Author's Notes
A lot happened in between finishing this chapter and the last – I was alternately psyched for Tiffany's return, a bit bummed over CLG as an NA fan but psyched for Cloud 9 and Team SoloMid as well as the wildcards. We've also got the TSM spring roster in this story as opposed to the one they actually sent to Worlds in 2014 because that specific quintet – part of their Baylife lineups – was one of my favorites outside of Cloud 9 (nothing against Lustboy or Amazing.) Last but not least, I want to give a shout-out to Helloooo_Im_Z on Twitch, who befriended me over C9 League and K-Pop (especially via Sneaky's stream) and who helped me figure out how Tiffany and Jessica might answer a question in an interview you'll see later.
Usual rules apply – reviews welcome, but please, no flaming because you're not a fan.
2014 League of Legends World Championship
Semifinals
Olympic Gymnastics Arena, Songpa-gu, Seoul, South Korea
October 11th – 12th
Cloud 9 (North America)
Top - Carlo (Phillip Carlo Santos, USA)
Jungle - Meteos (Will Hartman, USA)
Mid - Hai (Hai Du Lam, USA)
AD Carry - Sneaky (Zach Scuderi, USA)
Support - Aurora (Carolina Aurora Lea, Canada)
Substitute - Balls (An Van Le, USA)
Coach/Emergency Sub - LemonNation (Daerek Hart, USA)
Team SoloMid (North America)
Top - Dyrus (Marcus Hill, USA)
Jungle - TheOddOne (Bryan Wyllie, Canada)
Mid - Bjergsen (Søren Bjerg, Denmark)
AD Carry - WildTurtle (Jason Tran, Canada)
Support - Xpecial (Alex Chu, USA)
Substitute - Reginald (Andy Dinh, USA)
Coach - Locodoco (Choi Yoonsub, South Korea)
As the quarterfinals finished and attention started turning to the semifinals, we were pleasantly surprised to see that fans were still buzzing about what we had acc never before had a North American team beaten a Korean one in a Worlds playoff, and now we'd done it against the defending champions on Korean soil and finished with a perfect game. Not only that, but we'd managed to secure two members of the nation's girl group as fans (albeit two who were originally from our region), who'd dared to pick us in the quarterfinals and been proved right. As we contined our semfinal preparation, we couldn't help but try to gauge the level of our support in Korea relative to the remaining teams (and Girls' Generation helped by sharing what they knew from talking to others – for example, Sunny was getting calls about Worlds on Sunny FM Date.) What we found was another pleasant surprise: as Hai said, any Korean fans who weren't cheering for Samsung White first tended to be cheering for us.
An interesting situation came up as the weekend drew near after Taeyeon sent Hai another text:
Dear Hai,
If the nine of us are going to support you seriously, I think we had better know just what we're watching so we can properly appreciate what you do. Is it okay if you give those of us who aren't too familiar with League of Legends a tutorial as only you can? I'm open to suggestions as to where. 4:00 PM on Thursday should work well since none of us has a schedule for that afternoon.
-Tae
We took up the teaching/coaching challenge with gusto and all signed off on Hai's response. We then started to makesure our Fraser Place base was presentable, because the response read,
Dear Tae noona,
Absolutely! We'd love to. Our base at Fraser Place should work just fine so we're not disturbed or eavesdropped on. The only things you should need are headsets.
-Hai
All nine Soshis arrived on Thursday afternoon at least five minutes beforehand. When asking each of them about their gaming experience and how much they watched or knew League, we found that aside from Jessica and Tiffany having watched us in the NA LCS and then in person in our Worlds quarterfinal (to say nothing of Jessica spending the week leading up to that quarterfinal with us, including watching us scrim), Sunny had played a bit and Taeyeon had some well-documented experience in E-Sport games, albeit mostly in StarCraft (which I was also a fan of.) Sunny thus gave us a hand with helping explain the basics before we took charge on some of the finer points such as vision.
"I know we all agree, though – there's no learning like hands-on learning." Hai said. "But we're not going to put you into 5v5s or even 1v1s just yet – we'll make this a challenge for us too. Let's do 2v2s but with four players each." Hai said.
"How are we going to do that?" LemonNation asked.
"Two players per champion – one handles the keyboard and the other handles the mouse. I've heard of some players doing it – they call it tandem mode." Hai responded.
Not even any of the players had done it before, so we were all curious to see how we would handle that challenge. We quickly agreed that there would be at most one pro per pair on each champion (given that there were nine Soshis and seven C9 players, we couldn't go one-for-one across the board.) Once we got everything sorted out, we decided it would be Tiffany, Jessica, Aurora and me first up against Yoona, Sooyoung, Meteos and Sneaky, followed by Taeyeon, Seohyun, Hyoyeon and Hai against Sunny, Yuri, Balls and LemonNation.
