ROX Tigershas rebuilt its new 2017 squad by recruiting former AfreecaFreecs players, whom head coach ‘OnAir’ Hyunjong Kang used to coach. It was expected that the original team color of former Afreeca would be continued to be seen in ROX’s roster, with the same composition of players and coaches moving into the team. It did.

However, the art of ‘continuing’ did not always work for the best. ROX was identical with former Afreeca in the sense that the team was a slow starter. Besides, the team’s lack of adaptability to the new patches at the beginning of the summer split resulted in the team failing to play in the playoffs. Terminating the contract with ‘Mickey’ Young-min Son before the 2nd round of the summer split wasn’t very successful either.


◆Going haywire from the start
ROX Tigers stepped off on the wrong foot. With the team scheduled to meet Samsung Galaxy and KT Rolster, the top three teams of the LCK Spring Split in the first three games, Head Coach Kang set his mind on winning the first matchup with Jin Air. However, the team lost 0:2 to Jin Air, which ranked 9th in the Spring Split and played in the promotion/relegation round.

“We had to have ‘Shy’ Sang-myeon Park play unexpectedly after ‘Lindarang’ Man-heung Huh fell ill after the first set with Jin Air,” exclaimed OnAir, “and the unexpected substitution of Shy with injured wrist messed up the whole picture I had in mind.”

Samsung and KT were strong as ever, and ROX, despite winning a set against them, lost all matchup, beginning the Summer Split with three-game losing streak. Although winning the game against BBQ Olivers, ROX again fell into the pit of losing streak against Longzhu, Afreeca, and SKT T1. The team was able to change the atmosphere by beating MVP and Ever8 Winners, the team fell short of the 50% win rate, and again fell victim to the slow-starting jinx.


◆Failing to adapt to new patches also considered the cause of slump
OnAir has pointed out the team’s failure in adapting to new patches as the reason why the team failed to play in the playoffs for the Summer Split.Five versions were played during the nine weeks (10 weeks including the break) of LCK, from patch ver. 7.10 to 7.14. During the Summer Split, ROX was busy following the trends, rather than setting one.

Jungler ‘Seonghwan’ Seonghwan Yoon was an example of the team’s failure in adapting to the new Meta, suggested by OnAir. Seongwhan, originally an aggressive Elise main player, could not start at the beginningof the season due to the champion being banned. But as the Meta changed at the end of the 1st round, Seonghwan was able to start for the team, scraping up six consecutive wins.

However, astankyjunglers such as Sejuani began to show up, Seonghwan failed to adapt to the Meta, and fell into a seven-game losing streak. This was also the case for top laners, ADC, and support, leading to the team’s slump.

“As less-experienced players such as Lindarang or Seonghwan began to start for the team, the whole team wasn’t able to adapt to the changes in the game. It felt as if the whole team was being dragged around by the new patches throughout the summer split,” said OnAIr, “and the coaches also failed to handle the team fast enough.”


◆’Mickey’s place filled in by ‘Sang-key’
ROX Tigers made and important announcement after the 1st round of the summer split. The team has terminated the contract with Young-min ‘Mickey’ Son and had rookie ‘Lava’ Tae-hoon Kim play for the mid-laner. It was indeed an enormous change for the team to let go of Mickey, who was loved by the fans for his dynamic and aggressive play style, and have a complete rookie with zero experience in the competitive scene.

At the first matchup for the 2nd round with KT, ROX lost set 1 quite easily in only 32 minutes, with KT focusing on Lava. Lava was again picked on at set 2, but was able to hold out while ‘Sangyoon’ Sang-yoonKwon’sKalista and ‘Key’ Han-gi Kim’s Braum carried the team to the victory. At the tiebreaker, ROX pulled out a wombo-combo comp of Kalista, Rakan, and Shen, and focused on KT’s mid lane. ROX was able to win the game to take the series by two to one.


Sangyoon and Key went on to perform much better than expected, standing tall as the new pillar of ROX Tigers. Sangyoon marked 56 kills, 33 deaths, and 82 assists for the 2nd round of the summer split, with 4.18 KDA ratio. Considering the team’s average KDA ratio being 2.84, it can be considered that Sangyoon was able to carry the team, despite Mickey leaving the roster. Also, Key gained the most performance points in the team, and was ranked 5th in the LCK Support rankings. This is quite a big deal, considering that the team was ranked 7th, and no other players in the team was ranked higher than Key.

“The team had to go through continued series of ups and downs due to internal and external factors, including injuries, roster changes, and failing to adapt to the new Meta,” said OnAir, “and this is why we failed to play in the playoffs. We weren’t able to handle things well.”

Translated by ROXCrew.
*This translation was provided through a partnership with the ROXGAMING.