Hey guys, here is my "Reflecting on the Year" post. I apologize for it being so long and I hope it's not too heavy to read. Please do read all of it before you comment/attack :)



SPRING SPLIT 2016 (With Origen)

We all took a long vacation after Worlds 2015,IEM San Jose and AllStars. We started practicing less than 10 days before our opening match vs Fnatic and then we had 3 days of internet problems in the house before we started bootcamping where we ended up scrimming 2 days on wrong patch vs Giants and other Challenger teams, needless to say we got made fun of in our first games and we went 1-3 in first 2 weeks vs FNC, H2K, UoL and VIT. I think everyone in the team was really disappointed but most of us were ok and said the "Just work towards playoffs which is all that matters" so we did.



But when we were struggling to beat bottom tier(7-10) teams like Roccat and when we almost lost to Elements because I was getting hit by Morgana bindings and Janna tornados in 2016 (LUL), I went home alone, almost crying at how fking trash I was and how bad we had become. I think here I improved a lot as a player because previously to this game, most of our wins were stuff like Lulu/Lucian or Kalista/Alistar comps so I became too tunneled on carrying alone and as such, I almost cost my team games like this to teams we couldn't afford to lose to (We only had 1 win vs a top 6 team at this point so I was legit scared we wouldn't make playoffs if I lost games to bottom teams like this). So here I think I matured as a player and started to regain trust in teammates as well as focus on the 5v5 game rather than thinking stuff like "what items and what circumstance do I need to kill 5 people alone".



The holy grail of "playoffs is all that matters" worked as we got it together (kind off) at the end of the split and got 4th place because we beat both UoL and Fnatic in week 8 and 9. We had started playing a bit more with both mids (Peke/PoE) so we could put Peke on LeBlanc, Lissandra, Corki etc and PoE on mages which worked pretty ok. Fourth place meant that we played UoL in Quarterfinals and although we 3-0'ed them, the series was not very high quality (Easiest laneswap of my life game 1, Janna/Lucian dying 2v2 to Trundle/Jhin game 2 etc, so I didn't have the best feeling about our upcoming semi-final vs H2K but I believed, I always did.



But our practice was actually good before the semis vs H2K, especially PoE and Amazing found lots of success on Kindred/Gragas and Lissandra/Karma, I was really happy for them (and sOAZ) because they got more shit from the community during the split than they deserved, it always made me feel like a spoiled wonderkid to see them get shit on and me never recieving flak from social media when I was playing bad (I lost game 1 vs H2K alone 'cause I walked into a Graves W and lost the last teamfight even though we should've snowballed our 7-0 lead better).

Anyways, we win game 2 because H2K couldn't execute a 5v3 dive on us (couldn't 2v2 I guess haha lol xDD). So I guess both teams lose one game because they couldn't execute their advantage. Right after we almost lose to a 'perfect game' in game 3, I remember mithy suiciding to the mid tier 1 so we could prevent a perfect game (xD). No one wants to be remembered as "the guys that got perfect gamed" (I'm looking at you Najin White Shield).

We sub in Peke in game 4 with the intention to play a different style, ended up picking Lulu lol, and the game was a long 5v5 brawl with a pause since Pekes keyboard died mid-teamfight and just so much fighting until in the end, one team wins a teamfight and ends mid.

In game 5 I think we played some of the best 1-4 (or 2-1-1 call it what you want, basically just not 1-3-1 which was meta) which eventually resulted in us getting their mid tower at minute 12 because they overforced a bot gank. Getting mid tower so early in the game on top of having a better teamcomp means free win and we advance to the Grand Finals, I almost couldn't believe it.



SPRING FINALS



I put the finals completely on me honestly, I should never have picked Ezreal in the first game when we have a Rod of Ages + Mercs mage mid. I should have picked Thresh/Kalista in game 1 instead even though I thought Kalista was shit after the nerfs. We end up doing good in lane in a (imo) bad match up but no cc teamcomp vs fed LeBlanc is just bad and I got caught a bit too much. Zven + Ezreal = EleGiggle amirite..

