely triumphed over mid tier team, Newbee Gaming, dropping a match in their first series. To close the week, they lost 0-2 to EDward Gaming despite a stronger start in both matches.
In Week 2, WE continued their losses, falling to Kim “Doinb” Taesang’s rejuvenated QG Reapers. WE succumbed to the same traps from the previous split. They drafted weaker laning champions, early picked Maokai and waited for the perfect flank. WE demanded successful positioning from Jin “Mystic” Seongjun to carry fights.
Despite retaining their talent, a Korean bootcamp, and a change in Head Coach to Yoon “Homme” Sungyoung, WE had committed the worst transgression of all. They hadn’t learned.
The 2016 Team WE roster came together from conservative, but intelligent, moves in the wake of Lee “Spirit” Dayoon’s departure from the team. Their most pronounced star, support player Yoon “Zero” Kyungsup, is the only member of the previous team to no longer start for WE in their LPL victory this summer.
When players stay together, they run a risk of stagnation. Counter Logic Gaming has repeated several maddening pitfalls in the North American LCS like over-grouping or ceding pressure mid for side lanes. When it gets difficult for WE, they hold on for the perfect Baron fight. They hope Xiang “Condi” Renjie can pull off a steal, like they over-relied on last year.
Meanwhile, in the opposite group, despite the loss of Cho “Mata” Sehyeong and Jang “Looper” Hyeongseok, Royal Never Give Up bid for the best team in the league. With an all Chinese roster, they played split pressure well and hit hard with carefully drafted lane matchups. Jian “Uzi” Zihao took a backseat in leading the team while support Shi “Ming” Senming made the calls. Royal’s solo lanes played more with the jungler. WE’s favor slowly waned when RNG opened the first week of cross-conference by dismantling EDward Gaming.
But a transition from Patch 7.1 to 7.3 opened up WE’s strongest picks and emphasized how they had actually changed.
Not only did Gragas, Graves, and Ezreal become power picks, but WE more reliably began drafting stronger matchups. When they got lane control, the jungle opened up, and so did Condi.
Where WE have advanced comes through most in LPL final MVP Condi. His ability to path intelligently and capitalize on Liu “Mlxg” Shiyu’s tendency to fixate on camping lanes makes Condi more relevant for teamfights and keeps WE stable.
Last year, Condi and Mlxg played on a similar level in understanding lane priority and jungle efficiency. The LPL Spring 2016 semifinal between Royal Never Give Up and Team WE went to five games, one in which Mlxg denied several buffs from Team WE. This year, the world stood still around Mlxg, and Condi became the best jungler in the LPL.
Despite Royal consistently drafting at least two of three pushing matchups throughout the series, Condi got an early experience and map advantage against Mlxg. Following that, Royal made several errors in rotational play.
In Game 1, though Royal took advantage of the map in a 1-4 scenario and allowed Rumble to push out top lane, they failed to secure vision control of Baron pit. Game 2, Royal tunneled on pressuring Shen. They allocated both Camille and Ekko to 2v1 and dove instead of maintaining the 1-3-1 push and avoiding teamfight scenarios against Kog’Maw entirely. In the final match, Royal failed to take advantage of Letme’s lead on Gragas. Then, they didn’t capitalize on Li “xiaohu” Yuanhao’s opportune Taliyah ultimates to pick off and push to base.
That’s when Condi’s leads became more relevant. In the scenario where all lanes push for Royal, Mlxg should be able to play like Condi. RNG should have been able to contest camps and make this matchup about the jungle. Mlxg camped mid lane without gaining a large advantage for xiaohu. Then RNG couldn’t look for picks as the game dragged on.
Many will look at WE and say they aren’t the early game team in this match. They will say that WE are the same team that lost to I May at the Regional qualifier. At most, they changed their starting support to Nam “Ben” Donghyun for increased pressure in the 2v2. At most, Mystic has played more champions at the same level as his Ezreal last season.
But WE’s strengths in the early game have improved drastically outside an isolated player change. WE and Condi understand how to play to lanes that will have pressure in matchups on their own. They know how to trade sides and set up for mid and late game objective control. WE’s significant losses this split came from a team that knows how to push out mid lane extremely well and countergank mid and top lane camps (QG) — and against a team that trades turrets well in mid game and has a jungler who studied opponent pathing (EDG).
WE control their losses early and identify what they need to do to get to mid game. They won’t be the shock value at the Mid Season Invitational that Royal Never Give Up would have been. They’ll be a slow burn and a stab in the back at one wrong turn.
If one sifts through the story of EDward Gaming’s crumble, Royal and WE had a quiet rivalry in 2016. That culminated in their finals clash this spring. They both lead their groups, but WE’s style always countered Royal’s, and when Royal took out EDward Gaming in the semifinal, WE won their first LPL title in the organization’s history.
All the hype going into the 2017 LPL Spring final surrounded Uzi and his curse; two-time World Championship finalist, winner of the 2016 All Star 1v1 competition, had done nearly everything except win an LPL. It was supposed to be his turn, after so many almosts.
But WE have waited even longer to win an LPL. At the end of 2013, Ming “Clearlove” Kai left WE to seek an organization that would support his ambition of international success: EDward Gaming. This split, having made a decision to take a break and lose his starting spot on EDward Gaming, Clearlove has never been less relevant. With an entirely new roster, WE look to make their mark on the global LoL world once again, but this time, without him.
Unfortunately for both Uzi and Clearlove, as soon as Team WE decided to retain their core roster for the new year, the LPL trophy hovered in their hands. It was always going to be WE.
You can follow Kelsey Moser on Twitter @karonmoser.