Two years ago, it was difficult to imagine that Kim ‘PraY’ Jong-in would ever sit atop the Korean Challenger ladder again, let alone take another team to the LCK title like he did with Najin Black Sword. That team and their achievements had been consigned to history by the time PraY had decided to take a break back in May 2014.

That break of nearly eight months certainly proved to be what PraY needed to jump back into the scene, when NoFe, his org mate from Najin Shield, approached him to join his newly-formed band of misfits and outcasts. The squad, consisting of rejected players such as Incredible Miracles alumni Smeb, Kur0 and Najin sub Hojin, back then known simply as ‘Lee’, did not look like anything resembling the force of nature they would eventually become over the next two years. Back then, they were known simply as HUYA Tigers; backed by Chinese stream money merely in name, and living in an apartment which should not have accommodated six people.

The situation was not overly unfamiliar to PraY. Defying expectations and going above and beyond them has always been part of his repertoire; just as no one thought the Tigers would ever hoist an LCK title and be one game away from reaching a Worlds final, no one gave Najin Sword much of a chance when it was formed either.

The Mighty Sword

Sword began life as Maknoon’s team. Maknoon had disagreements with the rest of his teammates (the soon-to-be White Shield), and had negotiated to form his own team under the Najin brand as a result. It took a while for Maknoon to find a group of players that would adhere to his playstyle, but the acquisition of PraY, known back then as Troll Kim and sometimes Dodoria by fans, would prove to be what unlocked Sword’s potential.

Their start was slow and to be quite honest, the likes of Watch, SSONG, and Cain were not at the level of the other OGN squads. But with the leadership of Maknoon, as well as PraY’s prodigious skill, they found success, reaching Worlds in 2012 through the Regional Gauntlet, defeating favoured Azubu Blaze in the process, then doing the same to their sister team Azubu Frost mere months later to lift the OGN Winter 2012/2013 trophy.

So marked PraY’s first taste of success, and here we sit almost five years later, him being the only player from that final who is still a professional player.

PraY is the quintessential ‘talent’—his skill was seemingly natural, and his ability never really deserted him even during his break. What he was lacking was the drive and motivation to be the best. The life of a pro had caused him to burn out and for a while, it seemed like he would never be a pro again.

The Anti-Establishment Tigers

But PraY’s return to the pro scene was a scintillating success; it was almost as if he had never left. He almost immediately went back to the top of the Korean Challenger ladder, and the Tigers swept the LCK during the regular season on a seemingly unstoppable march towards the title—that is until SK Telecom T1 ground their march to a halt in a one-sided 3-0 final.

The story would repeat in the summer. After a much more turbulent regular season, they embarked on another march— this time, at the start of the play-off gauntlet—and made it as far as the semi-finals before KT Rolster appeared and showed the Tigers that it was them who had the monopoly on rollercoaster seasons.

But that was not to be the end of things in 2015, for the Tigers would set off on yet another implausible journey at Worlds. Just how many times could a title elude them before they would have their hands on one? As it turned out, they would have to wait a while longer. SKT would once again act as the gatekeepers and deny PraY the coveted prize. With three successive losses in important matches, it was easy to brand the Tigers as ‘bottlers’—doing well when there was no pressure on them, but faltering whenever they had something to lose.

Luckily, the story did not end there for PraY, and in 2016 the Tigers would finally win an LCK title and be a single game away from reaching the Worlds final for a second time in a row. Again, this was not an unfamiliar situation. Worlds 2013 had a similar scenario, with the score exactly alike. It seemed that history was doomed to repeat itself in certain ways, for better or for worse.

Dragon Ball

What we can tell from PraY’s history is that LCK titles are not an insurmountable prize; he’s already won it twice, with two teams having similar humble beginnings. When PraY joined Longzhu Gaming along with GorillA, his trusty partner in the bot lane since the KOO days, there was, again, plenty of skepticism. The organization was in disarray and for a time after KOO disbanded, PraY even had trouble finding a team who would sign him and GorillA as a duo—this despite their stellar achievements and work ethic over the past few seasons.

At the start of LCK Summer this year, PraY was again sitting on top of the Korean Challenger ladder, as if he had been there all along. Right below him was Cuzz, and Khan was in the top 10. Solo queue ranking in Korea does make a difference. It is a great indicator of which teams and players are doing well and practicing the hardest; when Ggoong was at his peak in Najin White Shield, he was also occupying a top 10 placement in the solo queue ladder at the time.

It is therefore no coincidence that PraY and the rest of Longzhu find themselves at the top of the play-off gauntlet, awaiting their challenger, be it KT Rolster of SK Telecom T1. These are old rivals, but for PraY, not undefeatable. It does not even matter what teammates he has around him, he can be trusted to carry with his Twitch, or anything else his team requires. Where one time he was the rookie, he is now charged with taking a group of youngsters to their first ever LCK final.

The player affectionately referred to as Dodoria after the Dragon Ball character has done the unthinkable before, so why not again with Longzhu? It is because this is not an unfamiliar situation for him that he can be so confident. In a recent interview with Inven Global, he stated his goal was to “... win the Summer Split and head straight to the World Championship.” No sign of nervousness whatsoever from the man who’s already been to four Worlds events.

SKT might be in the middle of a resurgence after a slump during the split, having just demolished Samsung, and few would bet against them reclaiming their crown. But if there is one team that can stop them (or die trying), it would be a team which PraY is part of. One might even consider him the sharpshooter of a band of guerrilla fighters—moving from army to army, but always railing against the establishment with whichever guerrillas he aligns himself with. 

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