CJ Entus Frost – Can they continue their dominance in the scene?

Shy (Top)

CloudTemplar (Jungle)

RapidStar (Mid)

Hermes (Space) (ADC)

MadLife (kkinsh) (Supp)

- 2nd OGN Champions Spring 2012 (L 0:3 Blaze)

- 1st OGN Champions Summer (W 3:2 CLG.EU)

- 2nd Season 2 Championship (L 1:3 TPA)

- 3 ~ 4th IEM Katowice (L 0:2 GG)

- 2nd OGN Champions Winter (L 0:3 NJ SWD)

- 2nd IEM VII World Championships (L 1:3 Blaze)

Team review

One of the oldest and most decorated team in Korea, CJ Entus Frost are no strangers when it comes to competing in tournaments and being successful in them. Having made to every single finals on a LAN tournament with the exception of IEM Katowice is impressive considering the fact that the LoL scene changes at a rapid rate and despite the fact Frost has found a way to win each and every time. Being so successful, it is no wonder that this team is the most renowned team in Korea with a huge following both positive and negative. All the popularity aside, Frost has seemingly lost a step after the season 3 changes were implemented but even in their weakened state, they were able to grind out wins until GG showed the text book example of how Frost can be beaten. NJ WSD then deployed the exact same tactics as GG did in order to dominate Frost in the finals. Since the finals loss, Frost has only competed in the IEM World Championships where they were able to beat GG this time around en route to losing an all CJ Entus final. With more than enough time to adapt to the new season 3 changes, we will be able to see if Frost can regain their dominance and remain as the most consistent progaming team in the history of LoL.

Team Strengths

Every member on the team is a carry

Frost is a unique team in many ways but one of the things which stand out the most for this team is that no particular emphasis is placed on a single member of the team to carry a game. In the top lane, Shy usually draws out a minimal of one or even 2 targeted bans against him and even with these bans, his champion pool is large enough that he can carry using the unbanned champion that is available. Shy what contributes to his team on a nightly basis is his excellent csing ability and carry potential as the game transition from mid to late game. RapidStar in the mid lane is one of the most aggressive mid laners in the LoL scene. While he may fall behind the enemy mid lane in terms of cs, RapidStar makes up for this through aggressive roaming and gaining kills. Thus if the game is going awry for Frost in the early going, look for RapidStar to make plays along with CloudTemplar to turn the game around. CloudTemplar, the jungler has carried countless games with his famous Shen and his greatest strength is being able to make good decisions on the fly especially during counter ganking situations and late game situations where his game management can often give his team the advantage. The support player MadLife is often called a god for his high mechanical ability and playmaking abilities (Blitz, Ali). Despite the fact that MadLife has shown signs that he may be human in his recent form, he will still be counted on as a reliable force in the bottom lane. Finally the new member Hermes has demonstrated on MVP Blue that he has the high level of mechanics to be a late-game carry threat. Adding to this fact that Hermes has a wider variety of champions in his arsenal compared to Woong, it will be interesting to see what Hermes can offer for the team as a new carry. With all of their members given specific duties along with the potential to carry while performing their specific role, it won`t be a surprising sight to see a different member winning the MVP each game.

The incredible and mysterious team fighting ability

When you watch Frost’s matches, some moments during the match can sometimes perplex you. At first sight, it may seem that Frost is not doing anything spectacular and making flashy plays in team fights but somehow, they manage to come out the victors in team fights. One such moment was during the season 2 championship finals in game 1 where CloudTemplar seemingly engaged into the whole TPA team by himself when Frost was behind. Somehow Frost was able to win the team fight and win the game. In terms of pure team fighting ability, Frost is definitely one of the best teams in the world if not the best in the world along with teams like GG. One of the reasons for their strong team fighting is that every member on Frost knows their role very well during a team fight situation and they are often very confident going into every team fight if they’re even or even slightly behind. In addition to this, Frost is a very communicative team constantly talking amongst each other to check cool downs and their positions to see when they can engage and when they should disengage. A lot of the credit for this goes to MadLife especially because while CloudTemplar makes a lot of calls and discusses what Frost should be doing, MadLife usually the one to give the final say on what the team should or shouldn’t be doing. Knowing that Frost can pull out miraculous team fights can also limit the strategies that the opposing team can prepare against Frost. Unless the opposing team feels that they can go into 5 vs 5 team fights and continually come out ahead, they must find a way to obtain a large advantage during the laning phase or through skirmishes which may or may not work for them. Overall, Frost’s incredible team fighting is definitely a wonder to behold and a scary phenomenon for the opposition to go up against.

