Most Valuable Player - Cool and Xiyang
Riot·7/2/2014, 1:07:58 AM·0 votes·3,126 views
What does it mean to be the most valuable player?
Two LoL Pro League splits in a row, OMG’s mid laners have been able to answer that question. In the eyes of the LPL, both Yu “Cool” Jia-Jun and Hu “xiyang” Bin were the MVPs of China while they played mid for OMG, having stood out as the main force on their team for more winning games than anyone else in the split.
Cool served as the starting mid laner for OMG during the 2013 LPL season, but when he took the first split of 2014 off to recover his hands and eyes, xiyang proved a more than adequate replacement, even as it was obvious he still had much to learn. When 2014 LPL Spring ended and Cool returned, OMG had a difficult choice to make: keep its rising star, still green around the edges, or reacquire its recovering legend. After a long period of indecision, they chose to welcome Cool back to the mid lane for the main LPL-bound roster, OMG. Xiyang became the starting mid laner for OMG’s sister team, the recently relegated Positive Energy, in the LoL Secondary Pro League. The decision has been met with initial success, as both teams are now tied for first place in their respective leagues.
Cool became the primary play-maker for the team. He took advantage of Lovelin securing vision throughout the map to move between lanes freely, assassinating members of the opposition wherever he encountered them. The LPL pushed Cool to the top of the MVP standings throughout the split, naming him the most influential player of OMG in the majority of their wins.
When Cool required a split off for health concerns related to his hands and eyes, however, OMG found themselves in desperate need of a new mid laner. Most were certain that regardless of the choice, OMG would shrink to a lesser version of itself. Fears were intensified when OMG plucked Cool’s replacement from Chinese solo queue. Xiyang lacked any competitive experience and had climbed his way to Challenger by playing only three champions: Syndra, Leblanc, and Cassiopeia. Some fans went so far as to say that xiyang would bring shame not just to OMG’s organization, but Chinese LoL in general, considering that OMG was one of the few Chinese teams recognized internationally.
Despite the odds stacked against xiyang and the prevalent expectation that he would flop, OMG started off the 2014 LPL Spring split without a loss, and they would remain undefeated until Week 5. OMG began building compositions around xiyang’s superior 1v1 potential, and he wowed onlookers with one-man jungle invades and level two dives that granted first blood. Even if he only played a handful of champions, he played them well enough that it didn’t seem to matter. OMG ended their second consecutive LPL split with a first place regular season finish and a mid laner at the top of the MVP standings.
Cool’s flop in his only appearance during the 2013 LPL Spring regular season would also prove xiyang’s undoing. During the International Esport Tournament, Edward Gaming exposed xiyang’s weakness for the first time. They banned out his favored champions and set to camping the mid lane. Having grown accustomed to experiencing low jungle pressure as a result of the 4v0 meta, xiyang was unaccustomed to the experience. SK Telecom T1 K followed the same strategy at AllStars, leaving a clear recipe for iG: a team known for the versatility of their mid laner and the early pressure applied by their jungler. IG was, perhaps, more qualified than any other team in LPL to knock OMG out of the tournament, and by the end, xiyang looked shaky even on his favorite champion, Syndra.
Going into 2014 LPL Summer, OMG’s management was left with a difficult decision. Priorities for both players had changed. Xiyang had initially planned to return to University after his stint as Cool’s substitute, but his success had made him hungry for more. Cool had grown restless on the bench, and he hinted that he might seek opportunities with another team in LSPL. Both players had their flaws, but both players could both prove dangerous under the umbrella of another organization.
Ultimately, the team decided Cool would best serve OMG’s lineup, but the management wouldn’t abandon xiyang to have him picked up by competitors either.
Cool and xiyang weren’t the only ones who lost face at the end of LPL Spring. Positive Energy, the team that took the 2013 LPL Summer Playoff title from OMG’s grasp in a heated five game series, finished in last place in 2014 LPL Spring with an automatic ticket out the door and into LSPL. Much of this came down to the team losing their star bottom lane duo: Zhu “NaMei” Jia-Wen and Li “Sicca” Hao-Yu. OMG, however, had taken the team under their umbrella as their sister team, and when PE finished last in LPL after taking the playoff title, it was clear changes would need to be made. PE was in a need of a new star player.
