The Biggest Gamble in Esports History

it almost can't be overstated how disappointed Deft was following 2014 worlds his team Samsung blue came in as the number one seed from Korea the overwhelming favorites predicted to sweep their way to a title just as Faker his high school rival had done a year before yet somehow not only did blue fail to win it all they were eliminated by their sister team a roster they had repeatedly beaten all year long except now when it mattered most it was a shock to Spectators although there were some warning signs blue weren't quite so unshakable earlier back in world's group stage on their opening day of games blue played an interesting match against a team named fanatic this was Europe's number two seed that had historically been quite good but who were having an up and down year most Spectators didn't think fnatic would be able to put up much of a fight against Blue but they did more than that seconds to come up there the second next to St pek using a ftic fight in here is it going to go well for them is it going to go that way they finish it off and fnatic take down Samsung blue Samsung blue were obliterated by the scrappy European Squad which proved to be the first signal something was wrong and it rattled Deft after the game Deft was seen on stage with tears Welling in his eyes it looked like this loss undid all the hard work he had put into conquering his volatile emotions it was possible the early disappointment could have sent blue on a downward spiral of tilt ending their season with an even earlier exit from Worlds that is if it wasn't for a kind opponent who approached Deft with some positivity after the game I saw de uh crying after the game and I really respect him and I went to him after the game game and I gave him a hug and I said [ __ ] happens you know like in the end you life continues you will do better next time and I think he was really grateful for [Music] it Reckless was Fanatics ad Cary a rising European star at the time that shared a surprising number of similarities to the crazy high school kids of blue just a few years prior he was in their shoes giving up his future commit himself to competitive League of Legends fulltime at a very young age his goal was to one day grow into becoming one of the best 8 carries in the world which is why he found so much inspiration in well I guess it basically all started last year my my eye catched him you know along the way when I was looking for people to look up to I was a big fan of him uh I even named one of my accounts like European death he thought that was super cool so he like actually reached out to me and added me uh on the leag client when we when we went to boot camp in Korea so for me that like made me feel really appreciated you know as a person as a player League of Legends is a famously taxing experience on its players mental health which is why the friendships Deft makes over the course of his career will be an integral part of his development making connections through gaming has always been an important part of his journey and I'll tell you right now Deft only finds success when he's surrounded and supported by teammates and friends to rely on that's what made it so sad this connection led to a terrible [Music] [Music] heartbreak after 2014 worlds League of Legends experienced what came to be known as the great Korean Exodus at the start of the 2015 offseason foreign markets of North America Europe and China All Began making such large free agency offers to top Korean players most left their home region China in particular had developed a genius idea where major live streaming services teamed up with LPL clubs to create the kinds of offers Korean Pros couldn't refuse the idea was an LPL team would make a free agency offer in Junction with a live streaming website for a particular Pro the live streamer added additional money to the contract inflating the salary all but guaranteeing the player would accept and in exchange the site would get to add certain Riders to the deal like the player would have to stream on their website exclusively and meet a certain number of hours streamed each week or month in theory the live stream service could turn a profit subsidizing these contracts by then promoting themselves as the exclusive play place to watch these one-of-a-kind top Korean Pros which could work well if it resulted in millions of viewers joining their site something that was possible with China being the largest region in League of Legends I'm not sure it's clear how well this business strategy worked out for the websites but this system did a phenomenal job prying away big names from Korea Faker stayed with SK Telecom turning down some million dooll offers to do so but he was pretty much the only one that did virtually every other bigname star left in The Exodus including the entirety of Samsung white fresh off their world championship Samsung's players were some of the hottest free agents on the market plenty of Chinese clubs started throwing inflated contracts their way hoping to convince them to join the LPL which they all did for all the power and wealth the Samsung corporation had they apparently weren't willing to spend any of it to keep their League of Legends division around as a result the defending world champions disbanded a sad development for anyone hoping to see them try and repeat a title de in the meantime was still recovering from 2014 worlds losing in semi-finals to his sister team and friend was almost too much to bear as he later stated that was the worst moment of his entire career [Music] [Applause] fight oh this is really really bad PS come up from the mid lane as well the was the teleport in he may just be going down on this one who taking up [Music] the feeling frustrated at the blown opportunity Deft wanted to do something about it so for season 5 he decided he would make the proactive move to leave and start over with a new organization shortly after this conviction Deft