Chinese League of Legends: Moving Forward

Don't actually answer that.

It's been a while.  For those of you who have read this in the past, I hope you've gotten something out of it.  For those who are new—I can't say I expect any new readers—welcome!  I've been hired on as a freelance writer for lolesports.com primarily to cover the LoL Pro League, or LPL, which is the Chinese LCS.

Though the format is something of a cross between LCS and OGN with fewer matchups per week and best of twos instead of best of ones, but I digress.

So far, I've only put out two pieces for them:

• World Elite Team Preview
• Week 1 Preview

But the point of this blog has never been to just link other content.  I'd like to focus this more, going forward, on analysis related to Chinese League of Legends or LPL (with exceptions because focus has never been my strong suit).  After all, there's a difference between what lolesports.com can publish, and what I want to say.  

So I'm going to start this off by outlining what has been going on in Chinese League of Legends.  Then I'll move into three important topics: OMG's potential lineups, PE without their bottom lane, my top three LPL teams for Spring, and the absurd popularity of Syndra in competitive Chinese LoL.

What is going on in China?

This is not a dramatization.

The primary reason I want to get into this is that the guy who covered LPL before I joined lolesports—whose name is protected—stated that "It's strange to witness how a single mid-tier team's departure (LMQ to NA) can so radically shake up a scene," which is, first and foremost, a radical simplification of a much more important issue.

LMQ's departure did not shake up the scene; it was shaken up already, and this is why LMQ left.

This is an important thing to highlight.  A frequent misconception I hear is that LMQ came to the US because they weren't good enough to represent China at the Season 4 World Championships, so they thought it would be easier to get a spot from the NA region.  While this may have played some factor, the bigger issue is the disparity in player salaries between China and NA.

While not all NA players will boast a Scarra/ocelote level annual income, the base salary for LCS players is $12.5K per split, which amounts to $25,000 a year.  This does not include things provided by sponsors, such as housing, equipment, sponsor salaries, or prizes.  It also doesn't include other payouts Riot gives LCS players which aren't directly listed.  Or, for fuck's sake, streaming fees.

Mikako Tabe became something of the English-speaking world's window into Chinese League of Legends, and he has frequently spoken out against the L.ACE organization, which controls the majority of LPL teams and how little players are paid, how restrictive contracts are, etc.,.

He has said that he will never go back to playing because the amount he makes for making vods independently (suggesting that much of this revenue is taken by the L.ACE organization or that players or forbidden to control and produce their own content) far exceeds anything he could make by competing.  That is, he didn't make enough money to propose to his girlfriend from the team's win at World's; he quit playing after World's to do so.

He looks tired, doesn't he?

Eventually, L.ACE banned Tabe from ever being employed by any of their teams: as a coach, a player, manager, or otherwise.  As a result, he broke off and wanted to take players from top L.ACE teams to form a group to compete in the GPL, or Southeast Asian and Taiwan circuit.

If this was going on, it's not a far stretch to think that LMQ, the sister team of RYC and well acquainted with Tabe, who spoke praises about his experience competing in LA at World's, would decide there were better opportunities in that country: more fans, more cash, less restrictions.  I mean, for fuck's sake, GoDLike, Tabe's top laner, went with them.

Once LMQ left, however, this created a void in the LPL.  Due to the political controversies around player salaries, one of China's billionaires had the funding and impetus to create a new team from the top players and offer them highly competitive salaries: around $80,000 per player, as is stated in the article by Mundoverse.  It's heavily speculated Tabe is involved, since whispers of his team competing in GPL pretty much died down, and he likely put his efforts behind this.

This team also functions outside L.ACE.

So you can see it's extremely reductive and kind of insulting to say this was all caused by LMQ's departure, when in reality, LMQ's departure is just another symptom of a huge injustice in the Chinese LoL scene.  In fact, it's insulting to what EDG is trying to accomplish.  This is what is going on in China, and it informs everything that follows (except maybe Syndra's popularity).

OMG's Lineup(s)

Here they are in their once glory.

For those who don't know, OMG was the top team in China for most of 2013, and Royal Club's defeat of OMG was very much an upset, both at the World's qualifiers and at World's itself.  The fact that other teams like PE and WE were able to crush them in the offseason speaks more to the unrest with the mid laner, Cool, than anything else.

One of the rumors—meaning absolutely no real confirmation at all—is that Cool was sought as a mid laner for EDG, but he had difficulty securing the transfer.  As a result, he lost a lot of his motivation to play for OMG at all, and as such the team began scouting his replacement.  I don't blame Cool; I would be pissed too, but China's shining stars will have to suffer the consequences.  What is confirmed, however, is that this list of players is signed to the roster:

• Gogoing
• bigpomelo
• xiyang
• san
• Lovelin
• Ziv
• Cool
• Sicca

They were listed under the team roster lock on the 19th.  There are three rumors for how these players will be placed on the team, and I'd like to go over each, what I think about them, and how they should affect LPL.

