Samsung Galaxy is one of the unexpected surprises of this year's world championships. Every fan of the LCK were ready for KT rolster to simply outclass their opponents at the final stage of the gauntlet, but with the change in patch, Samsung found a way, and fought tooth and nail to finally make their return to an international competition ever since the already infamous Korean exodus, which saw Samsung lose literally every player in the aftermath of Worlds 2014. It took 2 years, a lot of sweat and several roster moves, but finally, Samsung has arrived and are looking to stay.

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Top - Lee "CuVee" Seong-Jin

It's always been hard to put CuVee’s evolution into words. His 2015 was amongst the worst collective years for just about any top laner, suffering continuous lane losses against practically every team in spring 2015 and not getting much better in the summer. Still, Samsung stuck with CuVee in the top lane heading into 2016, and I’m almost thankful they did.

While it's true -- you shouldn't have CuVee in conversation for “best top laners of region” -- you can definitely see the improvement he's had as a player. From being absolutely non existent on tanks to being a powerful threat on mages and fighters. CuVee set his foot down early on in spring, letting everyone know that he would be walked over no more. The rise in popularity of “tank Ekko” breathed new life into Samsung's top laner, allowing him to be competitive in many match ups against what at the time were better top laners.

It's almost a shame that instead of having KT Rolster’s top laner ssumday, we have Samsung's CuVee heading into the world championships. Individually Ssumday has been better over the course of the entire year, however, CuVee has shown up when it's mattered the most for his team. He has shown just how efficiently he can weave in and out of fights with Ekko and how decisive he can be when given hard initiation from the likes of Kennen and Lissandra. As long as the world's top lane meta doesn't shift to more tanky, soaking up damage bruisers, CuVee can be the best version of himself.

Jungle - Kang "Ambition" Chan-yong

For the first time in his storied career, Ambition has finally made it to the Worlds stage, and he does it after having swapped roles into a jungler, leaving behind the mid lane which he was famed for. Ambition had always been hovering around the “above average” range of junglers.

When allowed to play his game on CJ, he could go off and create enourmous pressure on the enemy jungle, but more often than not, it would come at the cost of early deaths. The transition to Samsung did little to change Ambition’s playstyle. However, what it did do is introduce Wraith, who seemed to be capable to follow in with Ambition’s invades, allowing Samsung’s duo to keep track of the enemy team’s jungler at all times.

With so much information available to him at all times, Ambition has proven he can create leads for both his mid laner and top laner, giving them the tools necessary to carry. His synergy with Crown comes in handy, as they often fade into the fog of war at the same time, forcing both side laners and junglers to play with caution. It's a joy to finally see Ambition go to Worlds, even though it's not with the legendary team that he was a part of for so long.

Mid - Lee "Crown" Min-ho

After a rather lackluster run in Brazil under the name “Shadow”, Crown made a surprise return to Korea searching for a chance to start his career on home soil. He came at seemingly the right time. Samsung had been having a lot of issues finding a mid laner that suited the roster. Both Bliss and Ace were really lackluster and set Samsung behind at the start of spring.

Shortly after Crown’s debut, Samsung started winning more high profile games and were close to making the playoffs of Spring. Samsung’s teamwork had improved immensely with the addition of Crown. Having a versatile mid laner who can exert pressure in mid allows Ambition to take chances when walking into enemy territory, knowing full well that his midlaner will be quicker to aid their jungler.

Make no mistake about it -- Crown is definitely among the better mid from KR, but he's by no means the best overall. He's a great carry threat and has no problem holding his own against the best laners -- hell, if the match-up is just right, he can control the tempo of the lane himself. It'll be exciting to see Crown go up against international mids, especially since he's already proven he can do wonders domestically.

AD Carry - Park "Ruler" Jae-hyuk

Few times do rookie splits for players ever go as well as this summer has gone for Samsung’s 17 year old AD Carry. Before summer started, Samsung’s previous AD Carry, “CoreJJ” announced his role swap into the support position and Samsung announced that former Challenger AD Carry, Ruler, would join the starting line up. It can be a bit intimidating being thrown right into the highest tier, but thankfully for him, Ruler has by his side one of the best supports in KR in Wraith.

Ruler’s strength comes in how well he reacts to everything that surrounds him. When Wraith is needed elsewhere, Ruler keeps himself in check and doesn't give the enemy bot lane a chance to take advantage of his solitude. If a fight breaks out and Samsung’s bot lane has a chance to join it,Ruler follows Wraith’s lead without hesitation. While this doesn't seem like a worthwhile trait from a marksman, you have to understand that this is the very first split of Ruler on a big stage. This is one of the hardest assets to find from new players -- the lack of hesitation.

Support - Kwon "Wraith" Ji-min  /  Jo "CoreJJ" Yong-in

CoreJJ

Wraith

We must address the elephant in the room. Those who have only watched the gauntlet might be under the impression that CoreJJ is an insane support player. While it is true he played exceptionally well that series, he's only played well that series. For the vast majority of the summer split, Wraith was the starting support of Samsung. With Wraith roaming around the map, Ambition was capable of playing his in-your-face style from the jungle without challenge, allowing Samsung to keep tabs of the enemy jungler and even in some occasions, fighting them for their camps/buffs. Whenever CoreJJ was drafted in instead of Wraith, Samsung seemed disorientated and confused, often taking disadvantageous fights instead of backing down and reassessing the situation.

While we have to mention that up until the gauntlet, Samsung looked better with Wraith, we simply can't deny how good Samsung, and especially CoreJJ, looked without Wraith starting. Something just seemed to click with the former Dignitas AD carry, pulling off impressive plays with bard that helped propell Samsung to their eventual victory over KT Rolster. Sure his laning isn't as crisp as Wraith's, but he is more vocal in the booth and continously feeds information to Ambition and Crown. If this version of CoreJJ is the one we see at Worlds, we’ll have a very fun dynamic coming from Samsung’s botlane.

Final Thoughts

Samsung has had a very interesting year. Their teamfight power has gotten much better with time and their early aggression has paid off more often than not. Ambition has shown he can be very efficient with the information he has early on and has punished enemy junglers mistakes(many times while making some of his own) repeatedly throughout the summer split. With the jungle pool still being a relative mystery, we'll have to see if Samsung can continue to be a very in-your-face squad, or if they'll have to tone down their early game just a little bit.

___ SEE ALSO: Team Profile -- ROX Tigers

Screenshots courtesy of the lolesports youtube channel.

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