Report Card



Who did their homework this time?

By Chiharu Harukaze and JBright

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The Report Card is a score we give each team based against what we feel is an appropriate level of performance and potential for each team in question (i.e. each score represents how well each team has performed compared to what their expected performance should be). It is based upon many questions such as: Did each player perform to their full capability? Is the team communicating and functioning together? Where can each team improve upon?



This means these scores are not a Power Rank. Team 1 getting a higher score than Team 2 does not necessarily mean that Team 1 is a better team than Team 2. Instead, it means that Team 1 has performed closer to their true potential than Team 2 did. Potential also does not correspond to their final tournament placing or their Bo3 results against different teams. Even scores of 2:0 in a Bo3 can hide how bitterly contested the games might have actually been.

^ It is perhaps interesting to note that CLG.eu is in a scenario that CLG.na was once in a long time ago, where HSGG and Saintvicious would constantly take farm away from their AD Carry and force long drawn out games as a result. (Back to article)

BoxeR, Midas, iloveoov, Fantasy, RainBOw, , and GoRush. (Back to article) * SKT T1 was the most 'winningest' team in Brood War, with more gold than any other team in ProLeague. SKT T1 also the birth place for many notable players, such as BeSt , and

If there is one word to describe the four teams who finished last at IPL5, it would be "lacking." The 13-16th place finishers were all missing those little things that could push them to the next prize bracket, whether it be the ability to capitalize on early advantages, team coordination or just luck of the draw. These teams are still strong relative to their region as shown by some talented players in their lineup as well as their qualification through the online qualifiers. Unfortunately, that is simply not enough when it comes to the world stage. Now is the time for these teams to reflect on their performance and see if they can take their game to another level when the Season 3 Championship Series comes around.Three of the four teams in the second lowest tier at IPL5 represent some of the strongest teams in their respective regions but that hardly matters when those regions happen to be Southeast Asia and North America. The one anomaly in this group was Curse Gaming EU since they were hyped up as a strong contender after their 1st place finish at Tales of the Lane just a few weeks prior to the start of IPL5.You could split these four teams into two groups - teams who got outplayed and teams who didn't practice enough. Meat Playgroud and Singapore Sentinels fall into the former category since they were eliminated by Moscow 5 and Taipei Assassins, two of the top 4 teams at the Season 2 World Championships. Then we have Team SoloMid and Curse Gaming EU, two teams everyone knew had very little good practice coming up to the event. TSM was settling down in their new house after moving to California from New York in October. On the other hand Curse.eu was accused of relaxing too much after their first tournament win by SuperAZE, their support player, and that lead to his departure from the team.Looking forward to Season 3, each of these four teams will face many challenges in order to reach the top of the League of Legends competitive scene. Curse.eu and Meat Playground both need to find players to round out their lineup and stabilize as a team because Angush and Creaton (Curse.eu) has left to play for Millenium while Pobelter and xxx (someone else who is underage, don't remember who) (Meat Playground) are too young to legally play in the Season 3 Championship Series. TSM is planning to move once again and they will need to adjust in a new setting as well as hunker down to sort out their biggest issue - the reliance of flavour of the month champions and strategies. Finally, SGS will have to overcome their demons in the form of TPA in the Garena Premiere League. They will forever be remembered only as the lovable team with some really good Youtube videos unless they can prove themselves to be able to compete at the same level as TPA.One can't help but think that Curse Gaming's North American and European teams are like polar opposites of each other. The EU team was streaky and won an offline tournament while their NA counterparts were consistently above average (2nd-8th place finishes) but could never break out at LANs. Their lack of tournament wins was the sole reason North America had a Trioka and not a Quartet. However that is not to say Curse.na cannot contend for a spot as one of the top NA teams since they are arguably one of the most improved teams compared to the beginning of the season. Just take a look at Nyjacky. A year ago he was known as a passive Veigar only player and could be easily banned out but now he has diversified his champion pool and is