In 2015, the League of Legends world was introduced to the Flash Wolves. First at the IEM World Championship as the Yoe Flash Wolves, a plucky upstart that unexpectedly qualified for the bracket stage before losing to Team SoloMid, then later at the 2015 League of Legends World Championship where they topped Group A. Despite their quarterfinals exit at the hands of Origen, the Flash Wolves established themselves as a team to remember, and called to mind the rise of Season 2 Taipei Assassins.

At that same 2015 World Championship, the KOO Tigers were somewhat of an anomaly themselves. Led by bottom lane duo of Kim “PraY” Jong-in and Kang “GorillA” Beom-hyeon and the breakout performance of top laner Song “Smeb” Kyung-ho, the Tigers had razed through the inaugural season of LoL Champions Korea only to fall to SK Telecom T1 in the 2015 LCK Spring finals. They fared worse that summer. The Tigers qualified for Worlds that year from points garnered in the spring split, and most believed that KT Rolster was South Korea’s second-best team at the event, not the Tigers. The Tigers upset KT in the 2015 Worlds quarterfinals and eventually became finalists before falling to SKT once again.

PraY and GorillA’s Kingzone DragonX now face off against the Flash Wolves in another 2018 Mid-Season Invitational semifinals matchup framed by history — one where their experiences with each other as teams take a backseat to more general recent histories and international results.

Most remember 2015 as the year of the Korean Exodus and restructuring of OnGameNet’s Champions tournament into LCK, but another significant restructuring happened during the 2014-15 offseason. Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao separated from Garena’s Garena Pro League and became the LoL Master Series: an entirely separate league from the rest of Southeast Asia.

At the 2015 World Championship, the Flash Wolves’ results proved that the LMS had been somewhat of a success. Subsequent seasons proved that, despite the occasional ability to surprise internationally, the LMS was also a fairly shallow region. The Flash Wolves and AHQ eSports Club generally stayed at the top of the standings, with the Flash Wolves dominating their competition in most cases. In the time between the LMS’ inception and the 2018 Mid-Season Invitational, the Flash Wolves have attended six of the seven total LMS finals and won five of them. Four were 3-0 sweeps.

Yet in that same time period, the international results of the Flash Wolves rendered analysts and pundits wrong at nearly every turn. When the Flash Wolves were considered to be a strong team compared to their international counterparts, they faltered. When the Flash Wolves were considered significantly weaker than their opponents, they thrived. The top-heavy nature of the LMS made it near-impossible to predict how the Flash Wolves would perform. Their constants, until this split, were outstanding bottom side vision from support Hu “SwordArt” Shuo-Chieh, and the phenomenal jungle/mid duo of jungler Hung “Karsa” Hau-Hsuan and mid laner Huang “Maple” Yi-Tang.

This spring was a down spit for the Flash Wolves. They had lost Karsa, top-laner-turned-coach Chou “Steak” Lu-Hsi and initially had trouble integrating Kim “Moojin” Moo-jin into the position. His synergy with Maple was significantly worse — despite Maple’s stronger individual performance in 2018 LMS Spring — and the team also took some time settling on a starting top laner between Yu “MMD” Li-Hong and newcomer Su “Hanabi” Chia-Hsiang. SwordArt and AD carry Lu “Betty” Yu-Hung became the team’s most reliable components, supporting the Flash Wolves through their rocky start. And in terms of the standings, rocky start is relative. The Flash Wolves didn’t look particularly good, but they still won all of their regular season series except a Week 7 loss to G-Rex.

Now, the Flash Wolves still lack the synergy of Karsa and Maple, but Moojin has performed well during the 2018 MSI group stage off of Maple’s strong mid lane performances. SwordArt’s vision control has been peerless — the Flash Wolves’ strength has always been their early game partially because of it — and this has remained a constant. Their mid game issues have also remained a constant, and if there is one factor in the Flash Wolves play that was unexpected this group stage, it’s that they’ve shored up some of their mid game understanding and have actually closed out a few games cleanly.

Standing in the Flash Wolves way is a South Korean team with more than a few familiar faces, especially to the Flash Wolves. The team of Kingzone is not the ROX Tigers — they don’t play the same way — but the bottom lane duo of PraY and GorillA remains, leading another team to the international stage.

Where the Flash Wolves were a less potent version of their former selves this spring due to a jungle change, Kingzone DragonX was an improved, historically-dominant powerhouse for the same reason. In the 2017-18 offseason, Kingzone (née Longzhu Gaming) picked up former ROX Tigers and SK Telecom T1 jungler Han “Peanut” Wang-ho. Peanut’s aggressive style suited Kingzone well, especially with a top laner always willing to take the trade in Kim “Khan” Dong-ha, a strong, stable mid laner in Gwak “Bdd” Bo-seong and the always-reliable PraY and GorillA duo. Towards the end of the split, with the jungle meta firmly in his favor, Peanut was unstoppable. Kingzone’s 2018 LCK Spring finals victory over the Afreeca Freecs was closer than the 3-1 result indicates, but Kingzone had the upper hand due to fewer mistakes and their ability to punish misplays from Afreeca.

Yet, Kingzone weren’t without their own hiccups. Similar to the Flash Wolves’ early split struggles to improve synergy between Moojin and Maple, Peanut and Bdd didn’t look good together right away in 2018 LCK Spring. Kingzone subbed in the team’s 2017 starting jungler, Moon “Cuzz” Woo-chan a few times throughout the split, presumably in order to make Bdd more comfortable. This also happened last week during the 2018 MSI group stages — when Kingzone wanted Bdd to take more of a lead in comms and in-game, they started Cuzz over Peanut. Combined with a read on the meta that seems just slightly off, the Cuzz substitution has broken Kingzone’s veil of infallibility that often makes South Korean teams invincible in the eyes of international audiences.

The Flash Wolves have a strong stylistic matchup against Kingzone. Their potent early game and SwordArt’s vision control on the bottom side of the map and river can shut down Kingzone’s most reliable component, their bot lane duo, as shown by the Flash Wolves 2-0 record against Kingzone in the group stage. There are shades of Samsung Galaxy’s bot-focused adjustments that throttled Kingzone (as Longzhu) last year at the World Championship, leading to a shocking 3-0 sweep for Samsung. However, the Flash Wolves don’t have the best record of adjusting over international best-of-five series themselves, and their mid game is still shaky. Against Team Liquid, the Flash Wolves stalled out in the mid game, stacking wave after wave into TL, giving them a way back into the game. Kingzone will take advantage of this and punish the Flash Wolves more swiftly.

Even with Kingzone’s shaky performance in the group stage, it’s difficult to bet against PraY, GorillA, and company. This team is stronger than last year’s Longzhu Gaming and much more versatile, despite the fact that they haven’t yet displayed it on the international stage. Their early game may not be as strong as that of the Flash Wolves, but their understanding of mid-to-late game setup and pressure around Baron is much stronger. It’s not impossible for the Flash Wolves to beat Kingzone, but it will take their best performance to date and continued underperformance from the South Korean squad.