SKT's road to World Champion

Riot·11/3/2015, 7:49:03 PM·4 votes·70,762 views

SKTelecom T1 is now the only team to win the World Championship twice.

And what's more, in this most recent win they even outdid 2014 champion Samsung White, beating that dominant team's record by dropping only one game throughout the entire World Championship.

But the 2015 Season could have played out much differently if it wasn't for SKT getting a dose of humility very early on in the season, and several reminders of what it truly means to be a champion. We sat down with Worlds MVP Gyeong-Hwan "MaRin" Jang and two-time World Championship coach Jung-gyun "kkOma" Kim to find out how the team evolved over the year to become the last team standing yet again.

The Exodus

SKT T1 K was a shadow of their former selves in most of 2014. With Samsung Blue, White, and the KT Rolster Arrows dominating the latter part of the year, SKT failed to make Worlds. And with that came the real test for SKT. How to consolidate a roster of rising stars with former World Champions.

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But the Korean landscape in 2015 marked a brave new world.

In order to reduce the size of the Korean professional scene from 16 teams to 8, all of the KeSPA clubs in Korea disbanded their sister teams. For a number of teams, including most notably the Samsung rosters, it meant losing players to the LPL, where enormous six- and seven-figure salaries aren't uncommon. For SKT, and some others like them, it meant consolidating extremely good rosters.

SKTelecom T1 K 2014

Impact
bengi
Faker
Piglet
PoohManDu

SKTelecom T1 S 2014

MaRin
H0R0
Easyhoon
Bang
Wolf

SKT had the unique realization that their strongest five players weren't those that competed on the 2013 World Championship-winning roster from SKT T1 K. "Even though each player had their own performances in the past, and definitely the players from SKT T1 K had a better record, from winning the Championship and the LCK, looking at the individual skill levels of our players, I knew we would get a better team by merging the two teams," SKT coach kkOma explains. "After we merged the two teams, I didn't actually separate the starters from substitutes. I just thought of our entire team as starters."

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kkOma's philosophy on each player being equal holds even to this day. Throughout the early part of the season and pre-season, players were cycled in and out of the starting lineup.

"I [think] that competition between two players of the same position definitely helped our team increase our skill level," kkOma says. "If a player can't even stand the competition for his position, then that player can't even compete with other players on other teams to win that tournament or Championship. So overall, I think having multiple players at a position definitely helped our team improve."

In the end, the roster that enjoyed the most playtime was MaRin, bengi, Faker, Bang, and Wolf -- with Easyhoon, T0m, and Piccaboo as lesser timeshares. The rest of the 2014 lineup either retired, or moved on to other teams.

Once is Chance

After going undefeated in the 2015 LCK Pre-Season, SKT looked like an unstoppable juggernaut with their combined roster. It didn't come as a huge surprise. Most of the other teams had complications with their combined rosters, such as having superstar players at the same positions. And considering the large exodus of Korean players, it was logical that a team that had lost none of their choice starters would be the best team in Korea.

With teammates pushing each other to reach the next level, SKT looked primed to take the LCK Spring Season easily. But that didn't last long.

"In the pre-season we won all of our games, but going into the Spring season, a lot of people were saying SKT was going to be the best team, we were just overconfident," say SKT top laner MaRin.

SKT started the LCK regular season 4-3, suffering losses to CJ Entus, Jin Air Greenwings, and the KOO Tigers (nee GE Tigers). SKT learned the first lesson of many throughout the year -- yes, they had the potential to be the best team in the world, but you only got there through preparation and hard work. Throughout our interview sessions, this one and several others we've had with him during Worlds, MaRin maintains the same fact:

"We always believe we can lose to anyone."

Twice is Coincidence

Following their slow start, SKT went on a massive winning streak -- they won the entire round robin to go 7-0, including a 2-0 victory over the KOO Tigers. Their motivation, and greater sense of vulnerability, came from an unlikely source.

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"When we first started Spring Split, we were told that whoever was the first place team after the first round would go to IEM Katowice. So that was our first goal," MaRin explains. "But after dropping a couple games, we missed that opportunity. So from that point on, we aimed for MSI. And that's how we re-equipped ourselves and practiced harder."

But given CJ's and KOO Tigers' collapse at IEM Katowice, SKT realized that Korea's seat at the top of the mountaintop wasn't safe. "After watching [KOO] and CJ losing at IEM Katowice, we thought we might lose to other regions at MSI," MaRin says. "So for that reason, we prepared harder. And we practiced even more before going to MSI."

Not only did SKT practice harder, they changed how they practiced, and who they practiced with. Instead of looking down upon the foreign teams as lesser competition, SKT yearned to learn and improve through their practice with them -- learning other regions' tricks and adapting those skills into their own gameplan. "Before IEM we spent most of our scrims practicing with Korean teams only. But after IEM we started to play with some foreign teams now and then," MaRin explains. "Some Chinese teams, some LMS teams. And also, at MSI, we scrimmed almost every single team at that tournament so that we would be more prepared for more teams."

Their training paid off. SKT was able to get through CJ Entus and KOO Tigers to win Korea and secure their spot at MSI.

But the next speed bump of their season lay ahead.

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Thrice is a Pattern

"During the first couple days scrimming with other teams at MSI, we actually didn't play that well and we lost a lot of games," MaRin explains. "We thought that we might not be able to win this tournament."

SKT pushed through the Mid-Season Invitational Group Stage looking vulnerable, despite their undefeated record. Much to the frustration of foreign fans, Easyhoon was the midlaner of choice for much of the tournament, leading many to question SKT's coaching, or perhaps how seriously they wanted to win each match.

