For the first time in Worlds history, three South Korean teams will be playing in the semifinals. After years and years of domination of the game, this is the crowning moment for the region, sending all of its representatives to the final four without being close to elimination in the quarterfinals.
The ROX Tigers showcased their fangs on Saturday night, overwhelming China's champion EDward Gaming in four games to take the series in convincing fashion. While the two other South Korean clubs in the semifinals, Samsung Galaxy and SK Telecom T1, are cautious counter-punchers, ROX is a team that flips the switch on in the mid game and never looks back. Although ROX can also be considered a "counter-attack team" by sometimes falling behind in the laning phase before galvanizing around the 15-minute mark, the Tigers don't play a methodical style. When the Tigers counter-attack, it's like an avalanche of punches roaring down atop the suffocated opponent.
Samsung likes to counter, teamfight and find the cleanest route to victory. SKT T1 counters and play at a tempo where you can almost find yourself bored with how much control it has over the game.
When ROX finds an opening, an opportunity to pounce, it's lights out for the other team for all intents and purposes. The South Korean domestic champion will throw everything and everyone in waves of dives and pressure across the map.
The first two games against EDG were par the course for ROX. It got ahead through smart roams and ganks heading into the mid game, and it didn't stop putting on the pressure until the gold lead and objective deficit were too much for the Chinese champion to come back from.
In the third set, the Tigers, laughing in their seats, went for a more lax drafting style, putting ace top laner Song "Smeb" Kyung-ho on a stylish individual pick instead of something that could have secured them a simple 3-0 sweep. ROX didn't pick a composition with waveclear or any momentum if it fell down early, and EDG was able to punish ROX for playing with its food and push it to a fourth map.
On that fourth map, it was back to business for the Tigers. Han "Peanut" Wang-ho was gifted Olaf for the first time in the series, and the technical jungler was able to take over with his immense pressure in the early game. He ended the game with 11 kills, 0 deaths and a clear victory over the man who was considered his biggest competition for best jungler at Worlds, namely Ming "Clearlove" Kai. It was a resounding knockout for Peanut and the Tigers as a whole as they stamped their flight tickets to New York City for next weekend's clash with rival SK Telecom T1.
South Korea as a region is now 24-6 through the first two rounds of the tournament. No other region as a whole (counting CIS and Brazil together as the "Wildcard" region) is even batting .500 so far.