Three days ago, Edward Gaming’s support, Tian “meiko” Ye, allegedly told Invictus Gaming’s mid laner, Song “Rookie” Euijin, that his team is in a bad state and “might not make worlds this year.” After a dominant year winning 115 of 146 games in LPL, Demacia Cup, the MidSeason Invitational, and the National Esports Tournament qualifier, the possibility that the most powerful team in China for 2015 might not make it to Paris for the World Championship seems startlingly real.

Since Edward Gaming’s defeat of SK Telecom T1 in a close series at the Mid Season Invitational, they returned to China to compete in the summer split of the the League of Legends Pro League, but not as the same Edward Gaming. Solo laners Heo “pawN” Wonseok and Tong “Koro1” Yang were rotated out intermittently with substitute mid laner Kang “BaeMe” Yanghyun and top laner Shek “AmazingJ” Wai Ho.

The team dynamic didn’t seem to fit. On Energy Pacemaker, AmazingJ’s team in 2014 and Spring of 2015, he received most of the gold resources and jungle pressure to carry, but on Edward Gaming, most gold is funneled into AD carry Kim “Deft” Hyukkyu. Jungler Ming “Clearlove” Kai ganked bottom lane more frequently than top lane or mid lane, getting Deft and meiko early advantages in uncontested ganks or skirmishes if the opposing jungler came to meet him.

Without jungle pressure, AmazingJ seemed less spectacular, and he didn’t get the advantages he used to or have the same late game impact from behind the team had grown accustomed to with Koro1. Similarly, Edward Gaming relied on mid laner pawN to draw jungle pressure and allow Clearlove and meiko more freedom in the jungle to place vision and take control of objectives.

BaeMe’s safer laning phase didn’t provide that same pressure. He didn’t fall behind in lane very frequently, but he didn’t pull jungle ganks as much either. It made Edward Gaming more reliant on late game team fights and Clearlove and meiko outplaying the opposing jungle and support duo without their self-sufficient solo laners. Clearlove even played Nidalee in a game in Demacia Cup and a game in LPL, a carry style champion he usually reserves for solo queue.

Substitute mid laner BaeMe

The fluctuations of team dynamic seemingly took their toll on Deft. Struggling in a meta where some of the popular picks like Kalista and Vayne didn’t necessarily suit his style, Deft played mostly Sivir and Corki. While his use of cooldowns was as strong as ever, some of his confident play in lane reverted to his half-commits from when he played for Samsung Blue. His teamfight positioning became too aggressive, and he got caught out, costing EDG games when they were ahead.

Some have said Deft is an emotional player whose performance is dependent on a stable team environment. Whether that’s true or not, the change in his play was visible as he struggled to find the same impact he did in LPL Spring.

Despite hiccups, pawN returned to Edward Gaming’s main lineup during their second regular season encounter with Snake, and Koro1 returned coincidentally on the same day LPL announced a new Playoffs format. The team began to crush through their opposition, and from the last game they dropped to Invictus Gaming in Demacia Cup, they went on a 21 game win streak until Summer Playoffs.

Edward Gaming’s core strength isn’t necessarily a single player. While manager and co-founder Huang “San Shao” Cheng built the team around Clearlove, the team worked so well together because each part seemed to click. Where one player’s weakness shone through, another compensated. If San Shao and Coach Ji “Aaron” Xing didn’t have the final picture in mind when they went to replace mid laner Ceng “U” Long and AD carry Zhu “NaMei” Jiawen, they got extremely lucky.

Koro1’s transformation from a top laner who almost always lost lane but impacted the late game to the monster fans remember from the Mid Season Invitational has been described by his teammate Clearlove as not just ingame, but personal. While Koro1 still might die in lane, it’s usually to a jungle gank or an over-extension without wards, and even from behind he can still be effective in team fights.

pawN never had the perfect niche on his previous team, Samsung White. Though known as a Fizz and Katarina player, he served as more of a utility mid on White. On Edward Gaming, it seems the team lets him play almost whatever he wants as long as he exerts lane pressure. He can do it by playing immobile carries and getting ganked repeatedly or by counter-picking his opposition and going for surprising solo kills.

Clearlove’s improved jungle pressure has finally taken him from a team fighter with low presence in the early game to a force whose presence safeguards Deft and meiko’s laning phase. It gives them the confidence to trade aggressively because backup always seems to be on the way.

The team then controls the jungle and the bottom half of the map, securing more dragons and first dragons than any other team in LPL. They hold towers a little bit longer to keep the bottom lane snowball persistent, taking first turrets less frequently than other top LPL teams. Clearlove’s lanes and meiko’s vision let him counter-jungle and set the enemy jungler behind.

Edward Gaming is about how the five players operate as a unit. In early trades and dives, almost no call is questioned. Enormous early leads spring out of nowhere, giving EDG an alarming 7,000 gold lead on average at 20 minutes in wins, and the highest gold lead at 20 minutes of any team in the league. Clearlove pulls the trigger, and everyone follows.