received an offer to join an LPL Club himself the offer came from a team named Edward gaming who were one of the top Chinese organizations they actually shared quite a few similarities to Deft as they too dominated their domestic scene in 2014 winning back-to-back LPL titles as the clear best Oregon China yet like Deft they also had a disappointing worlds with some rough losses in group stage followed with an early exit in bracket in some ways the two entities were Kindred Spirits some of the most talented and impressive stars in the game name yet to prove themselves internationally and perhaps feeling that connection de agreed to sign on with EDG for season 5 this was a talented roster that had a genuine shot to compete for a world title in the following year especially with de's addition EDG gave him the opportunity to take down his old rivals not to mention the opportunity to reunite with a [Music] friend [Music] fight Pawn had signed on with EDG in The Exodus finalizing his contract just before Deft joined the team I'm sure if Deft had any reservations about moving off to the LPL the prospect of reuniting with his old Samsung buddy convinced him to take the lead it was always a nerve-wracking choice to make as Deft was just 17 years old at the time still a shy kid now moving off to a foreign country where he didn't speak the language but he believed this was a team he could help build into a world champion at the start of season 5 this new roster hit the ground running in the massive 12 team LPL they finished the spring regular season in first place with a 174 And1 series result only losing one set and a 38-6 total game record their dominance continued in the following playoff bracket although the roster did have to eek out a win against their historic r rival we three games to two in quarterfinals they made quick work of Invictus gaming in semis to make themselves favorites heading into Grand finals where they now met up against lgd gaming a team piloted by a star player Deft and pawn knew all too [Music] [Applause] well [Applause] [Music] imp was another one of the Samsung stars that left in the Korean Exodus after winning a world championship with white and winning the hearts of international viewers he had become such a big name many were calling him one of the best 80 carries in the world with his history as a teammate to pawn and a rival SL mentor to Deft imp was in Prime position to end edg's title run and with the way this Grand Final started it looked like he might do exactly that but with a Teleport we're talking about lot of me this wave coming back as well now tvq going to wrap around that's good damage coming through the ulti going to look for it but the flash has come through for death just missed the ulti but the knock off coming in first blood for tbq as Aon come down here as well probably doesn't mind too much maybe now with Aon there as well actually just channels the ulti right on top of the him takes a decent amount of burst Dage with Aon coming in massive San going to catch the mo DBQ almost dies and imp now has to run away he's in trouble now Coro coming in Coro can he line up the megaa he's going into the form he doesn't have his Alti or Flash sorry and he goes back in Aon gets low but a kill there for Godby Cory goes down dep will follow and a massive trade there as or gets a double the first four games went back and forth with imp constantly threatening to take Grand finals but Deft and pawn were doing well fighting back they forced a full five-game series entering the last match ready to play their best the final game started off the same way the rest of the series had gone with teams trading a tight lead back and forth one slip up or mistake could be enough to swing this Title One Way or Another in a very high pressure situation the kind of high pressure situation EDG and Deft were perhaps known for choking that's what made it so special when Deft and pawn made it to late game and somehow did this here from lgd they're on top of the baron there's the teleport coming through ultimate already in for Twist of P he's so close and Aon for the PO Lake C going back in Aon round the side but death finally makes it in Godby getting tanked up as well CLE actually dies as Pawn goes back in a Mak is not here in dep now peeled the away but cor does so much work in the FR climb but it might not be enough here P needs to find a kill to but he Q seters out him gets the kill that's two kills death goes back in flushes aggressive Pawn needs to tide away death what the hell gets a trival kill gets the Quadra gets the P kill what on Earth is going on inter Kill from the Korean Duo de and pawn wins them this game they still have a minion wave Coro is still alive and that should be it what happened T down e are training down these turrets can they take out the game P's back tbq is back as well imp is going in but EDG they're committing they want to go for the Nexus they take it out the Ws and future kings Ascend again to the throne EDG your 2015 LPL spring winners Deft pulled out from perhaps the most memorable victory of his career as he earned his first competitive pentac kill acing lgd and imp to win the LPL spring split for a player who struggled with these kinds of situations to get the perfect revenge against the star that knocked him out of Worlds it must have been incredibly cathartic but he didn't have time to celebrate because the job wasn't done in fact it had only just begun because this Victory qualified EDG for the second biggest International Tournament in League of [Music] Legends by the Time season 5 rolled around League fans had been clamoring for a while to see more international events the only big tournaments hosted in the past two years were season 3 and season 4 worlds which were exciting in part because of the scarcity only having one big International Event each year was part of what ified the legacies of Faker and pawn as these exciting star carries that could perform so well