OGN: Past, Present and Future
Riot·3/29/2014, 12:34:21 AM·0 votes·436 views
Coming upon its seventh season, OGN Champions has gone through many changes in the past two years. We delve into the history and what has changed, what has stayed the same, and what's to come in the future of Korea's League of Legends premier league.
The first tournament was a booming success with hundreds of fans packed into the OGN studio to watch the international teams and the Korean teams that they would come to know intimately. The central story were the two Maximum Impact Gaming teams, Frost and Blaze, rolling through the league and making it to the inaugural finals.
Seen as the "B-team" to Frost's A, Blaze were the upset champions of the opening Champions tournament, coming out of nowhere in the finals to defeat their kin team 3-0 to raise the trophy.
Heading into the summer, OGN capitalized on their success by adding in more international teams: bringing in two European teams (CLG.eu, Natus Vincere), two North American teams (Dignitas, CLG), and even a single team from China with World Elite.
Not only were there more foreign teams, but sponsored Korean squads for the first time as well. Incredible Miracle and MVP made their first appearances in Group D of the tournament against the two CLG teams and fell to both. NaJin would evolve from a single team to two, giving the upstart player Maknoon his own team in NaJin Sword and building it around him. The two MiG teams that crushed the first season were rewarded by their own sponsorship by the Azubu organization. This would also be the introduction of KeSPA into Champions, with CJ Entus having a lackluster start as the last place team in Group C of the opening rounds.
The foreign teams would go 3/5 in qualifying for the playoffs, Natus Vincere and Dignitas falling in the first round of games. CLG.eu would be the leading foreign team this season, going through not only World Elite in the quarterfinals but Maknoon's NaJin Sword in the semifinals, making it to the finals. On the other side of the bracket, Azubu Frost blanked CLG 2-0 in the quarters and then had a face-off with Blaze once again in the semifinals.
In a classic series, Frost would get revenge for the opening season, beating them 3-2 and making their second Final. In a foreigner versus Korean final, the foreigners would get ahead to a fast start, going 2-0 and pushing Azubu Frost to the brink. Faltering in the final three games, CLG.eu couldn't keep up their momentum and lost the chance to become the first (and only) international Champions winners, losing to Frost 3-2 in front of thousands of fans in an outside venue.
The first year could be summed up in two words: Fire and Ice. The two MiG-then-Azubu teams were the vocal point of creating such a big impact in the Korean scene during the first few months of League of Legends in Korea, both teams still with two of the largest fan bases of any of the Korean teams today.
In the playoffs it would be the team that was built around the charismatic top laner Maknoon that would go on to win the entire tournament. Najin Sword surged through MVP White in the quarterfinals without dropping a game, and then upset the favored KT B in the semifinals to book their place in the finals. Sword put on a dominating performance against Frost to walk out as champions.
Olympus Spring 2013 would bring on more KeSPA teams. This time SK Telecom T1 introduced two teams into the fray: one led by the former top laner of Azubu Blaze, Reapered, and the other centered around a rookie named Faker that stayed atop of the Korean solo queue for months on end. The two Azubu teams would also go over to the KeSPA side, ending their contracts with Azubu and getting picked up by the CJ Entus organization that was the first to put their feet in the League of Legends waters two seasons before.
Faker had an electric debut. He led his team to the top of Group A and lived up to the hype that everyone expected out of him. They wouldn't win the tournament this time around, as the team was too reliant on Faker's solo talents to beat a more put together Ozone squad in the semifinals, but the seed was planted for greatness.
CJ Entus Blaze was the main story of Champions Spring 2013. After going 13-0 through the group stages and playoffs, they were on the verge of becoming the best team in Champions history. They were stopped in the finals by the Cinderella MVP Ozone squad, losing three straight games to Ozone and shocking the world with a one-sided final.
