In this article I will go into detail about an anomaly of a team out of Korea, the KOO Tigers. Fairly unpopular in their own region and widely disregarded in the scope of winning Worlds, I will be discussing their likely placement at Worlds and reviewing how their overall season went. I’ll go over every player individually and where I believe them to fit in the context of the Worlds tournament.

Season In Review (56-30 Total Record, 65% Win Percentage)

The KOO Tigers roared to a fast start in Spring, meshing their new roster composed of former Incredible Miracle and Najin players together quicker than any other team in Korea after the massive exodus. With a versatile and innovative team they would kick off the Spring split with a 20-2 match record prior to IEM Katowice, not dropping a single BO3 set in Champions. Heading into IEM Katowice, they would cleanly knock off top North American and European teams Cloud 9 and SK Gaming in groups before falling in a massive upset to Chinese cellar dweller Team WE during the bracket stage. Returning to Korea on the back half of the Spring split they would struggle a bit more. With the Cinderhulk patch entering the competitive scene their struggles intensified and they would drop two of their final four sets in Spring before heading off to playoffs. Going into playoffs, despite being the number one seed, they were widely regarded as the second or third best team in the region. Being swept in the finals by SK Telecom they would end their phenomenal first split together in a weak state.

They would regroup heading into Summer split, bringing in former Incredible Miracle jungler Kim “Wisdom” Tae-wan to help out in the jungle position as it had been a notable weakness both domestically and internationally. Their struggles from Spring had crept into their Summer play as they showed erratic inconsistencies dropping three of their first four sets of the split. After a tough start to the split, things clicked yet again for the Tigers as they rattled off another large streak of success, taking 15 of their next 16 matches and winning eight straight sets leading up to a mid-season match up against the nearly impeccable SK Telecom. In a one-sided stomp, SK Telecom would take two straight matches and end the streak of success for the Tigers. After dropping the set to SK Telecom, KOO would end the split on another low note as they dropped three of their final five sets. Falling down from second place to fourth place in the span of a couple sets, their playoff hopes didn’t look strong. Both CJ Entus and Najin e-mFire ended the split strongly and looked poised for a solid playoff run. KOO would come well prepared and wiped them both out in consecutive sets to square off against KT Rolster. In a very close five game set, KOO would fall out of playoffs, but they were now in prime position to secure the number two seed to Worlds as long as SK Telecom won the Summer playoff finals. SK Telecom swept through KT Rolster, securing themselves the number one seed and securing the KOO Tigers the number two seed.

The Players

Top Lane | Song “Smeb” Kyung-ho (송경호)

The player most would regard as the center, main carry on the roster, Smeb really only broke out and made a name for himself last Summer. Despite not escaping group stages on Incredible Miracle #1, he showed off some very slick individual play on a variety of champs against Samsung Blue and SK Telecom T1 K. Coming into the season Smeb was one of the larger question marks for the Tigers, but has more than proven his worth for the team over the course of the season. He is one of the keys that really unlocks this innovation and uniqueness among the team. With a very wide champ pool that has no limit, he has shown an incredible ability to transition from anything and everything from a Malphite to a Fizz to a Riven to a Lulu. He is all over the place style wise and is arguably the best performer on this team.

His one versus one lane play is top-notch, especially whenever he’s on a more carry oriented champ that he feels he can play more aggressive on. He has stood toe to toe with everyone in Korea and really demands attention from the enemy jungler to keep him in check. Another attractive attribute to Smeb’s play is his really smart and proactive teleport usage. In the set against SK Telecom during Summer, where both teams entered in with massive win streaks, he was really outperforming Marin in the teleport game despite the rest of his team getting crushed around the map. He was making plays happen that shouldn’t have been happening and he beat Marin to the punch on numerous occasions.

He is also the main in-game shot caller for KOO and for those that have watched KOO play you’ll see that they have a great sense for the map, knowing where to be and when. Their mid and late game team fighting is another large plus. Against KT Rolster in the Summer playoffs they played two matches from behind really well, making it an absolute pain to close for KT Rolster even though they were holding near 10k gold leads. In game three of that set, KOO even gained two separate, uncontested barons despite having large gold deficits. Their play around vision in the mid and late game is extremely smart, and everything really begins and ends with Smeb.

Within Korea I praise Smeb on an individual level, putting him as an easy top three top laner. Duke, of Najin e-mFire, and Ssumday, of KT Rolster, are the only ones I would place at, or above, his level. Phenomenal player in multiple aspects, but I feel KOO sometimes lacks direction in their team dynamic, having struggles with where jungle pressure should be applied. In the Worlds tournament, I would say Smeb is likely a top three player at his position, only behind Acorn and possibly Ssumday or Koro1. He is the player to watch on KOO and if he turns up in good shape, things will be very promising for KOO.

