IEM Oakland Report Card
As the title states, I would like to give a shot at running down the evaluation of each of the teams that competed at IEM Oakland. The order is pretty much down the line so I'll treat it as more or less of a post tournament reaction.
Unicorns of Love (A+) : The kingpin of unpredictability from their play style and tendency to just show up when you least expect it. They took their training during Worlds season and unleashed it on 3 top teams from their respective regions. And now they walk away with their first official trophy after having come up short so many times in bo5 series. But how? How did a team with such a less than adequate roster at the start of the summer maintain being a team worth respecting. Well they stuck together as a start then continued to play their game. Two of the newest recruits in Exileh and Veritas came from drowning in the pool of NA and EU Challenger and finally got to show what they're made of. Who deserves this credit though? Vizicsacsi? Sheepy? The power of Love?
I for one didn't think they were going to get as far as they did in the tournament, let alone win. I had my head tilted a bit when the analysts pitched them to win the whole thing. I was not disappointed in the slightest. Their games were scrappy at a lot of points but controlled when they got the ball in their court. You're not always going to get perfect play but as long as it's entertaining (even with over an hour of collective pause time) it's pretty alright. Hence the A+. With less hiccups against TSM and FW, that would've been enough to me for a S level performance.
Flash Wolves (A-) : Just behind UOL was the first round bye and Taiwan's 1st place representative, Flash Wolves. For the tournament, they brought in two new subs to the team but only fielded that of DoubleRed in their AD position in place of NL. The style of the team was not so much different from their showing at Worlds. At least they weren't taking a massively dominating game lead and choking it all away in disappointing fashion. At the same time, it didn't feel like the overly dominant playoff FW team from the summer split either. It was somewhere in the middle to be good enough to take games off of teams but not in outstanding form to say they're favorites. Part of me still believes that Worlds weighed heavy on them.
Team SoloMid (B-) : A tough break for the considered fan favorites to win the entire tournament despite several matters hailing down upon them. The loss of Doublelift for this tournament was evident, even having initially said they were opting out in search for a suitable replacement. They step right back in and at first glance, they look great. 1-0 game in a fashion that never seems to fail them domestically. But then the style they won is banned out and the pick/bans were lost at champ select through WildTurtle's inability to play a formidable Jhin (he's called Wild Turtle for a reason). Other lanes fell equal to their counterpart if not worse outside of the jungle. And just like that, it was over for them. With only a single series sample size, it's hard to grade them any higher or lower. At least each game they put up a fight instead of played like headless chickens. Some excuses are valid enough to give them the slap on the wrist.
**Longzhu Gaming (C) ** : In the back of my mind, I was wondering to myself, "Was I expecting anything from this team?" All the way back at Spring this team came together as a believed super team of talents from all over Korea. And then the super team syndrome hit where they didn't amount to much of anything. Still an Incredible Miracle in the end. Now they were capable of taking down The Chiefs in relatively standard 2-0 fashion but clearly struggled while doing so, giving them ways to get back into the game at several points. Expession was probably the only standout player going for their team. With Frozen's positioning and the jungler dilemma, they were just an easily exploitable team through their solo lanes resulting in a clean enough 0-2 loss vs FW. In the end of the day, at least it wasn't CJ Entus. But at the same time, what if it was Afreeca Freecs?
**The Chiefs (C) ** : Like TSM, a one series sample size that makes it kind of hard to put a proper grade on them. Off of that single game, I would honestly have to question whether it was Chiefs playing as good as they could against a Korean team in Longzhu or was Longzhu just that bad at controlling a game after 15 minutes. The Chiefs fell into a "wrong place, wrong time" cycle that caused them to scatter like ants...a lot. Enough scattering kept them in the fight but once the full team fights came, they were outmatched and Swiffer and Raes weren't enough to keep them alive. All and all, they did what they came to the tournament to do: represent for their region.
INTZ e-Sports (D-) : And speaking of representing, might I say: ouch. This wasn't what I was hoping from with the Brazilian 1st place team. Tockers trampled upon, Micao stomped flat, and Jockster...Jokester? Either way. The team was not mentally ready for the tournament to make a statement for themselves after their fallout in Worlds with an astonishing victory against EDG. Granted they faced off against the always unpredictable and ultimately winning UOL. It was disappointing nonetheless. Even still, the Challenger qualifiers looked convincing enough to at least have expected a fight out of them. But that's just the way of competition. You can be champion one day and lose to amateurs the next.
And that's my take on the tournament. Looking ahead to Gyeonggi with what is hopefully going to be a the full 8 team tournament format it was supposed to be for Oakland, I'm expecting it to be clearer than it was. Also with less pauses. But what are the odds of that?