As we split into our quartets to quickly discuss picks and strategy, I noticed that all of us quickly decided that wherever possible, the C9 player in the duo should be the one on the mouse, because that person by himself or herself could handle targeting (which would include last hitting for farming and lining up skillshots) and movement. We also used the 2v2 rules that had been established at All-Star Shanghai the previous year – Howling Abyss, with the winner being the first to two kills, first to 100 combined CS or the first to destroy an enemy turret. The only difference was that we had no bans (so blind pick as opposed to blind draft) since some of the Soshis were still very new.
"Wonder if we should just set the tone and pick Ahri and Syndra." Aurora said with a grin as the four of us went off by ourselves, having agreed on a bit of time to discuss and prepare before we got underway.
"That would be good! You know, in the past week, Tiff and I have had people asking if we've started to play and have definitely suggested Syndra and especially Ahri because they've got our dances." Jessica said. "But honestly, I'd rather pick Ashe in this case. One, it'll give us an AD champion with some CC who can easily get kills, and two, I am the Ice Princess, after all."
We all smiled and laughed, and Aurora said, "'AD' and 'CC' - you really have been spending too much time around us, Sica unnie. But I do like that. So, Carlo, who do you and Fany unnie take?"
"I've got a good feeling about Ahri." Tiffany answered.
"Yeah, while both could work, I definitely am more comfortable personally with Ahri than with Syndra. One more thing, Fany noona - Classic or Popstar? Or, should I say, Run Devil Run or Genie?"
"Classic today." Tiffany replied. "I'm in something of a Run Devil Run mood."
We smiled again at that and then temporarily split into our tandems so Jessica and Tiffany could ask us individual questions.
"Okay. Could you give me one tip or bit of feedback on each of the abilities? We'll start with Orb of Deception." Tiffany asked, sitting down and putting her hands in ready positions on the keyboard and tapping the Q key with her little finger.
"Sure!" I said, as I also took a seat and got ready on the mouse. "It's good if you can also connect with it on the way back because it deals true damage on the return, meaning it ignores Magic Resistance."
"Got it. How about Fox Fire?" She asked, now tapping the W key with her ring finger.
"Save it for last hitting and when we're up close." I replied.
"Okay. Now, Charm...this is obviously the one we want to hit if we can, right?" She asked, now tapping E with her middle finger.
"Oh, absolutely. Hitting that makes it so much easier to go aggressive and also can knock an enemy champion out of a fight." I agreed
"And finally, the ultimate." She finished, now tapping R with her index finger.
"Don't use the last Spirit Rush dash offensively unless you're confident you can help secure a kill with it or unless you've got another escape mechanism like Flash or Hourglass." I answered.
She nodded and smiled. "Thanks! Let's lock in and get them, shall we?"
"You bet." I responded. "Let's get on the same chat as Jessica and Aurora..."
We routinely used Skype for our voice communications while streaming, so we plugged both headsets for each tandem into a Y-adapter and connected it to the PC. Once we had it working, Aurora said, "We need to watch each other - if we land Enchanted Crystal Arrow or Charm, try following up with the other just before that effect expires."
"Oh, the CC chain technique you work on regularly?" Jessica asked.
"Yeah, that." Aurora replied.
As we loaded in, we saw that Yoona and Sneaky were playing as Varus while Sooyoung and Meteos were playing as Karma. This meant we had to deal with a lot of poke between Piercing Arrow and Inner Flame, but luckily, they were grouped up right as both of us hit Level 6 and unlocked ultimates. Jessica and Aurora didn't hesitate, firing the Ashe ultimate and catching both of our opponents simultaneously.
"Nice! Okay, let's line up the Charm..." Tiffany said, poising her middle finger over the E key.
"Yeah, let's get Varus." I said. "Now."
Tiffany hit E to fire the Charm, and it landed to keep Varus unable to deal damage.
"Nice!" Jessica and Aurora yelled, while Aurora added, "Focus him down!"
"Got 'em!" I yelled, as Tiffany let fly.
It thankfully didn't take long for us to burst down Varus. Aurora then called, "Nice one! Watch out, Karma's gonna use Inspire and try to get away!"
"We've got one Spirit Rush left, so let them try." Tiffany responded with a grin.
I quickly nodded and lined up the mouse cursor towards Karma. Tiffany triggered the last one before cooldown, forcing Meteos and Sooyoung to use their Flash to get a little space. It wasn't enough, though, as we landed the Charm, and Jessica and Aurora were able to catch up and add more damage to make even more certain that we secured the match-winning second kill.
"Yes!" Tiffany cheered, jumping out of her seat as we all high-fived each other.
"Whoo!" Aurora shouted.
We then went over to our opponents, who met us halfway.
"Good game." Sneaky said, shaking our hand. "Holy s**t, my butthole."
"Oh, because you clenched so much after they jumped on us?" Yoona asked, shaking our hands and laying a hand on his shoulder.
