IEM Gyeonggi Report Card
I did it with Oakland. I feel like doing it again. Gyeonggi all together was a good and promising tournament, especially for fans of some of the teams that competed there. There were less pauses thanks to the magic of OGN Production. The double elimination format definitely provided more of an insight and better evaluation for the teams going into the next season. That only makes it all the more harder to pinpoint what to grade a team with. So here's to an attempt!
Kongdoo Monster (A+): First and foremost, neither finalist team to me deserved an S overall for the tournament. And I believe that even though they lost, they looked more consistent and to their form than that of Samsung. Bold to say. But at the same time, most would probably remember the Kongdoo that got relegated and use that as the basis of evaluation, then insult to those who lost to them. Back then, the majority of the team was bottom table in their respective roles without any synergy to even contend. They were surely relegation material. They took a split away in the summer, won that then the promotion tournament convincingly and then finished with a 2nd place in the KeSPA Cup in the similar 3-1 loss they took here. Nonetheless, they’re a team worth recognition at this point, and even before the event. However, with how stacked the LCK is coming up to be for the spring, there’s fear that they could be a super team’s bane or last year’s Ever.
Samsung Galaxy (A): They won: true. They are this year’s Worlds Finalists: true. One of these things did not look as evident at more instances against more opponents than expected. You could excuse the off season but in a case where the team nearly falls down to the loser’s bracket in the first round of the tournament off of what made the team such a middle pack force during the Wraith-Samsung period, that’s already a sign of doubt of whether or not Worlds was just a spark lit conveniently for them at the time. You can say it was like a warmup because their next matches began to look more like the tournament favorites Samsung. The consistency and pace of their games did look worse than that of KDM, often caused by a non-Viktor Crown or an off form Ambition. In the end of the day though, they locked in that Katowice spot just out of their grasp from Worlds.
Immortals (B): If only they had more time. There’s a world in the mind of some fans that saw IMT being able to take this to the finals or even win the whole thing. The best way to evaluate it though: run down each player. Flame was trapped in a meta that almost anyone can do well on. He still has the mechanical talent but it’s the top lane, which for this tournament was entirely based on how well he could execute with the team. Dardoch and Pobelter were relatively unchanged in their general style. Minor adjustment and gelling should do the trick. The big story behind IMT falls to their bot lane, specifically through synergy between Olleh and Cody Sun, with the latter sharing a similar sore spot to the team as DoubleRed had somewhat done of the Flash Wolves in Oakland. The games definitely showed his strengths and weaknesses in his champion pool; nothing more to nail down upon. But for his first appearance on an LCS level team at an international event out the gate, he did his job enough with his teammates and gave hope for fans coming into the spring.
Team Liquid (C+): There were times where I found myself shouting at the amount of unfortunate situations or unusual circumstances that this team had come upon, especially in their team fighting. You can definitely point out Goldenglue specifically, sharing a similar strength and weakness of his champion pool for the tournament like Cody Sun. But in the end of the day, who was the bigger disappointment: Goldenglue or Piglet? To be too slow to the punch or too out of position or exposed trying harder than WildTurtle to make a play? Consistently inconsistent is a phrase once spoken about another horse icon team of some kind. Either way, for a group of players mostly connected through the Liquid Org, the synergy didn’t look anything like what it could’ve been. Then again, TLA failed to qualify, Piglet and Matt have only recently united under the same roster, Reignover had a case like Olleh on limited days of practice. It might have been expected. Too many factors exist which need to be ironed out in the near future.
GIANTS Gaming (C+): The team built around Night and Hustlin was actually impressive at many points. To put them on the grading line of Liquid despite taking the 0-4 choking session to fall out of the tournament is my personal line of respect as to how well the team could work around their carries. They may not have had that kind of “unknown performance” story like that of IMT, but at least taking on the likes of Liquid and Kongdoo as valiantly as they did is a relieving feeling to close out Europe’s bizarre reputation this year. The only question to really ask about this team is where they’ll fall in the groups. What would be their most ideal group to stay out of 5th and relegation but also have a shot at hitting playoffs? (In case you don’t know, EULCS is doing a LPL like format for the spring)
J Team (C): They’re slipping alright. If I remember correctly, they planned to use this tournament to tryout talent and synergy. Their first game was brutal on them and they effectively recovered off of Vega in the losers’ side with the substitution for their main ADC in Bebe. Again though, they are slipping. Even with a well fought series vs IMT before their departure, the team that took the LMS Summer by storm only to fall back into TPA tendencies at the end is starting to really come back out. And for a fan of TPA or JT, that’s worrying going into LMS Spring. Is it too late to switch to rooting for Machi though?
Vega Squadron (C-): Such a fantastic start to the tournament by this team. But clearly experience played the largest factor to their early elimination for this tournament. Besides Lex and Edward, the team just did not have enough resilience to shake off the unfortunate loss in the first round and thus, RIP the Russian dream. Looking back, these guys have a handful of “what ifs” that could be thrown out. One of them being, “What if the Wildcards were overhyped off of Albus Nox Luna’s Worlds run?”
Dark Passage (D-): Like this team even though they weren’t overhyped at all. Seriously I have no idea who was worse between INTZ and DP; two teams often regarded as the better teams of the best regions of the IWC. Heck, it’s the 1st place teams from both qualifiers. To go out without much of a statement may have IWC fans reconsidering the “gap” between them or even who’s the next region meant to shine and contest with the premier regions. Placing bets for the IWCI! (Not really – I hate betting)
And that concludes this evaluation. I may have missed some points but it was fun to make the attempts at giving an honest opinion at the teams that played here. Katowice is next on the IEM road and one team remains for qualification to the event (unless it was announced last night and I didn't hear it). But you know, March is a bit of time away and expectations can turn better or worse.
