Playing with house money: World Elite at IEM Katowice
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The Intel Extreme Masters World Championship 2015 in Katowice, Poland aims to feature some of the top talent from all major regions. This includes top Korean team GE Tigers, who have mowed over their competition all season, and the experienced CJ Entus. From Europe and North America, Gambit Gaming, SK Gaming, Team SoloMid, and Cloud9 are attending, all of whom are currently leading -- or situated near the top of -- their respective league leaderboards. The yoe Flash Wolves have been impressing in Taiwan’s LMS, and Gambit Gaming, while stumbling out of the gate, have steadily improved as the weeks have gone on to take fourth place in the European League Championship Series.
Lastly, there’s Team World Elite, inhabitants of the last place spot in China’s LoL Pro League 2015. Seemingly outclassed by the caliber of their competition, Team WE arrives in Poland playing with house money, with next to nothing expected of them.
IEM Shenzhen Winners
IEM Shenzhen Winners
In the brighter days of the distant past, Team WE were at home in the Intel Extreme Masters, winning IEM Season VIII Shanghai in 2013 with their most famous roster of Wei “Caomei” Han-dong, Ming “ClearLove” Kai, Yu “Misaya” Jing-Xi, Gao “WeiXiao” Xue-Cheng, and Feng “Fzzf” Zhuo-jun. By the time of the Season VIII Championship in Katowice, WE had undergone major roster changes, with both ClearLove and Fzzf departing the organization for EDward Gaming and Misaya announcing his retirement. The new WE team lost to Cloud9 and Gambit in that order, quickly eliminated from further competition.
Season IX in Shenzhen saw Team WE once again taking the Chinese IEM tournament, this time with former NaJin Black Sword jungler Yeon “ActScene” Hyeong-mo and former Prime Optimus mid laner Noh “Ninja” Geon-woo. In the Shenzhen tournament, which was reorganized at the last minute to allow for a Chinese team to qualify for the IEM Season IX World Championship, WE defeated EDG for the first time since the latter team’s inception, punching their ticket to Katowice.
Breaking WE’s Spirit
Prior to the 2015 LPL Spring Season, Team WE once again underwent a minor rebranding and more roster moves. Notably, the team acquired former Samsung Galaxy Blue jungler Lee “Spirit” Da-hoon and AD carry Qu “Styz” Zi-Liang, the latter of whom was fresh off of being banned for attempting to break a contract. The lineup was rounded out with the aforementioned Ninja in mid, former Positive Energy top laner Peng “Aluka” Zhen-Ming, and support player Zhang “YuZhe” Zhe.
Unfortunately for Team WE, their performance thus far in 2015 has been dismal. The team started on an 0 for 10 run, and did not win a game until Week 3 of competitive play when they split their set with Vici Gaming. Styz has been thoroughly unimpressive in the bottom lane, while Aluka has been an outright liability, rarely winning lane and often falling far behind very early in the game, drawing Spirit’s attention to stem the bleeding. Ninja has shown more promise this season than he ever has, but it’s all for naught when Team WE groups for teamfights, as their coordination is non-existent.
The lone bright spot on the roster for WE is indubitably Spirit. With surprising mobility, especially when on Nidalee or Rek’Sai, Spirit’s is omnipresent in an attempt to place the entirety of WE on his back. If anything, WE’s losing lanes have made Spirit look even stronger in comparison. However, there are always more problems to fix, and like a lone engineer attempting to patch leaks on the sinking Titanic, for every breach that he fixes, four more spring forth to take its place. Team WE’s lackluster teamfighting remains their greatest problem which, aside from a few perfect Jarvan IV Cataclysms, Spirit cannot dictate alone. These issues, along with a recent surge from Energy Pacemaker, have earned Team WE the dubious honor of “the worst LPL team.”
Last Minute Roster Shuffle
With Team WE’s aforementioned LPL struggles, perhaps it was only natural that the team would choose to use IEM Katowice 2015 for experimentation. Two days before the competition, WE announced that they would be subbing in top-ranked solo queue mid laner Su “Xiye” Han-Wei for Ninja and former Jin Air Green Wings AD carry Jin “Mystic” Seong-jun for Styz.
