Riot Games’ Mid-Season Invitational is a punishing tournament. Each region is allowed only one representative in what ultimately becomes a six-team event. Every game matters. South Korea’s Kingzone DragonX entered the 2018 MSI event as heavy favorites. Despite struggles through the group stages, it wasn’t until Kingzone’s semifinals match against Flash Wolves that the scales of public perception tipped into Royal Never Give Up’s favor. Kingzone had underperformed compared to what they had shown in 2018 LoL Champions Korea Spring, where RNG hadn’t stopped ramping up and improving since the waning days of the MSI group stage (and arguably, their lengthy playoff run through the 2018 LoL Pro League Spring).

Given the history of the Kingzone DragonX players and SK Telecom T1’s prior dominion over international events regardless of how weak or strong SKT looked, Kingzone’s loss has been somewhat pushed aside as an outlier to continued perception of South Korea as the strongest League of Legends region, with China and RNG on the horizon. Before RNG’s MSI victory, they weren’t even considered the best team in China. That honor was reserved for Invictus Gaming, whose early exit from the LPL playoffs at the hands of RNG was attributed to the absence of starting top laner Kang “TheShy” Seung-lok. In South Korea, the Afreeca Freecs were not expected to beat Kingzone in the finals, yet Kingzone’s demise opens the door for further discussion. For this thought exercise, the assumption is that these teams would face the same opponent as their counterparts in the MSI finals, therefore the Afreeca Freecs would go up against RNG.

Would the Afreeca Freecs have won MSI?

Who are the Afreeca Freecs?

Originally born of the Rebels Anarchy roster, the current iteration of the Afreeca Freecs features top laner Kim “Kiin” Gi-in, jungler Lee “Spirit” Da-yoon, mid laner Lee “Kuro” Seo-haeng, AD carry Ha “Kramer” Jong-hun, and support Park “TusiN” Jong-ik. Led by former Starcraft pro Choi “iloveoov” Yeon-sung, Afreeca’s coaching staff is also of note. This past split, the Freecs also picked up former Jin Air Green Wings coach Lim “Ccomet” Hye-sung and former NaJin White Shield AD carry/Kongdoo Monster coach Lee “Zefa” Jae-min.

Iloveoov had a contentious vision for the Freecs from the start that included a complete B team alongside the starting lineup. Since the dissolution of sister teams in the 2014-15 offseason, South Korean organizations have struggled with how to balance a ten-man roster. If a player is good enough to start on an LCK lineup, they’re unlikely to opt into a split or bench position. The most well-known example of a successful roster swap from the initial year without sister teams (which became the example for teams around the world to bring up as a goal for their rotating rosters) SK Telecom T1’s use of Lee “Easyhoon” Ji-hoon and Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok, but even that swap died down by the end of the year. It was Faker who led SKT to a 17-1 summer split and ultimately the 2015 League of Legends World Championship. Rotating rosters remain tricky to execute, and iloveoov has quietly created one of the more successful ones with the Afreeca Freecs.

The Freecs’ secondary lineup consists of top laner Park “Summit” Woo-tae, jungler Lee “Mowgli” Jae-ha, mid laner Lee “Ruby” Sol-min, AD carry Kim “Aiming” Ha-ram, and support Son “Jelly” Ho-gyeong. This second lineup allowed the Freecs to have more scrims in a day — three with other teams in the league and at least one against their practice team.

“Most people were skeptical when I brought up a plan of increasing the number of pro team members to that of the brother team of the past, saying that it would be a failed plan as players were going overseas at the time,” iloveoov told Inven in March 2017. “I do not think so. I believe that the fact players went overseas is evidence that the double squads system worked.”

It took a year and Kiin’s arrival on the team in place of top laner Jang “MaRin” Gyeong-hwan, but iloveoov’s plan and practice schedule paid off. It created a team that was not only well-prepared but flexible. Previously, the Freecs were known as a team that could execute strong Game 1 plans, but faltered when they had to adjust over the course of a series. The 2018 spring Freecs showcased a newfound flexibility in execution that propelled them to second-place and a close finals match with Kingzone, despite the Kingzone 3, Afreeca 1 scoreline.

