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

　　For the first time in almost three years both CJ Entus Frost and Blaze have failed to make it past the group stage of Korea's The Champions tournament, the most prestigious league in Korea and the best league in the world. The once illustrious dynasty that was synonymous with League of Legends in Korea is battered and bruised. Neither team will represent Korea at the 2014 League of Legends World Championships, which, from the Round of 8 onwards, will take place in their home country.

　　Image credits: OnGameNetPart one of A Dynasty of Ice and Fire peeked at the origins of Frost and Blaze. It detailed the formation of Frost, their loss to Extreme Dive Gaming, their inability to secure a significant tournament win despite multiple efforts and the formation of their sister team Blaze. Part two looks at the events succeeding the World Cyber Games in Korea to Blaze's victory at the inaugural Champions tournament.

　　

Continued Struggles

Maximum Impact Gaming couldn’t find a sponsor for the team and thus had to secure funding for a gaming house via other methods. In order to do this, Coach Kang needed to convince the parents of the players to let them stay at a gaming house and hone their skills. Kang set up a PowerPoint presentation, personally visited each player’s parents and convinced them to allow their children to stay in a gaming house. Although Kang was unable to secure a sponsorship for the team, Woong's father, the owner of a fairly large construction company called Wisdom General Construction, agreed to fund the gaming house. In order to fund the team's expenses, Kang worked as a caster for MBCGame during the day and sold squid at markets during the night.

　　Coach Kang was instrumental in the early formation days of MiG. Image Credits: CyberSportsNetwork Every parent was visited and I asked them to trust their children to me for at least a year. Hyun-Woo Lee or Cloudtemplar was attending Chung-Ang University, working towards a Business Administration degree at the time and there was a serious discussion about whether he should take time away from his studies. I explained that there were other career options that open up after being a professional gamer. I also appealed to the fact that being the very best at one expertise would give them a social standing that would be difficult to attain otherwise.

　　Coach Kang (GameChosun, 2012)MiG's inital gaming house. Image Credits: Fomos KoreaThe initial gaming house was essentially a set of rooms inside Wisdom General's office. The house was so small that only one of the teams could live in it, and that team, Frost , had to use each other as pillows. The approximate area of the gaming house was estimated to be 26 meters squared (for comparison, an average studio apartment in Seoul, Korea is 10-15 pyeong (approximately 33-50 metres squared)). Things were so bad that when an OnGameNet caster went to visit the MiG house, he bought the team a rice-cooker in order to improve their living conditions

　　This time was the infant stage of LoL we played the game with a hungry mind. We lived in a small room with 5-10 people and in this cramped living style there were many things which were inconvenient but when I look back it was a very happy and meaningful time.

　　CloudTemplar (OnGameNet, 2014)The house was essentially two times the size of a normal bathroom. It was impossible to sleep normally, we had to sleep under the desk. Reapered additionally stayed with us and Captain Jack, Helios and Lustboy would often visit. Helios didn’t really have the money so we paid for him to stay with us.

　　Woong (onGamers, 2014)To rectify this situation, MiG had to make a name for themselves and find a sponsor quickly. The OnGameNet Invitational was the perfect opportunity for them to do so.

　　

Success at last.

Frost’s inability to secure a major victory was a blemish on their record. The Invitational was a chance to grab a major Korean title and help secure their future.

　　Although Frost’s fanbase wasn’t the biggest, they were invited to the National Invitational on the basis of their grand finals performance at the 2011 Korean Regionals for the World Cyber Games. The National Invitational wasn’t really an a tournament, but rather a miniature qualifier between the four prominent Korean teams (Startale, Team OP, EDG and MiG) to obtain a spot for the Global Invitational. Startale and MiG Frost faced each other in a best of three and MiG Frost went on to qualify for the the Global Invitational by sweeping Startale 2-0; EDG also earned their place by defeating Team OP 2-1.

　　Frost in their booths against Startale. Image Credts: Inven KoreaOnGameNet expected around 250 people to attended the National Invitational and were shocked when over 1500 people lined up to enter the arena. This was when OGN realized that they had found their new esport.

　　“I think League of Legends will be as popular as Starcraft: Brood War once was”

　　Locodoco (CyberSportsNetwork, 2011)In addition to MiG and EDG, the Global Invitational was host to two of the biggest names in League of Legends: North America’s Counter Logic Gaming and the China’s World Elite. The global invitational was the first time MiG would face international competition and it featured a round robin group stage into a best-of-three finals..

　　MiG took revenge against their rivals EDG in the opening match of the invitational. A failed invade by EDG allowed MIG to obtain the early game lead after killing Hoon’s Morgana and MakNooN's Udyr. A four for one fight for MIG near the dragon allowed Frost to stretch their lead against the 2011 WCG Korean Regional Champions. A poor team fight at toplane gave EDG a small chance, but it didn’t matter as MIG steamrolled EDG to take revenge for the events that occurred at GStar 2011.

