World Championship Team Highlight - Gamania Bears

Taiwan has a storied history in esports, and it is greatly popular there. Because of this, League of Legends being included in the Taiwan eSports League was a huge occurance, as it heralded LoL's ascension to the top of the Taiwanese esports landscape. And you cannot blame them for the excitement, after the Taipei Assassins brought the Summoner's Cup home, beating the Korean favorites, Azubu Frost (now CJ Entus Frost), in the Season 2 Championships. And thats where the story of the Gama Bears begins, being a team picked up after the first half of the Taiwan eSports League season. 

The Gama Bears weren't amazing for much of Season 3, generally seen as a middle of the road Taiwanese team. In June, they lost the World GameMaster Tournament to the second-tier Korean squad Xenics Storm, and while they beat on their semi-pro compatriots of Wayi Spider, Yoe Ironmen, and eSports Dragons Pro in the TeSL, they were crushed by the two professional teams in the league: AHQ and the Taipei Snipers (the sister team to the Season 2 Champions). Coming into regionals, people expected that AHQ, the team that had won the Garena Premier League and came in second in the TeSL, would be seeded into the Round of Eight.

However, it was at Regionals when the Bears awoke from their summer hibernation, taking first in a group that included both Garena sponsored Taipei squads and going into the top half of the bracket. In the winner's quarterfinals, they faced fellow TeSL squad Wayi Spider (whom they had beaten 3-2 in the regular season) and lost in two games that saw things get away from them in the late game. In the losers bracket, they faced the Taipei Assassins, who were hoping to recover and return to LA. The Bears beat TPA 2-0 in two games that were marked by early aggression. In the loser's semifinals, Gama faced the tournament favorite, AHQ. The Bears beat the favorites soundly, and followed it up with a close series against Wayi Spider in the loser's finals. In the Grand Finals, Gamania beat TPS 3-2 and earned them a spot in the World Championships.

 

The Team

Top Lane - Chou "Steak" Lu-Hsi - Often time left top to his own devices, Steak is probably the player on Gamania with the most variable playstyle. He'll switch from passive to aggressive between games or even lanes, and has a fairly wide stable of characters to choose from. The one thing that Gamania relies on him to do is act as an initiator and peeler, and his champion choices normally reflect this. Shen and Jayce are picks that Taiwanese teams attempt to deny him, and from the games he played against TPA and Wayi, there is a very good reason for this. 

Jungler - Chen "Winds" Peng-Nien - Winds is a Jungler who has a three champion stable of characters: Elise, Lee Sin, and Jarvan IV make up most of his games, and for good reason, as he is an aggressive counter-jungler and he often finds himself in the enemy Jungle, either for the aforementioned counter-jungling or for ganks from behind the enemy teams ward coverage. He'll often find himself in positions where he needs to escape the opposing team collapsing, but his uptempo style of farm-light jungling allows him to put an enormous amount of pressure on the map.

Mid Lane - Huang "Maple" Yi-Tang - Maple is a known Ryze player, and teams in Taiwan respect that by banning Maple's main character out. Outside of his stellar Ryze play, Maple is a conservative player, playing safely and relying on Winds to make plays for him in the middle lane. And oftentimes, Winds finds himself gravitating around Maple's lane, waiting for an opportune Rune Prison to jump in and ambush Maple's lane opponent.

AD Carry - Hsiung "NL" Wen-An - NL picks Caitlyn. Its not even him "sometimes" selecting Caitlyn, but rather if Gamania has the opportunity to pick Caitlyn, NL will find himself on her. In the bracket stage of Regionals, Gamania played thirteen games, and NL was on Caitlyn for eleven of those. When not on Caitlyn, NL plays Varus in a similar manner, staying far behind his front line of Winds and Steak, while...

Support - Hu "SwordArt" Shou-Jei - stays near to peel with Thresh, Nami, or Zyra. SwordArt and NL play very aggressively in lane, often time pushing up to turret while setting up deep wards to avoid ganks. They seldom choose to dive to kill, but rather prefer to counter-engage when their lane opponents bite off more then they can chew or wait for Winds to rotate bottom for a safer 3v2 fight.