The Matchup

With all this talk about the Freecs’ ten-man lineup, the Freecs did not start Summit, Ruby, or Jelly in the 2018 LCK Spring split. Aiming started a few times for Kramer before he was benched for the remainder of the split due to out-of-game issues. Mowgli was the only player who was regularly swapped out, especially towards the end of the split. The more proactive jungler of the two, Mowgli’s playstyle suited the team better by playoffs thanks to shifts in the jungle meta.

Prior to a single game played at the European League of Legends Championship Series studio in Berlin, Germany, the talk of the tournament was the crop of AD carries attending from the major regions. Between Kim “PraY” Jong-in, Jian “Uzi” Zi-Hao, Martin “Rekkles” Larsson, and Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng — and, once the tournament started, the Flash Wolves’ Lu “Betty” Yu-Hung — it was the tournament for teams that played well around their star AD carries.

This fits in fairly well with the Freecs’ playstyle. It wasn’t long ago that team resources were funneled to prop up Kramer, but the AD carry has since come into his own. The Freecs don’t rely on Kramer and TusiN to be a stable, steadying force like Kingzone does with PraY and support Kang “GorillA” Beom-hyeon, but Kramer is still their primary carry.

Against Uzi and Shi “Ming” Sen-Ming, Kramer and TusiN would likely be pushed in early, depending on the 2v2 matchup. TusiN is the team’s primary initiator and also the aggressor in most of the Freecs’ bot lane trades, so the lane would be dictated by him and how well he could go against Ming and Uzi in whatever matchup they chose. Tahm Kench is a valuable pick for both supports, and both teams, although Ming favors Alistar or even Shen as his preferred initiators while TusiN sticks to Braum or Rakan. For the Freecs, TusiN’s crowd control is a key factor in their teamfights and skirmishes, especially if TusiN is unlocked from Kramer’s side in the bottom lane. Given the way the MSI meta developed, the slight shift to a few mages like Janna alongside Uzi and Ming’s 2v2 prowess would put the Freecs at a disadvantage.

The slight shift in the jungle meta that occured at MSI would affect Spirit positively. Graves in particular is a favorite of Spirit’s, and supports his farm-heavy teamfighting playstyle. As a team, the Freecs love to collapse on their opponents with global abilities and multiple layers of crowd control — Kuro’s Galio followed by TusiN’s Rakan, or vice versa, was a Freecs favorite in 2018 LCK Spring. This would create an interesting matchup against RNG’s 1-3-1 playstyle. A Freecs favorite was to flex Ryze onto Kiin in the top lane, ensuring that he could easily join a fight from pushing up a side lane while Kuro, who did not play Ryze once this past split, was frequently put on Galio, Corki, or Azir. The Freecs would likely focus on ensuring that Kuro had a matchup that would push in RNG mid laner Li “Xiaohu” Yuan-Hao, creating more space for Spirit in the jungle or potential TusiN roaming plays.

Lastly, the Freecs were excellent at preparing for their opponents. This, above all else, would be the most interesting factor in the potential Freecs/RNG matchup, and could have meant a variety of slightly off-meta picks or flexes from the Freecs. As an anecdotal aside, the Freecs would likely have learned to ban Kai’sa in a winning finals series against PraY and Kingzone. Their loss to PraY and Kingzone in the spring finals was overshadowed by the fact that the Freecs gave up Kai’sa in all four of their matches. It’s impossible to know what the Freecs would have prepared for RNG, but given their grueling practice schedule, they would have produced at least one clever adaptation and certainly would not have been swept.

Before the Freecs’ 2018 LCK Summer finals match, they were asked what team outside of South Korea was the strongest. They answered RNG, having scrimmed them throughout the split. These two teams would have been familiar with each other prior to ever facing each other in a potential MSI matchup. That being said, by the time that RNG reached the 2018 MSI finals, they were a team that had grown together throughout their LPL playoff run, a shaky MSI group stage start, and had set the tone for the MSI meta. Royal Never Give Up 3, Afreeca Freecs 2.