In game 2 we pick real champs bot lane and although we got a sizeable cs lead, we didn't push our lead very much but the enemy team did give up their mid tower at minute 10 to overforce a gank bot so there is that. All in all we eventually win this game, thanks to heroic performance by Amazing (He was really good in playoffs, main reason we beat H2K because he "XD'ed" Jankos).



Next game Kalista ban (leaving open Azir) and I am out of champs (Lucian/Kalista ban and Sivir first pick, we prioritized Kindred because we banned Nidalee). This is why I blame my self for us losing this series. You guys probably don't know but pre-rework Guinsoos Rageblade on Tristana was the most op shit ever and I didn't play it in this finals, instead I pick Ezreal (with another losing mage mid) and I become montage material for enemy Zed who was really far ahead of our Azir and then took over the game. We could actually have won had we gotten the nash that they stole after they threw a bit. Also I played really shit, died so much for no reason but yeah, sucks.

In game 4 we sub in Peke, we first pick Sivir and then Braum (vs Janna/Caitlyn and going up in lane) and we have a very good draft and Peke/Amazing crush the game but we fail to push our lead to victory and we end up just randomly losing the game off a Caitlyn Baron steal (The Emperor special), into a pick mid into go mid and end.



Fuck man, never in my life have I felt so mad/sad. I couldn't believe how easily the series could've been won, I was so mad at myself that I was just sitting for myself, looking at a wall for like an hour, no joke.

Sucks but I blame myself more than anyone for the finals, I am sure if I played Tristana instead of Ezreal or just played perfect every game, I would've been able to go equal or above in lane, actually have decent sidelane game and be an op champ on 3 item onwards. Sucks.



Off topic transfer to G2



This wasn't something I planned on including and I usually don't answer to angry/hateful fans nor do I think it's a good idea but I really dislike seeing things that are untrue about me being spread on Reddit/Twitter as if it was true so here is some things that I need off my chest before I disappear again.



"Ungrateful mercenary, you play only for money, you went to G2 for money you greedy *insert hateful word*"



I don't play for money, I never did and I most likely never will unless I become shit at the game in some years and turn into a salary thief at the bottom of LCS or a bootlicker in a top team till I retire. After worlds 2015 and after the Spring split, I had offers that paid three times the Origen salary, including Azubu streaming money. I had offers in other regions. I didn't take those offers because I did not like the rosters chances at success and after Worlds, I was 100 % sure that S6 was the year of Origen that I just said no to any person approaching me without even blinking twice.



"Zven didn't tell anyone from Origen they were leaving, they just left Peke right before the roster lock, fucking up Origen"



That's not exactly true. The people that were not informed about our wish to leave were sOAZ, Amazing and PowerOfEvil. I told Peke about my concerns of the team and later wish to leave more than three weeks prior to the roster lock - the so called deadline.

I actually feel bad for sOAZ, Amazing and PoE that I did not tell them about our (mithy and I) intentions to leave. I know it doesn't change anything now, but i'd like to say sorry.



SUMMER SPLIT 2016

Early in the Summer Split, I think every team was really bad except for us, we became bad later on but at first we went on a hot streak and we were trolling (not trolling, just having more fun than we should) while running over our opponents until the middle of the split when Kikis decided to put the ultimatum of "Him or Expect" which resulted in Expect playing full time in scrims and LCS.

This left us in a tough situation since Daehan (Expect) was really just a soloQ player and he needed almost micromanagement (wave assignment, how and when to use tp, how to push his lead to other lanes and especially teaching laneswaps from scratch is hard) on top of the language barrier but he is the most "willing-to-improve" player I have ever worked with, really respectable work ethic. But regardless, we had a mid-split slump and by slump I mean we went 1-1 against a lot of teams that we shouldn't and we were pressured for the top 1 spot by a resurgent Splyce, in the end we managed to get top 1 but it was closer than it should have been.



