I’ll eventually post pictures and share some additional thoughts about MSI at another time, but I wanted to write about this while it is still somewhat fresh on my mind.
Edward Gaming as a team might’ve won the first-ever League of Legends Mid-Seasonal Invitational, but really, the true winner of the whole shebang was their mid-laner, PawN.
I’ll be honest, I’m not really that keen on PawN. I think he’s kind of petty, arrogant, envious of those more popular than him, and I really dislike the fact that he’s a Korean national who plays for a Chinese team. All that said, there’s no denying that he’s easily one of the best LoL players in the world, and frankly after MSI, has legitimate claim to being the best mid-laner in the world.
Especially after he basically called out both of SK Telecom’s two mid-laners, Faker and Easyhoon, both of whom are rockstars in the LoL scene, and then proceeded to defeat not just one of them, but both of them, throughout the span of a best-of-five series. And not only did he defeat them both, PawN is frankly the only guy in the world now to be able to lay claim to have defeated Faker’s previously undefeatable LeBlanc.
Honestly, that’s what made the thoughts of this post begin rolling, because when EDG did not ban LeBlanc, much to the chagrin of SKT fans and to the dismay of EDG fans, my red flag buzzer began going off instantaneously.
Regardless of who’s call it was, be it EDG’s coach, or PawN himself, I immediately saw a diabolical scheme in play as soon as LeBlanc was eligible for play in game 5: EDG wanted Faker to play LeBlanc. They clearly had a plan for this, and were completely banking on Faker to play as LeBlanc.
Back in the 90s in the NBA, there was a particular tactic that many teams employed when playing against the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls. Long story short, the basic gist of the plan was to let Michael Jordan score as many points as he wanted, so long as the rest of the team was shut down and rendered useless. Much like LoL, a basketball was 5 vs. 5, and in the grand scheme of trying to win a game, it’s vastly easier to win when all five players of a team are contributing, as opposed to having one guy trying to beat another five-person squad.
What usually happened is that Michael Jordan would score 50+ points, render all the fans in awe of seeing such an offensive explosion, but then the Bulls would, more often than not, lose the games, because every other member of the team would be rendered useless, and suddenly 10 points denied here, 8 points denied there, but all across the board, would be too much for just MJ himself to overcome.
This tactic became such a standard strategy, that in later years, even the Bulls would employ it themselves, when playing against stalwarts such as Shaq and Penny, Kemp and Payton, and Stockton and Malone. Rarely did they ever lose.
The point is, this was the precise strategy that EDG employed against SKT in the deciding game 5. They let Faker, the Michael Jordan of the LoL scene, not only do whatever he wanted, they even let him have his ace, his heater, his best shot as well. And when the dust settled, Faker did have a positive offensive ratio, but all four of his teammates were rendered completely useless.
SKT becomes the first Korean team to lose in an international best-of-five in like three years, and Edward Gaming, flying Chinese colors, is basically the best team in the world for the time being.*
*Despite the fact that EDG’s two carries are Koreans, didn’t think that wouldn’t get mentioned?
Seriously though, EDG wins MSI, but this was the best weekend of PawN’s career. By carrying EDG to victory, he makes himself look even better by having now carried two squads to international victory. Not just that, he did it by defeating Korea’s Chicago Bulls, SK Telecom. And not only did he defeat Easyhoon in a three-game series, not only did he defeat Faker in the deciding games, he defeated Faker while he was playing as his best champion.
Frankly, I don’t like it, but Edward Gaming defeating SK Telecom basically means China > Korea (for the moment), and PawN > Faker and Easyhoon really spells out that PawN is the best mid-laner in the world now.
