Chapter 152: ROX, Pressing Ever Forward

Han Guo, Seoul.

This is an apartment covering a little over a hundred square meters, and it is also ROX's headquarters.

The LCK playoffs had already ended, and the ROX players who had lifted the trophy in glorious fashion were now all dressed plainly, crammed into a training room converted from the apartment's living room.

No outsider could imagine that, as the strongest team in the LCK, ROX's training environment was so shabby that even the Ji Di lacked a single air conditioner.

If one asks how this came to be, the story must begin at the end of the S4 season.

After the S4 World Championship ended, in light of Samsung Twin Dragons' invincible performance at the Worlds, Riot introduced a new rule: no matter the region, a club may own only one top-tier league team.

In other words, no matter how rich an owner is, they can only support one team.

With a single document from Riot, the LCK region's 16 teams were cut in half, leaving only 8 teams, and a large number of LCK professional players lost their jobs overnight, including the core of the original Tiger team.

Then, just before the S5 Spring Season arrived, a certain tooth platform in China decided to form a team in the LCK, scraping together resources to finally get the team off the ground.

This was the original Tiger team.

HuYaTigers.

But the certain tooth platform did not want to spend money to buy an LCK slot, so it let the team play the qualifiers, fighting their way through, and together with IM they successfully advanced, securing a spot in the 2015 LCK Spring Season.

However, before the spring season began, the backer changed their mind, and another platform under them, GE, took over the team, renaming it from HuYaTigers to GETigers.

After entering the LCK, the Tiger team, as a new squad, performed stunningly, defeating one strong team after another, ultimately securing first place in the spring regular season, and was subsequently invited to the Intel Extreme Masters Katowice stop.

Then came the famous story of the LPL's last-place team crushing the LCK's first-place team: at the IEM9 final, the Canyon's God of Cars, Aluruka, slammed ROX left and right.

The Tiger team, which suffered a crushing defeat by WE in its first international tournament, returned to the LCK and began to perform poorly, ultimately being shut out by SKT in the playoff final.

After the spring season ended, the team's sponsor changed again.

The team name also changed from GE to KOO.

Actually, the owner did not change; the backer remained the parent company of YY.

Come the summer season, the Tiger team's condition still showed no improvement, losing repeatedly to teams that looked weak at best.

The training and competition team was anxious, started experimenting with player lineups, but the effect was minimal; in the end they barely scraped into the playoffs with a fourth-place regular-season finish.

At that time, the Tiger team received notice from the backer that if they could not win the summer season, funding would be withdrawn; the players instantly became fired up, winning match after match...

But in the end they were still defeated by strong KT, falling in the semifinals; fortunately, thanks to their spring season points, they still secured LCK's S5 second seed.

Thus, the Tiger team entered S5 with an air of "wind bleak, Yi River cold," but unfortunately, in the final they faced the peak Faker and SKT.

Victory makes the king, defeat makes the bandit.

The most thrilling and also most cruel aspect of esports is that the winner takes all.

So even though the Tiger team were S5 runners-up, the only team to snatch a game from the nearly invincible SKT, nobody remembers second place.

After S5 ended, the backer indeed withdrew funding.

With no sponsor, the team was completely cut off from funding.

Either disband, or tough it out on their own.

The Tiger team chose the latter.

This time, they could finally choose a team name they liked.

Just then, a discarded, disheartened boy joined this team on the brink of despair; his name was Peanut.

Together with the four veterans who remained with the team, ROX was born.

ROX, Rocks.

This fragile yet rock-solid little vessel set sail again in the 2016 LCK.

They had no backer, fighting only for themselves.

In the 2016 Spring Season, ROX secured first place in the regular season with a dazzling record of 16 wins and 2 losses.

In the spring final, they were defeated again by SKT.

ROX was not discouraged, keeping the same roster to continue pushing for the summer season. Finally, in the summer final, ROX and KT, two perennial runners-up, met.

In an astonishing Bo5, a miracle with barely any health left, ROX ultimately overcame KT, equally eager for the summit, and claimed its first-ever championship trophy.

After winning the championship, ROX remained financially strained, still huddled in this tiny, air‑conditioner‑less rundown apartment, not even having secured money for plane tickets.

But they were already unmatched in sharpness.

They were about to launch an assault on that higher peak.

They came with the determination to seize the pinnacle of the world.

Nofe reached out to close the live webpage of the World Championship group draw, turned around, and faced the ROX members with a smile, his gentle gaze sweeping over the young faces.

Top laner Smeb,

Jungler Peanut,

Mid laner Kuro,

AD carry Pray,

Support Gorilla,

Substitute Cry.

Nofe is both coach and manager, and moreover a father‑like figure.

This crew has weathered countless storms, their hearts already as solid as stone; their sole belief is to win the championship, and nothing awaiting them ahead can shake that belief.

So when they were drawn as the first team from pot one, they remained calm; when the draw results settled, they felt neither joy nor sorrow.

Of course, objectively speaking, this draw was very favorable.

But after experiencing the IEM9 incident, they will no longer underestimate any team, nor will they fear any opponent.

Nofe spoke with a plain smile:

"G2, Europe's number one, making their first appearance at the World Championship."

"CLG, North America's number two, this year's MSI runner‑up."

"ANX, from the impoverished CIS Region, their situation is somewhat similar to ours, but I've seen their performance in the MSI qualifiers; their roster is very spirited."

"Let's give an evaluation; what does everyone think?"

After Nofe finished speaking, Smeb immediately said:

"I think CLG is probably the strongest; we should focus our research on them."

Kuro echoed:

"I agree with Jinghao's view; CLG's performance in this year's Mid-Season Invitational left a deep impression on me, and their roster has stayed the same all year, gelling very well."

Kuro is older than Smeb, and their debut times are basically the same, so there's no need to use honorifics; they usually call each other by name.

Gorilla, however, had a different opinion:

"I think ANX shouldn't be underestimated; their support is really strong. Coach, I suggest we study ANX more, just in case we get overturned."

"Agreed!"

ParY shouted loudly, and afterwards Xuanming Er Lao exchanged a smile.

Nofe chuckled, was about to speak, when suddenly they saw Xiao Huasheng raise their hand.