able to roam effectively and exert pressure on the rest of the map. Then we have Curse.na's bot lane pair, Cop and Elementz. It would be a long stretch to call them top tier in 2011 since it is hard to remember a game where they were ahead after laning phase. Over the course of Season 2, Cop has matured to be a top Ezreal player (always Phage proc, never not proc). On the other hand, while Elementz is still far from a top support, his overall skill has increased drastically and he makes less game throwing mistakes than before. In top lane I think everyone would agree that Voyboy's performance since joining was an upgrade to Westrice's play. From the jungle standpoint, Saintvicious was more or less a sidegrade compared to Crumbzz since their playstyles were so different. One of the biggest improvement for Curse.na was their expanded champion pool that included some unorthodox picks. Voyboy 's Elise is often banned while Elementz sometimes pulls out Fiddlesticks and Jarvan IV; if Saint played more than just carry junglers, maybe Curse.na can take their their game to the next level.Coming up to IPL5, Curse.na had to deal with several new additions to their team - Voyboy and Rhux. Voyboy joined at the beginning of November while Rhux was recruited as a substitute for IPL5. Before joining Curse.na, Voyboy was in a slump playing for CLG.na and blamed as the reason the team did not perform well at the Season 2 World Championships. However, this could be attributed to CLG.na's playstyle, which stifled Voyboy's aggressiveness and creative picks. In contrast to Voyboy's position as a hand-me-down, Rhux was a fresh discovery from Curse Gaming's Proving Grounds 1v1 Tournament who got to tryout with the team. Both Voyboy and Rhux played well at IPL5 but it was apparent that the team did not have the coordination of a stable team. No matter how well the players get along, it takes more than just 2-3 weeks to play perfectly together at the highest level.Over the course of Season 2, the Curse mansion has been a pretty successful experiment in terms of player improvement. It puts the players within close proximity to each other and mistakes in the game can now be accounted for outside of the game in the form of team " discussion ." Curse will move their gaming house from Los Angeles to Nevada due to prohibitive cost of living. We will have to wait and see if they can continue their slow and steady rise to become the top team in the North American scene.A lot of pressure was placed on Azubu Blaze as they came in IPL5 since they were the sole representative from Korea, the strongest competitive scene in League of legends, and many considered them to be a favourite to take the tournament. However, there was still one unknown factor in the team - Flame's ability to perform in an international setting. He joined the team in late October after Reapered's departure but was not part of the team's victory at the MLG Fall Championships. Azubu Frost's Shy took over Reapered role at MLG and his skill was on full display as he earned TL's Singed Raid Boss Award for the event.During the group stages, Blaze surprising finished to third place after dropping games to Team WE and FnaticRC. Even though Flame was outmatched by Caomei and Soaz in those games, he was not the only one to blame for the team's shaky performance. There were times where it seemed like they were always one or two step behind the enemy in terms of ganking and counter-ganking, which were the responsibilities of the Jungle and the Mid players. The bot lane still played well but it was also clear that they were not quite at the top of their game - Cpt Jack was often picked off while he was farming alone in a side lane while Lustboy's impact was minimized since the team was never strong enough to try and group to make plays. It has been stated by the casters that Blaze had some sort of hotel problem and they had to stay over at TSM ReginaId's room, which obviously affected their rest and ability to adapt to overcome jetlag. Make no mistake, this was a disappointing finish for the team and Azubu Blaze fans even with all the issues they had outside of the game.However, not all is lost for Blaze. They played a few more matches in OGN The Champions Winter after IPL5 and are now playing in the elimination bracket. They will have the chance to face up and coming teams (KT Rolster) as well as well established teams (Azubu Frost) in order to prove that they are once again top dog in the food chain.CLG.na is a rather peculiar team. In many ways, they are a walking contradiction. A team that can claim to be the best in their region by a mile, yet like North America they have trouble adapting to the evolving world. A team full of potential and skill, but unable to execute strategies correctly. A team capable of completely taking control of a game, only to throw it all away. A team that is often written off by various Redditors as past their expiry date, yet continue to post results surpassing the expectations of critics. A team that knows what