Jungle | Lee “Hojin” Ho-jin (이호진) and Kim “Wisdom” Tae-wan (김태완)

The major weakness on KOO is their jungle position. The only position where they have two players on the roster has been a constant source of disappointment through the season. Both junglers initially started playing professionally last Summer and neither has stood out in any particular way. Wisdom showed some success with Incredible Miracle, however he was incredibly inconsistent in his play with his highs being quite high, but his lows being present far too often. Much like Smeb, Wisdom first made a name for himself with a brilliant performance alongside Frozen during last Summer’s group stage match against Samsung Blue. Ever since entering the competitive scene his results have been very hit or miss, but mechanically he’s a very strong player.

It’s doubtful we’ll see Wisdom play at Worlds. Hojin played every single match in playoffs after a small break near the end of the regular season where Wisdom took over. At the moment I would definitely say Hojin is a superior jungler and the right choice for KOO. While he’s not spectacular by any means, he has more experience with this roster than Wisdom and, for the time being, a much better and consistent game sense. With the meta shifting away from pure tank style junglers, Hojin has found himself in a much better place in-game. He was the main source of inconsistency during the latter part of Spring and the earlier part of Summer due to that inability to adapt. Eve being a staple pick, Elise coming back, and Lee Sin being a solid pick competitively both mean he has three of his top junglers available.

One of the good points about Hojin is his mid and late game play. You rarely see him get caught out of position or create a negative play. Vision control wise he’s a pretty solid player throughout the entirety of a match, and he works well with Gorilla in setting up deep vision, helping his team get through the early laning. Unfortunately Hojin is not a ganking jungler. He’s not a play maker and despite excelling mechanically on champs such as Elise and Lee Sin, he’s just not the type of player that looks to create a play. The lack of pressure he puts down in the laning phase is probably the largest overall weakness for KOO. Whenever he does try to lay pressure down it’s typically in the top lane, trying to get Smeb ahead. He never prioritizes the mid lane, preferring to leave Kuro alone, and focuses more on supporting the duo lane.

Both KOO junglers are pretty mediocre in the context of Korea and are the weakest point on the roster. Chaser, Score, and Bengi being considered superior in almost every aspect at their position. Certain other junglers would be arguably better. In the scope of the whole tournament at Worlds, one would be left pretty unimpressed by Hojin. Clearlove, Kakao, Score, Bengi, and Karsa would be junglers attending that I would definitely put ahead of him. I am thoroughly disappointed in lack of development in Hojin’s play through the past three splits, but his play in the playoffs does leave some hope as he really showed up in a big way.

Mid Lane | Lee “Kuro” Seo-haeng (이서행)

Probably the most contentious player on the roster, their mid laner Kuro does not generate much hype. He transitioned from the Incredible Miracle organization to the Najin Black Sword squad prior to last Summer and helped lead an up start, promising Sword roster to a surprising second place NLB finish. I disagree with the general opinion that Kuro is a weak, mediocre mid laner. He is a very different style mid that isn’t the focus for the team, which is completely different from almost every other top team. Playing very independent from the rest of the team, he is almost always left in a lane to fend for himself with extremely little jungle or support pressure. Over the course of his career, I’d say he has been one of the better performing mid laners in the context of Korea and has shown off multiple play styles with a wide champ pool, which makes some of his narrow play in the past year all the more questioning for me.

Kuro’s role in KOO is to act as a secondary, background carry to both Smeb or Pray. He is very rarely ever given the resources or the pressure to really take a game over and due to their jungle woes has been a bit of a lone wolf on the team in-game. In recent playoffs against CJ Entus and KT Rolster, he broke that mold and was given the ability to take a game over on both Fizz and Ryze, two unpopular picks for him. Both games were a roaring success as KOO steam rolled both matches. That is the kind of play I would love to see more out of Kuro, given higher priority within the team, and I believe it gives KOO a multi-dimensional style whenever you don’t just have to worry about Smeb going off in-game. I think that trend is one of the keys for success at Worlds for KOO. He has to be more involved in a carry sense outside of whenever he gets placed on Viktor.

As stated, Kuro’s play style within the past year has been very much on the supportive side of things, but his play on zone control mages is really his bread and butter, impressing on stuff like Orianna, Syndra, Leblanc, and Viktor where he can completely control a team fight by himself. However, and this is where I’m thrown off, he has shown a great ability to pick up a more carry oriented role and just run with it. Certain times you’ll see him placed on something like Kassadin, Yasuo, or Leblanc and just hard carry a match. That is a part of his style that I feel is criminally underutilized. His laning play is very average and quite passive, but his team fighting sense is some of the best in the world. He knows exactly where to be positioned at within a team fight at all times.

