When I started watching LCK it was drastically different from the current version. For example:

- It wasn't called LCK, it was called OGN Champions.

- Montecristo and Doa didn't cast it, the first English cast was headlined by a guy called 'TorcH'.

- It wasn't broadcast on twitch.tv, I watched it through some awful player on the OGN website.

- Foreign teams competed in it. Yes, the international powerhouses of Dignitas, CLG, Fnatic and World Elite came and showed they could compete on equal footing to Korean netcafe teams filled with players who'd been playing the game for a few months. CLG.EU had a good run though, so that's a thing the West had going for them.

- KeSPA's presence in Korean LoL was almost non existent. The first KeSPA member to pick up a LoL team was CJ Entus (which featured Dade, Insec and Space) with KT Rolster following in the next season. But back in Champions Spring 2012, Korean teams were sponsored by a local laundromat and paid in bits of string and a roll a of sticky tape (how far we've come).

- Locodoco was considered a serviceable ADC.

Dark times, dark times indeed. Anyway, in my 4 years of LCK viewing I have noticed multiple rules that allow the viewer to make sense of the League. Many of these are now defunct due to the player retiring (either in squalor or a Chinese money bath) or the team disbanding or fading from relevance so just think of it as a fun history lesson.

Try not to take this list too seriously and if you're a writer for some inferior and peasant filled region (looking at you NA LCS writers) then give credit where credit is due.

1. Madlife will never play with a truly great ADC.

Yes, I know Madlife has had the occasional holiday of bliss with Pray -- but that was at Allstars, which is frankly a pointless but highly entertaining affair.

Before the Space prison there was Hermes, an ADC who was afraid to play League of Legends (reportedly suffered from crippling nerve issues). Before Hermes, Madlife was stuck with Woong, a melee ADC who's signature move was Arcane Shifiting into the middle of the enemy team and popping Randuins.

There was a time when Space was considered a highly promising and exiciting player, pretty funny looking back.

2. Lee Sin will always be played.

 Gosickboy, you're a stupid catfish, Lee Sin has always been played in every region

- Some LCS fan who's been watching the game for 2 months.

No, Lee Sin hasn't always been played in every region. In Spring 2013 the junglers of choice around the world were Hecarim, Vi, Xin Zhao, Volibear and Nasus (they were really good, like really good). Diamondprox (who was probably the best jungler in the World at that time) said it was pointless to play Lee Sin unless your mechanics were really good with the champion. Because I know people love stats, Lee Sin was picked or banned in 1.8% of games in EU LCS Spring season, 7.2% of games in NA LCS Spring season and 43.7% of games in OGN Champions Spring.

Even if Lee Sin did 1 damage with his abilities, Koreans would still find a way to make him viable -- really the mascot of Korean LoL.

3. Ambition will always survive.

Ambition is the Wolverine of Korean LoL -- guy could survive a nuclear bomb being dropped on him. Ambition can always be found in the higher echleons of KR solo queue or facechecking a bush in an important moment during a pivotal match. Ambition is a player who's been slowly on the decline since Spring 2013 and is coming off the back of his least inspiring year ever after role swapping to jungle. Miraculously though, even after CJ Entus decided to revamp its roster, Ambition managed to survive and signed to Samsung as their new jungler. Heretics will say that Ambition will be benched soon; believers of the faith know better.

4. Shy will always be the standard for Korean toplaners.

If Shy is better than you then you're bad and should practice more or retire. If Shy is worse than you then you're a competent Korean toplaner who could do well.

- A wise and mysterious scholar.

Some historians will argue that Shy had a good amount of time spent as an elite Korean toplaner, but name a toplaner that Shy has schooled on that is still a strong and promising toplaner. MakNooN? Might as well have retired. Expession? Yeah, that guy should probably not have un-retired. Lil4c? I'll talk about him later. Flame? Yes Flame did need to practice more, that's what triggered his transformation into one of the best toplaners in Korea. Crazy Ragan? Yeah, he retired.

Shy is the reason why Korea has by far and away the best toplaners. The man's ability to separate the men from the boys make him a national hero. Captain South Korea, we salute you.

5. Faker will always be the best player to ever play LCK.

No explanation necessary since Bjergsen will never play in the LCK.

6. KT Arrows will always be the worst team to ever win LCK.

The KT Arrows were fun to follow in OGN Summer 2014, but let's not pretend it was convincing. 3 - 2 against a severely out-of-meta NaJin White Shield (who had a bit of a throw in game 3 and then tilted off the planet), 3 - 2 against SK Telecom T1 S (I'll get to these guys later) and 3 - 2 against Samsung Blue (in arguably the most exciting League of Legends final ever). Basically the KT Arrows would go so aggressive and take such huge risks every game that it was essentially a huge coin toss every time. Either they stomped all over you or they rolled over in a pathetic manner, there was seemingly no middle ground. 

