Gigabyte Marines are the first team to represent Vietnam at a Riot event since the split of LMS from the GPL (lolesports)

After a Play-in stage featuring teams from eight minor regions and two major regions, North America’s Team SoloMid, LoL Master Series’ Flash Wolves, and Southeast Asia’s Gigabyte Marines advanced to the main stage of the 2017 Mid-Season invitational.

Gigabyte Marines’ lane-focused, counter-pick, and jungle-centric approach nearly gave them the first main stage berth of the three advancing teams. They went up 2-0 against TSM, only to end the first day of the second phase of MSI’s Play-in in a reverse sweep loss. Marines then crushed Turkey’s Super Massive 3-1 to join TSM, Flash Wolves, Europe’s G2 Esports, China’s Team WE, and South Korea’s SK Telecom T1 in Rio.

At least two names on GAM’s roster should bring back memories for those who followed Southeast Asia’s Garena Premier League in 2014. Trần “Optimus” Văn Cường and Trần “Archie” Minh Nhựt have represented not just Southeast Asia, but Vietnam for several years in League of Legends. While the west often sings the praises of Brazil, Turkey, and Russia as home to understated talent, Vietnam’s history as near-contenders has a more quiet wistfulness.

The tail end of 2014 brought a massive change to Korean League of Legends by altering the way the most elite circuit ran their tournaments. Critics scrutinized the loss of sister teams, the creation of a league in place of the Champions tournament. Streamlining LoL circuits internationally raised no small amount of outcry.

But another massive change in Asia, the separation of the Taiwanese, Macau, and Hong Kong LoL Master Series from the Southeast Asian Garena Premier League, went relatively under the radar.

Most applauded the move. Taiwanese powerhouses ahq e-Sports and Taipei Assassins consistently led the GPL, decimating any non-Taiwanese contenders in sub-25 minute games. Most of the GPL, many argued, merely wasted time for the top teams. Taiwan should be allowed its own league.

In 2014 Spring GPL, top three Taiwanese teams Taipei Assassins, Taipei Snipers, and ahq lost three of 38 games played against non-Taiwanese teams in the entire split. They brought a level of competition to the league that embarrassed their fellow Southeast Asians. But when Taipei Assassins attended All-Stars that year, they zeroed out of Group Stage, unable to take a single game from European, North American, Chinese, or Korean representatives.

Since then, Flash Wolves and ahq have flourished. The formation of the LMS seems to have benefitted Taiwan’s international performances. Flash Wolves have dazzled by taking games from top Korean teams. In 2015’s World Championship, ahq and Flash Wolves out-performed LPL and North America when both LMS representatives advanced to the quarterfinals. Only one team from China’s LPL could achieve the same feat, and none of North America’s teams advanced.

But only looking at the successes of the LMS’ top two teams ignores a more unfortunate side to the GPL fracture.

Though Taiwan’s top 3 thoroughly humiliated other GPL teams in 2014 Spring, the fourth Taiwanese team, yoe Flash Wolves, barely broke even in the Group Stage. GPL Summer told a more interesting tale.

View photos Optimus is one of the most senior members of GAM (lolesports) More

ahq lost both their Group Stage matches to the Vietnamese Saigon Fantastic Five. Another Vietnamese team, Full Louis, bested ahq Fighter, a team that hadn’t lost a single game to a non-Taiwanese team in Group Stage, 3-1 in the first round of Playoffs. The disqualification of Full Louis because they used two underage players forced their triumph into the shadows when ahq Fighter advanced to the semifinal anyway.

2014’s GPL invited four participants from the LMS bloc, three from Vietnam, two from each Philippines and Singapore, and one from Thailand. Ignoring Full Louis’ disqualification, two teams from Taiwan and Vietnam managed to advance to the semifinal that summer.

Story continues