Edward Gaming: Return to Power
Riot·9/4/2014, 1:01:48 AM·0 votes·11,701 views
As a result of internal conflict, one of the most dominant teams in competitive League of Legends history, Team World Elite (WE), split in half and key members left the team to join Edward Gaming (EDG). With the recent retirements of WE’s star top laner, CaoMei, and AD carry, WeiXiao, Feng “Fzzf” Zhuojun and Ming “Clearlove” Kai are the only remaining members of the dominant WE lineup still competing. The two are already bound for the 2014 World Championship to vy for the one title WE failed to secure prior to their six and a half months of dominance in 2012 and 2013.
Key to Edward Gaming’s initial synergy and success was the careful attention Coach Ji “Aaron” Xing and EDG’s management took in crafting the team. They knew they had contenders for top two in China in the jungle and support roles with Clearlove and Fzzf, and would need to fill out a roster to complement their existing stars. They sought out Zhu “NaMei” Jiawen, who many had come to favor as the best AD carry in China after he and his support, Li “Sicca” Haoyu, led Positive Energy to their 2013 Summer Playoff victory over OMG.
To complete the lineup, they took a recommendation from Clearlove for the top lane, Tong “Koro1” Yang, who he had personally mentored. Ceng “U” Long would join the team as the mid laner from Doran Esports. U was valued for his versatility, as his champion picks would often become the glue that held EDG’s compositions together. The team began to forge a formula for perfect team fighting that worked because everyone knew their job and could do it well. Fights began with a single target engagement from Fzzf, followed by assassination from Clearlove, AOE zoning and control from U and Koro1, and cleanup from NaMei. Synergy proved one of the team’s greatest strengths, even in EDG’s first LPL matches.
Despite initial success, EDG continued to receive negative attention from WE fans. Clearlove received frequent death threats. Even NaMei, U, and Koro1 were not free from harassment. In a recent incident, U posted an innocent comment about a cell phone game called “Ninja Must Die” on his weibo. Since Noh “Ninja” Geonwoo is the starting mid laner for team World Elite, the post received a lot of out of context criticism, and even U’s girlfriend received threats from militant WE fans.
Many of these attacks were made by an extremely vocal minority, but EDG continued to persevere. The team’s manager, San Shao, has stated that their mantra has always been “Talk with results.” If they could prove they were the best team in China, support would drown out the critics. This wasn’t always easy, and OMG became the team’s first major obstacle on the way to the top.
After an entire 2014 LPL Spring split of losing to OMG, Edward Gaming managed to 2-0 them in a third party tournament called International Esports Tournament—which, despite the name, only included Chinese teams. The victory came from exploiting the shallow champion pool of OMG’s temporary mid laner, Hu “xiyang” Bin, and heavy ganks from Clearlove. This initial success snowballed EDG into the 2014 LPL Spring Playoffs, where they took down the classic leaders of the Chinese scene, World Elite and Invictus Gaming, to claim their first LPL first place title.
Yet OMG wasn’t down for the count. The team picked up a rising support talent, Hu “Cloud” Zhenwei, and their play-making mid laner, Yu “Cool” Jiajun returned to the starting lineup. When Edward Gaming first faced OMG in a best of two in the Summer split, both teams faced grueling back-and-forth games. Though EDG would come out on top in the first game, OMG’s Drug ganked his team into a snowballed frenzy in the second game to even the score. OMG’s performances in subsequent sets then catapulted them into first place early.
OMG wasn’t the only team to stand out as rivals for EDG. Clearlove and Fzzf’s old teammates, WeiXiao and CaoMei, led the charge in the lane swapping meta, and World Elite was constantly warring with OMG and EDG for first place. WE even managed to 2-1 EDG at the Intel Extreme Masters Shenzhen. With the rivalry stronger than ever, the teams’ respective fan bases grew more vocal, and the pressure cooker clicked back on.
EDG began to falter, reverting to their old style of stalling out games and failing to make pro-active plays. Against teams with improved early strategy and the growing popularity of the roaming mid lane meta, EDG started dropping games. U fell under scrutiny for his unwillingness to help Clearlove control the map. Four of five members of the team had kill participation rates over 70%, meaning EDG did things as a group or not at all, and usually in the late game.