under so much pressure but even so League fans wanted more International competition like they had in earlier Seasons so in response Riot introduced a new international tournament for 2015 the mid-season Invitational or MSI was an international event that aimed to pit all the spring champions from each region against each other halfway through the season it contained a smaller field of teams than world and had a shorter schedule and format as a result but even so seeing domestic champions from every region in the world come together for an international event was always a big deal and League fans soon saw it as the most impressive competition to win outside of Worlds that of course meant it was a pretty big deal Deft just one qualification for the first ever MSI EDG were China's Representatives going into MSI 2015 and with the squad coming off their third domestic Tittle in a row they were certainly considered one of the favorites to win the other team favored were Korea's spring Champions SKT and Faker had been through quite a bit over the past year and a half and were frankly going through a bit of a lull in their history although SKT won season 3 worlds and dominated the OG winter split after that they started struggling for the rest of 2014 losing so much in bracket mostly to pawn they didn't qualify for worlds that year and didn't get a shot to defend their title not only that but the roster lost 3 fifths of their stars to the Korean Exodus having to rebuild with a series of players from their sister team SKT were in rough shape for season 5 but going into spring Faker was eager to make his way back to the top at the end yeah I agree and N coming in on to Baker Faker flashes head he's in trouble here Baker turns does he get knock he does wow Faker what do you know he's really good on Victor there's a double kill things Faker does one V1 inar the hell was that I can't believe he managed to pull that off at the start of season five Faker was back in form and led SKT to steamroll their way through the lck spring split with relative ease after a 3oh sweep in Grand finals they punched their own ticket to the inaugural MSI ensuring the next chapter of De Pawn and faker's story would be written at this historic event the first few days of MSI were pretty calm group stage was relatively easy for the tournament favorites as they qualified for the bracket without too much trouble because everyone assumed they'd be meeting up in Grand finals later on their one group stage game against each other was seen more so as a teaser for finals than anything else SKT won the match but it kind of felt like these teams were holding back there was a sense of restraint as if these lineups were saving their best strategies for later on viewers got to see that rematch just a few days later as both teams won their semi-finals series but when Grand finals began to determine a champion there was a bit of a surprise because Faker wasn't playing SKT started the series with a midlaner named easyon who was known to be slightly better than Faker on a few specialty Champions eagle-eyed viewers may have noticed Eun was an old friend to Deft starting as the the midlaner on the original MVP blue roster before Pon replaced him in 2014 winter after Pon came in to take his job e moved off to SKT where he played on one of their sister teams now rostered as the sixth man in this tournament lineup I'm sure he was eager for this series as it provided him his own opportunity for revenge and in game one He Came Out Swinging on CIO Pia extremely strong his Annie is as well which is why he knows how to play against it so well Pawn getting stuck in the mid lane Eun actually hit him with a nox's blast just earlier to stop his back and it results in the kill as Beni comes in SKT hit the ground running as Eun LED them to a crushing victory in game one by the end of the match he had a perfect KDA ratio but it was only the start of the series in game two EDG picked copia led by pawn and de they came back in a rebound victory that evened the series up one to one with Deft in particular starting to reach his peak level of play as if he really wanted to win this championship in game three SKT ran it back with easyon trying to recapture some of the magic of game one but pawn and Deft were now in form with Edward gaming absolutely crushing the match in a crazy one-sided fashion to take a 2-1 lead this is what finally brought Faker back into the series over to clear love it's something they needed to get those stats in minin is in a great spot to stop anybody from getting away PA over the wall as well everything's happening in Retreat right now for EDG and SKT is just layering on the damage only able to find cororo here but I think moo is going to be a second kill as well and that is another double kill for faker's cassid in Faker getting fed at this point 506 this is when he starts just blowing people up in game four Faker re-entered the lineup and played like Faker does here he picked the hyper carry cassid in and led SKT to a win that evened the series up two games to two sending us into a final game five to determine a champion this was the first full five game set to ever occur in Grand finals of a major International League of Legends tournament and with both teams so evenly matched nobody knew who would win if anyone had the momentum it was SKT with Faker coming into the lineup and dominating game four so EDG had to do something to try to neutralize him right well they certainly did something so for all of faker's accomplishments at this point in his career the most unbeatable part of his gameplay was his Mastery of the champion LeBlanc LeBlanc is already a flashy hard carry Mage with all sorts of combo tricks that can make her near impossible to beat in the right hands but Faker abused her on a level nobody else could match up until now Faker had never lost a game while playing LeBlanc period he had picked her 10 times in competitive play and won every