G-Rex was the final LMS team to qualify for the World Championship and will play its first game in the Play-In Stage in Seoul, South Korea on October 2nd. The dino squad had the easiest road to the LMS’s 2nd seed after its runner-up finish in spring, but meta changes badly burned the team. G-Rex missed playoffs by a hair and descended to the Regional Qualifier.

Even so, G-Rex managed to bring it together and qualify via the Regional Qualifier through virtue of its large roster, return to spring synergy, and help from an unlikely veteran.

Roster rotation

G-Rex started out the year as one of the best teams in the LMS, but was still a league below the dominant Flash Wolves. Despite that, the team carved out a significant identity for itself in playing for late-game team fights and focusing macro around the mid lane. The playstyle was heavily used by Raise Gaming in the LMS last year — with Hsieh “pk” Yu-Ting, Yang “Wuji” Chia-Yu, and Lin “Koala” Chih-chiang remaining from the team’s previous iteration — and seemingly carried over to the re-branded G-Rex. The difference for G-Rex is that there are significantly more cogs to play with.

Raise Gaming exploded on the scene last year, starting 7-1 in the Summer Split, but eventually faded due to its poor talent depth. G-Rex partially solved that by problem by bringing on Korean talents, Kim “Candy” Seung-ju and Lee “Stitch” Seung-ju. Still, G-Rex needed a lot more to qualify for Worlds this year. The eventual addition of Korean jungler, Oh “Raise” Ji-hwan, practically saved the team in Summer, as he proved to be more stable than Wang “Baybay” You-Chun toward the end of spring.

Moreover, G-Rex started giving LMS veteran, Anson “Empt2y” Leung, playtime toward the end of summer to further mix up the jungle position. G-Rex ran through the regional qualifier by running two different mid and jungle duos: Candy/Empt2y and Wuji/Raise. The first boasted a higher level of mechanical prowess, while also pairing up two Korean speakers, but relied on more passive early games. Meanwhile, Wuji and Raise were consistent in pulling attention and forcing confrontations to occur mid lane before anywhere else.

The ability to switch between the two playstyles at whim proved to be a great advantage for G-Rex, keeping opposing teams on their toes. Unfortunately, due to the 6-player and import limits, G-Rex won’t be able to flash this at the World Championship. Empt2 and Candy will be the starting mid lane/jungle duo at Worlds, with Baybay sitting on the sidelines. In the face of tougher international competition, G-Rex sacrificed the consistent Wuji and Raise for the more mechanically skilled duo of Candy and Empt2y.

Return to the hunt

Regardless of the selected roster, G-Rex adapted properly with bot lineups to return to its primary playstyle: force attention around mid and funnel gold into Stitch. This playstyle makes G-Rex a fairly slow team, but it has been their most consistent approach all year. As the primary cog of G-Rex’s late-game focused playstyle, Stitch has arguably been the team’s most consistent player behind Koala.

The beginning of Summer Split featured a lack of traditional AD carries and Stitch initially struggled to adapt, but once the team moved towards playing around AD carries regardless of meta — Stitch and G-Rex succeeded. The former Samsung Galaxy sub returned to his safe and consistent individual form, but pk and Koala’s rebounds were necessary for it to succeed.

Pk suffered in summer like much of G-Rex, but he still stands out as the most self-sufficient top laner in the league, while also being able to flex on both carries and tanks. As traditional in the LMS, pk is the heel of G-Rex and allows the rest of the map to be played freely without concern for the topside. Pk’s return to form toward the end of summer and during the regional qualifier provided the foundation necessary for G-Rex to succeed.

Speaking of foundation, Koala makes up the rest of the ground for G-rex’s play. Some pundits might postulate that Koala is a stronger support than Hu “SwordArt” Shuo-Jie, but at the very least, he is a strong second. Koala can be inconsistent with his vision control, but his roaming and engage decisions around mid lane consistently keep’s the ball in G-Rex’s court. G-Rex isn’t currently running Wuji, but Koala is the other key to the mid lane chest of dreams for his team. Koala is currently unknown to the world, but this World Championship is a chance to show that he can compete with SwordArt and make G-Rex a force to be reckoned with in both the Play-In and Group stages.

An unlikely veteran

Despite its success, G-Rex was a predictable, inflexible team with language issues that eventually fell the team in summer. The team adapted quickly, but the return of Canadian jungler, Empt2y, really changed the team equation. Empt2y previously played for Midnight Sun Esports before being banned from competitive play for a year. He attempted comebacks on Wayi Spider and Kowloon Esports, but they just didn’t work out. Eventually, he found his home on G-Rex and granted them a new dimension.

Empt2y has actually been part of the G-Rex roster since Spring Split, but didn’t receive playtime once Baybay came into the roster. Finally, Empt2y came back at the end of summer, clearly rejuvenated and closing in on his peak form. On top of his play, Empt2y contributes to G-Rex as a quadrilingual, speaking: English, Cantonese, Mandarin, and Korean. His fluency in Korean made a clear impact on Candy’s ability to play with the team and has further unlocked another carry for G-Rex.

Empt2y’s return to G-Rex was rather spontaneous, but getting more out of Candy means that the move is definitely welcomed. Empt2y is as inexperienced as the rest of the lineup when it comes to international competition, but he brings clear intangibles and a slight playstyle adjustment to G-rex when they need it most.

The World Championship hunt

Hong Kong Attitude’s failure to qualify for the Group Stage at last year’s World Championship is a true strike against LMS 3rd seeds. However, G-Rex is a different team with a new identity that needs to be treated differently. G-Rex comes into the World Championship with less individual holes than HKA and a more manageable playstyle than HKA’s “win lane, win game” approach.

G-Rex’s struggles in the Summer Split make the team look like a weak 3rd seed, but the team arguably came out stronger for it. Past problems were identified, new players came in, and their synergy was further optimized. G-Rex even has the leadership of World Champion Kurtis “Toyz” Lau behind them, who certainly knows a thing or two about winning.

G-Rex still isn’t the strongest team on the block, but it has the talent to succeed against teams from emerging regions. The biggest difference between last year’s Hong Kong Attitude and current year’s G-Rex is that G-Rex feels more like a team than a group of players. In the event that G-Rex finds its way to the group stage, you can be sure that the dinosaur will be readying its jaws and claws for the team that makes the mistake of underestimating it.

Photo: (Garena Esports)