Remembering the Past: NaJin White Shield's 2014 Gauntlet Run  

Season 5 saw the LCS format change in a big way. One of the biggest changes was the introduction of the gauntlet style playoffs to a Western audience to much excitement and enjoyment. 3 best of 5s over 3 days, running the entire gauntlet is one of the most impressive feats a team can have. It requires a team to completely turn around their performance (generally teams that've performed worse recently will be lower seeded) and play multiple lengthy and high stress matches over 3 days. Just one best of 5 can leave your team completely exposed, three in three days is sure to get you arrested and charged for indecent exposure.  

After finishing 7th in the regular season and sitting out the playoffs completely, NA LCS mainstay and fan favourite Cloud 9 ran the entire gauntlet. Defeating Team Gravity and Team Impulse in two back to back reverse sweeps, Cloud 9 then ran over Team Liquid in fairly decisive best of five. After a combined score line of 9 wins and 5 losses, Cloud 9 fans celebrated as their team had undoubtedly earned their spot at Worlds and put their awful NA LCS Summer performance behind them. Incarnati0n's personal growth and legendary NA LCS team captain's return made the storyline and history was made.  

I'd like to take anyone who enjoyed this gauntlet performance from Cloud 9 on a journey through time and remember NaJin White Shield's 2014 gauntlet performance of 2014, the biggest upset in the history of League of Legends.  

Who Were NaJin White Shield?  

NaJin White Shield have their origins in Extreme Dive Gaming, the oldest team in the history of Korean League of Legends. Sponsored by the NaJin industries on February 14th 2012, Extreme Dive Gaming became NaJin e-mFire. After back to back poor finishes at WCG 2011 and Azubu the Champions Spring 2012, star toplaner MakNooN was removed from NaJin e-mFire. The NaJin coaches gave MakNooN a second chance and let him recruit the players he wanted directly from solo queue for a new team, a team built around him. MakNooN's band of solo queue stars became NaJin Sword and NaJin e-mFire renamed themselves to NaJin Shield.  

Many players picked up the Shield including but not limited to:  

- Hiro (former coach of World Elite and now coach of Qiao Gu)

- Bang (now the ADC for SK Telecom T1, two time OGN Champion)

- HooN (founding Jin Air Greenwings player, now coach for World Elite)

- Expession (now toplaner for Longzhu IM, Worlds Semi Finalist)

- Wolf (now the support for SK Telecom T1, two time OGN Champion)

- Locodoco (now coach of TSM)  

Despite Save joining on March 25th 2013, the first beginning of change for NaJin Shield was on June 21st. With Expession transferred to NaJin Sword, Save was transitioned from midlane to toplane, coaches recruited Ggoong, Zefa, Gorilla and Chop and the team renamed to NaJin White Shield. Shield were completely reborn, gone were the dinosaurs of 2012 and instead were the small mammals who'd evolve through the Volcanic explosion.  

Originally the judgement on NaJin Black Sword and NaJin White Shield was as follows: Sword had the talent but no strategy and Shield had the strategy but no talent. NoFe was the best player on the team and the only reason they ever won games, Save was new to the role (many fans questioned why this semi promising midlaner was ever role swapped), Ggoong was hopeless, Zefa did no damage and Gorilla just face checked bushes.  

In their first ever OGN Champions (Summer 2013) as a five man roster they found themselves in a group with SK Telecom T1 #2 (which became SK Telecom T1 K), MVP Blue (which became Samsung Blue) and Incredible Miracle #2. Only getting out of groups due to Blue and IM#2 splitting 1 – 1, they met longtime rival CJ Entus Frost in the quarter finals.  

For the record, CJ Entus Frost were not a good team at this point in time; their glory days were far gone. You know what Frost did in their next bo5? They got dumpstered by the KT Bullets with Ryu going 10 – 1 – 8 as Zed in the first game. And how did Frost do in their semi final vs. MVP Ozone? They lost that as well and were officially the weakest team to progress from the ro8 in OGN Champions Summer 2013. NaJin White Shield lost this series because they were terrible.  

Dropping down into NLB Summer 2013, Shield actually gave fans some hope for Season 4. Beating out the Jin Air Stealths 2 – 1, they took their sister team NaJin Black Sword to a full 5 games before crushing the Jin Air Falcons 3 – 0 in the 3rd place playoff. A few champion pools were improved and their team coordination looked like it'd improved mildly. Flying out to the USA with Sword, Shield were forced to play the supportive sister team and spectate as NaJin Black Sword came one game away from being the Season 3 World Champion.  

