The 3rd Best Team in China: Part 1
Preface
I have the luxury of working with incredible minds from my position. The list is long, but the relevant persons to this topic are Kelsey Moser and Jacob Wolf. Praise is hard to come by in this industry, especially for journalists, and I want to clarify that despite my public disagreements with Jacob, I mean this as no slight against the good he does for the industry or the quality of his work.
My rationale is simple:
As Worlds draws closer, more people will join the conversation surrounding the LPL representatives. At the present moment, there is no official platform for resources or articles outside the occasional lolesports.com schedule announcement. Majority of LPL promotion and discussion is through third party news like pvplive.net, thescore and ESPN — helmed by Kelsey and Jacob respectively.
These platforms are invaluable because of their global coverage, especially EPSN’s Power Rankings — their reach is comparable to the English Broadcast of the LPL. In short, these news sources have as much pull, if not more to certain audiences, in defining and promoting team stories.
They’re a big deal.
The daunting task of even compiling a global Power Ranking is an eager but respectable feat. ESPN’s ability to generate discussion and promote leagues and teams, all whilst hitting decent accuracy, should be applauded on whatever side of agreement you sit on.
Bold predictions, statements, and observations are a welcomed part of what makes the League of Legends community great; there are so many resources and opinions available. The answer is important, but the why and how of the answer carries far more weight. The why and how creates context and defines expectations and upsets.
The why and how create moments in esports; the boom and roar of this gladiatorial industry.
Over the weeks on the LPL English broadcast, my stance has seated IMay firmly behind Team WE. On the desk, I get the opportunity to represent both analyst and caster, and this article will condense all those hours of broadcast in one place to present and support the idea that, no, IMay were not the third best team in the LPL.
But they became it.
And, most importantly, I’ll discuss the why and how IMay accomplished such a feat in a miracle sprint from the secondary league to the international stage.
Why it’s Important to get this Right: The IMiracle
To believe that IMay were always the third best team in the LPL is a disservice to the true narrative of the team. It cheats them and the audience of one of the most incredible comeback stories the LPL has ever witnessed and downplays their impressive development over the course of the split.
It’s the difference between expecting IM to take the 3rd seed and riding the raw emotion of their victory in back-to-back upsets.
Examining IMay’s lineup through the lens of the global audience should prompt a lot of questions: who is this team? Unlike Edward Gaming or Royal Never Give Up, they don’t have international exposure or expectations. The notable reputation is their League of Legends Secondary-Pro League (LSPL) identity as Edward Gaming’s sister team: Edward Esports. Shek “AmazingJ” Wai Ho, Zhao “Mitty” Zhi-Ming, Kang “Athena” Ha-woon, Kang “BaeMe” Yang-hyun, and Xie “Jinjiao” Jin-Shan all wore the EDG jersey at some point.
They’ve been jokingly referred to as EDG’s bench on more than one occasion.
IMay auto-promoted from the semi-professional circuit into professional play in 2016 Summer, rebranding due to league regulations as IMay — a play on the idea of “I can”. From their origin, IM are the underdog story. And their story really starts with AmazingJ.
Captain and top laner of IM, AmazingJ is recognizable as the starting EDG top laner during the Group Stage at 2015 Worlds. After EDG’s defeat in quarter-finals to Fnatic — which Tong “Koro1” Yang started — EDG shamefully returned to China for an immediate roster shuffle reminiscent of their 2014 post-Worlds reaction that brought Heo “PawN” Won-seok, Kim “Deft” Hyuk-kyu, and Tian “Meiko” Ye to the team.
AmazingJ was the first casualty — being removed from the starting position into the LSPL, he vowed to re-qualify for the professional league. And he made good on his promise. Later, his coach said that upon the promotion podium, AmazingJ turned to him and declared that the team would qualify for Worlds off their first Split in the LPL.
Their coach thought he was crazy — a sane reaction to expecting a new team to run deep enough in the split to qualify for the chance to even attempt a shot at the title.