"Even from the start we never thought of Easyhoon as a substitute or insurance for Faker, or whatever else people might say," kkOma explains. "We just thought that we had two mid laners, and whoever is performing best at that time before the game, will play in the game. Still, even right now, we don't think of one as a substitute and one as a starter. They're two mid laners on an equal level. And whoever has better performance on that day, will play."

With the MSI meta shaping up around Azir and Cassiopeia, two champions with which Easyhoon excels, Easyhoon saw the lion's' share of playtime for SKT. But no matter who their midlaner was, SKT did not have confidence in their ability to sweep through the event as many fans expected. "I think because of losing those games in scrims we were able to practice harder, and that's how we were able to even get to the Finals. By identifying mistakes, practicing harder, and acknowledging that this wasn't going to be easy for us."

In the MSI Playoffs, a close 3-2 win against the EU LCS' Fnatic led to a 3-2 defeat at the hands of Edward Gaming. It seems that MaRin's fears were founded. The foreign teams had caught up, and SKT was no longer the best.

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The team was devastated and frustrated.

"By losing at MSI, at that time, a lot of our players had a hard time managing themselves. Getting sick, or tired, or just not performing as they should have," MaRin explains. "So after that tournament, we learned that we should know how to manage ourselves in future international tournaments. And in preparing for the Summer Split, I'm sure that individually everyone thought that we wanted to have revenge on Edward Gaming and we wanted to beat them at the [next] tournament."

MaRin continues, "I can't say for my other teammates, but for my own personal experience, after losing MSI -- there's a phrase in Korean that you kick in bed, because you're so angry or mad, like inner turmoil -- I was in that state after losing MSI. I was just so frustrated. I felt like I really wanted to win against EDG if we met them again in the future. I kept pushing myself to practice harder."

MaRin admits that the team let their preparation slack leading up to MSI, in part because of high ping rates that the team was not used to in Florida. "I regret not playing Solo Queue as much as I should have. I could have practiced harder, but I decided not to. So after losing at MSI, I thought I should practice as much as I could. In general I played a lot more games than before."

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In speaking with KOO and SKT, their shift in mindset became clear. While it's unfair to say they began to fear foreign teams, it's unquestionable that they had previously been over-confident. The Korean meta that dominated a year before was not enough to win alone anymore.

"We could say we were overconfident or didn't respect the other regions that much," KOO Tigers coach NoFe says. "We just thought that the LCK meta was the right meta, like we didn't have to learn from other regions. We believed that our meta was the right one for the game, for the tournament. And once we played other teams we felt, right away, that other regions had improved a lot and that there was a lot of difference."

But the foreign teams did not understand the motivation that had been instilled in the Korean teams as a result of Korea's mid-season failures. Korea would come back harder, and more motivated than ever before.

"After IEM and MSI we respected foreign teams much more and acknowledged that other regions were improving at a fast pace," MaRin explains.

They would not make the same mistake again.

The Return of the King

"Actually, what motivated us more was the fact that every region has improved so much," kkOma explains. "It was no longer a given fact that Korea would win no matter what. We had to keep practicing and improving to compete with other regions."

In LCK Summer, SKT was nigh-untouchable. Throughout the Summer Split, they went 17-1 in matches, losing only to CJ Entus in Week 10. Combined across all series, they won 35 of 41 games -- a remarkable 85% win rate.

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"There are two steps to [our improvement]. One is that after with merging to one team, it took time for us to work as a team," MaRin explains. "And as that time passed, we played more as a team and got to get to know each other. We used much better teamwork with each other. The second step is that as our individual skills grew, our team plays grew as well."

SKT's improvement was exponential, and accelerated, now with their renewed motivation to prove their superiority both in Korea and internationally. In fans eyes, there was never a doubt of SKT's winning Korea. But in SKT's eyes?

"For both Spring and Summer, and even right now, we always think there is a chance we might lose. So that's why we concentrate more and prepare harder to prevent that from happening."

With renewed vigor and playing like one of the best teams in the world, SKTelecom T1 stepped up to the Worlds stage as the favorite -- just not in their own eyes.

"During Group Stage, even though we thought we were one of the top teams, we didn't see ourselves as the best team," MaRin explains. "Because we'd drop a couple of games during scrims and we weren't performing as we'd expected. So at that time, we didn't expect that we'd come to the Finals without losing a single game. And because of that anxiety, we were uncertain about our performance, so we tried even harder to get to the level that we wanted."

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In addition to humility, kkOma, explains there was a sense of regional pride. "Even at MSI, I said that I wanted to prove that Korea was still the strongest region. Of course, at that time, we failed."

All their experiences for the past two years culminated in a World Championship for SKT. "Through the losses and the experiences of last year, we've talked and made sure that we made it back to the same position," kkOma says. "Through with what we struggled with last year, it helped us bounce back this year, because the experience of all those losses and discussions and practices, that helped us a lot this year."

"There were a few moments we were behind a couple thousand gold, and I think that's because we made a few crucial mistakes," MaRin says. "But even when we made mistakes and got behind, our opponents would also make mistakes. But we didn't miss those opportunities and grabbed them. We were able to take advantages of their mistakes and turn the tide around. I think that's why we were able to come back. When we were behind, if the enemy team was able to finish the game through our mistake, they probably should have. But those teams made mistakes and we were able to close out the game at those points.

We were able to capitalize more than our opponents and prove that we were the better team."

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No matter how far behind SKT got in a game, no matter how bleak things got, they always managed to come back. Their accomplishment is equal parts humility, strength of will, and vindication for a year of failure and half a year of mistakes. And now -- finally -- SKT has what they've wanted all year: vindication.

"Coming into Worlds, I definitely had the goal to show that Korea is one of the top regions in the world, and I think achieved that goal since we have two Korean teams in the Finals," kkOma says. "But, by having SKT win the tournament, I want to show that we're the best among the best region."

I think it's safe to say, everyone agrees with kkOma now.