Cold Blooded

The final strength and perhaps the aspect of the game that Frost excels more than anyone in the world may be their high mental strength in game. Mentality is a rarely spoken aspect of the game but just like a normal sport, it has an immense effect on a player’s performance. As such, it is not a coincidence that Frost has the best win rate in blind pick matches and it is also not a coincidence that they can win games even if they fall behind in the early game. Each member of Frost is rarely seen to be nervous and it shows in their playing. One well documented game in which the members of Frost did say they were mentally shaken was their game against TPA due to the crowd being largely biased against them for the infamous Woong cheater debauchery. CloudTemplar stated in an interview that the crowd’s reactions were definitely affecting the members and it translated into a bad performance for them. Aside from that particular game however, members of Frost usually exercise good judgement which allows them to play the game with minimal mistakes. Team Frost’s never-say-die attitude combined with their wealth of experience in high leverage situations is what makes them deadly in tournaments especially during the knock out stages.

Team weaknesses

Weak early game

Out of all the world class teams in the world, Frost may boast the weakest laning phases and early game play. There are several reasons for this weakness. One of them as mentioned is that Frost likes to take the game into the mid-late game if the skill level between the teams is relatively even since they have the confidence that they can beat any team in the late game situation. Another reason related to this is that the team composition of Frost used to be almost always a late game team comp where the team would synergize best when they were all together. The problem with this of course is that with the dawn of season 3, the emphasis on a strong lane phase has grown considerably which led to the exponential increase in the exposure of Frost’s weak laning. In season 3, it wasn’t simply enough to survive the lanes and that transition still remains to be an issue for Frost. The level of success that Frost can achieve in the upcoming season against teams like KT B and NJ SWD will definitely depend on the solution to their laning problems. If not, a repeat of last year’s finals is sure to ensue.

Inconsistent plays of RapidStar and CloudTemplar

During the Winter season, the two players who failed to impress the most were CloudTemplar and RapidStar. After the season 3 change which saw a host of nerfs to RapidStar’s main champion pool, he did not adapt well to the change and thus digressed in his performance. RapidStar’s failure to play a champion such as Kayle led to Frost using a ban on Kayle even if they were Blue side instead of being able to pick it up in addition to this he has become quite predictable in his champion choices in recent times making it easier for the opposing teams to prepare against him. While RapidStar’s level of play has still remained at a high level, he will need to show that he can still improve as a player and truly become a world class mid player. CloudTemplar is the other player who did not adapt very well to season 3 changes. Templar’s style of passive jungling in season 2 was definitely a success but as season 3 changes came about (along with that Skarner nerf), it was no longer acceptable to be passive as a jungler. This change in how the game was played definitely affected Templar as a player because even in season 3, he was playing champions who were good in season 2. After the devastating loss against NJ SWD and GG where Templar was sought out as the weak point of Frost, Templar has tried greatly to show a change in his play style in order to match the current meta. However, Templar showed in his matches that he still hasn’t adapted well to the new playing style and showed there’s still work to be done. One of the reasons that Frost previously had a weak laning phase was due to the jungling style of Templar. Templar would not be the one to make his presence felt all around the map rather his style of play would depend heavily on counter ganking and making sure that he can grow as much as he can to become a threat in the long run. It will be interesting to see how Templar can integrate his old playing style with the current aggressive meta in order to be successful in his own way. If Templar is unsuccessful however, look for Frost to struggle in many of their matches against opposition of equal level.

The loss of Woong

I know not many people will agree with me when I say this but at the end of his tenure with Frost Woong was actually a GOOD ADC for the team. After the CJ Entus matches in the round of 8 Woong was definitely a different player on Frost and he would often carry his team. This is not to say that he was one of the best ADCs in the world but he was one of the best ADCs for a team like Frost where the ADC is role is not given that much emphasis compared to other teams (as Loco mentioned during a broadcast). By switching from Woong to Hermes, it will be interesting to see if Frost will have to spend more resources in trying to feed Hermes and in turn how that will affect the whole team’s play as a unit. In addition to game play, Woong was also the founder of the original Frost line-up and he would be one of the most knowledgeable players on the team. It will be interesting to see if Frost’s pick and ban strategies deteriorate as a result of Woong’s departure or remains the same with the majority of the players and coaching staff still remaining on the team. This season will be interesting to see exactly what Woong provided for the team other than absorbing all the hate from the fans.

Key Player CloudTemplar (Jungle)

As I mentioned before, Frost is not a team who relies on one single person to carry their games but in order for their game plan to work out, it also means that they need everyone to perform their given duties in every game. This is why ClouidTemplar needs to perform at a level we’re used to seeing from him during the new season of OGN Champions if Frost doesn’t wish to risk missing the finals of the Champions stage for the first time in their team history. In addition to performing well in-game, Templar is also their leader and if he doesn’t perform well it could start off an adverse chain reaction for the team mentally which would signal doom for a team that had recently lost one of their other leaders in the off-season.

Season expectations

Even with all the doubts you can’t look beyond Frost’s experience and skill level. With a relatively weak group Frost should have no trouble reaching the RO8 and depending on match-ups even RO4 but should they meet NJ SWD, Blaze or KT B in the semis, it may signal the end of Frost’s consecutive appearances in the finals of the OGN Champions tournament