A look at why importing Koreans has hampered World Elite's development

This article was originally published on GameSpot's sister site onGamers.com, which was dedicated to esports coverage.

At the conclusion of Intel Extreme Master Shenzhen, Jason Kaplan declared, "any team that picks up a Korean — they automatically do way better." He referred to World Elite's strong performance in the grand finals of the tournament, over-taking favorites, Edward Gaming, in a best of three. But did WE's new Korean additions truly benefit the roster? Given that WE retains the same problems it had last split, it's hard to argue that Yeon "Sin" Hyeong Mo and Noh "Ninja" Geon Woo, the Korean jungle and mid lane players, have improved the team. In fact, I would go so far as to say that, had WE retained their 2014 LPL Spring roster, they would be in the same position or in a better spot for securing a place to represent China in the 2014 World championships.

WEeding Out the Problem

It's easy to criticize World Elite after last weekend's games. They started the week as favorites to finish in first with six games to play compared to Edward Gaming's four and OMG's two. Even though I argued that OMG should be able to 2-0 WE, given differences in playstyles, I still erred on the side of caution and predicted a 1-1 split. In the end, WE only won one of six of their games, and they found their success against StarHorn Royal Club by playing a high scaling composition designed to brute force the late game.

WE's problems were still evident during Week 6 of LPL when they 2-0'd their sister team and had a 2-1 victory over EDG at IEM Shenzhen. When World Elite wins games, it's usually as a result of an extended laning phase with limited jungler interaction. Both Gao "WeiXiao" Xue-Cheng and Wei "CaoMei" Handong have steadily increased their level of individual play since the start of the season, and the team performs well when they have the ability to farm. More often than not, this has worked best when support player, Ke "Conan" Yi roams, leaving WeiXiao in a 1v1 against the opposing top laner or when a standard 2v1 situation exists. This is largely down to Conan's poor laning presence and tendency to over-commit to an ill-advised engagement.

This was evident in WE's games against their sister team, World Elite Academy, in Week 6. WeiXiao had procured a two-kill advantage over Smlz by laning against Khan in the bottom lane, but when WEA made the switch back to the 2v2 at around fifteen and a half minutes in, sloppy engagements and targeting on the part of Conan and Sin saw WEA turn the skirmish with a teleport from Khan. Slowly, WE fell behind. Their winning victories mostly came from CaoMei's successful teleports or WeiXiao's individual positioning. Noteably, at around 21 minutes in, the first major 5v5 saw poor focus and the uncoordinated use of cooldowns from both teams, resulting in only one survivor for both WE and WEA.

In the end, WE was able to win by using pink wards and finding picks with CaoMei and WeiXiao leading the charge.

In their wins against Edward Gaming at IEM Shenzhen later that weekend, WE exhibited a larger problem. EDG has struggled with gank pressure from the jungler and the mid laner during laning phase, which WE was able to exploit. Even with massive leads out of laning phase, however, WE failed to pressure their advantages. Instead, they relied on Baron-baiting tactics to catch out EDG, extending the games for longer than they needed to go. Considering both teams play very similar laning phases and late game strategies, this series ended up being a question of who came out ahead early, and in two of three instances, the answer was WE.

Some might argue that World Elite simply played worse in Week 7 of LPL against OMG, Young Glory, and StarHorn Royal Club, but it's more likely that these teams found a way to exploit WE's already established weaknesses. This is especially true since China has been playing on Korean servers and was adapting to the lower frequency of 2v1 lanes before patch 4.11 rolled out.

OMG shocked many onlookers with their commanding control of early game. Yin "Drug" Le's Jarvan IV made a point of ganking top lane to prevent CaoMei from using the devastating teleport that has been a boon for WE in their victories. The OMG team then transitioned to the bottom lane to end the laning phase early and disrupt WeiXiao's quest to bulk up his Kog'Maw. To top off their anti-WE strategy, OMG waited for WE to predictably attempt to bait at Baron before rushing mid lane for the inhibitor turret at the end of the game.