　　World Elite, the Champons of IEM Guangzhou. Image Credits: ESLMiG’s next game was against World Elite, the reigning champions of IEM Guangzhou and widely considered one of the best teams in the world. World Elite’s midlaner, Misaya, pulled out AP Sion and started roaming. Misaya's constant movement on the Rift. was a major reason for WE’s successful kill trades with Frost. After 60 minutes, Frost got greedy and WE walked off victorious.

　　WE was our most difficult opponent. If we dragged it out, we could have won but we forced our hand too quickly.

　　Woong (Inven, 2012)MiG's loss combined with EDG's win over WE put them at a disadvantageous tiebreaker situation. For MiG to advance through to the finals, they had to win their next game against Counter Logic Gaming. The North Americans were considered the best team in the world and CLG’s victories over both World Elite and EDG made them heavy favourites heading into this match.

　　North America's most dominant team, Counter Logic Gaming: HotshotGG, Chauster, Doublelift, Bigfatlp, Saintvicious Image credits: AzubuCLG evidently didn’t take this game seriously since they had already made the finals. They opted to run an unconventional Alistar/Blitzcrank kill lane against a Corki/Malphite lane and Bigfatlp opted to play Urgot mid. Although the fun composition did obtain first blood, MiG's serious composition asserted itself and led to an easy Korean victory.

　　MiG's win pushed them into a finals of the OnGameNet League of Legends Invitational against Counter Logic Gaming. Despite their loss to MiG, CLG was still the favorite thanks to their renowned Doublelift and Chauster duo lane.

　　I heard someone call us the Doublelift and Chauster of Korea, but I will make them say they are the Madlife and Loco of NA

　　Madlife (Inven, 2012)CloudTemplar’s Skarner secured First Blood on Bigfatlp’s Xerath and MiG took the gold lead. The first team fight near dragon also went in their favour with Woong picking up a double kill on Kennen. MiG secured two additional kills near CLG’s Ancient Golem and snowballed the lead. The supposed best team in the world only managed a paltry five kills the entire match.. A decisive rout by the Korean team in Game 1 lead the North Americans to shift gears.

　　Game 2 saw Bigfatlp on Anivia.Counter Logic Gaming managed to get Anivia in Game 2. Before Froggen, Moma and Rapidstar, bigfatlp (jiji) was considered the best Anivia player in the world and CLG hoped to use his proficiency on the Cryopheonix to make a strong statement in Game 2. MiG replied with an unconventional Janna pick. After a slow early game, CLG got on the board by picking up two kills near Dragon. MiG replied by catching Doublelift out of position and killing him. Jiji's Anivia pick paid dividends thanks to her Crystallize wall in the form of an early Baron. Unfortunately, CLG's aggression combined with exceptional Janna play from Madlife kept MiG in the game. One particularly solid play form Madlife led to a catch on HotShotGG's Galio and a lost team fight for the Americans. That was all the advantage MiG needed, and they quickly turned it into a Baron, and a game two victory.

　　Madlife's Janna was instrumental in Frost's victory.The best team in the world was beaten by a group of players that didn’t have a proper sponsor.

　　I once thought that support couldn't make a big impact in the game, but after playing with Madlife and then playing with other supports in solo queue I realized it. if you look at the minimap there are no fog of war when madlife is in your team, Madlife helped me realize supports can carry the game

　　Cloudtemplar (Inven, 2012)With their victory over Counter Logic Gaming, Maximum Impact Gaming secured their first major tournament win and avoided their ascent to the Kong Line.

　　I feel like, with this title, we've escaped the Kong Line

　　Locodoco (ThisisGame, 2012) [a reference to Starcraft Broodwar progamer Yellow, who failed to win a StarLeague despite multiple finals appearances]One of these things always happened before losing

　　1. A player drank a sports drink

　　2. Error in the client or the server

　　3. Sudden rain

　　Mysteriously when one of those happen we seem to lose the game right away. It happened in the Inven tournament, the WCG finals, and before our game with WE in the invitationals (Their only loss in the invitational). Someone drank powerade and then the rain started pouring right before our game.

　　But we won vs CLG even when it was raining so I guess we broke our curse. I told my players they are free from drinking as much sports drink they want.

　　Coach Kang (Inven, 2012)After breaking the Kong curse, the first thing the team did was move to improve their living conditions. Locodoco responded to a question about what the team will do with prize money:

　　There's no mattress in the dormitory so we are firstly gonna get one

　　Locodoco (Inven, 2012)Blaze was not idle during the time surrounding the OnGameNet Global Invitational. Although they were ineligible to compete in the tournament, they were Frost's practice partner while Frost was battling through each of their opponents.

　　MiG Blaze and MiG Frost along with Coach Kang. Blaze were instrumental in helping their sister team win the invitational. Image credits: AzubuThe recruitment of a sister team showed the forethought of Coach Kang, who saw the benefits of internal scrimmaging. Kang is also credited with the creation of the Top - Jungle - Mid - ADC - Support seating positions as he believed that it was easier to coordinate ganks if the jungler was able to see the monitor of his solo laners.

　　Our brother team Blaze has been a big help. They try to play like our upcoming opponents, so when we were going to face EDG, Blaze kept picking EDG's strong picks like jungle Nunu. We were able to play against our opponent's strat/picks even before the game so we've been able to play out the game much better.