In the context of Korea, he’s definitely in the top half at his position. Faker, GBM, and Coco being the ones I’d say are definitely stronger than him. In the context of the World Championship, his competition will be a lot stiffer. If utilized correctly, I think he would be a mid tier mid laner. In a pool of players including Faker, GODV, Rookie, Pawn, Bjergsen, Febiven, Maple, and Ryu it’s not exactly easy to stick out. His laning might be punished against of better mid and jungle duos, but I have no doubt his team fighting would be top of the class here. On a side note here, Kuro is one of the more vocal players in-game, being more of a team fight shot caller alongside Smeb.

AD Carry | Kim “Pray” Jong-in (김종인) and Support | Kang “Gorilla” Beom-hyeon (강범현)

The duo lane here is one of the high marks for KOO. Coming into the year Pray was still a question mark returning after a long break from competitive league and Gorilla had made a name for himself as one of the premier world-class supports after a phenomenal Season 4 World Championship performance. Together they’ve meshed extremely well and had been a large source of success whenever KOO abused strong mid game comps which is Pray’s best attribute. Pray’s play definitely took a dip earlier in the Summer split, but he has recovered just fine with the help of a little Corki and Sivir spam, two champs he went a combined 19-9 on during the regular season Summer split. Being placed on champs that he can shove his lane in and control objectives in the mid game with is the prime position for Pray to be put into. I definitely called Pray out earlier in the split for only being able to play Sivir and Corki, but recently in playoffs he has shown some more diversity with spot on Ashe play along with individual promising Vayne and Kalista performances.

Gorilla on the other hand has been one of, if not, the absolute best supports in Korea and has been extremely well-rounded. He has performed at an extremely high level in numerous support roles, moving from his patented Janna over to a hard engage threat Annie, and many, many more. His recent Kennen support play has also sparked some uniqueness out of the bottom lane. During the split his play, alongside Smeb, has been the rock for KOO in keeping them not just in the playoff hunt, but in gaining them a World Championship spot. He has worked extremely well in tandem with Hojin in the vision game, mind gaming the hell out of his opponents and securing his team objectives they probably shouldn’t be in a position to get. If there is one particular area I feel Gorilla could improve on or focus more on is his proactive roaming a la what Piccaboo has done for KT Rolster. Just bringing a more notable threat at the support position elevated KT Rolster to new heights and I feel if Gorilla were to focus on that it’d bring another dimension to KOO’s play. As is, he’s not an aggressive support and doesn’t try to force plays to happen, particularly in the early game.

I would place Gorilla at the very top of Korea. I think he’s the most well-rounded, best performing support in Korea now. At Worlds he’ll definitely have some stiff competition alongside Pyl, Piccaboo, and Meiko, but I’m confident he’ll stick up around the top-tier of supports. As for Pray, with his most recent play in playoffs I think much more highly of him. Deft, Imp, and Bang all attending will place him above the average level of marksmen, but not at the top. When he’s at his best level of play, he’s a force to be reckoned with, but we’ll just have to wait and see which Pray shows up.

Prediction

As of now, I’m hesitant to put KOO on a pedestal and say they’ll make a large run in this tournament. This is because they are a team that is so incredibly dependent on great preparation and certain players are prone to just tilting that it’s tough to predict exactly which team will show up. Throughout the season their success has been based around exploiting extremely strong team compositions such as the Juggermaw or the well-played mid game comps centered around champs such as Leblanc, Viktor, Lucian, and Corki. The versatility they have among their solo lanes leaves KOO open to a lot of different strategies they can employ at this tournament. On an individual level, the ceiling isn’t that high for most of this team. Kuro isn’t going to dominate his lane and snowball a match on his own. Hojin isn’t going to suddenly burst out of his shell and turn into DanDy. Pray has his own limitations with his champ pool. These are players that are highly dependent on out-strategizing their opponents. With the given month of preparation and the brand new 5.18 patch that has a lot of changes, I am really interested in seeing what KOO can cook up and win with.

As of now, I would expect this team to make it out of groups. Unless they somehow get a hellish group with LGD Gaming and one of the LMS teams that perform above my own expectation. If they come prepared with compositions that led them on runs such as their mid Summer streak or their early Spring streak, I think Semifinals is a good possibility. If they meet EDward Gaming, SK Telecom, or LGD Gaming then they’re done. I don’t think any amount of great strategy can overcome the lack of talent KOO has in certain areas against those teams. Every other team in the tournament I feel is at worst a coin flip.

I am extremely excited to see KOO at Worlds. They are one team I just cannot wait to see what they come up with.

Credits

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