Rising Tides: yoe Flash Wolves give hope to Taiwan
Riot·4/1/2015, 11:42:50 PM·0 votes·3,153 views
Fourth place is not usually a placement of particular honor. Yet, for Taiwan's yoe Flash Wolves, their IEM Katowice placement belies its significance. Their home region might be one of the prestigious few to boast of owning a World Championship title, but the Taipei Assassins' miraculous run through 2012 was -- for esports -- a very long time ago. In the intervening years, the region has fallen into increasing obscurity on the international stage.
All of the teams at Katowice were playing for their home region as much as for themselves. But the Wolves bore an additional burden -- to prove to their own fans that they belonged there at all.
Even in Katowice, the threat of that fragility loomed. "After losing to SK, even Fluidwind thought, 'Maybe our region isn't that good,'" said MrRemember. "On the second day, even winning versus Cloud9 -- it was more like C9 didn't know how to close the game."
MrRemember recalls that the last two years had been a gradual step-down in expectations. "Because we beat down the Korean and Chinese teams in Season 2, lots of people thought, 'TPA is good!' But Season 3, we lost all of our international matches. People thought, 'We're not that good, but we're still better than the LCS regions.' Then last year, we saw TPA lose to SK and TSM, and SK even without Svenskeren in the jungle. And only AHQ won against EDG -- a miracle. After last year, I think the audience thought our region's really weak -- no difference from the GPL or International Wildcards."
The Flash Wolves had managed to practice versus both TSM and WE, the Katowice finalists, during their time in the city. Said Fluidwind, "We scrimmed versus TSM and thought we were really close -- but they're stronger than us in strategy. They use hard-engage comps like Sivir/Annie -- we usually play Janna or Morgana to secure our AD carry's damage and use long-range champions to defeat them in team fights, and aren't 100% confident with their team comp. Their team members have very good skill -- I think Bjergsen was the best mid laner of that tournament."
"Especially in the mid game, we think our team knows how to win this game—even when competing with the LCK or LCS teams," said MrRemember. Fluidwind and Steak confirmed that top LMS teams spend most of their scrim time against their Korean and Chinese peers. Top LMS players practice primarily on Korean servers too.
What might have ultimately saved the region was Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macau's departure from the GPL entirely -- paradoxically, because it was now even harder for the teams. "In the GPL, there are only two or three strong teams. Only TPA and AHQ are strong, but you could only face them two times in groups and in semifinals every four months," explained Fluidwind. "Most of the time, you're facing teams you can never lose against—now they have to practice hard, and I think this makes a big difference." The intensive focus, and Maple’s return to mid lane, has put the yoe Flash Wolves at the forefront of the Master Series, where they are expected to win the spring split title outright.
But victory in the LMS isn’t enough to whet their appetites. They still have farther to go, and more growing to do, and have a very concrete idea of what it takes thanks to the pan-Asian networking between the LPL and LCK circuits. Said Fluidwind, "We think [top LMS teams] are almost the same as LCS NA and EU's best teams -- not that easy to defeat them, but not easy to defeat us either. But I think LPL and Korea are still stronger. EDG is stronger than GE Tigers—we scrimmed with EDG and they're really hard to play against. The LCK teams aren't at the same level."
"I don't think we'd have a chance to win versus EDG in a Best of 5," admitted Steak, at least for now. He expects EDG to have a significant advantage come the Mid Season Invitational. But he's confident that the Wolves -- and everybody else -- will reach parity by October.
OLD GLORY
"Since Season 2, a lot of [LoL Master Series] fans only love TPA and AHQ," said Wang "MrRemember" Chi-Te, head caster for the LMS and former analyst for the Flash Wolves. In fact, the regional community's expectations for the Wolves was extremely low: Wang admits that much of the audience thought that the Taiwanese region just wasn't that good anymore. In his words, there was "no hope, no power to compete with others." The internal assessment, among players and coaches, was similarly grim. "In the past two years, our region was really bad," said Shih "Fluidwind" Yi-Hao, Flash Wolves analyst, citing a particular weakness among Taiwanese teams when put under high pressure matches. From his prior work as Taipei Assassin’s analyst, he claims that their scrim results were far in excess of what was demonstrated before the cameras, yet the Assassins were quickly demoralized upon their first defeat.