But IM took the fight anyway. Scrappy and skirmish heavy, IM were the little brother of the LPL, setting fast tempo games but failing to execute on their good intentions ingame. They were an awkward pubescent team, riddled with roster swaps that didn’t distinguish any noticeable difference in identity, but certainly in results. Wild, aggressive, and unpredictable in their success — IM lobbed sucker punch after punch.
And they kept swinging.
IMay’s season results were impressive in context of their starting position, but just outside a relevant talking point in the grander scheme of things; discussion dominated around Edward Gaming, Royal Never Give Up, Snake Esports, and Team WE. Frankly, the first four weeks of LPL didn’t even rank IM in the top three of their respective Group — sitting in the standings behind Vici Gaming in fourth.
But the team started to settle, definitively selecting Athena and Fan “Avoidless” Jun Wei as their starting Mid and Jungle combo. IM exploited the meta favored semi-global compositions, abusing picks like Shen, Hecarim, Sivir, and Bard with double teleport to keep their quick game pace and unlock early fights. They threw the same maneuver every game, but refined execution and shot through the standings in mid split Cross-Conference.
They were a gimmick; trying to knock teams out in the first ten minutes before enemies could catch up in gold and make IM choose the right play on a big map. Unlike their veteran counterparts in the league, IM struggled to keep an even head in high pressure situations, and would often crash before the finish line. In the most simplistic form: they are the early game team.
And in their gauntlet run, IM graduated from padawan to jedi. From “I can”, to “I did”.
For a team that ultimately finished with a measly 4:6 record against Group B (only taking down last place OMG and LGD), and a 2:4 record against Team WE specifically, IM would defy the odds when it mattered most.
Circumstance had them face two Group A teams initially in the Playoff Gauntlet, starting with Invictus Gaming. IM would decisively dismantle both iG and SS before pushing RNG to five games, then dropping into the 3rd vs 4th match across from WE.
Again, IM had been unable to best any of the formidable Group B teams to this moment.
But 4th vs 3rd between IM and WE had a game-changer riding on it: Due to being a single split into the LPL, IM didn’t have the benefit of earning Championship points from Spring Split to help them position into the Regional Qualifier Gauntlet. The difference in points between 3rd and 4th in Summer was 200 versus 90. In perspective, that was the difference from starting as the 6th seed instead of the 3rd.
That’s the difference between playing a possible 10 games in a single day or a best of five in the Regional Finals.
IM would take down WE 3:1 to secure a third place finish in their first LPL split. And more importantly, it would mean they were a single best of five away from representing China at Worlds as the final seed.
Finally, IM had bested a strong Group B contender, abusing WE’s slow early game to run away with tempo in tandem with a cheeky Aurelion Sol pick — not common in LPL — from BaeMe. This was, by far, the highest point for IM’s form. They were creative and true to their identity through the series and rightfully won.
But could they do it again?
Spoiler: They did.
In the most gut-wrenching moment, IMay faced down a game 5 barrel and pulled the trigger on a fifty minute teleport flank by AmazingJ to reverse Ace WE and push for the win. They were two inhibs down. With a gold deficit. WE out damaged them across the board in the post-game lobby screen.
There is nothing I could possibly say that speak louder than that moment. It will go down as one of the most incredible comebacks in the history of the game — IM were down for ninety-nine percent of the game, backed into a corner and hemorrhaging.
They had one chance — one shot — one mom’s spaghetti.
And AmazingJ struck WE in their blind spot; a true sucker punch. All the critiques of IM’s failure to correctly act in late game scenarios — to distinguish the perfect play in the perfect moment — were lost in the roar of the crowd.
On his signature Nautilus pick in a meta that had forgotten the champion, AmazingJ made a statement that he was good enough. He was good enough for the international stage. For international glory.
It was not expected. It was earned.
“Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.”
- William Shakespeare
End Part 1 — Part 2 How IMay Did It: The Analytics
Author: Indiana “Froskurinn” Black
Editor: Christopher “Chhopsky” Pollock
Region: China
Topics: IM, LPL, Worlds 2016