Xiyang has replaced PE’s hit-or-miss mid laner Jian “JoJo” Yao-Tao, but other members of the 2013 LPL Summer championship roster have returned. Notably, Sicca himself has returned to PE after coaching OMG for a split to provide xiyang and the rest of the team some much-needed guidance as they struggle to rebuild the brand. This new PE lineup might not contain NaMei, but xiyang and Sicca, now called XK, have made it a force to contend with in LSPL.
At the moment, PE is part of a five-way tie for first place, and xiyang is once again looking like the center of attention. In a recent set against Team RM, xiyang boasted Orianna as his new go-to champion. After a lackluster laning phase from most of the team in the first game, xiyang cleared vision and waited in brush for RM to stumble into the open, where his Shockwaves proved game-changing.
As to xiyang’s other flaws, he’ll still find himself caught out too far forward on occasion, but at least he’s shored up his laning phase with the placement of wards. Vision will compensate for these flaws until he can pick up his own sense for the jungler’s location. With time, camping mid may no longer be an option for unseating xiyang’s team.
While Cool isn’t the same terrifying monster he was a year ago in the 1v1 lane, he and Lovelin, now called Drug, are back to doing what they do best: warding deep and roaming. Cool has a feel for minion movement, and he makes his presence known in lanes that need him most. If he and Drug keep improving and manage to rekindle OMG’s old dominance, the four-way tie for first place in LPL might fall away to give OMG their third consecutive regular season win and Cool his second MVP title.
THE TITLE
Last summer, OMG had just come off a first place win at the LPL Championships. Though Invictus Gaming dominated the regular season, OMG constantly nipped at their heels. Even as a brand new team, OMG had ensured that the internally squabbling WE would not even retain the title of second best team in China. Then, when Positive Energy knocked iG from the Playoffs in the quarterfinals, OMG took advantage of a clear path to claim the tournament title, setting the stage for their regular season dominance in the splits to follow. Yet first place wasn’t good enough for OMG. Yin “Lovelin” Le and Wei “bigpomelo” Qi swapped roles, as it was suggested that Lovelin’s propensity for play-making could be better felt throughout the map as a jungler rather than as a support. The greatest boon of the move, however, was the discovery of the spectacular synergy between Lovelin and the team’s mid laner, Cool.
Cool became the primary play-maker for the team. He took advantage of Lovelin securing vision throughout the map to move between lanes freely, assassinating members of the opposition wherever he encountered them. The LPL pushed Cool to the top of the MVP standings throughout the split, naming him the most influential player of OMG in the majority of their wins.
When Cool required a split off for health concerns related to his hands and eyes, however, OMG found themselves in desperate need of a new mid laner. Most were certain that regardless of the choice, OMG would shrink to a lesser version of itself. Fears were intensified when OMG plucked Cool’s replacement from Chinese solo queue. Xiyang lacked any competitive experience and had climbed his way to Challenger by playing only three champions: Syndra, Leblanc, and Cassiopeia. Some fans went so far as to say that xiyang would bring shame not just to OMG’s organization, but Chinese LoL in general, considering that OMG was one of the few Chinese teams recognized internationally.
Despite the odds stacked against xiyang and the prevalent expectation that he would flop, OMG started off the 2014 LPL Spring split without a loss, and they would remain undefeated until Week 5. OMG began building compositions around xiyang’s superior 1v1 potential, and he wowed onlookers with one-man jungle invades and level two dives that granted first blood. Even if he only played a handful of champions, he played them well enough that it didn’t seem to matter. OMG ended their second consecutive LPL split with a first place regular season finish and a mid laner at the top of the MVP standings.
THE CONUNDRUM
Once OMG had cemented first place in the regular LPL season, and Cool had returned to his practice regiment, management decided to give the 2013 LPL Summer MVP a crack at his old position. The results were nearly disastrous. Cool was caught engaging overzealously on more than one occasion, and he couldn’t stand against Invictus Gaming’s Zzitai in the 1v1. In the first game of the set, the team managed to claw back into the game, but the team’s loss in the second game gave iG the win they needed to claim the fourth seed in the Playoffs from LGD Gaming.