1) xiyang replaces Cool in mid

If he's so cool, why does he make the shorts sizzle?

Of the rumors, this one is the most likely to actually happen, and it makes the most sense.  If Cool is under-performing due to dissatisfaction or flat-out refusal to play, he will be replaced.  As such, it is likely xiyang will show up in the team's first match against PE on Saturday.

What do we know about xiyang?  For one thing, he looks like this.

Not the most flattering picture.

Rumors suggest he's, gasp, a highly rated solo queue Syndra player.  Rumors also suggest that the team doesn't look as good without Cool.  I will buy both.  But I will argue that the team will look better with xiyang (not that Cool is an ugly fellow) than it would with Cool given the amount of practice Cool has put in lately, and that they could eventually look better than they did if xiyang has the same level of commitment that Cool once did.  It's the best move the team could make, given the circumstances, and OMG will suffer in the short term, but it could pay dividends.

2) Sicca plays support

Don't Google Image "sicca" without "LoL"; trust me

Sicca is the best support player in the world.  I don't care what you think about Mafa/Madlife/Mata/Tabe/Xpecial/whatever.  Sicca is better.  But part of what made him so good was his synergy with NaMei.  They were the best bottom lane in the world, and they didn't show up at World's.  He would be an asset to any team, but if he can't click with san the same way he could with NaMei, that's a problem, and that's the only reason I could see OMG not playing Sicca on their starting roster.

So why didn't EDG take Sicca?  Because of a controversy that split WE in half—that may or may not have involved lies about a certain coach's imaginary suicidal sister—the team lost their coach, their support, and their jungler; these three became EDG's first acquisitions, so when NaMei came around, bringing Sicca with him wasn't an option.  In the great OMG/PE merger, OMG picked up Sicca.  I'm not clear on the details, but I would guess it had to do with Sicca having experience playing for OMG at 2013 WCG, and comA (now Trickyboy) worked better with PE's new ADC acquisition from Rising Stars.  In addition, Trickyboy is an established shot-caller, and with the shuffling, Ziv, previously PE's shot-caller, was benched.

Fun fact: his IGN literally means "3"

Personally, I think san is an extremely underrated player, and comA and bigpomelo have made him stand in the background.  I would argue he played better than Cool at World's, and Sicca should make OMG's bottom lane one of the best in China.  I'd take it over NaMei/Fzzf for one thing.  But again, it all comes down to chemistry, and if san doesn't like Sicca, he can't start on OMG's roster.

3) bigpomelo and Lovelin once again switch roles

Google Image is the best; thank you Deviant Artist, teascribe.

According to one of the last statements on weibo, the official team roster for OMG is

Gogoing - Top

Bigpomelo - Jungle

xiyang - Mid

san - ADC

Lovelin - Support

This is most like the way the team was in the Spring.  Bigpomelo played jungle, and Lovelin played support.  In terms of final results, this is arguably the team's more successful arrangement; in the Spring, OMG came in first in the playoffs, and they came in second in Summer.  But in terms of influence, Lovelin is a smarter jungler than Bigpomelo, so his sphere was much wider.  This was the reason for the swap in the first place.

Again, I think the idea behind this might be synergy.  If bigpomelo works better with xiyang's style, they already know Lovelin works with san.  And taking Lovelin off your roster would be considered a travesty by pretty much anyone because he is so smart and mechanically gifted, so this could also explain keeping Sicca in a sub position.  That, and the rest of the team already knows how to work with this setup.  There is definitely something to be said for keeping as much chemistry whole as possible.  Subbing more than one member out may be considered too much of a stress test.  This lineup is likely, but I can't say I particularly favor it.

In a perfect world, I would like to see Summer's OMG roster with Sicca instead of Bigpomelo/comA.  But, naturally, what seems like a good idea on paper creates practical problems with implementation, and I trust any management decisions OMG has had to make.  Still, I feel like this version of OMG won't make top three this split, and that's pretty much a travesty.

Positive Energy loses its bottom lane

His name is not a typo for "Nami"

The weirdest thing I hear these days is "PE's solo lanes made the team."

I don't really even know how to begin to address this statement other than to assume the perpetrator didn't watch any LPL ever.

Jojo has never been the strongest of mids, as he has been, on occasion, known to lose lane to Energy Pacemaker's SuperCat, and Canines is middling in performance next to other high-ranked top laners in China like PDD and Gogoing.  What really made PE shine, as I've already stated, was their bottom lane duo of NaMei and Sicca.  Sicca's wide champion pool and NaMei's ability to solo pretty much anyone made them the real carries of the team.  Any incarnation PE puts forth without them might flop around like a tipped oil rig on an ice flow.