their fundamental problems are, yet unable to refine themselves. In many ways, CLG.na perhaps highlights most strongly the largest problem North America will face in Season 3: making sure they don't fall behind.Long gone are the days of teams like CLG refusing to scrim anyone and placing faith in their raw mechanics. Indeed, North America has done much to gain lost ground. However there is still a key area where North America is still lacking - innovation and collaboration. Nearly every other region has benefited from incredibly gifted players who drive innovation with others feeding off their insight and continue to iterate and perfect.Consider Europe for example. There is a strong emphasis on the AP Mid role, with each team being driven or built around their mid laner. SK Gaming has Ocelote, CLG.eu has their star player Froggen, Moscow Five's plays are centred around Alex Ich, and Acer is most well known as ForellenLord and four other dudes. Korea's greatest advancements have been in the top lane - a Lilac of Team OP who was the original Korean top laners others aspired and learnt from, Shy of Azubu`Frost who was also integral to Azubu`Blaze winning MLG Dallas, Reapered of SKT T1 who was former bedrock of Azubu`Blaze at MLG Summer Arena and the defining player of his new team, or Maknoon of NaJin`Sword whose team is completely built around him . The same can be said for China. MikakoTabe (former HKEGG, iG and now Royal Club) was one of the largest influences on the Chinese understanding of bot lane gameplay. At the same time, Wh1t3zz (formerly iG and now retired) can be traced asreason Twisted Fate is a top pick in China and the champion every single AP Mid knows how to play, despite not being as popular in other regions.Despite the talks of North America's death knell, don't count them out. CLG.na very nearly beat Fnatic 2:0, and we saw Dignitas push Azubu`Blaze to the limit at MLG Dallas. But while they can compete and go toe-to-toe, they need to be able to keep improving and to close out games. The rumoured news that Dignitas and CLG.na will be sharing a gaming house is welcome news. It is no secret that Korean teams band together when facing foreign teams. It is likely North America will need to follow a similar path.If you asked the average Joe on the street to sum up CLG.eu in one word, the two most popular answers would likely be some variation of "Froggenivia". Froggen is one of the cornerstones of CLG, from soaking permabans on his Anivia to being renown as a farming monster. However, Froggen is also perhaps CLG.eu's greatest flaw.At each stage in the game, players are assigned priority on farm from the first position who receives the most, to the fifth position who receives the least. In CLG.eu, Froggen is the first position carry at all stages of the game. He is constantly farming minion waves. Wickd will often take second position, often due to split pushing. That often leaves Yellowpete forced to stick with the team defending towers, and trying to scrum for cs with the rest of his team while someone else (often Froggen) farms the pushed waves. The lack of concentrated gold on the AD Carry means that Yellowpete does not provide the immense dps a farmed AD Carry would normally provide at the expected timings. This is exacerbated by the fact Yellowpete has sub-par last hitting skills. Inexplicably during several of CLG.eu's games, Yellowpete would be down on cs compared to the opposing AD Carry, even in free farm lanes where he wasn't even being harassed. At the same time, despite being third position Yellowpete does not adapt. Even while being gold starved he will try to stick to cookie-cutter AD Carry builds instead of playing a third position role. For instance, if Froggen is hogging all the farm and going to play first position carry on an AP Champion, why not play Malady Kog'maw? The sheer dps/gold efficiency would allow CLG.eu to hit a strong mid-game timing of powerful magic damage before defensive itemisation could kick in while still offering build paths out into a regular AD Carry role. Alternatively, Yellowpete could be more forceful about securing his farm from Froggen.But instead of creative synergy or more appropriate farm distribution we are left with delayed AD itemisation timings. Indeed the reason CLG.eu games are so long is not necessarily because of CLG.eu's famed defensive abilities. It is also because CLG.eu play many games where they have already won, but need to sit around for another 20 minutes for Yellowpete to finally farm the items he needs but could not acquire due to being starved of farm or just failing at last hitting. ^ Moscow Five is a team that paces its tempo around its midlaner Alex Ich. His aggressive control combined with Diamondprox and Darien is a combination that provides heavy map pressure which secured them IEM Kiev and is a formula they have often repeated to much success. However, it comes at a cost. Specifically, their bot lane. While they have their stand-out moments, for the most part the Moscow Five duo-bot is