Once one of the most feared teams in the world, Flash Wolves have gone through tough times this year. Not only did they fail to win the LMS Summer Split for the first time since 2015, they did not even qualify for the second stage and finished at a disastrous sixth spot in the regular season.

Their poor results were brought about by the departure of some key members during the 2018 off-season, when their support player Hu “SwordArt” Shuo-Chieh and mid-laner Huang “Maple” Yi-Tang left to continue their careers at Suning in the LPL. The Taiwanese team had already lost star jungler Hung “Karsa” Hao-Hsuan in late 2017.

After parting ways with Karsa, Maple and SwordArt, Flash Wolves were left without any real quality in their team. However, their roster issues were not the only thing that contributed to the team’s disbandment,

As already revealed in late September, the LMS and LST will merge to form the Pacific League Championship Series (PCS) in a bid to make the region more competitive on the global stage. However, financial restraints and lack of funding have taken a significant toll on teams and players from weaker leagues such as the LMS and OPL.

Flash Wolves’ venture into the competitive LoL scene started in April 2013, when yoe IRONMEN were formed by drafting nine players from the Taiwan eSports League Draft. Their first official tournament was the TeSL Professional Challenges in July the same year, where yoe IRONMEN placed dead-last with a 4-21 record.

Despite their dismissal results, the team was invited to the Season 3 Taiwan Regional Finals, where they went on to qualify for the playoffs. However, due to the departure of four members, yoe IRONMEN were unable to continue competing in the tournament and had to drop out.

In October 2013, yoe IRONMEN reformed their roster by signing the recently disbanded Gamania Bears and rebranded themselves as yoe Flash Wolves. They held onto that name until 2015, when they dropped the sponsorship and became known simply as Flash Wolves.

The same year, Flash Wolves participated at the LoL World Championship, where they went above and beyond all expectations. Seen by many analysts as one of the weakest teams at the tournament, Flash Wolves not only made it out of the group ahead of KOO Tigers, paiN Gaming and CLG, they also became the first team in two years to finish above a Korean team in the LoL Worlds group stage.

That run to the quarter-finals remains Flash Wolves’ biggest achievement on the international stage. Other notable results include their IEM Season 11 World Championship title, third-fourth finishes at MSI 2016, 2017 and 2018, and seven LMS titles, making Flash Wolves the most successful team in LoL Master Series history.

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The 2019 instalment of Rift Rivals Red will be the first to feature four League of Legends esports regions instead of the usual three. Joining the LCK, LPL and LMS will be the Vietnamese region (VCS) with EVOS Esports and Dashing Buffalo flying the flag for their nation.

To avoid mass changes to the format, the LMS and VCS teams will join forces and face off against the standalone LCK and LPL regions. That means both LCK and LPL will enter the tournament with four teams, while LMS and VCS will both have only their best two sides.

The teams that qualified as the best few in their regions are as follows:

LCK: SK Telecom T1, Griffin, Kingzone DragonX, DAMWON Gaming
LPL: Invictus Gaming, JD Gaming, FunPlus Phoenix, Top Esports
LMS-VCS: Flash Wolves, MAD Team, EVOS Esports, Dashing Buffalo (formerly known as Phong V? Buffalo)

The event will be divided into a group stage and a bracket stage. In the group stage, teams will play against all other teams with the same seeding (e.g. the second-ranked team from LCK will face the second-ranked team from LPL). All of the matches will be Bo1, with the winning region earning a direct pass into the finals.

The remaining two regions will enter the semi-finals, where they will compete in a Bo5 Blind Relay Race. In that part of the tournament, the regional coaches will get to choose which team represents their region for each game. No team will be allowed to play more than once, unless the series goes to five games. The winner will advance to the finals series, which will use the same format.

LCK and LMS-VCS will hope they can dethrone LPL, who have won both of the last two Rift Rivals Red tournaments. While it won’t be an easy task to defeat JD Gaming, FunPlus Phoenix, Top Esports and the reigning world champions Invictus Gaming, the 2019 MSI has proven anything is possible and that even Invictus have an Achilles’ heel.

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This year’s Asian tournament, which is scheduled for July 4-7 in Seoul, is the first to feature teams from four regions.

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The new addition means a different format compared to last year, when LCK, LPL and LMS teams competed against each other.

Group stage matchups will be decided by results in the Spring Split, with teams of the same seeding to face one another.

For example: SKT, who finished first in LCK, will play IG, who finished first in LPL.

All of the matches in the group stage will be played in a single round robin, Bo1 format.

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The top region at the end of the group games will then advance directly into the finals, while the second- and third-placed regions get another shot at glory in the semi-finals.

In the semis, teams will face off in a Bo5 relay with the matchups determined by the coaches from both sides.

SEE ALSO: RIFT RIVALS NA vs EU RETURNS TO LA

The winner of the semi-finals will then take on the first-placed region from group stages in another Bo5 relay.

