When support Kang "GorillA" Beom-hyeon stepped into the Kiss and Cry for his final post-match MVP interview of the regular season with broadcaster SPOTV, he was smiling. He jokingly apologized to his former ROX Tigers teammate and current SK Telecom T1 jungler Han "Peanut" Wang-ho, who he called out publicly for wishing Longzhu to lose.
"Right now, I'm at the top," GorillA said, addressing all of his ex-Tigers teammates in the League of Legends Champions Korea playoff gauntlet. "I'll be waiting for their competition."
Gwak "Bdd" Bo-seong, Longzhu's mid laner, began the MVP interview with a quick burst of a smile and a frantic wave at the audience before bowing politely. "Every teamfight, I could feel the finals coming," he said.
Mixing and matching
Longzhu Gaming, currently the No.1 seed in the LCK playoffs, is an unexpected first place team. Not necessarily because of the players on its roster -- it's not an upstart team of friends and veterans like GorillA's original Tigers -- but because of the organization's history.
Rising from the ashes of Incredible Miracle, Longzhu arrived in 2016 as the first Chinese title sponsor of a Korean team, although it had previously been a major sponsor of Incredible Miracle, which first rebranded to Longzhu-IM and then Longzhu.
In the process of shedding the IM name, it wanted a team of stars to go along with the rebranding. That December was filled with a flurry of roster signings including Lee "Flame" Ho-jong, who returned from China, veteran AD carry Kang "Cpt Jack" Hyung-woo, and mid laner Shin "CoCo' Jin-yeong. This team was a mess, and could never decide on a specific starting lineup of its 10 total players. No matter what permutation it fielded, Longzhu played poorly and finished seventh in the 2016 LCK Spring standings. That summer, it dropped to eighth, narrowly avoiding the promotion tournament.
The arrival of PraY and GorillA in the 2016-17 preseason -- along with dumping almost all of the players on the team's previous roster -- ushered in a new era of Longzhu.
It still finished seventh in the standings.
Prior to its current split, Longzhu again made significant roster moves, keeping PraY, GorillA, and Gwak "Bdd" Bo-seong, a talented but fairly unproven mid laner that the team had refused to start over Song "Fly" Yong-jun that spring. Top laner Kim "Khan" Dong-ha and rookie jungler Moon "Cuzz" Woo-chan were added to the mix.
Cuzz dominated the preseason Longzhu discussions, but it's Bdd who was seemingly the missing piece of the puzzle. Like most rookie junglers, Cuzz has made more than a few mistakes, and has yet to find his own personal groove. Fortunately, Bdd has been there, controlling mid lane and giving Cuzz a strong safety net to aid the jungler's development.
""But when we were talking as a team, I asked 'we can make it to the playoffs right?' and PraY said 'You were aiming for the playoffs? You should look at taking the tournament!'" Gwak "Bdd" Bo-seong
Another surprising standout for Longzhu has been Khan, whose only prior claims to fame were a surprising 2-0 over SK Telecom T1 S when he was Prime Optimus' "Hanlabong," and being relegated on the same WE team as mid laner Son "Mickey" Young-min. Khan is a strong laner with a much higher outplay potential than his former top lane counterpart, Koo "Expession" Bon-taek.
Together, especially in favorable laning matchups, Khan and Bdd create two strong early game pressure points on the map. Even if Cuzz makes a few mistakes, Longzhu's opponents haven't often focused on punishing them. Attention has been drawn elsewhere, usually top or mid.
Longzhu are an odd team in that primary engage has often been left up to AD carry PraY, the strongest AD carry initiator in the world. Before the arrival of Khan, Cuzz, and Bdd, PraY could still sometimes drag Longzhu over the finish line to a series win if given the chance. With the pressure off thanks to Bdd and Khan, he's unstoppable.
This has been coupled with the support meta shifting into more tanky playmakers and engagers. Unlocked from the bottom lane where he was previously chained during the mage support meta GorillA is free to do what he does best, roam and start fights.
The team's unexpected summer success has allowed the team to look further than where it previously thought was possible.
"I was looking at making it to worlds and the LCK playoffs," Bdd told OGN in a post-match interview. "But when we were talking as a team, I asked 'we can make it to the playoffs right?' and PraY said 'You were aiming for the playoffs? You should look at taking the tournament!' So I am now also doing so."
Three weeks later, Longzhu clinched the automatic bye to the LCK Summer Finals.
Familiar roads
"I'm not sure how the future will play out," Kang "GorillA" Beom-hyeon told me in the 2016-17 preseason. Longzhu had just announced the addition of GorillA and his ROX Tigers laning partner, AD carry Kim "PraY" Jong-in. "The reason why Prayrilla went to Longzhu was not because of money but because we wanted to play together in Korea still. I thought that it would be really nice if we could get good results and recognition together on Longzhu."
It's difficult to know what PraY and GorillA are thinking now, but they've been in this position three times before with their former team. The first, a disastrous but expected loss. The second, a closer loss that was even more disappointing than the first. The third, the ROX Tigers first LCK title since the team's creation in the 2014-15 preseason.
They know better than most that it's a lonely wait at the top.
Regular season success hardly guarantees Longzhu the title of summer champion. Longzhu have countless flaws, some of which will need to be shored up if it wants to beat any of the gauntlet teams in a best-of-five.
While Khan is a strong laner -- he often makes difficult 1v1s look easy -- he is still lacking in communication with the rest of his team, as evidenced by his Teleports. His flanks are sometimes awkward, and whether it's the top laner himself or the team making the calls, it's one of the team's more visible flaws.
Longzhu is at its best when it can make the most of Khan and Bdd's laning advantages while taking pressure off of Cuzz in the jungle. The team is not always the victor in 5v5 fights - barring a PraY Ashe arrow or a perfect setup from GorillA - and it makes a lot of mid-game mistakes that a team like SK Telecom T1 or Samsung, despite the latter's recent loss to Longzhu, will capitalize on in a best-of-five series. In the same week that Longzhu beat Samsung, it was demolished by KT Rolster's intelligent early game led by Go "Score" Dong-bin, who dismantled Cuzz in the jungle.
Nearly every potential finals opponent has something that Longzhu doesn't.
KT has stronger early game macro and lanes that can stand up to Longzhu's, as well as a better jungler. SKT, despite recent woes, can best Longzhu with a cunning and patient mid game that exploits Longzhu's moments of miscommunication. Above all else, no other team is better at adapting in a best-of-five than SKT. Samsung usually out-fight Longzhu, and top laner Lee "CuVee" Seong-jin can easily stand up to Khan, keeping the Longzhu top laner occupied in lane or matching him in a 4-1.
It's easy to cite standout Longzhu players from this split in Khan and Bdd, but they'll have to do better than that to beat whatever top Korean team rises through the gauntlet to face them. This Longzhu squad has already overcome the organization's previous mistakes with paper-perfect rosters. Now this team has until Aug. 26 to form and even more cohesive unit if they want to claim the LCK title and a World Championship spot, otherwise their over-reliance on individual laning outplays will be their downfall.