What do you think of when you hear “Xpeke vs Dade”? Probably this fateful 1v1 at the 2014 World Championship:

The 1v1 itself became iconic not only because it was a clash of godlike mid laners in their prime on the biggest stage in LoL, but also because of the spectacular fashion in which Enrique “xPeke” Cedeño Martínez got the kill — not only winning it with his Zed shadow down, but purposely autoing the golem for lifesteal mid-fight which allowed him to survive the exchange. This myth however was shattered when the man himself explained his thought process back in 2015 on an episode of the now defunct LoL talk show, Summoning Insight:

When xPeke himself says “…it looked like it’s calculated but it’s actually not”, it certainly takes a lot of the luster out of the play. While Bae “Dade” Eo-jin did play the exchange poorly, the reality is that xPeke’s survival in that 1v1 is quite lucky. He lived with single-digit hp and that was after he auto’d the golem for lifesteal, his Q towards Dade went through the golem and killed it which gave him hp, and he leveled up while ignite was ticking, all of which was accidental. Nonetheless, both fans and analysts alike often cite this 1v1 as the evidence of xPeke “destroying” Dade at worlds. They shouldn’t. While it’s easy to remember a 1v1 outplay and let it be emblematic of a player’s individual superiority, the Korean superstar was destroyed by xPeke at the 2014 World Championship more comprehensively than what your recollection may tell you — and there’s much more to the story of these two than just their meeting at that tournament. Fact is, xPeke had Dade’s number in a way no other mid laner in LoL history did, and it began all the way back in 2012.

The IEM VII World Championship was set to take place on the 14th of December, 2012. It would be the last international tournament of season 2, but the first for many parties, including not only the CJ Entus organization, but their new mid laner, Dade, who had just joined the team in September.. xPeke’s Fnatic, on the other hand, came in experienced and hot off of their amazing performance at IPL5, the most stacked tournament of season 2. They placed 2nd at the event, only losing to the unstoppable World Elite, which meant that many had them pegged as the favourites to win this IEM tournament. Both teams made it through groups, Fnatic breezed through theirs with a 3–0 record whereas CJ Entus narrowly escaped their group in second with a crucial win over CLG.EU. Given their placings, the two met in the first B03 semifinal of the tournament.

Game 1 began with Fnatic hiding in the left-side mid brush and surprising Dade’s Twisted Fate with a lvl 1 kill, and thus Dade’s woes against Fnatic began.

The lane was going evenly early on between the two, but xPeke’s Katarina was able to teleport top to clean up a top/jungle skirmish and he picked himself up a kill. After that, the lane started going in xPeke’s favour. He was able to keep Dade low and unable to roam, and at multiple points forced him to back, which gave xPeke both a cs and tempo advantage. At one point, Dade went for what seemed like a desperate all-in just to relieve the pressure xPeke was putting on him. This would go on to be a trend when the two laned against each other — Dade would knowingly all-in when he didn’t have kill threat, just to get xPeke low or out of lane. This, and occasionally calling his jungler or support to his lane, seemed like the only way Dade knew how to deal with the constant pressure the European star was handing out. Unfortunately for xPeke, the game would be lost for Fnatic mainly through bot lane getting destroyed, and he was unable to carry his team to a win.

Game 2 was more of the same in laning phase — after only the first few waves, xPeke’s Zyra had accrued a 7 cs lead on Dade’s TF, and, with the help of his jungler, xPeke was able to keep his opponent under pressure and at tower. This time, however, xPeke was able to translate his lead and show up in fights, at one point hitting a 3-man snare and ultimate onto CJ, which lead to a teamfight win and baron for Fnatic.

Meanwhile, Dade spent most of the game behind and getting caught out, which resulted in Fnatic bouncing back and tying the series at 1–1.

Game 3 was the closest of the three, yet the most lopsided in terms of the xPeke vs Dade matchup. This time Dade opted for Kha’zix, only to be permanently shoved in by xPeke’s Diana — until he attempted another desperate all-in, which did force xPeke back. It wasn’t enough though, xPeke was able to tower dive Dade and get himself an off-screen solo kill , then he immediately roamed bot lane for another kill.

Fnatic eventually won the game and series, largely off the back of xPeke and the leads he was able to build in lane, whereas Dade was ineffective in all 3 games.

To understand why xPeke tended to have the advantage in the 1v1, one must first understand the types of players these two were. Dade, crowned “The General” for his shotcalling prowess, and renowned for his late-game teamfighting, was never an amazing or aggressive laner. Conversely, xPeke was a very aggressive laner that loved to all-in, and he generally thrived in splitpushing or skirmish scenarios as opposed to looking for teamfights. This was a great stylistic matchup in favour of xPeke, one that always kept Dade on the backfoot in lane.