The passing of the crown would continue into the next season, OGN Summer. SK Telecom T1 #2 was the main story of the season, coming together from an impressive Royal Road season and improving on all their faults that hurt them in their debut. The KT Rolster Bullets would meet them in the finals, but they would fall 3-2, making it to the second time in two years that the Summer season of Champions would have a team go up 2-0 but lose the series 3-2 in the end. This would just be the start of someth more as, SK Telecom T1 went to Los Angeles to become world champions of Season 3.
Now, with Champions Spring 2014 about to begin, the biggest question is if SK Telecom T1 K can continue their unstoppable play. With captain PoohMandu stepping down for the time being due to a chronic illness, Casper, formerly IceBear of the Jin Air Stealths and the highest ranked support player in Korean solo queue, has taken over the position after over one hundred Challenger and Diamond 1 players put in their applications to take a spot on the ongoing perfect team.
With 18 straight games won in Champions, the streak will be tested on the first day of Champions Spring. SK Telecom T1 K plays against their sister team SK Telecom T1 S to open up another season of Champions.
Champions Spring English broadcasts begin Wednesday, March 12th at 1:30 AM PST (10:30 AM CET)
2012: The Empire of Fire and Ice
Beginning with Champions Spring 2012, OGN surged forward as the first full-fledged League of Legends tournament in Korea. Unlike today, the first tournament had two international imports -- the Season 1 champions Fnatic from Europe and Counter Logic Gaming from North America -- pitting themselves up against a gaggle of newly assembled Korean teams. The first season was the established veterans of the international scene versus the budding Korean scene. Both Fnatc and CLG would make it through the group stages, but neither were able to make it past the first round of the playoffs -- Fnatic dropped 0-2 to Team OP and CLG fell to the eventual champions of the entire tournament, MiG Blaze.
The first tournament was a booming success with hundreds of fans packed into the OGN studio to watch the international teams and the Korean teams that they would come to know intimately. The central story were the two Maximum Impact Gaming teams, Frost and Blaze, rolling through the league and making it to the inaugural finals.
Seen as the "B-team" to Frost's A, Blaze were the upset champions of the opening Champions tournament, coming out of nowhere in the finals to defeat their kin team 3-0 to raise the trophy.
Heading into the summer, OGN capitalized on their success by adding in more international teams: bringing in two European teams (CLG.eu, Natus Vincere), two North American teams (Dignitas, CLG), and even a single team from China with World Elite.
Not only were there more foreign teams, but sponsored Korean squads for the first time as well. Incredible Miracle and MVP made their first appearances in Group D of the tournament against the two CLG teams and fell to both. NaJin would evolve from a single team to two, giving the upstart player Maknoon his own team in NaJin Sword and building it around him. The two MiG teams that crushed the first season were rewarded by their own sponsorship by the Azubu organization. This would also be the introduction of KeSPA into Champions, with CJ Entus having a lackluster start as the last place team in Group C of the opening rounds.
The foreign teams would go 3/5 in qualifying for the playoffs, Natus Vincere and Dignitas falling in the first round of games. CLG.eu would be the leading foreign team this season, going through not only World Elite in the quarterfinals but Maknoon's NaJin Sword in the semifinals, making it to the finals. On the other side of the bracket, Azubu Frost blanked CLG 2-0 in the quarters and then had a face-off with Blaze once again in the semifinals.
In a classic series, Frost would get revenge for the opening season, beating them 3-2 and making their second Final. In a foreigner versus Korean final, the foreigners would get ahead to a fast start, going 2-0 and pushing Azubu Frost to the brink. Faltering in the final three games, CLG.eu couldn't keep up their momentum and lost the chance to become the first (and only) international Champions winners, losing to Frost 3-2 in front of thousands of fans in an outside venue.
The first year could be summed up in two words: Fire and Ice. The two MiG-then-Azubu teams were the vocal point of creating such a big impact in the Korean scene during the first few months of League of Legends in Korea, both teams still with two of the largest fan bases of any of the Korean teams today.