The one thing we can say was uncharacteristic of WE in this set and the rest of the week was their disregard for dragon. Early dragon control has been a strength of WE all split. OMG managed to make proactive plays to secure early dragons against WE, but against Young Glory and StarHorn Royal Club, WeiXiao was left in the top lane to farm, and the team gave up dragons they should have contested.

It seems as if WeiXiao, the captain and main shot-caller for the team, made the call to sacrifice early dragons and pressure on the lower half of the map in his quest to get more gold individually. This ultimately backfired, especially in the set against SHRC, when the opposing team's AD carry, Jian "Uzi" Zihao, was able to keep up in farm and be present in early skirmishes that found SHRC a lead.

Revisiting the Spring Lineup

This kind of play is not unfamiliar to fans of WE from 2014 LPL Spring. As it's only fair to compare the team's performances from Week 6 and Week 7 to last split's performances from Week 6 and Week 7, we examine the matches from that time, though these games are exemplary of WE's play during the latter half of the split in general. In 2014 LPL Spring Week 6, WE had an easy week against sixth place Royal Club and eighth place Positive Energy. Considering WE faced eighth place WEA in 2014 LPL Summer Week 6, this lends some credibility to the comparison in terms of the level opposition.

In their first game against Royal Club, WE won after an extended laning phase lasting almost fifteen minutes. As with their current roster, WE had a proactive jungler. Teng Yang "Ruo" Tian Xia took part in three of five laning phase kills on his Kha'Zix. WeiXiao and Conan fell behind Uzi and Bao early due to Conan giving up a free kill, but Ruo's presence allowed WE to remedy the situation and take a dragon later.

Then, in one of their games against Positive Energy, WE amassed a 20,000 gold lead, but still failed to pressure their advantage without the benefit of a Baron buff. During this period, Ruo was often responsible for team fight initiations, either by leaping into the fray and relying upon a Wild Growth from Chen "sukiM" Zhi Yuan or by herding the opposition with Pantheon Grand Skyfalls. Yet, if indecision continues even without Ruo on the team during LPL Summer, these problems are likely a symptom of poor shot-calling in the late game rather than Ruo's own play.

In Week 7 of the Spring Split, as in Week 7 of the Summer Split, WE faced OMG. The difference was that WE managed to win the second game and nearly win the first, which made them the second most successful team against OMG for all of 2014 LPL Spring (with Invictus Gaming being the most successful). Again, WE favored long laning phases. The difference was partly in OMG having a weaker team at the time with less pressure both from the mid lane and jungle, but also in OMG's inability to predict WE's Baron reliance. The winning engagement of the second game between WE and OMG that week resulted from OMG falling for WE's Baron bait and WE carrying off a successful team fight.

The main difference between this split's WE lineup and last split's is their team fighting ability. In 2014 LPL Spring, WE could carry off a successful team fight against OMG, one of the best team fighting teams in China. In 2014 LPL Summer, WE loses team fights to Young Glory, the seventh place LPL team.

Condensing the Information

It's difficult to predict where WE will be at the end of 2014 LPL Summer, but at the start of both splits, WE experienced massive roster changes. In Spring, they had a new mid laner, a new jungler, and a new support. In the Summer, they had a new mid laner, a new jungler, and a new language barrier with which to contend. At Week 6 and Week 7, their summer roster doesn't have nearly the coordination of their Spring roster.

Another significant difference has been CaoMei's performance. CaoMei didn't play nearly as well in the Spring Split as he has in Summer. Part of this could be the increased importance of teleport. His ability to time the summoner spell well has given him many advantages early and has allowed him to single-handedly control the map in the late game.

During LPL Spring, sukiM was the more reliable solo laner. While Ninja has made strides in recent weeks, sukiM reliably won his lane against many mid laners in LPL. WE has tried to swap Ninja into his former role, as sukiM excelled the most with supportive mid lane champions and Yasuo. Ninja, meanwhile, has a somewhat puzzling champion pool of Lulu, Xerath, Jayce, and, more recently, Twisted Fate that has yielded hit-or-miss results. Regardless, sukiM's performance in lane on his preferred champions was more reliable, and with a stronger mid laner, WE's strategy of prolonging laning phases would be potentially more successful.