underwhelming and is one of Moscow Five's largest exploitable weaknesses. However IPL5 also showed the problems Moscow Five have in their team synergy and communication, with players uncharacteristically being caught out of place and resulting in sloppy play. The normally sharp Darien often went exploring Dora style and allowed opposing teams to seize upon that and trounce the Russians. Like CLG.eu, Moscow Five will need to do some introspection and consider their play and their communication. Before, they could get away with sloppy plays and gloss over the weaknesses they had bot lane but with the bar constantly being raised in League of Legends, they can do so no longer.As an interesting aside, IPL5 has shown that in more ways than one CLG.eu and Moscow Five are like rival twins. Both teams were founded at the same time. Both teams playstyles revolve around their mid laners, who are both farming monsters. Both teams were eliminated by the same team at IPL5 and both were eliminated at the same time in the Season 2 World Finals. And now both teams must reflect and decide the best way to incorporate their bot lane more. It will be interesting whether both teams decide upon the same answer.Having won the Season 2 World Championships, the Taipei Assassins came to IPL5 with high expectations. A top three finish in such a competitive field is nothing to scoff at, especially considering the calibre of teams they had to beat along the way. But at the same time, they will likely leave Las Vegas disappointed having lost twice in two series to Fnatic 2:0 and come so close to the Grand Finals. Why could they not break that one barrier?TPA live in a new world, where they are now a known entity. When they enter a tournament, people are going to be gunning for them, researching them and trying to mind game them. Fnatic did their research and had a plan to completely dismantle TPA and their style of play. If there's something for TPA to work on, it will be their proverbial Plan B.The story of Fnatic is a tale of ups and downs. Their Season 1 victory was a dogged tale of persistence and determination against odds stacked against them. With xPeke stuck in Europe due to a flight delay, Fnatic were almost knocked out in the first day of the Championship Finals after being forced to sub at the last minute. And after their Season 1 victory, their name faded away. With their persistent reliance on double AP due to Shushei's inflexibility as a top-laner and nerfs to items such as Rabadon's Deathcap, they struggled to find their form. Despite their dark horse performance at IEM New York and avoiding the team drama that surrounded their long-time rivals SK Gaming, they failed to qualify for the Season 2 Championship Finals. The European scene has long been much more volatile than in North American. So it can be unwise to read too much into short-term results and try to extrapolate. But there are still many interesting things that can be said about the new Fnatic.Gone are the predictable team compositions from before that everyone could see coming a mile away and prepare for. Instead in its place is a new Fnatic, more leaner and focused than before. sOAZ is one of the most flexible top laners, however he excels at creating pressure against the opposing team. Combined with a xPeke currently running hot, they provide a dual threat during the mid-game. This mid-game threat combined with map control is the core of Fnatic's play. They goal is to exert pressure and advance their development by taking objectives while not allowing their opponent to respond profitably. Once control is established, Fnatic is then able to ensure the secure development of Rekkles as the first-position carry. If this sounds familiar, that's because it is. This strategy is a variation of the style Moscow Five and CLG.eu play. However, where a team like CLG.eu continue to emphasise farm on their mid and top laner throughout the game, Fnatic is comfortable allowing Rekkles taking centre stage with the other players stepping back and playing around him. The result is a smooth and co-ordinated shift from the mid and top laners driving the tempo of the game to the natural transition of the AD Carry as the biggest threat on the map.However Fnatic have a moment of weakness that can be exploited - the period of transition where they shift emphasis from xPeke and sOAZ to Rekkles. Fnatic are incredibly reliant on their map control, more so than many other teams. Indeed, we saw at IPL that Oracles forms a fundamental core of their strategy in deny vision and controlling flow. Ever since Season 1, Cyanide has been comfortable playing fourth position or lower, and will happily buy naked Oracles without the backing of any defensive items such as Boots 2 if the situation demands it. However this also comes at a risk - the loss of Oracles on an already underfarmed player. And without their map control, Fnatic play much more hesitantly, almost overly cautious at times. This interferes the transition period for Rekkles and creates a timing window