With the coaches opting to not make any roster changes for Season 4, NaJin White Shield started out OGN Champions Winter 13 – 14 under everyone's radar. Predicted for their usual 2nd place group stage and quarter finals 0 – 3, even the NaJin fans were more excited by a seemingly revived Sword with Nagne in the midlane. Shield certainly placed second in their group but this time they split 1 - 1 with Samsung Ozone and forced a tiebreaker for first place. Due to Ggoong's illness, Shield were forced to use Seraph and rotate Save back into the midlane, falling 0 – 1 in a fairly one sided manner. Matched against a Xenics lineup that contained 4 players set to change the world, NaJin White Shield headed into the quarter finals.  

For the first time in their history, NaJin White Shield had made the semi finals of OGN Champions and legitimately looked like a top Korean team. Of course there were fans who doubted with cries of 'weak side of the bracket' and 'unconvincing victories' but that didn't matter for this rising team. Shield then fell to Samsung Ozone 3 – 1 in the semis and then fell to the KT Rolster Bullets in the 3rd place playoff 3 – 1, but they'd managed to take games off of top Korean teams. Yes, they were undoubtedly the weakest team in the semi finals, but just 4 months ago they were getting their heads caved in by CJ Entus Frost (who now fell in the quarter finals) -- so their was definite progression.  

What most piqued the interest of fans and experts was the growth of the individual levels of some players. In a meta dominated by Renekton, Shyvana, Dr Mundo and Rengar, Save played Jax, Rumble, Kha'Zix and Tryndamere to great success (of course he played the meta picks as well). Ggoong looked like a legitimate carry on his Gragas, and Zefa evolved past his 'siege only' tendencies to a strong teamfighting AD Carry. None of these players were being called elite at their position yet, but they were showing they had what it took to go toe-to-toe with some of the best.  

Heading into OGN Masters and OGN Champions Spring, NoFe announced his 'retirement' and decision to leave NaJin e-mFire. NaJin's coaches then decided to move Watch from Sword to Shield in a historic and momentous decision. Since Sword's inception, NaJin coaches had always treated Sword as the premier NaJin team. Their decision to transfer Expession, the then primary carry of Shield, is evidence to support this belief. Rightly so as well -- Sword had been to Worlds twice and won OGN Champions Winter 12 – 13. However, back to back group stage failures were taking their toll on Sword, especially with Shield reaching the semi finals.  

While many fans commented that the appointment of Watch to Shield was a downgrade for the team, NaJin coaches demonstrated the immense amount of trust and value they had in Watch with this move. Giving Shield a stronger early game was important (something Watch managed with ease), but the addition of Watch also allowed Shield to find their own style (essential in any team's progression). Surprisingly, the shotcalling of Shield improved and they became a late game splitpushing and siege focused team. Either Save would go mental and hard carry the game or he'd stall it out for long enough for Shield to out rotate the enemy team and "winion" their way to victory. Ggoong became a terror on LeBlanc and Nidalee and Gorilla massively improved into an S tier support player.  

NaJin White Shield continued to evolve over the course of OGN Spring 2014. Topping their group over CJ Entus Blaze after winning the tiebreaker, Shield found themselves matched vs. the KT Rolster Bullets in the round of 8. Last time these two teams had met it was the Bullets who'd come out on top 3 – 1 and Shield had to settle for a 4th place finish. To add insult to injury, the Bullets were the ones who denied Sword the ability to progress from the group stages. The series started off poorly for Shield and they went down 2 games. Striking back in game 3, Shield found themselves dead to rights in game 4:  

Mounting one of the most tactically impressive comebacks in the history of Champions, Shield dug deep and out-teamfought the Bullets. Blind pick for game 5 approached and Ggoong destroyed everything on his LeBlanc as he'd become known for doing. Shield again found themselves in the round of 4 of Champions, but not only had they defeated a top Korean team to get there, but they were also the only returning semi-finalists from last year alongside Samsung Ozone.  

Shield found themselves matched against their greatest rivals, CJ Entus Blaze, in the round of 4. The wisdom going into the game was that because both teams played around their toplaner, both toplaners preferred Shyvana and Shyvana was the strongest toplaner on the patch; Shyvana would be the power pick of the series. This wisdom turned out to be 100% bang on the money as Shyvana found herself with both a 100% pick rate and a 100% win rate. With the series going again to blind pick, Shield found themselves reliant on Ggoong's ability to dunk on Ambition in a LeBlanc mirror match to claim their victory.

This was it, Shield were in the finals. Watch became the first player to make two OGN Finals on two different teams. To date, only Dade, Faker, Gorilla, and KaKAO have managed this feat and fans felt that this NaJin Shield lineup was capable of winning the entire thing. Their stellar blind pick performances had given fans a sense of security and the innovative and tactically impressive way they played the game was exciting to watch.  