"Yeah, we'll leave it at that tonight." Sneaky said, chuckling.
"Holy s**t, Jessica noona's been learning too much from being around us and Tiffany noona looks like she's been putting in time too." Meteos said. "That CC chain was brutal."
"Hey, look at it this way. They had four NA players and we only had two." Sooyoung said with a smile.
We all burst out laughing. Balls managed to say, "Oh, man...is this what it's come to? Sooyoung also saying NA KR?"
"Well, honestly, that is yet to be seen...but that Jeti Caroura synergy was too strong." Sooyoung replied.
"That sounds like a concept vehicle or something." I said with a grin as we stepped away and the other eight stepped in.
Soon, we could also see that Taeyeon and Hai had picked Lux and Hyoyeon and Seohyun had picked Leona, while Sunny and Balls had taken Miss Fortune and Yuri and LemonNation had taken Nautilus.
"Oh, that's going to be interesting." Aurora said. "Lemon's been experimenting with support Nautilus and has worked with me a bit on that."
"Add in the fact that Hai's got one less pro player to work with and this could be a good one." Meteos said.
We then heard Hai saying, "Is it okay if I waive the honorifics for this? If I have to say 'Tae noona', 'Seo noona' and 'Hyo noona', I'm not going to be able to get the calls out fast enough."
"Don't worry, we understand." Seohyun replied.
"Ooh." Sooyoung said, rubbing her hands. "So this is the Hai shotcalling everyone talks so much about!"
As opposed to the first match, the match that ensued was more drawn out. One thing that we noticed, though, was that as expected, there was a difference in how each side was on the comms – which is nothing against either, just more of a contrast in styles than anything.
"If they stand behind each other, that's when we can make our move." Lemon said. "Especially now that we've got Dredge Line, so be ready to throw it out if you see them line up, okay, Yuri?
"Got it." Yuri replied, wiggling her index finger in anticipation over the R button.
"Okay, we'll keep the Bullet Time ready until then." Balls said.
"Just need to wait until they line up...thing is they're not giving too many chances." Sunny said, concentrating.
Meanwhile, Hai's shotcalling set the tone and meant the other team was talking a lot more to respond.
"Nice job on the combos, Taengoo – just watch that mana." Hai was saying.
"Yeah, don't worry, it made me figure that out fast, Hai. I'm making sure to save enough for the ulti in case Seo and Hyo can lock someone up." Taeyeon responded.
"Nice." Hai said. "Hey, Hyo, can you and Seo E onto MF? It can't be bodyblocked by someone standing in front."
"We'll do our best." Seohyun replied. "Hey, Hyo, you heard the man – if you can line up Zenith Blade, I'll go and fire it and then focus on keeping Miss Fortune locked up. Hai and Tae are keeping Final Spark in their back pocket, so if we can get Sunny and Balls, we can push even if we can't win it immediately like Sica, Fany, Aurora and Carlo did."
"Okay." Hyoyeon said.
"Wait until Tae and I have Q back up." Hai said. "I'll count you in. 3, 2, 1, now!"
In anticipation, Hyoyeon, who was on the mouse, had already lined up Zenith Blade onto Miss Fortune, and Seohyun, who was on the keyboard, hit E and successfully landed it.
"Got 'em!" Seohyun yelled.
"Nice! Kill Miss Fortune!" Hai shouted.
"Just keep those sights on them, Hai!" Taeyeon responded.
"Oh, they've got the Light Binding and Final Spark and Sunny and Balls don't have the defense!" Yoona said, comprehension dawning as Miss Fortune went down with Taeyeon firing that combo for most of the damage. "So they just basically went around Nautilus!"
"Pretty much." Aurora said. "And that's the downside to Nautilus building for tank and support and not for damage – that forces Lemon and Yuri to back off because they don't have enough damage to stop them by themselves. But they're already at the tower!"
"It's at least going to take a lot of damage since Shield of Daybreak is usable on structures and that definitely helps her pushing." I explained. "Lemon and Yuri had to recall as well after that because they went low, so this might do it!"
"Yeah, that's going to be it! They're trying to use that anchor to move faster along the wall and hurry back, but it's not fast enough!" Sooyoung said. "And there it is!"
Hai, Taeyeon, Hyoyeon and Seohyun celebrated and high-fived as the tower went down, but their celebration was more muted because it'd been more testing than our game had been.
"Oh, wow." Hyoyeon said as the opponents shook hands. "And the funny thing was Aurora was telling me that she needed to work on her stamina when she had dance practice with me and Jessica before the quarterfinals! I'd definitely have to work on the mental stamina for League because I don't know how much longer I could have held on there."
Aurora grinned and patted her on the back, saying. "Don't worry - part of that was that you were handling the mouse, so that's a little more demanding than the keyboard alone. And you had to deal with a lot of communication."
