It's been 2 years in the making, but finally, the eternal 2nd team breaks their playoff curse and managed to win their very first LCK championship in the summer split and finally cementing themselves as the best LCK team of 2016. From being a bunch of free agents to becoming one of the most iconic teams the KR region has seen, this team has been through it all… except, winning the big one.

Top - Song "Smeb" Kyung-ho

Keeping his spot at the top of the food chain, we present to you a strong contender for best player of 2016. Smeb has continued his dominance in the top lane throughout the entire year with meta shifts not phasing him a single bit. From full tank Ekko to Rumble to Gangplank, Smeb has once again demonstrated that the top lane holds no secrets to him. It's not often that the ROX Tigers have seen their top laner been kept down in a game. Even when targetted by enemy pressure and ganks, Smeb has always maintained relevance in games by simply understanding his positioning and how far he could move.

It’s very interesting to watch Smeb handle both his laning and his teamfighting. He’s capable of being the hard initiation, the tank/bruiser sponge and be a hard damage carry without having an issue transitioning from one style to the other. Versatile, talented and simply put, Smeb is the best top laner from the LCK.

Jungle - Han "Peanut" Wang-ho

As a young jungler, Peanut came into the Tigers without much play time on his former team, Najin Emfire. However, the little that he did play, impressed fans and showed that if given space, we’d have a new gem in the making.

Not only were the fans correct, but Peanut was picked up by the team best suited for him as a player in the ROX Tigers. Peanut is a very curious case; he is extremely aggressive and skirmish oriented, often forcing fights that may be unfavorable knowing he has the ability to outplay them. The reliability of his laners allows Peanut to basically play as far forward as he likes to, continuously invading and forcing the enemy team to make bad decisions.

If there are any complaints to be made about Peanut, it's that he isn't the best in terms of vision control and tracking. While he has gotten better, he still chooses to go a bit too far for the damage when that extra health and pink ward would do him much more good. During the course of 2016, while the meta focused on laneswap and recall timings, Peanut often struggled with where he needed to be and often guessed wrong on where the enemy jungler would appear first. With the meta shifting into primarily a standard lane setup, Peanut can be as  relentless as he desires, provided the Tigers always back him up.

Mid - Lee "Kuro" Seo-haeng / Hae "Cry" Sung-min

The mid lane for the Tigers is a hard role to play in -- not because you have to perform significantly better than your opponents, but rather, the Tigers’ jungler will spend more time hovering around top, bot or the enemy jungle. The collective playstyle of the Tigers has forced both Kuro and Cry to be, in essence, the second support on the team. The advantage of a player like Kuro or Cry is that neither require extra resources and can funnel said resources into their jungle/top/ADC roles.

The midlane isn't a star role for the Tigers, but it doesn't need to be. You have amazing laners in the side lanes as well as a jungler who likes deal damage and carry games. Both Kuro and Cry were at the bottom in terms of damage chart which is a testiment of their playstyle. They contribute to their team, where damage is almost entirely well distributed. For the amount of slack people have been giving Kuro, he's been capable of holding his own against other top tier mid laners in the LCK such as Crown, Fly and even at times Faker. Cry has also shown that he's capable of playing champions that Kuro may not be as proficient on, further deepening the mid lane champion pool available to the Tigers.

AD Carry - Kim "PraY" Jong-in

It's always difficult for veterans to remain relevant over the years. Meta changes, champion balance and especially new players rising in the ranks, often leave behind some of the big names of the past. PraY isn't just an exception to this rule,but he shatters it. Ever since returning to competitive play, PraY did everything in his power to return to the top of the food chain of the ADC role and has stayed there for the better part of 2 years.

PraY’s aggression in lane hasn't toned down a single bit, looking to punish missteps from his opponents at all times. Adding to his already incredible laning, his teamfight positioning has been the best we've seen from any ADC in the league barring perhaps Bang’s from SKT.

Support - Kang "GorillA" Beom-hyeon

Up until summer 2016, GorillA was renown for being the most consistent support in the league. He would hardly ever get caught out and was capable of playing pretty much every support that came to mind. If he hadn’t played it in the past, it wouldn’t take him long to learn the intricacies of said champion and master them within days.

Despite his status as a godlike support player, GorillA started the 2016 summer split with a bit of a dip in his individual performance. While his teamfighting and laning wasn’t bad, during stages of the mid game he found himself over reaching to ward areas on the map where it would be unsafe to do so. For several weeks, GorillA found himself giving up free kills for no real gain, indicating that his game sense wasn’t the same as previous splits. Still, despite his flaws during the split, GorillA has pulled back and doubled down on his laning prowess along side PraY, making them the most formidable laning duo KR has to offer.

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Final thoughts:

The best part about the ROX Tigers is how they're exactly as good as the sum of their parts or even better. The teamfighting and quick cc chaining is rivaled by no other team in the LCK during 2016. Peanut especially has developed into a menacing jungler who, when ahead, actually contributes a lot of damage on the likes of Elise (being among the first junglers to ever build protobelt to aid his back line assassination).

There is no glaring exploitable weakness on their team that you could think of. Perhaps exploiting Peanut’s over aggression, or finding GorillA out in the open can give you small advantages, but aside from that, teams will have to focus on their own play, rather than on the Tigers.

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Screenshots courtesy of the lolesports youtube channel.

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