teams can abuse. This is the main area Fnatic will need to focus in the months ahead, despite the loss of their up-and-coming player in Rekkles. While Rekkles is a strong player, so long as Fnatic can have a defensive AD player who understands how to maximise farm during the transition period and take control of the game as the first position, then the core of Fnatic remains unchanged.Improving is integral to being the best. If someone is better than you, you need to improve in order to be able to beat them. If you already are better than everyone else, you need to get better in order to stay the best. Yet despite its importance, very few players are actually able to show dramatic signs of improvements. When you look at many long-time players, you can constantly see them make the same mistakes as people around them change. It is perhaps for this reason that teams changes rosters so often. Perhaps there is not enough faith that players are capable of improving. But at the same time, perhaps the reason why European and North American players are incapable of improving is not their own fault. There is a difference that separates the pretenders from the elite: The coaching and preparation difference.How important and real is this difference? Let us take World Elite top laner Caomei as our example. For the longest time, Caomei was the proverbial black swan of the Chinese League of Legends. Always making mistakes, he would constantly apologise to his and World Elite's fans on his WeiBo fanpage (a Chinese blog site). It so bad, even his own coach would make jokes about him overextending and feeding first blood. However, despite everything, he has stayed at World Elite. Anyone familiar with the old Caomei watching World Elite at IPL5 would have thought that their top laner had been replaced with a robot or clone baring the same name. Gone were the unforced errors and erratic deaths in lane. Instead was a brutal killing machine. Much has been said about WeiXiao and his superb skills as an AD Carry. However, at IPL his performance was inconsistent. But when WeiXiao hesitated ans stumbled, it was Caomei who was there right behind him and stepped up to carry hard. Even on champions he had built a reputation as being bad at, such as Irelia.The biggest reason for World Elite's success lies with their coach JoKer. Unlike many other managers and coaches for various teams, JoKer has an incredibly active role in the play of his team. Indeed, he has an incredibly strong understanding of League of Legends and how game flow works, to an extent that even professional players may not understand. But the influence of a coach is more than just knowledge. It is the maturity that shapes the players. It is the security that refocuses the team after a bad game. It is the outside perspective that teaches and guides. And we saw those very influence in action at IPL. World Elite constantly fought to the bitter end, and after each game they seemed to come back stronger and stronger. No where was this more evident than in the Finals, where after being crushed by Fnatic in Game 1 and a bitter second game, World Elite slowly took control of the series. By the last game, World Elite just flattened Fnatic like a stray can, as if they knew Fnatic better than Fnatic knew themselves. Indeed, in their post-tournament interview, JoKer talked about how between games he had made sure that his team went into each game level-headed and armed with his fresh analysis having just spectated their previous round. World Elite's victory wasn't just a group of five players triumphing over another five players. It was the triumph of a team working together, inside game and out. Entire eSport empires are founded specifically because of the coaches and managers who had the power to see what others could not. The illustrious name of SKT T1 in Korean eSports would never have become a household name were it not for their coaches. * The SKT Terran dynasty born a decade ago that lasted until Brood War's dying breaths was founded on the visions and dreams of Boxer and iloveoov, and even in the closing days they were constantly innovating and changing Terran matchups. SKT Proleague dominance is often credited to the foresight and unique training regime they ran, overseen by some of the brightest minds such as Kingdom, DoctorK, Rainbow and Coach Park.World Elite's victory at IPL5 is symbolic, and not just because it marks their first international trophy after a dominance of the Chinese scene. World Elite's victory marks the death of an old era. It is no longer sufficient to merely be a team of five strong players and expect to do well. If teams want to be a contender, they will need to develop coaching and managing staff. While many of the smaller teams may lack the resources to, there is no excuse for the larger teams. And until teams start taking League of Legends seriously and do so, they will falter against all the teams that have that extra edge that tips the scale just far enough in their favour to win games and even tournaments.