2013: Revolving Throne
2013 kicked off with a new format. With Riot starting their own leagues for North America and Europe, Champions become the official league of Korea, making it a Korean-only league, with China also creating their own tournament (the LPL) to determine which teams would make the World Championships at the end of the year. Azubu Frost and Blaze were still two of the top teams in the league, but with the growing popularity of League of Legends in Korea, more KeSPA teams started to appear. With the introduction of KT Rolster A and B into the scene, it would be the beginning of another two teams that would grow their own history in Champions through the seasons. KT Rolster B, made up mostly of players from the disbanded Startale team from a season before, took the top spot in Group B in dominating fashion, outshining former champions Azubu Blaze. Frost, the defending champions, would get out of Group A as the leading team, not crushing as soundly as the KT Rolster B squad but still looking like a team that could compete for a back-to-back title.
In the playoffs it would be the team that was built around the charismatic top laner Maknoon that would go on to win the entire tournament. Najin Sword surged through MVP White in the quarterfinals without dropping a game, and then upset the favored KT B in the semifinals to book their place in the finals. Sword put on a dominating performance against Frost to walk out as champions.
Olympus Spring 2013 would bring on more KeSPA teams. This time SK Telecom T1 introduced two teams into the fray: one led by the former top laner of Azubu Blaze, Reapered, and the other centered around a rookie named Faker that stayed atop of the Korean solo queue for months on end. The two Azubu teams would also go over to the KeSPA side, ending their contracts with Azubu and getting picked up by the CJ Entus organization that was the first to put their feet in the League of Legends waters two seasons before.
Faker had an electric debut. He led his team to the top of Group A and lived up to the hype that everyone expected out of him. They wouldn't win the tournament this time around, as the team was too reliant on Faker's solo talents to beat a more put together Ozone squad in the semifinals, but the seed was planted for greatness.
CJ Entus Blaze was the main story of Champions Spring 2013. After going 13-0 through the group stages and playoffs, they were on the verge of becoming the best team in Champions history. They were stopped in the finals by the Cinderella MVP Ozone squad, losing three straight games to Ozone and shocking the world with a one-sided final.
The passing of the crown would continue into the next season, OGN Summer. SK Telecom T1 #2 was the main story of the season, coming together from an impressive Royal Road season and improving on all their faults that hurt them in their debut. The KT Rolster Bullets would meet them in the finals, but they would fall 3-2, making it to the second time in two years that the Summer season of Champions would have a team go up 2-0 but lose the series 3-2 in the end. This would just be the start of someth more as, SK Telecom T1 went to Los Angeles to become world champions of Season 3.
2014: The Unstoppable Dynasty
After five seasons of teams passing through the crown, SK Telecom T1 K was the first to keep it. The perfect season would be the main storyline of the Champions Winter season. After going through the first rounds undefeated, they made it to the finals without a single loss. Against Samsung Ozone in the finals, it was a meeting of the team that stopped them in their very first season of Champions nearly a year earlier. SKT T1 K completed the perfect season, going 15-0 and winning their last 18 OGN games in a row going back to the season before against the Bullets in the finals. It would be their third straight major tournament victory, setting themselves apart from any team in Champions history and becoming a dynasty in the process.
Now, with Champions Spring 2014 about to begin, the biggest question is if SK Telecom T1 K can continue their unstoppable play. With captain PoohMandu stepping down for the time being due to a chronic illness, Casper, formerly IceBear of the Jin Air Stealths and the highest ranked support player in Korean solo queue, has taken over the position after over one hundred Challenger and Diamond 1 players put in their applications to take a spot on the ongoing perfect team.
With 18 straight games won in Champions, the streak will be tested on the first day of Champions Spring. SK Telecom T1 K plays against their sister team SK Telecom T1 S to open up another season of Champions.
Champions Spring English broadcasts begin Wednesday, March 12th at 1:30 AM PST (10:30 AM CET)