"That's true." Hyoyeon said.
"Hey, that was a good support Naut performance even though we took that." Hai told Lemon.
"Thanks. Yuri did her best too." Lemon said. "Sorry I couldn't have done better." He finished apologetically, turning to her.
"Don't blame yourself – at least we made them have to come up with something special." Yuri replied.
"Good game, Sunny noona." Hai said as she shook her hand. "You too, Balls. You were working well out there."
"Yeah, she didn't want to lose to Taeyeon, so Tae's lucky she had you manning the mouse." Balls responded.
"I really was. I can see why he's the leader and shotcaller." Taeyeon answered.
After some more games, Jessica and Tiffany suggested a Mexican restaurant that they had passed by for dinner.
As Jessica said with a knowing smile as we approached, "There's no Chipotle in Korea, unfortunately, but I hope this works." The reason why it was a knowing smile was that she knew we hadn't eaten Mexican since we'd departed for boot camp the previous month.
"Don't worry, it should be good either way, Jessica noona – we trust you guys on this." Meteos said, "Let me see if they can make my usual..."
"If they can, do you mind if I have one?" Sooyoung asked before Meteos went in.
"Sure!" Meteos replied, and he went through the door and to the counter.
About ten minutes later, he came back out smiling and handed what was clearly a foil-wrapped burrito to Sooyoung. "Yep, we're good! Cheers, Sooyoung noona."
"Thanks! And that's great – I'm glad they were able to help you out." Sooyoung said. "So what goes into the Meteos?"
"Chicken, white rice, mild salsa, pinto beans and cheese." Meteos replied.
"Oh, sounds good!" Sooyoung said, and she unwrapped hers and took a bite, saying once she'd swallowed, "Oh, I can see why you eat this as much as you do."
"We all eat it at least a bit each week – there's a reason why some have nicknamed us Chipotle 9." Sneaky said. "But Meteos puts away more than the rest of us do by far."
"Really?" Sooyoung asked, turning back to Meteos. "You know what the Korean term is for someone like you?"
"What's that?" Meteos asked in response once he'd finished another bite. "It's not anything bad, is it?"
"A shikshin." Sooyoung said, smiling reassuringly. "And don't worry, it isn't. It just means 'god of food'."
Meteos gave a big smile and touched his burrito to Sooyoung's as if they had champagne glasses.
Most times, as with other Western teams, a little extra work went into preparation at Worlds not just because of the stakes but because we were playing against teams we had rarely played against, if ever. This time, though, we were up against an opponent we knew perhaps better than any other in the field (and vice versa) because we'd gone toe to toe so often back home.
The C9-TSM storyline needed no introduction. Team SoloMid had won the very first split of the North American LCS in Spring 2013 against Good Game University (now Team Coast). Then the original Cloud 9 had turned up after qualifying for the Summer Split and been a thorn in their side since. Not only were we three-time defending NA LCS champions, but the last three NA LCS finals, including the one earlier in the fall at PAX Prime, had all been contested by our two teams. Three of our starters (Hai, Meteos and Sneaky) had played in all three, while four of their starters had done the same (Dyrus, TheOddOne, WildTurtle and Xpecial.) Our owner and co-founder Jack had even gotten his experience in management with TSM before he'd received Reginald's blessing to head his own brand, which became C9, while WildTurtle had been part of Quantic (which had become Cloud 9) and had been trained up a bit by LemonNation.
Also, not since the very first League World Championship at Dreamhack Summer 2011 in Jönköping, Sweden had two North American teams faced each other in a Worlds playoff (specifically, TSM against Epik Gamer in a loser's bracket semifinal.)
"We are certain of one thing. If they had to choose between winning the last three NA LCS finals or winning this Worlds semifinal, they'd choose winning the semifinal, because we'd choose the same." Aurora said in some of her pre-match comments. Meanwhile, I was on the record as saying that I remembered how amazing it was when the GSL brought the Code S Finals to BlizzCon in 2011 – and now we were getting the chance to bring the NA LCS Finals to Korea with a spot in the Worlds Grand Finals on the line.
The semifinal venue was the Olympic Gymnastics Arena at the Olympic Park in Songpa-gu, Seoul, about an hour away from Fraser Place by foot and public transportation. As the name suggested, it had been built as the gymnastics venue for the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, and since then, it had become a famous concert venue. Girls' Generation had performed there, as had many other illustrious K-Pop and Western artists including Super Junior, Big Bang, Beyoncé and Taylor Swift...and now we, Team SoloMid, Samsung White and Oh My God would get to play there.