In terms of jungle pressure, Ruo and Sin have proven to have similar styles. They favor early ganking and dragon control. This could well be a product of shot-calling. In the playoffs, WE secured the first dragon in every single game, despite only winning two of the six they played. This dragon prioritization is something we've see in WE's Summer Split games, with the exception of the past week, where it was likely WE was on tilt.

Yet when Sin ganks, the coordination has been spotty. It's easy to blame this on a language barrier, but the timing of cooldowns and the frequency of over-extension by either Conan or ActScene is a sign of potentially larger issues. Sin might not be a worse jungler than Ruo, but Ruo meshed better with WE as a whole in Week 6 and Week 7 of LPL Spring than Sin does with the team at this point in LPL Summer. If this WE lineup had had the time to continue to play together competitively, they could well be the sole dominant force in 2014 LPL Summer.

Addressing Speculative Holes

There are three major points of contention. The first is that Ruo chose to leave WE of his own accord during the off season. His fans at the time had noticed a lack of motivation, as he mostly streamed Hearthstone and didn't play much League of Legends toward the end of the split. Obviously, Team WE needed a replacement jungler, and Korea, supposedly, is the favorite place of Chinese LoL team management to look when in search of a player with a strong work ethic.

But should the team have kept sukiM? SukiM generally outperformed Ninja, albeit against a shallower pool of mid lane talent in LPL Spring, but a Korean player in isolation creates an even larger problem in terms of language barrier. With the addition of Ninja, ActScene has at least had one player with which he can communicate well, but frankly, mid lane hasn't been as fruitful to gank as top or bottom, and that's a larger issue.

A larger point is in the changes to vision and strategy Team World Elite has exhibited. The map has contained more wards, and the rotations of the jungler have been less predictable during invasions. Seeds of these changes existed even before 2014 LPL Summer, however, as WE had much better ward coverage and dragon control during the Spring Playoffs than they did during the regular season. Since their new Korean coach, Lee "Hiro" Woo Suk, had just joined the team, it's easy to see a new strategic influence.

In addition, during the Playoffs, WE ran a disengage composition and employed a roaming support startegy. While these playstyles have emerged more during the Summer Split for WE, both yielded dominating wins over EDG and OMG during the Playoffs. WE was only quashed when EDG and OMG adapted in the best of three, and WE's lack of experience with their new playstyles shone through. With time, WE would have likely still been able to perfect them without Koreans replacing Ruo and sukiM.

Most importantly, however, the level of competition between Spring and Summer has increased. Edward Gaming no longer can consistently win games by falling behind nearly 10,000 gold in the early game and taking fights around an unwarded Baron as they often did in 2014 LPL Spring. Most teams have upgraded their junglers such that facing a team without jungle pressure is nearly unheard of.

Considering WE has the same problems they did last split with the exception of poorer team fights and skirmishes, a weaker mid laner, and stronger performances from CaoMei, it's difficult to argue WE's Spring roster would perform worse than their current incarnation. My argument that WE would be a much more dominant LPL force is a bit harder to swallow, especially in light of OMG's smart strategical play this past weekend.

With a team as in sync as WE's Spring Split roster at the end of 2014 LPL Spring, teams with roster changes like OMG—especially given their recent inconsistencies in the support role—would struggle to find footing against them. In addition, CaoMei has become the target of frequent ganks to prevent him from getting ahead in the past week. With two reliable solo lanes instead of just one and a team that communicates well, WeiXiao might make less selfish shot calls, allowing WE to try and perfect new strategies carried off by their synergy. WE could well have been an extremely different team from the one we've seen in either 2014 Split.

So have the Koreans improved WE as a team in any quantifiable way? No, in fact, they've set them back by quite a bit. Time will tell if they can catch up to where they were at this time during 2014 LPL Spring by the end of 2014 LPL Summer.