I think with the performance we showed vs UoL, we probably would have lost had we played H2K (whom Splyce faced due to 2nd seed) since our semifinal play had so many champion issues/poor macro and overforced decisions but we did manage to fix a lot of those problems coming into the finals even though EU scrims really are the worst, with the exception of Splyce, when it comes to productivity/number of games and cancelling due to tilt or other issues.



In the end, we win the Final 3-1 vs Splyce, we played okay I think, a bit of overextend game 1 but otherwise good play. In game 2 we had terrible draft and play (Especially by me, PerkZ and mithy). Before game 3, I told my team that no matter what, we choose blue side and we first pick Sivir because it was so motherfucking overpowered, so we did and we played Sivir/Tahm vs Karma/Caitlyn, won lane and our comp was way better than theirs after lane. Game 4 was just a free win after early screwup, their draft was desperate and finally I was able to hold the title of EULCS Champion, something I missed in my career and really wanted, gg.



G2 KOREAN BOOTCAMP



I think G2 set up a really nice place for us. We were bootcamping in a very nice suite hotel together with other teams (C9, TSM etc) and it was a really great

At first, we were just kinda trying to figure out the meta and we had a lot of trouble figuring out what to play in the top lane and when. We had mixed opinions in the team about champs like Jayce, Kennen and Rumble and when to counterpick and when to blind pick etc. In the later stages of bootcamp, we were winning a lot of games and if not winning, at least having productive games (lose is improve amirite) most of the time.



Nonetheless, our bootcamp was very successful in my eyes, I think especially Daehan improved so much. I even think that our macroplay when ahead got a lot better and I felt like we were starting to become a team rather than individuals that just outplays the enemy to win.



It helped a lot to have two korean players on our team that could help with food, changing language on pc (xD), reading the menu at kbbq places (My chopstick game is insane now, i'm like Mr. Miyagi catching flies) and so on. All in all I had a good time and I think the bootcamp was a success.



WORLDS



Coming in to Worlds, I think we were such a good team, we were sharpening up our game and scrims vs good teams were going well and I was getting high hopes. I feel like the meta, apart from the ranged support thing on bot (We are better as a duo with melee supports) was in our favor.



CLG GAME 1



I don't wanna make long and detailed analysis of every game but in short, we drafted for winning top (FP Elise and get Jayce), Syndra blind or Ekko into Syndra, pick a bot lane that can survive even though they pick strongest duo available.



Our early game is fine but at 8 minutes, they dive me bot because mithy and I did a greedy freeze that we don't usually do. Follow up to my death, we lose 2 more people and all summoners on Syndra which leads into a 2v2 mid into Syndra dying which then leads into their bot duo rotating mid, taking our mid tower 12 minutes into the game with a snowbally mid match up + the best siege AD means doom. CLG plays the game well from here and we don't have real comeback mechanics(little reliable engage) that doesn't rely on enemy team screwing up.



ROX Tigers



We had good matchups aside from top who plays well (He dodges a dive from Nocturne while we double killed their bot in a gank prior to that) and then he turns the lane around after one gank from Trick.

I think we snowballed our early lead on bot/mid very well while our top survives and the game was honestly so good from us except for a few catches by Malzahar/Nocturne that loses us some kills and one Mountain Drake. Everyone knows what happened at Baron, we just screwed up and got 5v2 outplayed and after that, we slowly lose teamfights and gg. We should have never lost that game, it wasn't in the Tigers hands to come back, it was in ours to throw it away.



ANX



Say what you want about "Likkrit brand open hurr durr" but had we played our 3 winning lanes correct and not died to warded ganks or had we not overcommitted on bot after we outplayed them 3v4, we would have had leads in every lane in this game. But instead, Anivia and Lucian got ahead when they shouldn't have and thus, our bot tower is prone to fall since Lucian is ahead and Anivia can move into the river. But we slowly crawl back in the game, get some kills, a drake until the point where they sneak Baron (Brand is admittedly a good pick for that) which we should have seen coming as they did it once in groups already. Few minutes later we're down 4 towers and normally, we are just too far behind to contest Baron vs Anivia/Poppy with our champs but we end up getting caught right before it spawns and we lose Baron and they siege to end, gg.