Will this solve Team WE’s issues? It’s not highly likely, particularly when the worst individual performer, Aluka, remains in the top lane. However, the lack of expectations for Team WE does offer a bit of breathing room, a luxury not afforded to other teams at the World Championship. Additionally, as WE’s other major struggle has been coordinating as a unit, perhaps the addition of two new players will provide a spark that the team has lacked in their 2015 performances. If WE manages to advance out of Group B, they will have far exceeded expectations. If they do not, they will have met them.
Either way, they have nothing to lose, and everything to gain.
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In the brighter days of the distant past, Team WE were at home in the Intel Extreme Masters, winning IEM Season VIII Shanghai in 2013 with their most famous roster of Wei “Caomei” Han-dong, Ming “ClearLove” Kai, Yu “Misaya” Jing-Xi, Gao “WeiXiao” Xue-Cheng, and Feng “Fzzf” Zhuo-jun. By the time of the Season VIII Championship in Katowice, WE had undergone major roster changes, with both ClearLove and Fzzf departing the organization for EDward Gaming and Misaya announcing his retirement. The new WE team lost to Cloud9 and Gambit in that order, quickly eliminated from further competition.
Season IX in Shenzhen saw Team WE once again taking the Chinese IEM tournament, this time with former NaJin Black Sword jungler Yeon “ActScene” Hyeong-mo and former Prime Optimus mid laner Noh “Ninja” Geon-woo. In the Shenzhen tournament, which was reorganized at the last minute to allow for a Chinese team to qualify for the IEM Season IX World Championship, WE defeated EDG for the first time since the latter team’s inception, punching their ticket to Katowice.
Breaking WE’s Spirit
Prior to the 2015 LPL Spring Season, Team WE once again underwent a minor rebranding and more roster moves. Notably, the team acquired former Samsung Galaxy Blue jungler Lee “Spirit” Da-hoon and AD carry Qu “Styz” Zi-Liang, the latter of whom was fresh off of being banned for attempting to break a contract. The lineup was rounded out with the aforementioned Ninja in mid, former Positive Energy top laner Peng “Aluka” Zhen-Ming, and support player Zhang “YuZhe” Zhe.
Unfortunately for Team WE, their performance thus far in 2015 has been dismal. The team started on an 0 for 10 run, and did not win a game until Week 3 of competitive play when they split their set with Vici Gaming. Styz has been thoroughly unimpressive in the bottom lane, while Aluka has been an outright liability, rarely winning lane and often falling far behind very early in the game, drawing Spirit’s attention to stem the bleeding. Ninja has shown more promise this season than he ever has, but it’s all for naught when Team WE groups for teamfights, as their coordination is non-existent.
The lone bright spot on the roster for WE is indubitably Spirit. With surprising mobility, especially when on Nidalee or Rek’Sai, Spirit’s is omnipresent in an attempt to place the entirety of WE on his back. If anything, WE’s losing lanes have made Spirit look even stronger in comparison. However, there are always more problems to fix, and like a lone engineer attempting to patch leaks on the sinking Titanic, for every breach that he fixes, four more spring forth to take its place. Team WE’s lackluster teamfighting remains their greatest problem which, aside from a few perfect Jarvan IV Cataclysms, Spirit cannot dictate alone. These issues, along with a recent surge from Energy Pacemaker, have earned Team WE the dubious honor of “the worst LPL team.”
Last Minute Roster Shuffle
With Team WE’s aforementioned LPL struggles, perhaps it was only natural that the team would choose to use IEM Katowice 2015 for experimentation. Two days before the competition, WE announced that they would be subbing in top-ranked solo queue mid laner Su “Xiye” Han-Wei for Ninja and former Jin Air Green Wings AD carry Jin “Mystic” Seong-jun for Styz.
Will this solve Team WE’s issues? It’s not highly likely, particularly when the worst individual performer, Aluka, remains in the top lane. However, the lack of expectations for Team WE does offer a bit of breathing room, a luxury not afforded to other teams at the World Championship. Additionally, as WE’s other major struggle has been coordinating as a unit, perhaps the addition of two new players will provide a spark that the team has lacked in their 2015 performances. If WE manages to advance out of Group B, they will have far exceeded expectations. If they do not, they will have met them.
Either way, they have nothing to lose, and everything to gain.