single one of those matches in fact the first ever game he played her was against MVP blue back in 2013 spring where he absolutely picked de's team apart they may decide to just dunk him under her they are they're going in on impact Baker coming in doing a ton of damage to chunju and chunju is not going to get out of there oh wow Chan coming in can't he catch anybody though impact taking some damage repel coming down again chard just need to get out of there flop oh he gets the snare on impact they're not done yet impact has to das W Baker with a change he's going to go in and assassinate at least that Distortion combined with the flash getting him out safe these are some of the most impressive L long plays I have ever seen Noah yeah you can hear it in the commentary Faker did things nobody else could do with this Champion all of which is to say the very first step of neutralizing Faker especially in this p pivotal game five to determine the first champion of MSI step one has to be banning LeBlanc right there is so much pressure on these guys you can be the most seasoned veterans possible but when you're in a situation like this in the fifth game of an International Tournament that had the number one teams from all the major regions around the world and one pick and one game can change your destiny there you have to respect the blon it would put a shock through just the mentality of everyone in that game it is open now if you miss those spells you're in bad trouble with alar it's not as bad does he lock it in K's right over the shoulder here talking to Faker saying I don't know what he's saying but if he locks it in he's saying play LeBlanc beni's hovering the Noo-noo 18 seconds left on the clock Faker stone cold in his look could he switch off it is he toying with everyone fakers LeBlanc one of the back the he locks it in for game five baker has never lost with LeBlanc on the competitive stage instead of banning LeBlanc EDG went for the biggest gamble in competitive League of Legends history the team specifically baited Faker into choosing LeBlanc so that they could pick a series of Champions that could in theory counter her namely they would sacrifice playing a full AP carry mid lane in instead picking the support oriented Morana paon could use Morana to mitigate faker's LeBlanc if he played perfectly but that meant EDG would only have one true carry played by Deft bot Lane this was Insanity edg's composition would probably get an early lead they were built for early gam so it shouldn't be hard to get some kills and early objectives but the team would always be on a ticking clock if they didn't get a big enough lead or if they didn't win the game fast enough they would almost certainly lose in the later stages of the match and if Faker ever got going on his best Champion the series would be over this moment was the most pressure edg's players had ever faced statistical category farmwise which is what's keeping them back in this game right up against the turret is this the finalizer from Faker here can he clean up the fight cororo a little too tanky for the damage they're bringing there's the mirror image from Faker he's dancing around pulls back and fak was good to go finding preventing any of that crowd control from hurting skt's disengage but it's going to be bang putting himself right in the fight cororo is already teleported in from the backside as well bang falls down Wolfe gets one last passive control on to I believe death and he goes down as well the double kill finally coming in for Pawn he's been looking to get something going on the Morana Baker and his soul stealer were not in that fight they didn't match the teleports but that's exactly the fight EDG needed to find since they are running out of time Pawn bar there it opened up just a small enough window for them to go there's Cal they really want to fight they just hit their spell Shields to block Fager's damage they are going to get in onto wolf though good kill coming from Death they are still following with a bit of on the hunt pressure righteous Glory just wears off and they go in cororo right in the middle with Ben for mm on that's a huge damage the soul shackle causing SKT to flash out Every Which Way EDG is all over SKT all over the health bars and they drop everyone but baggy and fake teleport plays have saved SKT more than once will it be this time again they do lose out on B there Faker comes in Faker doesn't have that many stacks on that Magi only seven now now he's starting to stack it up as he takes down Mo he still has eyes on the rest of the team elixir of sorcery on him as well to get out a bit of extra damage cororo finds him with the Twisted Advance as he pulls back to distortion and he can't get out alive Mar's forced to turn as soon as he Nars out job right now SKT again going into Force this Dragon here's a fight bangy in the front absolute zero get popped immediately hardly any damage to be delivered there and minin he's going to get the binding he's going to Nar that may be enough time but SKT actually doesn't go back in it's just kind of saving him for now but cororo finds his way in Wolf's going to be next do they follow over the wall no they get positioned and they are going to back and start to push that mid and I thought I would never see Baker fa Baker failed his Distortion over the wall in the middle of that fight which really helped udg push because that's the way they could find SKT a normally very elusive team but this is another very dangerous bear and EDG needs it to win Here Comes SK Telecom Beni not there for the 50/50 Baron going very low at500 it is going to go over to clearer they take down Baker immediately EDG Could Have Eyes on the base Marin's going to be a distraction but he's going down very fast even his Mega Nar Edward gaming Could Have Eyes on the Nexus and we're 37 minutes in SKT is going to try to put up one hell of a defense here Baron minions the damage dealers down outside of Bank five people