EDG gained a second wind as both of their 2014 Summer rivals started to struggle. When OMG benched their new support player for Fang “Dada7” Hongri, they failed to regain their dominant footing. WE managed to fall out of the top four when the meta shifted to heavily favor 2v2s over lane swaps. This allowed EDG to barely sneak into first place during the regular season after soundly defeating WE in a 2-0, setting Fzzf and Clearlove’s all time win-loss record against their former team to 7-4.
In their nine playoff games, EDG was only behind in gold at twenty minutes in two of them, which might seem almost alien to fans of the team who have watched since their formation. During the Spring split and the back half of the Summer split, turning gold leads with team fights around Baron was the calling card of EDG. Well played team fights allowed them to find their way back into games from unbelievable deficits. As a result, when they start their games with an advantage, EDG cannot be stopped.
Analysts who watched the 2014 Summer Playoffs have predicted a top four finish for Edward Gaming at the World Championships, barring a quarterfinal encounter with a Samsun team. If the team has control over when they can turn on their early pressure game and brings the switch with them to Seoul, they’ll be difficult to beat. If the opposition does manage to set them behind, EDG has proven time and again that not even a ten thousand gold deficit can unseat them in team fights.
EDG still has to clinch the first seed. The only thing standing in their way isn’t World Elite or OMG. They have proven they can best OMG in high pressure situations. The final obstacle to EDG’s reign is their own consistency. If they can sweep their final best of three at Regionals and take first seed, Clearlove and Fzzf have a chance of making their mark on the world stage once again: this time, under new management.
CINDERELLA STORY
Edward Gaming snuck into LPL after buying the spot vacated by LMQ Tian Ci when the team chose to leave for North America and become LMQ iBuyPower. This, coupled with pressure from upset World Elite fans who saw Fzzf and Clearlove as having not done right by the original WE lineup for leaving, gave EDG extra motivation to come out swinging. In their first set, they took offseason favorites, Invictus Gaming, by surprise. They came back from a large gold deficit with impressive team fighting and steamrolled the rest of the best of two. For the rest of the regular split, they only dropped a total of seven games total out of 28.
Key to Edward Gaming’s initial synergy and success was the careful attention Coach Ji “Aaron” Xing and EDG’s management took in crafting the team. They knew they had contenders for top two in China in the jungle and support roles with Clearlove and Fzzf, and would need to fill out a roster to complement their existing stars. They sought out Zhu “NaMei” Jiawen, who many had come to favor as the best AD carry in China after he and his support, Li “Sicca” Haoyu, led Positive Energy to their 2013 Summer Playoff victory over OMG.
To complete the lineup, they took a recommendation from Clearlove for the top lane, Tong “Koro1” Yang, who he had personally mentored. Ceng “U” Long would join the team as the mid laner from Doran Esports. U was valued for his versatility, as his champion picks would often become the glue that held EDG’s compositions together. The team began to forge a formula for perfect team fighting that worked because everyone knew their job and could do it well. Fights began with a single target engagement from Fzzf, followed by assassination from Clearlove, AOE zoning and control from U and Koro1, and cleanup from NaMei. Synergy proved one of the team’s greatest strengths, even in EDG’s first LPL matches.
Despite initial success, EDG continued to receive negative attention from WE fans. Clearlove received frequent death threats. Even NaMei, U, and Koro1 were not free from harassment. In a recent incident, U posted an innocent comment about a cell phone game called “Ninja Must Die” on his weibo. Since Noh “Ninja” Geonwoo is the starting mid laner for team World Elite, the post received a lot of out of context criticism, and even U’s girlfriend received threats from militant WE fans.
Many of these attacks were made by an extremely vocal minority, but EDG continued to persevere. The team’s manager, San Shao, has stated that their mantra has always been “Talk with results.” If they could prove they were the best team in China, support would drown out the critics. This wasn’t always easy, and OMG became the team’s first major obstacle on the way to the top.
After an entire 2014 LPL Spring split of losing to OMG, Edward Gaming managed to 2-0 them in a third party tournament called International Esports Tournament—which, despite the name, only included Chinese teams. The victory came from exploiting the shallow champion pool of OMG’s temporary mid laner, Hu “xiyang” Bin, and heavy ganks from Clearlove. This initial success snowballed EDG into the 2014 LPL Spring Playoffs, where they took down the classic leaders of the Chinese scene, World Elite and Invictus Gaming, to claim their first LPL first place title.