　　Woong (ThisisGame,2012)I'd like to thank MiG Blaze and TSM's Chaox who helped prepare the calls. He's just paying me back for leaving him the ADC position.

　　Locodoco (ThisisGame, 2012)

Blazing into Glory

Shortly after the tournament, Frost’s rival Extreme Dive Gaming was acquired by Najin Industries and renamed Najin e-mFire. Equipped with a gaming house and all the facilities to become a professional team, EDG were prepared for the launch of League of Legends in Korea.

　　EDG in their new Najin e-mfire uniforms. Image credits: Inven.Around March, OnGameNet announced a fully fledged tournament for League of Legends. The tournament, named “The Champions” and sponsored by Azubu, was a prominent sign of the growth of Riot’s multiplayer game. Invitations were handed out to Fnatic and Counter Logic Gaming, two of the most known western League of Legends teams.

　　The tournament structure had four groups (A to D) which feed into a playoff bracket.Frost and Blaze were placed into Groups A and D and went on to win their groups with ease. Blaze, despite being in the same group as Fnatic, never got to face them as the group stage bracket was not a round robin.

　　The quarterfinals saw Frost face off against Najin e-mFire once again. The match-up’s regularity and excitement lead to it being dubbed the El Classico of Korean League of Legends. The series went to blind pick and Frost emerged victorious after a 1/7/15 Olaf performance by Najin’s top-laner MaKNooN (versus Woong’s 12/3/15 score on the same champion) . MakNooN’s Olaf became a meme in Korea and this series was a contributing factor to the split of e-mFire to Sword and Shield.

　　Blaze were set to play Counter Logic Gaming in one of the most anticipated matchups of the season. The hype around Captain Jack’s debut against the supposed best bottom lane in the World was at its peak and thousands of fans tuned in. The series didn't’ live up to the hype as Blaze overwhelmed Counter Logic Gaming in a 2-0 sweep which was highlight by CLG only securing two kills in Game 1.

　　We watched all of CLG’s replays and especially focused on their jungler Saintvicious as he was known as the best jungler

　　Helios (DailyeSports, 2012)Semifinals were slightly different. Frost went toe to toe with YellOw-coached Xenics Storm in a grueling 5 game series while Blaze swept aside Team OP 3-1. Both MiG teams were now in the finals of the 2012 Azubu The Champions Spring. Locodoco's suggestion of leaching experience from golems contributed significantly to the victories in the semifinals.

　　MIG Frost simulates the playstyle and pick/bans of our upcoming opponents every time. We were practically playing against our enemy before the game

　　Captain Jack (Inven, 2012)Since we started blue side we were able to kill Golems before the 2 minute mark. Loco told me it's impossible to lose the lane after getting the golem XP and I can see it’s true now

　　Helios (Inven, 2012)

A Clash of Brothers

Kintex Arena, Korea. Image credits AzubuThe grand final of The Champions Spring was held at the Kintex International Exhibition Center in Goyang city. Frost, the champions of the OGN Invitational were the favourites heading into the tournament but the series was expected to go to four or five games. No one predicted what happened next.

　　Laneswaps are a common thing nowadays in League of Legends but back in Season 2 the notion of swapping a lane was relatively unheard of. The standard 1-1-2 European metagame dominated the game for so long that a change in the structure, while experimented with, wasn’t significant enough to warrant a whole meta change. The position of dragon was the main contributor to the rigid meta game.

　　Blaze decided to ignore this meta. Their unconventional move of switching Lustboy and Captain Jack to Top lane and instituting a fast push comp where turrets were quickly taken caught Frost off guard. Graves-Lulu cleared the waves and took turrets faster than Sivir-Sona. A misposition by Woong on Yorick allowed Blaze’s botlane to snowball the game in their favour. Frost only obtained two kills in the entire game.

　　The lanes returned to normal in Game 2. Frost’s Varus pick was interesting adaptation to their loss in Game 1 and worked well initially. Locodoco took first blood on Captain Jack via a well placed Piercing Arrow and killed Lustboy soon after. Frost took a major lead after a well placed teamfight in Blaze’s jungle but Blaze weren’t deterred and came roaring back to secure the dragon skirmish, four kills to one. Captain Jack’s spellshield play was highlighted multiple times during that confrontation and the fight gave Jax all the kills he needed to be a monster late game.

　　The final game saw Captain Jack return to his trademark champion: Ashe. A late invade by Blaze on to Frost’s blue buff allowed Blaze to kill Madlife’s Soraka and obtain first blood. There really isn’t much else to say about this game really, Blaze just outclassed Frost and clenched victory as the inaugural winners of The Champions.

　　Blaze, the Champions of Korea. Image Credits: AzubuPart three, which details the sponsorship of Azubu. Frost’s victory of OGN Champions and Blaze’s heartbreak at the Korean regionals will be released after the Season 4 World Championship.

　　Special thanks to Changmin Bae, Kevin Suh and vvversed for assistance with translating the quotes and Thomas Watts for editing.