live for EDG they are one push away from the mid-season Invitational Championship bangi bang and wolf now trying to keep them from it being extinct in the midseason Invitational here's the last engage EDG doesn't even see the turrets eyes on SKT SK Telecom T1 are wiped the Nexus turrets are going down lpl's Edward gaming are the 2015 midseason Invitational [Applause] Champions EDG had done it they managed to outplay SK Telecom and we now Champions the win was extra special for de to overcame so many demons in this series he didn't get tilted he didn't choke even with all the intensity of the whole world watching this shy Korean kid never let the pressure get to him he played like the best ad Cary in the world toppling his high school rival and for a brief moment in history Edward gaming were the best team in League of Legends after MSI ended all teams returned to their home regions to play through the summer split there were still domestic competitions to be held but most competitive viewers were already looking forward to 2015 worlds after all as impressive as Edward Gaming's MSI accomplishment was you still had to win a world championship if you truly wanted to be crowned the best unfortunately EDG suffered from a bit of a post MSI hangover in the following LPL Summers split the squad continued playing well winning their group group in the regular season but they slipped up down the stretch in the weeks following the conclusion to the regular season they opened the playoff stage by getting swept 3-0 to lgd and imp who went on to win that summer split EDG had still made it to Worlds as China's number two seed off Championship points from their spring performance which is really all that mattered making it to Worlds means you have a shot to win it means getting to participate in the international scrimmages and competition meeting up with players and teams you don't normally get to see including all your old rivals and Old [Music] Friends hello hello Reckless had made it to Worlds himself as a part of Europe's number one seated fanatic although he left his team to play for another European roster in the spring split he rejoined Fanatic in time for summer which he then led to a champion I ship and qualification to Worlds meaning he got to meet up with his old friend for the first time since they had seen each other last [Music] year everyone was excited to see how Deft would perform at this event even as China's number two seed his team were one of the favorites to take home the title as defending m SI Champions and EDG were working harder than ever to make that happen when asked to bet the team's training regimen in interviews Deft stated quote you practice till you drop everyone is pumped and competitive around this time I went to sleep at 3 last night and 30 minutes later I was back up after I was reminded of last year's experience this year was going to be different Deft was the best ad carry in the world on one of the best teams out there he wasn't going to let anyone stop him from lifting the summoner's cup or at least that's what he thought until group stage when he ran into a familiar foe next two minutes it's going to be there and I like this move here from SK Telecom take just play push down to flash and death with the room PR oh the Q lands and that's going to be the kill Al not needed Baker pickes up the seventh kill of the game breque Telecom T1 and just like that they run towards Baron EDG had to play SK Telecom in groups and lost both their matches as SKT firmly took back the title of best team in the world this was a heartbreaking step backwards for the organization but it didn't mean things were over quite yet EDG still made it out of groups to qualify for the next stage of Worlds and anything can happen in a single elimination knockout bracket as Deft knew all too well EDG did have a tougher road to follow though the way world's group stage worked was teams who finished on top of their group were randomly drawn to face teams who got the second qualification spot so because of edg's losses against SKT they'd have to play a better opponent in quarterfinals and the team they were randomly drawn to face was tougher in more ways than one yellow star he fancies this one is power pulverize under clear love the unbreakable will is there as well Rover's jumped in death has got dunked by the cataclysm and he's dropped the Grand Challenge is onto game in this series Goro and de are running for their lives and they will get run down de will drop the hammer but it will not matter walk away and get shut down rainover is out it's a double for reckless he wants to run down more death his brother in arms will be his dead man in arms that's a triple hone finds clear love in the back and Reckless with the rest of fnatic they're on to the Nexus and fanatic will advance to the semifinals for the second year in a row Deft was eliminated from Worlds by a close friend not only that 2015 worlds also ended with his high school rival going off to win his second title it was clear who the more successful player was between these two carries Faker was the name everyone knew as the best pro in League Deft might be a great domestic player perhaps a top 80 carry in the game but for some reason or another he was struggling to prove it on the biggest International stage in League the world championship is everything if Deft can't ever conquer this event he'll regret it for the rest of his life and it looked like Faker might always be showing up to take him down any time he gets close that's partly why in the coming years Deft was about to team up with skt's biggest rival to build the the most talented super team in League of Legends [Music] history

Channel: Gbay99

Views: 140,844

Keywords: gbay99, league of legends, deft, faker, deft vs faker, msi 2015, msi, 2015, worlds, rivalry, rivals, documentary, lol esports, esports

Id: R1K7gkQYzTY

Length: 34min 18sec (2058 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 29 2023