Nearly a year passed before their next meeting, as tends to be the case in an esport with so little international play. This time, the circumstances were much different — Dade’s team, Samsung Ozone, was coming in as one of the tournament favourites. Since their last meeting, Dade had established himself as a superstar in Korea, winning an OGN title in the spring of 2013, a season where he also earned the season MVP award, on top of placing top 3 in OGN summer, only losing to the eventual champions of that season, Faker’s SKT. Fnatic, while still the champions of Europe, were still not expected to topple the Korean powerhouse, and were also unable to play their prodigy ADC Martin “Rekkles” Larsson that year, due to age restrictions. Both teams were put in the same double round robin group, a group where, to everyone’s surprise, Ozone, and Dade in particular, were struggling. The struggle did not end when they met Fnatic, to say the least.

Game 1 saw a commanding lead in favour of xPeke — he had a 10 cs lead by 5 minutes, which expanded to 30 less than 5 minutes later. Dade was routinely out-traded, and had multiple failed Gragas ultimates onto both xPeke and the rest of Fnatic to the point where one just felt sorry for him. This game wasn’t even close, Fnatic won convincingly.

It’s worth mentioning at this point that there’s probably more to why Dade didn’t succeed against xPeke in the 1v1 — it may not just be the Spaniard's aggression in general, but the aggressive way that European mid laners in general tend to dodge skillshots by walking forward, instead of horizontally. In an in-depth “Reflections” interview, legendary NA mid laner Hai “Hai” Du Lam, a player that thrived in the same era as Dade and xPeke, spoke on the regional difference in how mid laners dodge skillshots:

“I think something really interesting over the years that I’ve noticed playing mid lane is the differences between how people move. I think generally, more often than not, when I play vs European mid laners, the way they dodge skillshots — you know you can either go left and right, forward or back or whatever. They almost like 90% of the time will run towards you to dodge a skillshot”

“…and a lot of NA mid laners always went like left or right you know, and Korean mid laners would do a mix, they’d try to do both…”

It’s possible that Dade, coming from a region where, besides the anomaly of Faker, isn’t known for aggressive mid laners, wasn’t used to this manner of dodging skillshots. He certainly wasn’t positioning his Gragas ultimates with the knowledge that xPeke would walk forward to dodge them, so this could be further explanation as to why Dade struggled against Fnatic’s captain.

Game 2, while another loss for Ozone, wasn’t quite as humiliating for Dade in the 1v1 sense, as he spent most of the game in side lanes, away from xPeke. He still played a bad game, getting caught out and killed a lot, and xPeke’s Kassadin carried Fnatic to another decisive victory.

Dade was, for the fifth game in a row, and second tournament in a row, completely impotent against xPeke and Fnatic as a whole.

The 2014 World Championship felt like it could be different — Dade was coming off his strongest year yet with his new team, Samsung Blue. He made back-to-back OGN finals, winning one of them, netted himself another season MVP award, and was considered the best mid laner in the world by many, even ahead of Faker himself. xPeke’s Fnatic was coming off their first loss in EU LCS Playoffs since the league started, losing to Froggen’s Alliance in the summer finals. Both teams, for the second year in a row, landed in the same group. Surely this was the year where Dade would finally overcome xPeke, right? Results-wise, that was the case, as he would place top 4 at the tournament and Fnatic wouldn’t escape groups. But individually? His Spanish demon did not relent.

Game 1 was looking quite close in the 1v1 early, at one point xPeke overstepped and Dade took the opportunity to kill him, though unfortunately Dade died to minions making it a 1 for 1 trade. Things went downhill for him after that. xPeke’s Ahri charms were on point — Dade was constantly being chunked out or forced back to base.

The lead he garnered meant that xPeke was stronger in the splitpush — Dade had to back off the wave and let him push, constantly. This gave Fnatic the room to take objectives and set up vision, which put them in a favourable position when fights happened. xPeke crushing Dade in lane quite literally cost SSB the game.

Game 2, even though it’s remembered for that 1v1 we all know so well, was the only time where Dade actually performed relatively well against Fnatic. The farm was close during laning phase, and Dade managed to out trade xPeke’s Zed multiple times, though it never lead to a meaningful lead. Outside of lane, Dade also looked quite good — he was able to coordinate multiple picks with his support Lee “Heart” Gwan-hyung, and absorb pressure in side lanes. Dade’s play was bold and on point, it looked like he finally was overcoming the mental block he seemed to have against xPeke — and then the 1v1 happened. Dade had the advantage, xPeke used his W to get over the wall to golems, but he activated the second part of his Talon ultimate too quickly, and it did no damage.

While yes, xPeke did get lucky in his survival of the fight, it was yet another example of Dade not cutting it in the 1v1 against xPeke. SSB won the match, and Dade ended his history against xPeke the way it started back in 2012: with a win against xPeke’s team, but not against xPeke.

Across the three international tournaments, three years, and three different iterations of each player’s team, xPeke holds a 5–2 record against Dade. Of the 7 games played, xPeke won lane in 5 of them, and managed to solo kill Dade in 4 of them. Despite success in Korea against all-time great mid laners like Faker or Pawn, international success against legends like Froggen or Cool, the King of Spring could never truly best xPeke on an individual level. Dade may be considered a greater mid laner when we scope out on LoL history, as are several others, but only xPeke could say that he consistently beat The General in crucial games, in his prime, from Dade’s first international showing, to his very last. Remember that, not just a flashy 1v1.