Though his facial expression may betray him, he is not actually in a coma.

This is likely the reason they brought in Trickyboy.  They need a good shot-caller to bring together what remains of the team.  Face is a good player, but he's not a jungler; he's a mid laner.  And many rumors of the team's lineup suggest he'll be playing mid, and Jojo will be moving to the jungle.  I don't necessarily see this working out, since Jojo wasn't really a roaming mid, so I don't see him transitioning.  I do think Canines will do as well as he ever has, which means he'll be "competitive," and Ycc is a strong player as one of the pieces salvaged from the "Goddamnit why weren't you good" disaster that was Rising Stars Gaming.

I think this team can do well, but I don't see it returning to what it was with NaMei and Sicca.  While OMG might have a chance to be as good as it was, I see PE starting shaky and staying shaky.  They'll probably place top six—but that means they'll beat out EP and LGD, and god only knows what that amounts to.  All I can say is that I hope this team proves me wrong and shows up on Saturday.

My top three

I know; my originality is striking.

1. Invictus Gaming

2. Edward Gaming

3. World Elite

This isn't surprising.  It's kind of a "who is left standing" exercise, but I do think it's more than that.  World Elite broke apart early, which means that, after EDG, they had the first choice of who they wanted on their team.  Misaya retired, probably because he was just tired of all the bullshit, and the team picked up a jungle mid duo that already had a high level of synergy: Ruo and sukiM.  These guys are deadly together, and it again begs the aforementioned question of "Goddamnit, why weren't Rising Stars good?"

If you're going to pay $80,000 a pop to get the roster you want, you're going to have a good team.  You can say, 'I'm going to pay for a good team' on paper, the way Froggen did, but he didn't have the money or the backing to put where his mouth was.  He couldn't get Freeze.  Alliance made him keep Wickd.  He couldn't get Edward.  But he didn't have $80,000 to pay for a signing bonus either.

Arguably, the team couldn't get Cool.  But it's likely they got their number two.  They got the best AD carry in China—after or before Uzi, who is now a mid laner who doesn't know how to roam and might occasionally decide Vayne is a good match for Orianna.  They escured a pickup from the Rising Stars disaster in the top lane, who already had excellent synergy with their jungle pickup, having been mentored by him.  They also acquired some of the best players from WE: Fzzf and Clearlove.  To iron out their final path to success, they picked up, despite his poor life decisions, Aaron, arguably the best coach in China.

I don't really have to explain why this team is beautiful on paper.  Or, at least, a hell of a lot prettier than these guys.

Rumor has it they don't just "seldom lose scrims" the way I mentioned in my LPL Preview, they don't lose scrims.  Don't.  As in never.  As in they don't.  Lose.  Scrims.

But we'll have to see for ourselves this weekend.  I've been hurt before.  And it won't be surprising if Invictus Gaming does the hurting.  All offseason, they've only lost trophies when PDD was subbed out.  PDD is their star player, and he always has been.  But illuSion and Zzitai—can we talk about how, collectively, Chinese mid laners have the dumbest names?—aren't slouches.  Kid is solid, and Kitties is, you guessed, the last of Rising Stars' parts heap.  His acquisition is really what kicked the team into gear.  With him, iG knows every single member can play at the top of the Chinese scene, and whether the Kitties factor is really that huge or the team just doubled down on practice after failing to place top four in the Summer split, they're looking unstoppable.

But the most telling thing about iG's lineup is this: none of them were even tempted by EDG's offer.  They know they have a winning roster with their new support, and they aren't about to jeopardize it.  Most Chinese players might have dollar signs in their eyes, but iG is focused on the big V.  Expect to be impressed.

Unleashed Power

So the first question is why don't people play Syndra in other regions, aside from the occasional "every other mid is banned" smattering.  Typically, it has to do with mobility; she doesn't have it.  She can't hop to safety or get out of jail free.  She has to burn her flash.

So why play her at all?

1) Long range stun

2) Single target assassination potential

3) General zone control

China fights 5v5 more than any other region (except Garena regions, but they don't fight 5v5 as well), and this is where Syndra comes into play.  She has the longest range stun of any Mage with maxed scatter the weak, she can still assassinate a single target, and she makes it damn near difficult for a team to navigate a fight without stepping on a land mine.

I have a feeling that, as she's played/banned in LPL, she'll filter more into other regions, but I don't think she'll do as well in other regions that work more on splitting and extending pressure, like Korea or EU.  I do, however, think she'll still be a good asset when she does appear somewhere else.

Predictions for this Week's Games

1. iG vs EDG 1:1
2. OMG vs PE 2:0 OMG
3. LGD vs EP 2:0 LGD
4. WE vs RYC 2:0 WE

Good luck to you all.