Even in Katowice, the threat of that fragility loomed. "After losing to SK, even Fluidwind thought, 'Maybe our region isn't that good,'" said MrRemember. "On the second day, even winning versus Cloud9 -- it was more like C9 didn't know how to close the game."
MrRemember recalls that the last two years had been a gradual step-down in expectations. "Because we beat down the Korean and Chinese teams in Season 2, lots of people thought, 'TPA is good!' But Season 3, we lost all of our international matches. People thought, 'We're not that good, but we're still better than the LCS regions.' Then last year, we saw TPA lose to SK and TSM, and SK even without Svenskeren in the jungle. And only AHQ won against EDG -- a miracle. After last year, I think the audience thought our region's really weak -- no difference from the GPL or International Wildcards."
CONTENDERS
Yet, in contrast to the pessimism of the community both globally and at home, "we expected to hit the semifinals," claimed both Fluidwind and top laner Chou "Steak" Lu-Hsi. "Our opponents weren't that bad," said Fluidwind. "We thought GE Tigers would be the best team in the tournament, but they weren't. We think, to fight against SK, it was a 50% chance—they're a really good team. Every team in every region was really strong, not that easy to defeat, but also with their own disadvantages."
The Flash Wolves had managed to practice versus both TSM and WE, the Katowice finalists, during their time in the city. Said Fluidwind, "We scrimmed versus TSM and thought we were really close -- but they're stronger than us in strategy. They use hard-engage comps like Sivir/Annie -- we usually play Janna or Morgana to secure our AD carry's damage and use long-range champions to defeat them in team fights, and aren't 100% confident with their team comp. Their team members have very good skill -- I think Bjergsen was the best mid laner of that tournament."
"Especially in the mid game, we think our team knows how to win this game—even when competing with the LCK or LCS teams," said MrRemember. Fluidwind and Steak confirmed that top LMS teams spend most of their scrim time against their Korean and Chinese peers. Top LMS players practice primarily on Korean servers too.
LESSONS LEARNED
So what changed between their failures in 2013, 2014, and now? Humility, hard-earned twice over, was the greatest contributing factor for the Flash Wolves’ recent successes. "Before Season 3, I know the Bears didn't scrim and practice that hard," said Fluidwind, referring to the team’s former Gamania Bears sponsors. "They've been a little cocky, and thought they could easily defeat the teams at Worlds, then learned that every team was really strong. They saw their VODs and thought 'they're really bad,' but couldn't defeat them in a single match -- the team was in shock." From there on out, the team spiraled downward. Not only did their old sponsors close shop, but the new age restrictions for Season 4 threw a wrench into their team synergy. Mid laner Maple, then 16, was shuffled off to the Wolves’ junior team, and the main team’s subsequent performance in the expanded Southeast Asia Garena Premier League circuit hammered in their inadequacies. "After they got out of the GPL, they finally had to think about why they lost. 'We're good players, but we can't even stay in the GPL. How did that happen? That's really awkward.' They had to think about what disadvantages they hadn't conquered, and finally improved their strategy and techniques."
What might have ultimately saved the region was Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macau's departure from the GPL entirely -- paradoxically, because it was now even harder for the teams. "In the GPL, there are only two or three strong teams. Only TPA and AHQ are strong, but you could only face them two times in groups and in semifinals every four months," explained Fluidwind. "Most of the time, you're facing teams you can never lose against—now they have to practice hard, and I think this makes a big difference." The intensive focus, and Maple’s return to mid lane, has put the yoe Flash Wolves at the forefront of the Master Series, where they are expected to win the spring split title outright.
But victory in the LMS isn’t enough to whet their appetites. They still have farther to go, and more growing to do, and have a very concrete idea of what it takes thanks to the pan-Asian networking between the LPL and LCK circuits. Said Fluidwind, "We think [top LMS teams] are almost the same as LCS NA and EU's best teams -- not that easy to defeat them, but not easy to defeat us either. But I think LPL and Korea are still stronger. EDG is stronger than GE Tigers—we scrimmed with EDG and they're really hard to play against. The LCK teams aren't at the same level."
"I don't think we'd have a chance to win versus EDG in a Best of 5," admitted Steak, at least for now. He expects EDG to have a significant advantage come the Mid Season Invitational. But he's confident that the Wolves -- and everybody else -- will reach parity by October.