The problem? Samsung Blue were their opponents in the finals. When I said Watch was the first player to play in two finals with two different teams I was right, it's just that Dade achieved the same feat simultaneously. The most domestically successful player in the history of champions, Dade had crushed his former team mates on Samsung Ozone in the round of 4 (often considered the most individually talented team ever) and left the whole world feeling silly for ever doubting him. Deft had become the greatest ADC in the World and Spirit had finally come into his own as a top 3 jungler in the world. Blue were far and away the greatest team fighting team in the world and Dade and Deft made up the greatest 'one two punch' conceivable.  

What win conditions did this leave Shield with? Save had to carry. Outmatched everywhere else on the map, the one hope that Shield had was that Ggoong could keep Dade down with his superior laning and Save would take over the whole game from top lane. When you add in the fact that it took Shield the maximum possible number of games to reach the finals and the fact that certain small champion pools had gone unpunished, it's no surprise that Samsung Blue were the favourites for this series.

Samsung Blue had won the first game. While Shield had the gold lead at certain parts of the game, they weren't able to handle Blue's teamfighting in the later parts of the game. Save's Ryze never had the desired impact and Dade's Kassadin was out of control. Using Nocturne ultimate to engage, Blue's team composition was extremely fast at engaging Shield from all angles, perfect for dealing with Zefa's Twitch. Shield came back in game two with a pick comp built around Ggoong's LeBlanc and Save's Lee Sin. Securing the Lucian away from Deft was crucial as well, considering the monsterous damage output Deft had with that champion.

Game 3 was where it properly began to fall apart for Shield. Ggoong's Nidalee proved ineffective against Dade's Twisted Fate and Deft's Kog'Maw ripped through Shield because of their inability to lock it down. Forcing Gorilla onto Leona, Heart secured the Nami to render it useless. As for Save? He spent half the game chasing Acorn's Lulu, determined to get the 1v1 and the other half of the game being kited in team fights. A crucial engage saw Acorn teleport into the bottom lane while Save simply afk'd in base (with teleport up) and from there, the game snowballed in Blue's favour.

Game 4 was the deciding match. Blue decided to reveal their secret cards and left Ggoong's LeBlanc open. Countering it with the Ryze midlane, they simultaneously forced Save off his obvious preferred pick and shut down Ggoong's LeBlanc (LeBlanc goes in, Ryze Rune Prisons her and smashes her face in, too tanky to burst). Shield retaliated by taking away Acorn's Lulu, but Blue simply responded with a last pick Irelia. Winning teamfight after teamfight, Blue closed out the game and became the winner of OGN Champions Spring 2014.

OGN Champions Summer 2014 was upon us and many still saw Shield as a top team in Korea. Semi finals were the lowest anyone predicted them making it and most had them pegged as a top 3 team in Korea after Ozone and Blue. There were, of course, disputes as to how good SK Telecom T1 K actually were and whether they could be objectively placed above Shield. Many also had the KT Rolster Arrows picked as an up and coming team that could break the top 3, but Korea was in a state of disarray with no clear hierarchy.  

Shield got the nightmare group for any team in Summer, placed with their sister team. NaJin Black Sword had just gone through a total overhaul which saw Cain as the only surviving player. Leopard (Duke) was recruited from KT, KurO from IM, Ohq from Xenics, and Hojin straight from solo queue. Even still, KT Rolster had just gone through a bizarre roster change with Ryu role swapping to the jungle and Insec departing to China, and the Jin Air Falcons had a new roster with the only experienced player being GBM. Shield were the obvious favourites to take first in the group as every other team had a new and untested roster.  

Sword's makeover impressed everyone in their debut game as they defeated the KT Bullets 2 – 0 in a fairly convincing manner. Something went wrong in Shield's games vs. the Falcons and they found themselves dropping a game to Rock's toplane Gragas. In the post game interview, Rock said he was 'disappointed that his team didn't take the 2 – 0'. Playing their sister team next, Shield again found themselves unable to take a clean 2 – 0 and dropped a game. Fears increased for the fans, as Shield was fast way going the way of the old look NaJin Black Sword. It doesn't clarify good you are in a best of 5 if you aren't capable of getting clean 2 – 0's over obviously inferior teams.