We went to watch the first semifinal between Oh My God and Samsung White the day before our semifinal, and something that proved to be fortuitous happened. In a very hotly contested series, OMG beat White in five games, mainly thanks to Gogoing and Cool even though the entire team played strongly. Even though we knew OMG was the real deal, we were picking our jaws off the floor because we admittedly were expecting to have to face SSW in the finals. Then we also gradually realized that everyone who'd been pulling for Samsung White first now had to choose between one of the remaining three teams to support, and the clear majority picked us. We understood that this meant that they would favor the winner of our semifinal, though, because either we or TSM would be up against the Chinese top guns who had knocked out the last Korean team in the tournament.
Following the first semifinal, Taeyeon suggested that we arrive at the Olympic Gymnastics Arena half an hour earlier than we had planned. The reason became apparent as we arrived to find that one of Girls' Generation's stylists and makeup artists was there to help us with makeup before we went out. The guys needed just facial powder, but Aurora was very happy at getting the chance to don that plus some vibrant pink lipstick and some eyelash curler.
After about fifteen minutes, Sunny, Yoona, Taeyeon, Tiffany and Jessica, who had been meeting TSM first (to make things fair) arrived, accompanied by another female idol who we recognized as Red Velvet's Wendy – Aurora's favorite female idol outside of Girls' Generation and someone who I'd become a fan of too. Then Taeyeon gave us another surprise, as she said, "We're actually also going to be helping with national anthems before everyone is seated. I'll be singing the Korean one, while Wendy will do the Canadian one and Tiffany and Jessica will do the American one."
Unlike in the first semifinal, where OMG and Samsung White entered from just offstage, we and TSM entered from the back going down towards the stage down one aisle each, slapping hands with fans all the way down. As big and energetic as the crowd had been in Busan, this crowd was even bigger and more amped up – and the fact that it was not hostile was a huge shot in the arm for everybody. As we made our way to the stage and then turned to face the audience, we could also see quite a few fans who had made the trip from North America.
Onstage close to our stations (called "sleds") were the banners of both the World Championship and the North American LCS. The American and Canadian flags also hung over the stage next to the South Korean one. Overall, it felt a lot like when we faced each other back in Los Angeles or Seattle, only kicked up quite a few notches because of the atmosphere, including even more fired-up voices exchanging dueling fan chants as we took the stage and were introduced.
"Cloud 9! Cloud 9! Cloud 9!"
"TSM! TSM! TSM! TSM!"
Then Taeyeon emerged and the crowd exploded. All of us on the Cloud 9 side grinned at seeing that there were apparently a ton of SONEs in the crowd, and I noticed WildTurtle and Xpecial grinning too. We then bowed our heads respectfully as she sang Aegukga and then joined in the big applause that followed. Then the Canadians – Aurora, OddOne and WildTurtle – came to the center and locked arms as Wendy sang O Canada. More applause ensued, especially from Canadians and Red Velvet fans in the crowd, and finally, the Americans – our whole team minus Aurora and then also Dyrus and Xpecial – came to the center and locked arms as Tiffany and Jessica sang The Star-Spangled Banner, which got a surprisingly raucous cheer from the SONEs and the Americans in the crowd.
It was a big reminder to both teams if any of us ever needed it that no matter who won, we had represented our countries and our region well and it would be up to us to do so again that night - and up to the winner to do so one more time in the final. Looking to my left and right during the anthems, everyone knew it, and it was written on our faces. A number of us had been mouthing or murmuring our anthems as they were sung as well.
We and TSM shook hands onstage with Tiffany, Jessica, Wendy and Taeyeon and then with each other before we broke to take our seats at our positions and get ready.
Game 1 was close with both of our teams fired up but not managing to land blows until we took a big fight at the Dragon that threw the game open for us. Game 2 was similar, only it happened even earlier and it accelerated faster since we had TSM firmly on their heels, meaning we headed offstage for the second break with a 2-0 lead and, needless to say, in even higher spirits.
While we were discussing Game 3 plans backstage, Sunny, Yoona and Taeyeon were interviewed for the OGN broadcast while Tiffany and Jessica headed to the Riot analyst desk for an interview.
Eefje "Sjokz" Depoortere (EU LCS): Welcome back to the 2014 World Championship semifinals, where Cloud 9 is up 2-0 over Team SoloMid in this best-of-5. Right now...well, I think it should be said: "Right now, it's Girls' Generation!" Because we have the pleasure of being joined by a pair of special guests – two of the women who helped us with the anthems before this all-North American clash got underway. It's Girls' Generation's JeTi – Jessica and Tiffany! Thank you very much for being here tonight and helping us.
Tiffany: Thank you very much!
Jessica: Thank you, Sjokz. Glad to be here.
Sjokz: Fantastic! I have to ask first...you and Cloud 9. It really has been an awe-inspiring story just from what we know about how you've interacted with each other since meeting at KCON – did you see think for one moment that this would happen?
Tiffany: We certainly didn't, but looking back on it, it certainly wasn't an accident. I think both we and Cloud 9 not only enjoy each other's work but also see how hard the other group has been working, and we both want to do our best for our fans because we so often draw our strength from them and it makes us want to do something we haven't done before. And that admiration has drawn us closer."