The team has also displayed a knack for playing from behind. In their series against LGD in Spring Playoffs, they had many valiant comebacks based on the synergy between Clearlove and Koro1 in isolating team fight targets and creating zones for Deft. Recently in a game between Master3 and Edward Gaming, Clearlove and pawN played a handful of fights from behind using Lulu and Rek’Sai to win.

Clearlove has said the secret to his team fighting ability is in his target calling and communication with his team. It’s clear in the calm segments of Edward Gaming’s comms that LPL often shows between games. It’s also clear that that’s exactly what seemed to be missing the past week when Edward Gaming dropped two series in a row to LGD and Invictus Gaming.

The fissure began in Game 1 with questionable dives. In these circumstances, Edward Gaming usually follow in full force. Their coordination can turn questionable dives into favorable ones. In this case, EDG players seemed fragmented with pawN going in first after Clearlove had already died and Deft flashing in after pawN dropped.

Poor coordination continued throughout the series, and Edward Gaming lost the fish hooks that pinned them together. They didn’t all start spontaneously playing worse, but that’s what it looked like. Clearlove has been known as a team fighter, but in those series he didn’t look it.

Even in their losses to LGD, Edward Gaming maintained their trademark gold leads early on. Clearlove still found advantages in proactive ganking, and even in Game 3, Edward Gaming’s most devastating loss of the series, they were even in gold at the 20 minute mark.

In the past, it may have been fair to call Clearlove a team fighter and not a jungler, but in the two days Edward Gaming played Summer Playoffs, he completely reversed his strengths and weaknesses. He went in too early and died before his teammates could catch up. Koro1 occasionally followed suit.

Clearlove after the third place match loss to Invictus Gaming

Invictus Gaming took further advantage of EDG by targeting Clearlove’s ability to team fight. They chose to ban or deny Gragas, Rek’Sai, Nunu, and Evelynn in their blue side games, and Clearlove defaulted to playing Lee Sin, a champion with less team fight presence. Clearlove over-focused mid lane, a strategy usually useful against the mid-centric iG team, but their side lanes leveled up enough to take control of the weak laning champions EDG drafted.

But this happened over the course of two days: two days of the 228 since Edward Gaming began their dominant run in Spring on January 16th of this year. Despite their apparently shakier Summer, the team only lost four more games in total than they did in Spring: the difference between a record of 38 and 6 and a record of 34 and 10.

When a team’s strength is in the synergy of its players and its overall dynamic, that isn’t necessarily something that’s easy to control. It’s possible the pressure itself weighs on Clearlove this close to the World Championship. He’s said in multiple interviews that his dream is to win Worlds, and it’s the one goal that keeps him playing even after all his teammates from the successful Team WE have retired.

In 2012, Team WE had only recently formed; they came to the World Championship with an undeveloped playstyle, and their series against CLG EU was plagued by technical issues. In 2013, WE collapsed as a result of infighting and meta changes earlier in the season. In 2014, sickness hit a key player, and they failed to make much headway even after his recovery.

This is Clearlove’s fourth year aiming for the World Championship, and it seemed almost as if everything had finally fallen into place for him. Half a summer of playing with solo lane standins likely withered the team’s synergy, but they came back strong. Playoffs should have been theirs to take, even with LGD looking like strong prospects.

Edward Gaming's bottom lane at MSI

That can’t be something that’s easy to get over. Edward Gaming’s 1-6 Playoffs result was shocking. If the team wasn’t worried, that would be a bigger surprise.

It’s possible Clearlove can’t shake off the weight of his past three seasons so close to the end. Winning the World Championship finally seems as if it might be a likely outcome, and if he loses the team fight clarity that made him so powerful even when he struggled in the jungle—if he chokes, he wouldn’t be the first to do so in his position.

Everything that could go wrong seems to be going wrong at once. Koro1 loses his presence in team fights. pawN doesn’t pull as much pressure, so Clearlove focuses more on his lane. Deft drops some of his laning confidence. Clearlove forgets how to team fight. The drafts become a disaster.

But some of these problems are easy to iron out. If the team prepares better for the draft and gets a handle on the opposition, they can pick up strong laning champions. If enemy teams want to follow iG’s lead and ban out Clearlove’s team fighting power picks, that should allow the rest of his team to play whatever they want to play. Focus on early game strengths while Edward Gaming remember how to come together as the unit that plowed through all three of the teams they might face in the Regional Qualifier earlier this season.

Edward Gaming roughly abused Snake in a lane swap snowball. They kept Qiao Gu's Baek “Swift” Daehoon’s reckless nature in check. They have beaten Invictus Gaming enough times in 2015 to fill an entire regular season of North American or European LCS.

Recent patches opened up more carries in Deft’s wheelhouse like Kog’Maw. It should favor the playstyle that took them to MSI. There’s no rational reason Edward Gaming shouldn’t make the World Championship as China’s second seed.

Edward Gaming may as well have had their ticket to Paris punched since meiko first joined the roster in the third week of LPL Spring. Cold feet are the only things in their way.

Kelsey Moser is a staff writer for theScore eSports. You can follow her on Twitter.