Hong Kong Esports’ foray into LMS Spring was one of the more exciting entries due to their line up featuring former world champions, Stanley and Toyz. The TPA lite roster proved itself to be a top four team in Spring and even elevated to top two status toward the end of the year. Unfortunately their inability to understand the cinderhulk meta and the lack of a true carry left them exiting the playoffs early that split, against a rising ahq e-Sports Club. However, after a rocky start in Summer, HKE adapted and found themselves much improved, with a better lock on strategy, affecting the landscape of the LMS.

First Half

Hong Kong Esports, coming into Summer, immediately sported a bit of a new look, importing Korean AD Raison to relieve GodJJ of his previous position. Raison, being Olleh’s friend in Korea, was brought in to strengthen bot lane synergy and make for a stronger 2v2. The team did not adjust so quickly to Raison and there were a multitude of language-related growing pains similar to when they attempted to bring in Korean jungler, Smurph.

Raison performed very well on an individual level for HKE, but was not a present voice in HKE’s comms, compared to the likes of GodJJ. This had HKE struggling with team shotcalling and had them suffer when it came to pacing themselves in the early and mid game. Raison’s introduction also made Olleh less of a roam focused support, which heavily impacted HKE’s ability to function in the early game.

Raison’s inclusion was only the beginning of HKE’s problems; HKE had no coach and were strategically behind the stronger LMS teams. HKE was misusing their solo laners, often having Stanley and Toyz on champions that did not particularly fit their style. Stanley, a split-pushing type top laner was forced onto a lot of Maokai play, and frankly did not perform on the champion. Toyz was also forced into a Cho’gath pick for much of the first half and while he performed well, it was out of his element and the impact was marginal.

Their entire concept of the early game was fodder, as they lost control in multiple games and were consistently at a deficit. Much of this can be attributed to Dinter’s troubles with the jungle meta at the time, seemingly struggling on every champion he picked and making continuous errors when invading the enemy jungle. However, they were able to keep themselves afloat with the use of scaling compositions and above average teamfighting.

Midseason Spike

Eventually HKE did something they should have done before the beginning of the split, they found a coach. While it is merely speculative that he helped the team improve, it seems less than coincidental that the team began to develop strategy after the coach arrived. Additionally, increased playtime with Raison clearly improved their communication in the early and mid game.

The improvements of Dinter’s early game pathing and Raison adjusting to Olleh’s roam game made for far stronger early and mid games than they had shown in the past. Rather than lose early towers and face immaculate deficits, they found themselves winning the early game and lighting up the enemy jungle. The vision control brought by the jungle/support duo was instrumental in their ability to run the map and control neutral objectives.

HKE began to make necessary adjustments in the pick/ban phase, in order to use their solo lanes in the most effective way possible, to feed a steady team dynamic. Stanley began playing more carry-like, split pushing top laners, namely Fizz. Stanley is well known for not being the strongest in 5v5 situations and made his name for himself with the split push style. The return to this style paid dividends, as he appeared more in his comfort zone and brought an important aspect to HKE’s macro game, with his understanding of wave manipulation.

In addition, HKE had Toyz return to more long range, control-oriented champions; this included the likes of Azir, Viktor, Varus, and Jayce. Toyz performed exceedingly well on these champions throughout the second half and later in playoffs and regionals, consistently outfarming and outdamaging his opponents. The waveclear, poke, and zoning that these champions provided was equally as important as Stanley’s splitpush champions. They allowed HKE to hold off sieges, zone opponents away from neutral objectives, or even conduct their own 4-1 split in a safe manner.

On top of this, their team dynamic was incredibly sound when it came to teamfighting. HKE’s addition of Raison was specifically a boon here. GodJJ in Spring, while competent, was not entirely proficient in the secondary carry role, as he seemingly struggled with less gold. Raison, however, had an easy time being a potent secondary carry, on any champion, with any amount of farm or jungle support. HKE probably had the most logical teamfighting formula with Toyz and Raison as main carries and Stanley playing carry-zoner, but it wasn’t without risk as Stanley was heavily reliant on Fizz to be great in teamfights.

As the players began to finally find their roles within the team, they were able to develop a solid understanding of macro play that was centered around strong wave management and objective control. HKE began to resemble something of a Neo-TPA, as the Season 2 Taipei Assassins famously operated on a split pushing Stanley and control-mage oriented Toyz, with wave management and stifling 4-1 splits being their memo, as well as great teamfighting.  While such macro play is not uncommon now, HKE advanced from TPA lite, with merely some players in name, to Neo-TPA with further defined strengths and stronger players.

HKE was the only team that challenged ahq and FW toward the end of the split, taking games off of both of them. Their style exposed both teams for their relatively poor wave management and abused limited champion pools on some of their players. HKE had trouble with ahq due to their hyper aggressive early game, but matched their teamfighting ability and vision control well. HKE had a considerably stronger showing against the FW, convincingly being a stronger team in both games, but suffered from a poor scaling composition.

Unfortunate Ending

HKE was beginning to look like the second best team in the LMS, as they hotly contested the Flash Wolves in two games, notably staying competitive in a game where they were up to 12k behind. Unfortunately, the following week would bring grim news; Raison would be banned for his elo-boosting actions in Korea. The ban was announced to be one year at the time (it has now been shortened to end at the beginning of 2016 Summer) and left HKE without their secondary carry for the upcoming playoffs and regionals.

HKE was lucky enough to blind side their opponents with a fairly different style, utilizing their Korean import, May, as a carry top laner and creating fights around his Teleport plays. His potency on Maokai and Rumble and Toyz’s and Olleh’s stellar performances carried them to the finals against ahq, where they had a close series through excellent teamfighting. However, they lacked in the macro game during the series, as they did earlier in the playoffs.

Regionals were not the same. Teams adjusted the pick/ban with Rumble and Maokai bans to neutralize May and instantly made HKE look like a considerably weaker team. Toyz played some of the best League of Legends of his career to keep them competitive, despite the lack of macro they presented, but it only carried so much weight. It was enough to reverse-sweep TPA, but later, the Flash Wolves found them out and denied Hong Kong Esports a chance at the 2015 League of Legends World Championship.

It is unfortunate that HKE could not find the same synergy they possessed toward the end of Summer with their new lineup. Despite Toyz and Olleh’s top tier performances, HKE was a lesser team without their midseason formula and specific role players. Raison and Stanley brought a very specific style to HKE that allowed them to succeed and May and Godkwai could not deliver the same. Both were inherently different from the players they replaced and in Godkwai’s case, was considerably worse.

While HKE may have faltered in the end of Summer, with help from Garena, it forced the Flash Wolves to reassess their identity. HKE defeating the FW had them return to NL as their primary AD carry and had them reassess their concept of the pick/ban. Prior to the rise of HKE, they generally got away with simply picking scaling compositions that focused on Maple hard-carrying. A move to NL and refocusing on prioritizing picks for Karsa was necessary for their overall development leading up to Worlds. It is very likely that they would not have performed as well without the pressure they received from Hong Kong Esports.

As spectators, we were denied a growing team that possessed an exciting dynamic of young guns and rejuvenated legacy players. HKE, before the Raison ban, was better than the Flash Wolves and very well could have surpassed ahq. HKE could have gone to Worlds and may have even had the moxy to take on Origen, where the Flash Wolves fell flat. However, external factors took over and left many “what if”s. One thing is for sure: it was a tragic end to HKE’s 2015.