Jessica: There's a reason why we picked them even over SK Telecom - as funny as it sounds, we recognized that bit of ourselves in them and we know what it can do.
Sjokz: Wow. Let me stay with you for this next question, Jessica. What was it like hearing the C9 comms as they clinched victory against SKT last week saying that that win was for you?
Jessica: It meant a lot, especially since they told me that not only did they want to support me during that tough period, but that they wanted to repay me for the support I gave after I was unable to travel to Guangzhou with the group. But I also knew it was for the group as a whole as well, and I did like that very much...I must say I don't think I could have inspired what they did against SK Telecom by myself.
Mitch "Krepo" Voorspels (Evil Geniuses, guest analyst): On a less serious note, and this is something you touched on...we've talked about imports a lot this year, especially in North America – (at Froggen) and yes, I know I'm part of that – for our viewers who aren't yet familiar with K-Pop or Girls' Generation, you two are actually, if we're speaking in League terms, North American imports to Korea, hence your names.
Tiffany: Some of the Cloud 9 players have referred to us as such, and we do have fun with it. I think that's a reason that, while they get along with all of us, it's been even easier in our case. And it's true – we were born in San Francisco – in the same hospital, actually...and both grew up in California. When we came to Korea – Sica did when she was 10, I did when I was 15 – we also attended the same foreign school in Seoul.
Jessica: I do remember that just after Cloud 9 beat SK Telecom, Sneaky said something when I was with them that made me laugh. He said, "NA Jessica KR Jessica." I told him later that he could have also said, "Jessica Sooyeon", which is my Korean name. Oh, quick quiz question – what's Tiffany's Korean name?
Henrik "Froggen" Hansen (Alliance, guest analyst): Miyoung?
Tiffany: Excellent! How did you find out? Because I was watching you and I know you didn't cop out and look at your notes.
Froggen: We scrimmed Cloud 9 ahead of the semifinals and I asked each who their favorite Girls' Generation member was. Carlo said you were his favorite and quizzed me on your Korean name. But still, that's unbelievable – and I need to listen to some of your music, but I can tell the synergy is real. If only Krepo and I were born in the same hospital and went to the same school...then maybe we win OGN Summer two years ago.
Krepo: That's probably you and Wickd since I'm not Danish, but thanks.
Trevor "Quickshot" Henry (EU LCS): On that subject, one of our production team members, who is an avid fan of yours, was telling me during the break that...we know that with and EG, the saying was "Fit with Snoopeh, Fat with Krepo, Fed with Froggen."
Krepo: Yep.
Quickshot: Well, these girls don't so much have a saying...as they have their own drink!
Froggen: No way!
Quickshot: We have some of it here – for those who don't know, there is actually a chocolate drink called JeTi here in Korea and we have a box right here.
Jessica: I actually drank that in high school, so this came out before we made our debut with Girls' Generation.
Tiffany: Fans tell us that it fits us because it's sweet like our voices, and that always makes us happy.
Quickshot: I would call it a well-deserved honor for sure. Now, back to some more serious matters...by now, even those of us who are not familiar with K-Pop have heard the news that you announced, Jessica, following the quarterfinals, that your last performance before stepping down from Girls' Generation will be in one week on the same day as the final. Have you two or anyone in the group considered performing at the final? Before you answer, please also allow us to say thank you for everything that you and the group have given us.
Jessica: Thank you, Quickshot. That's very kind. In answer to that...we have. There are three things we can say...one, nothing is set in stone yet about whether we have that last performance at the final. Two, if we did, we wouldn't be pushing aside Imagine Dragons. Three, it must be said...if we did, nothing against the other teams, but we would love it if we got to perform after a Cloud 9 victory.
For Game 3, which we would play from the red side, we picked Jinx for Sneaky, Thresh for Aurora, Kha'Zix for Meteos and finally two off-the-wall picks: Orianna for me and Kennen for Hai (normally picks for mid and top, not the other way around), while TSM, knowing they were against the ropes, went to two unconventional but comfort picks in Dyrus' and OddOne's favorite champions: Singed and then Maokai in the jungle and also got LeBlanc for Bjergsen.
This time, though, TSM got off to a great start, especially thanks to Dyrus, OddOne and Xpecial. Bjergsen also got fed significantly more and earlier than he did in our other games in that series and back in North America, which was the last thing anyone facing TSM needed. Adding to that, Aurora went for an adventurous solo ward clear but got picked off.
"Sorry about that, I got impatient." Aurora said apologetically.
"Deep breath, everyone. Just gotta focus." I said supportively.
"Yeah, like I said, we have to know they're going to throw the kitchen sink at us when we're 2-0 up." Hai responded.
"Yeah..." Meteos said a bit sheepishly, before he said, "I think we can turn this quickly, though. I think they're going to try Baron...Wait, they are. I just saw them."