7. Hachani will always be the worst player to ever win LCK.

Classic Hachani

- Doa, Star Wars expert

To pull a Hachani is to facecheck a bush with Thresh (I mean why use the sightstone or lantern?). Sometimes the Arrows were able to collapse properly and turn Hachani's 'engage' into an advantage, but most of the time he just died. Sometimes I lie awake at night and think about how good the KT Arrows would've been if they'd managed to recruit Piccaboo and not Hachani... oh what could've been.

8. SK Telecom T1 S will always be the dullest team to ever compete in LCK.

SKT S were the worst team to cast

- MonteCristo, considered a pioneer in the field of Korean fellatio enthusiasts. 

SKT S's game plan:

1. Pick Ziggs

2. Stall for 70mins

3. Get a lucky pick.

4. Win

Watching SKT S wasn't difficult or painful, it was just horrendously boring. Like more boring that the EU LCS in 2014 (thanks Alliance), SKT S made me feel like going to the shop for milk was an exciting trip out. There were moments I considered switching to the LPL broadcast; honest to God I seriously considered watching the LPL, that's just how boring SKT S were.

9. NaJin e-mFire will always dissapoint. If NaJin e-mFire do not dissapoint, it will be in order to set up a bigger dissapointment later.

Isn't this basically Bomber's law from Starcraft II? Why don't you get some original ideas you stupid catfish?

- Some hater who doesn't understand the concept of parallel inspiration. Allow my good friend Jaden Smith to explain, hater!

When you consider the sheer volume of talent that has passed through NaJin's doors, you have to wonder how the team only ever managed 3 Championships, one final and a bunch of NLB victories.

2012: Rolls over and lets Blaze and Frost take back-to-back OGN Championships and becomes the only example of a Korean team losing to a Western team in a bo5 in the process. Runs the entire Korean gauntlet beating Blaze in the final, goes 3 - 0 in groups and then drops out 0 - 2 to TPA, barely putting up a fight.

2013: Wins OGN 3 - 0 over Frost, loses 1 - 3 to Frost in the Spring season, fails to even advance from groups in Summer. Gets to Worlds, beats Gambit, takes SKT to 5 games in the best bo5 at the tournament. Comes back to Korea and... fails to advance from groups in OGN Winter.

2014: Focus switches to highly exciting Shield lineup that makes it all the way to the finals in Spring before... getting outsmarted by Blue in the final in the worlds best remake of OGN Spring 2013. Thought of as a contender in Summer before, splitting 1 - 1 with every team (even Jin Air Falcons comprised of mostly rookies and KT Bullets with Ryu jungle), only gets out due to miraculous results from the other teams. Both Sword and Shield find themselves in the quarters looking to a teamkill semi-final before they both lose 2 - 3 thanks to terrible blind pick drafts. Then, Shield run the entire 2015 gauntlet in one of the most amazing performances ever before losing to foreign teams at Worlds and getting humiliated by OMG.

2015: See Rule #10

It's a good thing NaJin e-mFire dropped the 'NaJin' for 2016 when literally no one expects anything of NaJin, this rule was under threat.

10. NaJin e-mFire in 2015 will forever be the most horrendous mismanagement of talent.

It's not totally out there to say that NaJin had, in terms of individual talent, the most stacked roster in the World. Now that the team has disbanded we've seen Duke go to SKT, Peanut go to the Tigers, TANK go to Snake, Ohq turn down big money Chinese offers to go to TDK (OK, this one confuses me) and Pure go to LongZhu alongside Coco (2nd best midlane in KR), Chaser (best jungler in KR) and Fury (top 4 ADC in KR). I've wrote at length about how much this NaJin lineup failed to execute on what should've been but just know this, if NaJin e-mFire had played to their potential in 2015 then they would've been fighting SKT for the Summoner's Cup.

11. MVP Ozone beating CJ Entus Blaze in Spring 2013 Final will always be the biggest upset ever.

In hindsight it's kind of easy to see how Ozone beat Blaze in that final. Excluding toplane, Ozone had a better player in every single role. Not only did no one say that until after the final, but no one thought it mattered. People, including Blaze themselves, believed they had 'completed' League of Legends. They had the game figured out and due to their perfect execution, would simply never lose. The opposite turned out to be true, as Ozone tore apart Blaze's extremely one dimensional and flawed playstyle. But, at the time, there seemed to be no way for Ozone to win.

I think that's what makes this victory so beautiful and the upset so large, because when you examine the evidence you almost wonder why you never considered it. This wasn't a freak upset, Ozone were almost destined to win that game.

12. Incredible Miracle will never achieve anything.

It's a good thing IM renamed to LongZhu; I was worried about this rule for a bit.