POST WEEK 1



We suffered a bit of a mental loss I think. People openly said that they felt uncomfortable on stage, mouse shaking etc (I have been there myself last year when I first entered the Worlds stage so I understand) and they felt like they couldn't play as good as normally but we got it together and tried to look towards our next 3 games as it wasn't completely over yet.



It's not that we lost to a wildcard or the fact that we are 0-3 in first week of groups. The thing that got us down was the way we lost those games: Two bad plays in early game vs CLG and suddenly our mid tower falls and we just have to watch them as they slowly take all our towers and siege the game to an end. Or a game vs ROX where we throw a huge lead and end up screwing up our Baron. A game vs ANX where we draft winning match ups but throw them away by dying to ganks or overstaying in a 3v4 until we lose to a (in hindsight) rather obvious Baron sneak.

This led to us having one of those "Heroic Speeches about Life" where we all agreed that we could have won all of those games as easily as we lost. The next week, we actually had good mood and good practice partners (TSM, EDG, RNG, H2K) and things were looking good. I went to bed with actual high hopes of going 3-0 and winning a tiebreaker for 2nd seed.



WEEK 2

Needless to say, we didn't win the first game vs ROX and as such, our hopes of making Quarterfinals were gone. We had a decent early game vs ROX but we failed to make use of our 5 minute TP advantage at minute 10 which we should have used to force a dive on bot tower or just scare them away and take the tower. Instead, we did nothing and when they (imo) overforced a tp play on bot to take our tower, we should have given it up but instead, I tried to waveclear giving up 2 unneccesary kills on top of the tower for tower trade. One of my bigger individual mistakes of this tournament. After this, the game crumbles and we lose towers everywhere for no reason (bot tier 2, mid tier 1, top tier 3) and we slowly lose until they finally put the nail in the coffin with a pick on someone and rush Baron. Our base was open and the game was over shortly after, gg.



You guys know what happened after, we lost to CLG and we beat ANX, let's say it was to prevent a 2-4 meme, yeah? But we actually wanted to beat CLG and ANX to show people we are not that bad but in CLG game we fall behind early in matchups we shouldn't and the result is us slowly losing 1 tower in the early game (minute 12) for free and slowly losing the game onwards. The win vs ANX is whatever although in hindsight it helped H2K greatly as they dodged the Tigers in quarters; so in the end we could be of use to our region (Insert "It's something" meme).



Anyways, I think Worlds was a disappointment to say the least. I am truly sorry to embarass you guys because I know you guys expected great things from us and we were given the opportunity to do so but we failed when it mattered the most. It's sad to be laughing stock for fans but it's deserved for now. We have IEM Gyeonggi coming up in December. We will work hard for this tournament and I genuinely hope we can make a statement there.



I am also sorry to the unsung heroes of G2, the management. There are some great people in G2 that did everything they could and more to set us up for success but we also let them down.



MY OWN PERFORMANCE



I don't think I was neccesarily the reason we lost any games but I wasn't a force to be reckoned with for the enemy team either. I didn't have that individual impact that you guys are used to seeing from me at international events. I think it comes from our (mithy and I) picks on bot and also just me playing the wrong champs. Obviously, the meta is not always about bot lane winning but I should have picked more Caitlyn, maybe less Ezreal (Zven on Ezreal EleGiggle) and been more of a leader for my team throughout this Summer Split and Worlds. Only things to learn from this event or, as some old EU legend once said: Failures to absorb!



WHAT'S NEXT



In December, we play IEM Gyeonggi and we will work hard for that tournament.

We will most likely stick together as a team, I think we are strong individuals with some young and hungry players that have motivation and room to improve. I don't have regrets (NO RAGRETS XD) and I am sure that this is just a bump in the road.

We will most likely use the Spring Split in 2017 to improve our infrastructure and try to set up ideal practice environments as well as work with more staff (analysts, life coach, psychologist, all this kind of people) to set us up for success. Then in Summer, we will keep what works and remove/fix what doesn't and hopefully look towards a better Worlds 2017.

Reply · Report Post