"Okay." Hai said. "Sneaky, Carlo and I all have ults ready. If they keep trying to take it, we'll go after them if they group."
"You smelling a steal, Meteos?" Sneaky asked with a grin.
"F**k yeah, I am." Meteos replied with a grin.
"We might get it, but even if they secure it, they're not leaving that fight alive." Hai said determinedly. "Worth either way."
"Heck yeah. Okay, let's put it together!" I said.
Joe: Baron has been dealing a lot of damage, though, and Hai and Carlo are there along with Meteos, all coming from different angles and managing to dodge the TSM wards and not reveal themselves early. We could have another big fight right now.
David "Phreak" Turley (NA LCS): In goes Hai with Slicing Maelstrom and tags four! Shockwave follows!
Joe: Rocket's been fired as well and it's going to land!
Phreak: Whoa! It does land and that's Bjergsen and Turtle gone! Hai, Meteos and Carlo are going after Dyrus and OddOne with TSM low on health and missing their damage! And down they go! Baron was secured by TheOddOne, but Team SoloMid just lost four of its members, so I'm not sure if that was worth!
Joe: I don't think it was. Instead, it's going to be Cloud 9 pushing and getting one turret, maybe two.
Kobe: You have to like the aggressive call there – even after Aurora gets picked off, the remaining four members of Cloud 9 are still ready if TSM tries to burst down the Baron with the man advantage and they line up this wombo combo beautifully. Hai gets in before anyone can react, gets his ultimate down, followed by the Shockwave and the Super Mega Death Rocket, and from there, it was an easy cleanup. Baron is secured and it's still on Xpecial, but those are about the only good things that came out of that fight for TSM.
We did indeed get a pair or turrets off of it and also got ourselves in position to keep eyes on whether TSM went for the Dragon when the next one arrived.
"Looks like someone's pulling on the line...make that five of them." Aurora set. "I should definitely be able to hook either Bjergsen or OddOne and give us the chance to burst him preemptively. I'm feeling it again."
"Nice." Hai said, poised. "Okay, start us off – that Dragon's going down fast."
"Come to mama..." Aurora said quietly but in a tone that still betrayed her focus. Then she saw it connect and yelled, "Got him!"
"Nice! Bjergsen! Kill Bjergsen!" Hai shouted.
Joe: The hook lands onto Bjergsen! Shockwave goes down onto him and TheOddOne again! And this time, Meteos does come up with the steal! Another fight over an objective breaks out, and this time, Cloud 9 leave no one standing!
Phreak: Dragon as well on top of that. Cloud 9 have come back from a 3,000 Gold deficit since before that fight at Baron to lead by almost 2,000 now, and it just looks to get bigger as they'll get more turrets off of this.
Kobe: You can also see that they're trying to settle down and re-establish vision control as well. It's one of those things that you can sometimes forget when trying to come back because your eyes are on that objective or that kill that can narrow or erase that gold deficit, but now that they're back in front, they're trying to do the little things as well to make sure TSM doesn't make another run.
We used the chance that ace gave us to push down mid, which we hadn't been able to do successfully that game yet, all the way to the inhibitor turret.
"Just make sure Sneaky doesn't die and we should have this siege." Hai said.
"Yeah, finally been able to eat this game instead of feeding. FeelsGoodMan." Sneaky said with a grin.
"Got you covered – saving Protect for if they try to take you out, Sneaky." I said reassuringly.
"Okay, Carlo, I'm counting on you." Sneaky responded. "Oh, here we go!"
Joe: Bjergsen goes in on Sneaky, but Carlo's ready with the Command: Protect and Sneaky stays alive. Aurora even lands another hook and they've killed Bjergsen again! I wouldn't even call that a bad decision from him – it was just an even better reaction by Cloud 9!
Phreak: I completely agree, Joe. That means a 5v4 in favor of Cloud 9 and Meteos leaps forward with Aurora's lantern as a quick escape option and chunks WildTurtle to below half! Dyrus wants to look for the toss, but Aurora gets in and Flays him to disrupt that. Nobody else goes down, but TSM's forced to back off and this will likely be their inhibitor going down.
Kobe: A huge pick there, especially with Baron respawning just now. Bjergsen is not coming back for another ten seconds and Cloud 9 is making sure all of their vision is in place so that they can track TSM while they start it up.
As it turned out, TSM elected to concede the Baron since we'd knocked out one of their inhibitors and their strongest player, so we quickly took it down and launched a 4-1 split push with Meteos mid and pushing and empowering a wave going towards TSM's Nexus turrets while the rest of us besieged the top inhibitor turret.
Phreak: Keep your eyes on Aurora here – she has really stepped up with those hooks. If she gets another one, it very well could be a ticket to the finals that she reels in too for Cloud 9.