13. There Will Never Be An Import In LCK

Even if an elite foreigner like Uzi or Yellowstar wanted to play for a Korean team, the language barrier and cultural difference would make it extremely unattractive for Korean coaches. And why would anyone want it to happen? LCK is finally returning to the strength it was in Season 4, where the top 5 players in each role were almost entirely Korean (EDG Namei and SHRC Uzi being probably the only real exceptions). NA Koreans like Impact, Rush, Huni, Reignover or even Piglet have more value to Korean teams than foreign players (evident by CoreJJ's signing with Samsung Galaxy).

14. Blindpick will always get the fans excited.

WTF 2 Shens?

- Twitch Chat

Nothing in this world brings me more joy than watching two elite Korean teams go at it in a best of 5, I would go as far as to say it's the foundation for my entire interest in Esports. I mean, watching said elite Korean teams crush foreign teams is highly entertaining, but it never fully fills the void in my being.

But the joy of blind pick goes one step further. We all know the movie cliche: the bad guy vs. the good guy for the fate of Earth (or whatever). At first, the good guy has the advantage (no doubt given to him by some big epiphany or power up), then the bad guy reveals just how deep his evil goes and fights back. Then in the final moment, both combatants exhausted, try and take out their nemesis in one final blow.

The thing about real life and sports is that are no cliches, no team is going to intentionally under-perform (sandbag if you will) to make it more exciting for the viewer. No, a full 5 game best of 5 is really the nightmare scenario for both teams; that's why it's so powerful to watch. The removal of the draft phase entirely changes the playing field completely. If there's a power pick, the star player has been denied the entire series then this is his chance (an exciting enough prospect). But maybe the enemy team have planned for this, they've baited the star into his power pick and have a way to shut it down (an ace in the hole if you will).

There are so many ways a series arrives at the 5th game but none of them matter as soon as it does, the playing field is completely level and this meeting will be concluded. The loser will be destroyed, the winner will bathe in blood and so on and so forth. There's no more hidden tricks left, no more surprise strategies and no more testing the waters, either you act right now or you go home a loser.

It's beautiful really.

15. SK Telecom T1 will always be overrated.

SKT will always be the best team in the World and they have the best players in each role! Why do other teams bother competing, everyone knows that SKT will win! SKT 4ever! xD

- SKT fan

It's natural for popular teams to be overrated by the masses; after all, the mass of the masses are their fans.

If SKT aren't very good (like they weren't in Season 4) fans will comment how 'they were robbed' and how 'this is a temporary blip'. I don't think there was a single match in 2014, other than their tiebreaker series against Samsung White in the 2014 Korean Regionals, where the overwhelming fans didn't predict a win from SK Telecom T1 K. Even SK Telecom T1 S, a team that were insufferable, were praised to high heavens for incredibly average play. When S drew 1 - 1 with K in the Spring 2014 Group stages everyone was pointing how this was proof that Kkoma was the greatest coach of all time and how SKT had the two best teams in the World. Obviously that notion was quickly dismissed by how 2014 actually went but it was still fun to watch SKT fans squirm throughout 2014.

If SKT are the best team in the World, like they were in 2015, then there'll forever be the best team in the World and everyone else might as well give up. SKT in 2015 were the best by a clear margin but their fall from grace is inevitable, it happens to every team that's dominant for a while. When SKT K went on their unbeaten run in Winter 13/14 SKT fans were saying that Riot might as well hand them the Season 4 Summoner Cup, yet we know how that worked out. Do SKT stand a solid chance of winning LCK Spring 2016 and Worlds 2016? Yes, but their fall off is also well overdue. Look at every dominant team across every sport and you will notice that they had their slip ups and stumbles, it's just the nature of competition.

Also some of the SKT players have been horrendously overrated in their time. I think Faker is probably the only one that could definitively say he was the best at his role in both Season 3 and Season 5; the rest were at least in competition for that title with someone else on a team that wasn't SKT.

16. When you think CJ Entus are good, they're terrible and when you think CJ Entus are terrible they're good.

Never bet on or count out CJ Entus.

- An incredibly wise man.

A CJ Entus classic is to beat SK Telecom T1 (handing SKT their only series loss from MSI to KeSPA Cup) and then 3 weeks later lose to Samsung Galaxy (given that that's exactly what they did in the Summer Split). CJ Entus can beat any team and lose to any team, it's maddening for their fans. CJE will generally play well and then, when they look like they might actually be a good team, fall to pieces and lose to Anarchy (sorry Afreeca Freecs) or something. When people thought CJ Entus was the best team in the World, they did their damndest to prove everyone wrong, losing back to back OGN finals 3 - 0.

CJ Entus vs. SK Telecom T1 in the Season 5 World Championship? A toss up.

CJ Entus vs. NME with an old rag playing midlane? A toss up.

Whether you're a long time viewer of LCK or just starting out, I hope these rules help you understand the glorious League better.

If you enjoyed this content, connect with the author at @Gosickboy_.