GE Tigers prepare to win Korea

When one speaks of the GE Tigers, a group of handsome young South Korean men wearing pink cat ears and sweaters likely comes to mind. While their wardrobe in the booth sparked an instantaneous love affair between the Tigers and would-be fans, it was their dominating in-game performances that kept them coming back for more. While the nature of the gauntlet playoff format has kept the Tigers out of their natural habitat on the Rift for a few weeks, GE now enters the SBENU Champions Spring 2015 playoffs in the exact position that they want to be: with ample time to stalk their prey and study their opponents.

Preseason Mediocrity

Composed of four presumed has-beens and star support player Kang “GorillA” Beom-hyeon, the GE Tigers were a bit of a Champions anomaly from the get-go. Most had been passed over by other teams. Former NaJin Black Sword AD Carry Kim “PraY” Jong-in, had dealt with whispered words of retirement from fans and pundits alike, while the others, jungler Lee “Lee” Ho-Jin, mid laner Lee “KurO” Seo-haeng, and top laner Song “Smeb” Kyung-ho were already seen as mediocre competitors from their limited Champions success. Little was expected of the team as they made their way through the Champions Spring Qualifier and entered the preseason. The Tigers’ preseason performance lived up to expectations. They lost 0-2 to the formidable new SK Telecom T1, split a set with KT Rolster, and beat both the Jin Air Green Wings and CJ Entus 2-0 to land solidly in the middle of the pack. Going into the regular season, expectations were moderate. GE turned these expectations on their head, and stormed through the first six weeks of Champions Spring 2015, not dropping a game until their Week 6 2-1 victory over SK Telecom. The Tigers continued this domestic dominance in the second half of the season, locking up the number one spot while only losing two of their 14 Best of 3 series.

NoFe, No Life

Much of the GE Tigers’ success comes from carefully crafted strategies tailored to their specific opponents. With former NaJin White Shield jungler Jeong “NoFe” No-chul at the helm as Head Coach, the Tigers have continuously put themselves in the most advantageous position to win as soon as their champions are locked in the lobby. Describing the pick and ban phase like a card game where one evaluates the champion pool cards in their hand and the cards in their opponents’ hand, NoFe has expertly provided the best tools for GE’s players to succeed. Under NoFe’s guidance, Smeb, who was seen as an average player at best prior to Champions Spring 2015, blossomed into a superstar with the highest KDA of all top laners at 5.7. He also made a name for himself as one of the best Gnar players in the world -- often drawing target bans -- playing the champion well past his prior popularity in the meta. Also coming into his own during the rise of NoFe’s Tigers is jungler Lee. Previously picked up by NaJin Black Sword, Lee stood out in the SK Telecom LTE-A Masters tournament, but struggled in Hot6ix Champions Summer 2014. Released by NaJin on Oct. 31, 2014, Lee landed on the Tigers that November, and became instrumental in their Champions Spring 2015 success. Suddenly, Lee was controlling and coordinating his team on champions like Lee Sin, Rek’Sai, and Jarvan IV instead of falling behind his opponents. Even in GE’s arguably weak early game, Lee’s presence was felt around the map and he often made the plays in the mid game that got his team back on track.

Falling to World Elite

Now known for their ability to prepare and NoFe’s careful command of Champion Select, the GE Tigers were favored to win the IEM Season IX World Championship at Katowice. Undefeated in a series at that time, they entered the competition overwhelmingly favored. Their matches against Cloud9 and SK Gaming proved exactly why the Tigers were so fearsome in their preparation. Against C9, the GE Tigers completely out-manuevered their North American opponents in Champion Select, banning mid laner Hai “Hai” Lam’s Zed, along with two of C9’s successful jungle picks in Nidalee and Vi, and put their jungler on his comfort champion of Lee Sin. They then proceeded to target Hai in the mid lane, also capitalizing on C9’s overly aggressive dives. Against SK, GE showcased the freshly-minted strategy of banning out AD Carry Konstantinos “FORG1VENGRE” Tzortziou’s best champions in Graves and Lucian, a strategy that other teams would use upon SK’s return to the European League Championship Series. Throwing a wrench into GE’s planning was Team WE, the then last place team in China’s LoL Pro League. Carried by their jungler, former Samsung Galaxy Blue player Lee “Spirit” Da-yoon, Team WE unexpectedly made it through to face GE in the bracket stage. After the first game’s pick ban phase, even with the GE victory, it was apparent that GE had not heavily scouted WE, as they had not attempted to ban out Spirit. In the following two games, Spirit managed to get Jarvan IV and Rek’sai, two of the three champions -- the third being Nidalee -- that Spirit could hard carry WE to victory on. GE also neglected to ward deeply and often enough to track Spirit in game and shut him down. The end result was an embarrassing 2-1 loss to the LPL’s worst team.

Late Season Experimentation

Returning to Korea humbled, the Tigers continued to terrorize their domestic opponents, quickly locking up the number one seed before using the waning weeks to experiment. With the Mid Season Invitational bid tied to the Champions Spring title, GE wisely grasped the opportunity to work on their own weak points, as opposed to preparing for a specific opponent. This was particularly evidenced in their Week 11 Best of 3 against NaJin e-mFire. In their first match, Lee tried out Nidalee to a surprising amount of success. Combining Nidalee’s early game prowess and GE’s knowledge of NaJin, Lee initially three-buffed his opponent Yoon “Peanut” Wang-ho, and snowballed his advantage from there. The second match, GE aggressively initiated onto NaJin in their own jungle, using crowd control from GorillA’s Nautilus and a timely teleport from Smeb’s Hecarim. It was a bit awkward but proved that GE was attempting to work on their oft-weak early game before playoffs. With their finals match against SK Telecom looming, GE know that they have a lot to prove. Their opponent is looking unshakeable after an impressive 3-2 comeback win against CJ Entus, who had handily taken games one and two. In a recent interview, NoFe reiterated the fact that it’s ultimately how the team plays that decides the game, and often determines how one looks at Champion Select after the fact. Acknowledging that they will prepare heavily for these finals, NoFe also admitted that he was nervous, especially after seeing SK Telecom reverse sweep CJ. The Tigers will have the time they need to carefully prepare for the finals so that on May 2, all they will have left to do is play their game.

• A Return to Form: SK Telecom
• A Bit of a Fixer-Upper: KT Rolster