Cool’s flop in his only appearance during the 2013 LPL Spring regular season would also prove xiyang’s undoing. During the International Esport Tournament, Edward Gaming exposed xiyang’s weakness for the first time. They banned out his favored champions and set to camping the mid lane. Having grown accustomed to experiencing low jungle pressure as a result of the 4v0 meta, xiyang was unaccustomed to the experience. SK Telecom T1 K followed the same strategy at AllStars, leaving a clear recipe for iG: a team known for the versatility of their mid laner and the early pressure applied by their jungler. IG was, perhaps, more qualified than any other team in LPL to knock OMG out of the tournament, and by the end, xiyang looked shaky even on his favorite champion, Syndra.
Going into 2014 LPL Summer, OMG’s management was left with a difficult decision. Priorities for both players had changed. Xiyang had initially planned to return to University after his stint as Cool’s substitute, but his success had made him hungry for more. Cool had grown restless on the bench, and he hinted that he might seek opportunities with another team in LSPL. Both players had their flaws, but both players could both prove dangerous under the umbrella of another organization.
Ultimately, the team decided Cool would best serve OMG’s lineup, but the management wouldn’t abandon xiyang to have him picked up by competitors either.
REBUILDING REPUTATIONS
Cool and xiyang weren’t the only ones who lost face at the end of LPL Spring. Positive Energy, the team that took the 2013 LPL Summer Playoff title from OMG’s grasp in a heated five game series, finished in last place in 2014 LPL Spring with an automatic ticket out the door and into LSPL. Much of this came down to the team losing their star bottom lane duo: Zhu “NaMei” Jia-Wen and Li “Sicca” Hao-Yu. OMG, however, had taken the team under their umbrella as their sister team, and when PE finished last in LPL after taking the playoff title, it was clear changes would need to be made. PE was in a need of a new star player.
Xiyang has replaced PE’s hit-or-miss mid laner Jian “JoJo” Yao-Tao, but other members of the 2013 LPL Summer championship roster have returned. Notably, Sicca himself has returned to PE after coaching OMG for a split to provide xiyang and the rest of the team some much-needed guidance as they struggle to rebuild the brand. This new PE lineup might not contain NaMei, but xiyang and Sicca, now called XK, have made it a force to contend with in LSPL.
At the moment, PE is part of a five-way tie for first place, and xiyang is once again looking like the center of attention. In a recent set against Team RM, xiyang boasted Orianna as his new go-to champion. After a lackluster laning phase from most of the team in the first game, xiyang cleared vision and waited in brush for RM to stumble into the open, where his Shockwaves proved game-changing.
As to xiyang’s other flaws, he’ll still find himself caught out too far forward on occasion, but at least he’s shored up his laning phase with the placement of wards. Vision will compensate for these flaws until he can pick up his own sense for the jungler’s location. With time, camping mid may no longer be an option for unseating xiyang’s team.
DICTATING WHAT’S “COOL”
Cool has returned to OMG and LPL, and while he might not be the same Cool we remember from last summer, he’s found himself a third place spot in the MVP rankings. With Cool’s return, LPL has seen an upswing in assassin play with the popularity of Zed, Yasuo, and Leblanc. Cool will often be on the receiving end of a Leblanc ban, and LGD Gaming’s new mid laner, Wei “We1less” Lian, teased OMG with an Ahri hover, referencing Cool’s undefeated run on the champion in 2013 LPL Summer. Last LPL split saw a stagnation of Ziggs and Lulu picks, focusing more on providing extra support for the AD carries of LPL or stalling out games than on play-making. The fact that we see more assassins coming into vogue this split may just be a coincidence, as Cool isn’t the only mid laner who favors these flashy play-makers. Yet given the amount of respect Cool commands in LPL, it isn’t too far-fetched to suggest that his very presence in has influenced what other teams play. If Twisted Fate is picked in a rash of games this week after Cool’s stellar run with him, we’ll know who to thank.
While Cool isn’t the same terrifying monster he was a year ago in the 1v1 lane, he and Lovelin, now called Drug, are back to doing what they do best: warding deep and roaming. Cool has a feel for minion movement, and he makes his presence known in lanes that need him most. If he and Drug keep improving and manage to rekindle OMG’s old dominance, the four-way tie for first place in LPL might fall away to give OMG their third consecutive regular season win and Cool his second MVP title.
