His new facial creases showed it: a lifetime had passed since spring for Lee "Saroo" Jong-won.

Three months ago, the young coach was walking on water. His first split with MVP was a fairy tale. Under his new guidance, the once forgettable mid-table squad had turned into a deadly and stylish band of brothers capable of toppling Korea's top superteams. It had finished 4th in the toughest region in the world. They had secured tickets to its first international Riot tournament. Everything was coming up Milhouse. Editor's Picks OWL announces standard player contract terms

What's in a lane? Bottom lane takes the lead in current League meta

Cody Sun aims to be tops in the bot lane 2 Related

But then it all stopped. For some unfathomable reason, over the mid-season break, MVP forgot everything that had made it special. The free fall was one of the worst in recent LCK history; by Week 7, Saroo and his team were dead last. No bad luck was involved in the collapse to 10th place, either -- the team was truly that terrible. In fact, MVP played so poorly that the team's utter lack of macro strategy became a defining feature, the story of the summer.

Still, MVP never quite gave up. Last Saturday, in the largest upset of the season, the underdogs rose from rock bottom to dismount the high-flying Samsung Galaxy. Saroo allowed himself a wide smile in the press zone for the first time in a month.

"I'm just happy that we were finally able to play a team game again," he said. "This is the LCK. It doesn't matter who you are, or who you're playing against -- if you can't play as a team, you have no chance of winning. And lately we've been having a tough time doing that."

Saroo had no intention of sugarcoating their failures. "Looking back, we had let our successful spring split get to our minds," he said. "We became lax. We started to believe that we were pretty good. So the players became a bit more careless in-game, because they started to assume that our team as a whole was good enough to cover for a couple of individual mistakes."

To be fair, that may have been true, at least initially. But soon such mistakes became too frequent, and it happened just when the regional meta became much less forgiving towards silly blunders in the laning phase. The entire team grew frustrated as what had been its primary strength -- teamwork -- was no longer enough to overturn heavy disadvantages. By the time the meta shifted back into its favor, MVP had long forgotten how to win games and were chin deep in an emotional slump. Rebuilding coordination and communication took weeks.

If the last split had highlighted Saroo's primary strength (an astute tactical mind laced with a mad scientist streak), this one had exposed his inexperience. The coach was quick to blame himself for failing to restore the team to good form immediately. "I realized that I wasn't that great a coach," he said with a pained expression, explaining that things only started to turn around for the team after many series of extended round-table discussions. "If it ever happens again, I'll do a much better job of getting everyone back on track."

Despite the horrible start and belated recovery, however, Saroo still believes in miracles. Most people would be impressed if MVP just manage to steer clear of the relegation zone, but his goals are far loftier. He remains convinced in his team's ability to make a glorious, impossible final spurt.

Saroo has always been an anomaly in the Korean League of Legends scene, not only for his unique takes on the meta but also for his sheer determination. He is one of the very few tactical coaches that had literally zero professional experience or personal connections prior to entry. He earned his first break -- a short stint in the LSPL with Team WE Future -- by cold pitching as many industry people as he could via community boards and in-client friend requests.

"Coaching a team to Worlds has always been my dream," he said. "That hasn't ever changed since the very first moment I decided to become a League of Legends coach. When I had to choose my next destination after leaving Ever8 Winners, my main criteria was the squad's potential to make it to Worlds. I came here because I felt that MVP had what it takes."

While it is mathematically impossible for MVP to earn any Championship Points this split, it still carries a respectable 30 points from the previous. If the team can avoid relegation, it is highly probable that they will participate in the final gauntlet.

"When our communication is on point -- when we're all on the same page -- I sincerely believe we're capable of taking down any team in LCK," Saroo said with quiet conviction. "We're going to ramp up our form in our remaining matches. I still think we have a chance to make it to Worlds."