Who will be the king of the hill in the Korean Regional Qualifiers?

Riot·9/1/2015, 5:48:49 PM·0 votes·15,155 views

On Saturday, August 29, SKTelecom T1 were crowned champions of Korea for the second straight split. They end the year with 67 wins and only 17 losses across two full splits -- including Playoffs -- in one of the most dominant showings in professional League of Legends to date. Their Summer Finals win over KT Rolster rightfully earned them Korea's No. 1 2015 World Championship seed. This also sent the KOO Tigers to Worlds as the region's second seed, based on Championship Circuit Points.

Now, let's look at the four remaining top Korean teams that will battle each other in a Regional Qualifier gauntlet to determine the third and final team that will represent Korea at the 2015 World Championship.

Date: 9/2/2015-9/5/2015
Format: King of the hill gauntlet seeded by Circuit Points. All series are a Best of 5.
Teams: Jin Air Green Wings, NaJin e-mFire, CJ Entus, KT Rolster

Jin Air Green Wings

Fans had high hopes for Jin Air in 2015. In retaining the majority of their best players following the merger of their sister teams -- the Falcons and the Stealths -- Jin Air appeared ready to pick up where the Stealths left off in 2014 Summer. That is, ready to soar above their previous position as Champions Playoffs gatekeepers.

Jin Air initially relied on jungler Sang-hyun "Chaser" Lee to dictate the pace of their early game, putting their lanes ahead. While they struggled with their decision-making in the mid game, Jin Air also chose scaling poke compositions designed around their mid laner Chang-seok "GBM" Lee, relying on him to carry them late, like in this game against CJ Entus. Jin Air falls behind early, and has to play nearly perfectly into the late game around GBM's Xerath to win.

Their 2015 Spring season crashed to the ground with the arrival of Cinderhulk, which made Chaser a non-entity early. The team was hurt immensely by his lack of presence, and they fell easily to CJ Entus in the first round of Spring Playoffs.

Starting off Summer strong with 11-5 record -- nearly mirroring their 11-6 first weeks of Spring -- Jin Air's mid game had improved thanks to the return of Chaser's stifling pressure. However, the rest of Korea not only caught up to, but surpassed Jin Air, while the Green Wings dropped series to lower tier teams like SBENU Sonicboom and Rebels Anarchy. They ended the season 22-20 overall in 6th place, just barely out of Playoffs contention behind NaJin e-mFire.

NaJin marks Jin Air's first test in the Playoffs gauntlet. Jin Air bested NaJin 2-1 in their last meeting, during Week 8 of the regular season. And while Jin Air still looked indecisive early, their mid game team fighting and shotcalling -- in addition to Chaser's more creative pathing -- propelled them to victory. In order to beat NaJin in the Regional Qualifiers, they'll have to rely on an oppressive performance from Chaser to shut down NaJin's incredibly strong side lanes.

NaJin e-mFire

The eager NaJin fan perks up at the mention of their top laner Ho-seong "Duke" Lee or AD carry sensation Gyu-min "Ohq" Oh, in spite of the latter's overzealous tendencies, as shown above. Both are considered the best at their respective positions in Korea, and create a dual threat for NaJin that cannot be underestimated. While jungler Jae-geol "watch" Cho has rightfully been scrutinized throughout the season for lackluster performances, he has a historic reputation for coming through in time for the Playoffs gauntlet.

NaJin's main weakness is their mid laner, Byeong-jun "Ggoong" Yu. Ggoong received the largest relative gold percentage of any player in the Playoffs at 27.4 percent. This did not pay dividends for NaJin though, as Ggoong had one of the lowest KDAs of the Playoffs at 2.1. He requires a large amount of resources to simply hold his own, which Jin Air could use to their advantage in the teams' impending face-off.

As previously mentioned, NaJin's greatest strength is their strong side lanes. On lane bullies like Lucian and Kalista, Ohq will win without jungle pressure, allowing watch to do what he does best: gank top. In order to advance in the gauntlet, NaJin must either play their substitute mid laner, Dan-won "TANK" Park, or get both top and mid rolling early. Provided that Ohq doesn't have too many "Ohq moments," like his aforementioned attempt to all-in KOO's Kyung-ho "Smeb" Song, NaJin should have this first round well in hand.

CJ Entus

How the mighty have fallen. Or at the very least, stumbled significantly.

Full of veteran players like iconic support Min-gi "Madlife" Hong and top laner Sang-myeon "Shy" Park, CJ heavily relies on another experienced player, Chan-yong "Ambition" Kang. Once considered a top-tier mid laner, Ambition role-swapped into the jungle when both of CJ Entus' previous junglers left the team for other regions.

As a jungler, Ambition provides a steady, albeit unsurprising, presence. If Jin Air makes it through the first round, look for Chaser to exploit Ambition's predictable pathing and gank patterns. If NaJin faces CJ in the second round, they'll again rely on their early game laning prowess, especially in the top lane where Duke has shown significantly superior knowledge of laning matchups as well as a deeper champion pool than Shy.

Where CJ gains the upper hand is in their mid laner, Jin-yeong "CoCo" Shin. The highest damage dealer of any player across the Champions Summer Season, CoCo is almost always the reason for CJ's success. By creating favorable mid lane matchups -- especially if CJ faces NaJin and Ggoong -- look for CoCo to take charge to lead CJ to victory.

KT Rolster

Following their disappointing Summer Finals performance, many questions of KT Rolster remain. Their early game -- if executed properly -- is one of the strongest and most unrelenting in the world. Unfortunately, even if they amass early leads, their mid to late game shotcalling is all too often questionable at best.

Much of their inconsistency lies in their jungler, former KT Rolster Bullets AD carry, Dong-bin "Score" Go. He is creative and aggressive, but lacks experience in his new position to react quickly enough in disadvantageous situations. Fortunately, he has a steady partner in roaming support Jong-beom "Piccaboo" Lee. Together, the two create smothering early game pressure that's difficult for opponents to overcome. This goes doubly for top laner Chan-ho "Ssumday" Kim, who has proven to snowball the slightest of leads into an insurmountable advantage.

Taking a page from their roots -- last year's KT Rolster Arrows -- at their best, KT is one of the most fun teams to watch in Korea. They can be innovative, aggressive, and always push their advantage, sometimes to a fault. Above all, they are inconsistent, and occasionally fail to recognize their own win conditions. They could stumble again in the gauntlet -- especially if they have to play NaJin -- due to Ohq's laning prowess, as their own AD carry Dong-hyeon "Arrow" No often struggles in lane.

The Journey to Worlds

While SKTelecom is indisputably the best team in Korea, this third seed represents the depth of a region that managed to survive mass talent depletion as well as a format change. All teams are ready and prepared to defend Korea's honor at the 2015 World Championship.