Joe: Hook goes out and she's got one, all right, and it's WildTurtle! He gets locked up and finished off, and that's a 4v3 now in favor of C9 as Meteos is keeping Dyrus busy! TSM has got to go in and they do as OddOne activates Vengeful Maelstrom and looks for Sneaky. Bjergsen does so as well, but the Slicing Maelstrom / Shockwave combo lands again! Sneaky's still not down and is still doing so much damage! It's a triple kill for him in the end as Cloud 9 look to go all the way!
"Mom, what's in the box?!" Meteos was screaming ecstatically.
"Hey, I'm not Mrs. Hartman, but I'll tell you what it is, Meteos – a ticket to the Worlds finals!" I yelled.
Phreak: As the Nexus turrets fall, it's on the other side of the Pacific, but it's a familiar story: Cloud 9 rises above TSM and they will represent North America in the World Championship finals against OMG!
It was as we took off our headsets and jumped up that the noise hit us again and the feeling overtook us that we were seriously doing something that nobody in our region had done before. There was now a World Championship grand final in one week – and we would be the first North American team to play in it.
"We made it!" Sneaky yelled, almost gruffly. "It's lit, fam!"
"We're going to the 'ship! We're going to the 'ship!" Aurora was chanting as we huddled up.
"Yo, one more to go, but if we do what we did tonight, we can be World Champions. Let's do it!" Hai exhorted, and we all agreed as we broke the huddle.
We went over to Team SoloMid and they, like SKT, were understandably down on themselves. However, when we came over, they were quicker to graciously get to their feet and shake hands with us.
"Hey, good game. You guys be sure to beat OMG for us, all right?" Dyrus told Hai.
"We got you, fam." Hai replied.
"The score might say otherwise, but that was no stomp." I said to TheOddOne as I shook his hand. "You guys made us work for that."
"Thanks, man." He replied. "Promise is a promise – we'll be there at the final to cheer you on!"
"We'll do our best for you guys too, don't worry." Aurora said, clapping him on the shoulder.
We also did the same thing as we'd done with SKT after the previous round and invited them to take a bow onstage with us. They then went off to allow us our moment of glory, and as the crowd chanted as one, I could feel more energy than what they'd given to OMG the previous night. I looked at the others and saw that they sensed it too – another collective message saying, Do it for us!
Following our interviews and packing our gear, the Soshis offered to take us in a pair of vans to Seoul World Cup Stadium so we could see right away where we would be playing in a week's time, and we immediately accepted. We thus made the trip over there and had the honor of looking up at it, lit up as night had fallen, and marveling at it while also savoring the fact that in one week, we would play there for all the marbles.
There was no shortage of hugging and cheering as Seohyun, Sooyoung, Yuri and Hyoyeon, who had finished their schedules, greeted the other twelve of us as we arrived. Soon, though, everyone fell quiet as the Soshis realized that we were taking in the stadium in full because we were awestruck by it. Built for the 2002 World Cup, it was and remains the largest purpose-built soccer (football) stadium in Asia and had also hosted concerts including the SM Live World Tour opening stop earlier that August, which Girls' Generation had been a part of, and is by far the biggest venue in terms of seating capacity and size to host a League of Legends match.
Hai was the first to speak again, and he just managed to say two words, although they resonated with everyone. "One more."
"One more." Taeyeon agreed, taking his hand as they smiled at each other.
"One more." Jessica echoed, though, like Taeyeon, it was for both the same and different reasons and her smile had some wistfulness to it.
"Hey, Sica...don't worry. You deserve to be there. I want you there." Taeyeon said, holding out her hand encouragingly.
"Thanks a lot, Taengoo." Jessica replied gratefully, and she hugged her quickly but tightly before she accepted her hand.
Aurora smiled at that and finished doing a brief bit with her phone. In a moment, we could see what, as her headset, which was around her neck, began playing some some classic Wonder Girls that made us smile and captured the moment.
I want nobody, nobody but you
I want nobody, nobody but you
Nan dareun sarameun sirheo
Niga animyeon sirheo
I want nobody, nobody, nobody, nobody
English
I want nobody, nobody but you
I want nobody, nobody but you
I don't want anyone else
I can't have anyone but you
I want nobody, nobody, nobody, nobody
"Come on, let's get the team in so you can see just what it's like in there." Taeyeon said, turning to Hai with an even brighter smile, waving us onward and approaching one of the security personnel, who smiled and opened the closest door.
Semifinal Results – Venue: Olympic Gymnastics Arena, Seoul
Semifinal 1 (October 11th) – Oh My God (China) 3-2 Samsung Galaxy White (Korea)
Semifinal 2 (October 12th) – Cloud 9 (North America) 3-0 Team SoloMid (North America)
The Final – Venue: Seoul World Cup Stadium
Final (October 19th) – Oh My God (China) vs. Cloud 9 (North America)