Summer Rebound
It seemed that the rest of the season would be smooth sailing for Edward Gaming. Coach Aaron told lolesports at the end of Spring 2014 that EDG had grown from a group of five skilled players to a team. Given the excellent team fighting EDG displayed through much of the Spring split and the apparent improvements to their early game that allowed them to demolish iG in the Spring Playoffs, it was hard to imagine they would face any challenges in the 2014 Summer split.
Yet OMG wasn’t down for the count. The team picked up a rising support talent, Hu “Cloud” Zhenwei, and their play-making mid laner, Yu “Cool” Jiajun returned to the starting lineup. When Edward Gaming first faced OMG in a best of two in the Summer split, both teams faced grueling back-and-forth games. Though EDG would come out on top in the first game, OMG’s Drug ganked his team into a snowballed frenzy in the second game to even the score. OMG’s performances in subsequent sets then catapulted them into first place early.
OMG wasn’t the only team to stand out as rivals for EDG. Clearlove and Fzzf’s old teammates, WeiXiao and CaoMei, led the charge in the lane swapping meta, and World Elite was constantly warring with OMG and EDG for first place. WE even managed to 2-1 EDG at the Intel Extreme Masters Shenzhen. With the rivalry stronger than ever, the teams’ respective fan bases grew more vocal, and the pressure cooker clicked back on.
EDG began to falter, reverting to their old style of stalling out games and failing to make pro-active plays. Against teams with improved early strategy and the growing popularity of the roaming mid lane meta, EDG started dropping games. U fell under scrutiny for his unwillingness to help Clearlove control the map. Four of five members of the team had kill participation rates over 70%, meaning EDG did things as a group or not at all, and usually in the late game.
EDG gained a second wind as both of their 2014 Summer rivals started to struggle. When OMG benched their new support player for Fang “Dada7” Hongri, they failed to regain their dominant footing. WE managed to fall out of the top four when the meta shifted to heavily favor 2v2s over lane swaps. This allowed EDG to barely sneak into first place during the regular season after soundly defeating WE in a 2-0, setting Fzzf and Clearlove’s all time win-loss record against their former team to 7-4.
Turning It On
Going into the LPL Playoffs, many predicted EDG would again barely skate into first place. Some even suspected StarHorn Royal Club, a team that managed to end the season tied for second and 2-0 both OMG and Edward Gaming in their race up from fourth place, would take the title. Edward Gaming swept their first series against LGD Gaming with tight control. They continued to rampage through the bracket all the way to the grand finals where they practically flattened OMG in two games. During the entire Playoffs week, EDG only dropped one game of nine. Just as with so many other teams, there are two Edward Gamings: those in playoffs and those in the regular split. During regular season LPL games, EDG gives up objectives and leads by playing passively in the laning phase. In the playoffs, they tighten their grip on dragon and create controlled snowballs that allow them to execute their team fighting compositions with a lead.
In their nine playoff games, EDG was only behind in gold at twenty minutes in two of them, which might seem almost alien to fans of the team who have watched since their formation. During the Spring split and the back half of the Summer split, turning gold leads with team fights around Baron was the calling card of EDG. Well played team fights allowed them to find their way back into games from unbelievable deficits. As a result, when they start their games with an advantage, EDG cannot be stopped.
Analysts who watched the 2014 Summer Playoffs have predicted a top four finish for Edward Gaming at the World Championships, barring a quarterfinal encounter with a Samsun team. If the team has control over when they can turn on their early pressure game and brings the switch with them to Seoul, they’ll be difficult to beat. If the opposition does manage to set them behind, EDG has proven time and again that not even a ten thousand gold deficit can unseat them in team fights.
EDG still has to clinch the first seed. The only thing standing in their way isn’t World Elite or OMG. They have proven they can best OMG in high pressure situations. The final obstacle to EDG’s reign is their own consistency. If they can sweep their final best of three at Regionals and take first seed, Clearlove and Fzzf have a chance of making their mark on the world stage once again: this time, under new management.