The teams competing in the tournament are as follows:

LCK – SKT T1, Griffin, Kingzone DragonX, DAMWON Gaming
LPL – Invictus Gaming, JD Gaming, FunPlus Phoenix, Topsports Gaming
LMS – Flash Wolves, MAD Team
VCS – Phong Vu Buffalo, EVOS Esports

Seeing how VCS and LMS both come into Rift Rivals with only two teams, the two regions will merge to form a single region for the sake of the tournament.

Vietnam’s inclusion comes off the back of some impressive results at international level.

The region has also brought a completely new playstyle to the top tier of League of Legends esports, combining extreme aggression with unique strategies.

Phong Vu Buffalo mad a big statement at the 2019 Mid-Season Invitational when they beat G2 Esports, the MSI champions, twice in the group stage.

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The most dominant team in LMS history had no trouble facing the only opponent who beat them in the regular season. Flash Wolves stepped up their play considerably, and G-Rex simply couldn’t compete with the fantastic performances of Maple, SwordArt, Moojin and the rest. They showed signs of resurgence in game 2 after switching their mid laners, but FW was simply too strong and the Dinos had to leave Macau without a single victory.

This marks another split where Flash Wolves were on a whole another level compared to the rest of the teams, and the Taiwanese scene is feeling a bit stale at times: FW’s bitter rivals AHQ are falling further and further down the gutter, not even reaching playoffs this split, and the same happened to last year’s Worlds contenders J Team and Hong Kong Attitude. The “forever fourth” Machi 17 again proved worthy of their nickname, and the newly formed MAD Team showed signs of promise, but clearly aren’t good enough yet.

This means, of course, that the LMS region will be backing the Wolves at MSI once again. A lack of good results internationally since MSI 2016 should be concerning for the region’s best team, and the region itself – if their five-time champions have been losing on the international stage for nearly two years, what does it say about the quality of the rest of the league? Flash Wolves’ dominance seems to have impacted the LMS negatively: all the best players try to get on FW and leave their teams, while FW themselves can’t improve without real competition and then proceed to lose once they face strong Chinese or Western teams.

The Wolves, however, have one very interesting trait on the international stage, which could spice MSI up once again. They are known as the Korean Slayers, due to their curious ability to beat the best Korean teams without trouble, even if they lose to the rest of the opposing teams. With multiple victories against teams such as SK Telecom T1, KOO Tigers and Longzhu Gaming, they always know how to make a tournament interesting. However, they also have a tendency to consistently lose against Chinese and North American teams, which usually leaves them in an unfavourable spot in the end. This is the first time we will see them with their new top laner and jungler though, so maybe one of these traditions gets broken this year.

Flash Wolves could reign the LMS for a long time to come, and the rest of the region needs to seriously step up and find a way to dethrone them. Until then, the Kings of Taiwan will remain on top, and try to bring back the honour their region has all but lost on the international scene.

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Flash Wolves

Taiwan’s Flash Wolves were the absolute kings of LMS over the past few years, winning four titles in a row without even facing a serious challenge. Before the split, concerns were raised over whether the team will be able to function after losing their jungler and long-time captain Karsa, but the Wolves didn’t even blink. Their new jungler Moojin has been tearing the league apart from day one, and is one of the team’s main strengths.

Mid laner Maple is still a great carry player prolific with the current power picks: his Azir remains undefeated this year, and his Ryze is known world over as one of the scariest rivals to face in the middle. ADC Betty has stepped his game up from last year, finally expanding his champion pool with some hard-carry picks (though Varus is still his favourite). SwordArt has been the best support in the league for a while, and his efficiency on both heavy engage and ranged healer champions provides Betty with big leads in lane and safety in teamfights.

FW’s main discovery this split is the fantastic rookie top laner Hanabi, who excels at carry champions that are currently heavily contested. Hanabi has been popping off in teamfights, and G-Rex will have to stop him in order to take the throne.

G-Rex

G-Rex, on the other hand, play an explosive, attractive and team-focused style, that was an enigma for the rest of LMS teams over the season. The squad from Hong Kong uses both their mid laners effectively, switching strategies from game to game, and changing carry duties from top to middle or middle to ADC like it’s nothing. Composed teamfighting and fantastic synergy give the newcomer squad huge power in the mid-game, which Flash Wolves will have to deal with if they want to stand a chance.

G-Rex’s main star is Samsung Galaxy’s former ADC Stitch, who likes to play reserved in lane, but then becomes the focal point of his team once the laning phase ends.

Who will win?

This series is not going to be a one-sided stomp, and it’s not easy to predict a match between such dominant teams. Flash Wolves might have an edge here, due to their individual prowess and experience in big matches, but G-Rex will surely put up a fight. I believe in the Wolves to take their fifth consecutive title and go to MSI once again.

Best bet: Flash Wolves to win, paying -250 at BetOnline.

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