With both Gambit Gaming and SK Gaming in attendance at the 2014 Intel Extreme Masters World Championship this weekend, you can close your eyes and point to a Reddit thread to find a rich storyline.

From my perspective, the greatest storyline is that the event will feature the biggest playmakers to have filled the support role in European League of Legends history. Both nRated and Edward will be in attendance, playing to command the same international respect they did before the LCS was born.

When assessing the support role in Europe’s history, YellOwStaR stood out as the king of 2014, but he came to the support role long after Edward, Krepo, and nRated had established a foundation. Krepo, an aggressive support integral to CLG EU and Evil Geniuses and the successes they achieved internationally, can’t lay claim to the surprise factor Edward and nRated brought about in their international appearances, pushing the boundaries of their roles.

Edward and nRated have both accomplished enough to awe any audience. Edward has enough first place trophies to beat a hole in a brick wall, including the Intel Extreme Masters Season VI World Championship at Hanover. While nRated doesn’t have the same collection of first place finishes internationally, he proved instrumental in Fnatic’s successes against powerful Asian teams of the era. At IGN Pro League 5, Fnatic was the only team to grab games off the unstoppable World Elite, and at the IEM Challenge Season VII Cologne, Fnatic eliminated a CJ Entus team featuring dade and inSec and took two wins against Reapered’s SK Telecom T1 before landing second place overall.

Despite being able to boast accomplishments during a similar time period, the influences Edward and nRated brought to their teams contrasted. Both players could be called aggressive playmakers, but beyond that their contributions presented opposite ends of the spectrum.

Edward stands out as a European support with near unparalleled mechanical ability, and Moscow 5’s dominating counter-jungling style hinged on his assistance in roaming alongside Diamond. His Alistar could double team at a time when no junglers expected the 2-for-1 special. Later, his Thresh play won him accolades on Gambit with his ability to consistently land Death Sentences.

nRated functioned much less as a mechanical genius and much more as a tactical mastermind, allowing Fnatic’s split-push strategy to take them to heights by ordering minion wave manipulation within the team. Fnatic could then engage on opponents spread too thin to get picks. Scattered enemies made Blitzcrank and Leona’s single target lockdown potent.

Neither player was considered the carry force behind his team, even given Edward's title as Europe’s “carry support.” Edward often stood in the shadows of the mid and jungle duo on Moscow 5 and Gambit, Alex Ich and Diamond.

At Fnatic’s heights in late 2012 and early 2013, nRated could be over-looked for almost any name on the roster - Xpeke, sOAZ, and Rekkles might as well be monoliths instead of names. Despite this, their influence is easily traceable, and it’s hard to argue that neither Moscow 5 or Fnatic could have accomplished what they did with different support players.

Time has been a brutal test of constitution for both players as well. When Gambit began to flag in the European LCS, Edward departed for Curse and North America, where he failed to stand out beyond some clever plays with vision and level ones. When Fnatic began to drop games in clumps, nRated’s was an easy target, and he spent the latter half of the year as an analyst.

2014 proved an even harsher mistress for Edward, as his return to Gambit was mired by an apparent lack of morale and a splintering roster under the pressures of frequent migration between Russia and Germany.

nRated, by contrast, began to rise on SK Gaming. While lacking in star quality, the smart lane pressure that now characterizes nRated’s teams allowed the team to find advantages where they shouldn’t have and pull out second and third place finishes in both splits.

SK’s 2014 World Championship appearance was a complete bust with Svenskeren inciting a ban for three games after using an inappropriate client name on the Taiwanese server. The best they managed was a win against Team SoloMid that prevented them from competing in a tie-breaker for first place in Group B. Ultimately, SK seemed to stretch the roster as tightly as it would extend and wins wouldn’t continue as the European LoL scene leveled up.

Then the year changed. Most of the powerful players that made their names on Moscow 5 and Fnatic in 2012 and early 2013 are no longer in the LCS, but Edward and nRated remain and their careers appear to be in the early stages of renaissance.

Gambit and SK both have new stars—though Diamond remains one of Gambit’s—and appear to be contenders for best team in Europe. SK Gaming leads the standings, and Gambit has only lost one game since a rough first start to the season. Top 4 in Europe is a closer race than it has been in a while, and either SK or Gambit could be the best European squad attending IEM Katowice.

Key to the renaissance is a shift in style. Gambit still looks like Gambit, and SK still looks like SK, but you can see marks on the teams that show off new dimensions. Once again, Edward and nRated are at the core.

The roaming duo of Diamond and Edward on Gambit has split to form new alliances. A strong top laner in Cabochard gives Diamond reason to pitch a tent, and Edward spends more time in lane lately as P1noy farms up his Tristana. Recently, Gambit’s style has involved falling behind earlier in lane and then taking the Cabochard and Diamond and P1noy and Edward duos roaming for picks. In wins, Edward still isn’t the star, but the high frequency with which he’s chosen Morgana and Thresh suggests that he’s a staple of this strategy. The title “carry support” has never been more relevant.

nRated defines both SK Gaming’s strengths and weaknesses. Their slowly improving early game vision has allowed teams to slice through fog of war and strangle objectives away from them. Despite Forg1ven’s common picks being Graves and Lucian, indicating an attention to early game, SK excels in team fighting. With a mid laner partial to assassin play and an AD carry as the main focus of the roster, nRated has favored Lulu. The pick can both reset and extend team fights to maximize Forg1ven’s output and split them with Wild Growth for easy picks by fox. If SK Gaming can’t snowball off towers, they’ll win through 5v5s.

Gambit and SK Gaming’s prospects might not be ideal to take down Korean giants in Katowice with all that’s changed in the international landscape, but seeing them both on the stage again means we’re in for a unique blend of history and surprise. Edward and nRated have added a sense of freshness to the support role that no other supports in Europe have managed to match, and this year they’ve shown they still have what it takes to stand on top of their domestic competition.

Your Cabochards, P1noys, Forgivens, and foxes might be facing their first international competition, and their stories will be shaped in part by how far they make it at Katowice. Diamond’s still central to Gambit’s identity, and IEM cannot be discussed without his name arising. Svenskeren’s shot at redemption for his slight indiscretion means jungling his team out of Group Stage.

Edward and nRated won’t come forward immediately as talking points at Katowice, but that’s because they belong. They're as familiar on an IEM stage as Summoner's Rift. Gambit and SK bring forward some of the best Europe has to offer, which is true of an IEM World Championship for the first time in two years. Edward and nRated are central to that.

To Europe's support giants, welcome home—this time, we really mean it.