The real disaster came later: Shield gave the Bullets their first group stage victory and dropped a game to Nagne and Insec's Yasuo & Lee Sin combo. They then found themselves in a position that no top team should ever be in: entirely dependent on the overperformance of others. If Falcons and Bullets didn't split 1 – 1 and Sword didn't 2 – 0 the Falcons, then Shield wouldn't get out of groups. This would mark the first time that an OGN Finalist didn't make it out of groups and they needed 4 games to go their way in order to make this a reality. Luckily for Shield, this is exactly what happened. Sword beat the Bullets 2 – 0 and a cute cartoon of a Sword pulling a Shield was passed around to show how this group had played out.  

Matched against the KT Arrows in the round of 8, many people wrote off Shield for their lacklustre groups performance (the 'OGN Kackakle' meme certainly didn't help). The best prediction I saw for Shield was that they'd take a single game. What's interesting about this series is that people actually downplay how close it was, even after the series had happened. The series, in fact, ended 3 – 2 with the Arrows winning in blind pick (Shield looked a bit lost in blind pick), but talk to some people about the Arrows in Summer and they try to play off the fact that this was a one sided stomp that saw Shield get wrecked. It's true that the Arrows were the better team individually, did have a superior early game, and did have a better grasp on the meta; however, at the same time, Shield had equally superior vision control and shotcalling.  

NLB was fairly disastrous for Shield. Defeating IM#2 2 – 0, they then fell to Sword 0 – 3 in an incredibly one sided bo5. Looking completely dejected, it looked like Shield were done and couldn't be bothered to play anymore. They managed to win their 3rd place playoff vs. Jin Air Stealths but it didn't matter for many fans, the dream of NaJin White Shield at Worlds was done.

Who Was Their Opposition? SK Telecom T1 K, KT Rolster Bullets and KT Rolster Arrows  

If there was one team in this series that really didn't matter, it was KT Rolster Bullets. They'd fallen straight off a cliff when they role swapped Ryu into the jungle. They were now using Limit, Prime, Nagne, Score, and Destiny. Prime's only achievement was failing to make the NA LCS with Quantic and Locodoco, and Destiny was a complete rookie. This team had lost all their good players (Insec, KaKAO, Ryu, Leopard) and their tactical masters (Ryu, Mafa). I think it's safe to say that this series didn't matter  much in the eyes of the community because of the other two teams in the bracket.  

The KT Rolster Arrows were the second team in the bracket and less than 2 weeks before they'd won OGN Summer 2015. They'd beaten Shield 3 – 2, beaten SK Telecom T1 S 3 – 2 and then defeated Samsung Blue 3 – 2. Many fans were talking as if Arrows had already made it to Worlds and they were the SK Telecom T1 K of this year. The talent on this lineup was formidable; KaKAO was being called the best jungler in the world and Rookie was given the nickname Faker Jr. They'd denied Dade his record breaking 3 OGN titles and KaKAO had become the third player to reach two OGN finals with two different teams.

SK Telecom T1 K might've had two disappointing OGN splits but they were still a two time OGN Champion, World Champion, and the only team to ever win OGN without dropping a single game (15 – 0). Correctly considered the greatest ever LoL lineup, SK Telecom T1 K were just coming off an NLB Summer win where they triumphed over NaJin Black Sword 3 – 0. Yes, they had just got rolled over and thrown in a river by Samsung Ozone, but that was down to terrible drafts and a weird mental block more than anything. Plus, you can never discredit or discount Faker's ability to completely take over a game. Faker isn't just the greatest player ever, he's some kind of divine prank played on this game. I maintain that Faker shouldn't actually exist and that he's a one in a billion anomaly that defies all reason.

Between the KT Arrows and SK Telecom T1 K they'd:  

- Won 3 OGN titles; Summer 2013, Winter 2014 and Summer 2014

- Won the World Championships

- Won Allstars 2014  

They also had a combined record of 11 – 3 over NaJin White Shield.  

The Task  

Remember, because this is the gauntlet, Shield didn't have to just beat these teams, Shield had to beat both these teams in two days. Even if Shield somehow pulled it out against the Arrows, they'd be laid so bare that even extra virgin olive oil would sting. These weren't just strong teams, these were probably the 3rd and 4th strongest teams in the world. Shield were in their worst form ever and, from an outsider's perspective, had completely shut down and stopped working as a team. To top it off, Shield had just played a full 5 game series against Jin Air Stealths in NLB, there wasn't an element of surprise to be seen.  

There was no time to fix all these issues, sort out the champion pools that'd plagued them and get their team synergy back. And even if Shield could get back into their OGN Spring 13 form, that still wouldn't be enough because the issues they had back then would be their demise. 

PART TWO COMING SOON

The author primarily writes about Korean League of Legends. You can follow him for more content at @Gosickboy_. Images courtesy of Riot Games, Esportspedia, Ongamenet.