Kingzone DragonX awaken in brutal League of Legends Playoffs

The Kingzone DragonX roster (credit: OnGameNet)

Kingzone DragonX is a name that could come from a superhero cartoon and brings to mind old scenes from 1990s animation, with enormous explosions, laser eyes, car-tossing, and capes that flutter when the protagonist flies.

Just like that, the players of Kingzone DragonX have demonstrated a ridiculous amount of talent, unseen in the last few years.

Esports is rapidly growing, boasting growth rates in the double digits in both Europe and North America, and has captivated two generations of gamers.

Even so, it remains relatively small in the Western world when one compares it to such juggernauts as football, basketball, or even poker and golf.

This is not the case in Korea. Esports in Korea has been broadcast live on television for more than 20 years and the best players are superstars with fans that number into the hundreds of thousands. Last Saturday, the League of Legends Kingzone DragonX proved themselves to be the best in Korea.

Korean playoffs are different from the standard tournament bracket known in the West with quarter-finals, semi-finals, and grand finals. The playoffs aren't a single-elimination bracket, but rather a linear grind that places the top team of the regular season directly into the grand finals.

It is often criticised for being unfair, as well as providing fewer matches for the fans. Having less games means less opportunities for the fans to see the highest level of competition, as well as less opportunities for revenue by organisers and broadcasters.

Despite all that, it doesn't matter. The system isn't made for the fans or for profit, it's made with the sole purpose of rewarding victory above everything else.

The bracket reveals a strict, well-defined hierarchy between the top teams. There were no upsets this season, and no big match was ever a close call. In this system, Kingzone DragonX have rampaged through the regular season with a terrifying 16-2 record before being placed directly in the grand finals, where they triumphed with relative ease.

Kingzone have a roster which could best be described as "ridiculous". With the starting lineup of the Longzhu team of 2017 - which also won the Korean title last summer - the addition of the star jungler 'Peanut' have turned the squad into an even more frightening machine that chews up its opposition.

The talented young midlaner 'Bdd' rounds out a team containing Khan, Peanut, Pray, and Gorilla, each thought to be the very best in their role by many.

A special mention goes to Pray, the AD Carry of the team. Unlike the European star 'Rekkles', who takes up the largest share of his team's resources out of any ADC in order to churn out superb performance and carry Fnatic to victory, Pray receives the least out of any elite player in the entire world.

Despite being given so little by his team, Pray routinely outshines his opposition and won Playoffs MVP by a huge margin. Saving gold for the other players on his team, Pray facilitates aggression on all sides of the map by being able to do so much with so little.

Kingzone secures the championship in their usual style of ruthless offensive (credit: OnGameNet)

Every single member on the Kingzone roster can be a superstar in his own right. Whenever the strategy calls for it, any player can step up and be the spearhead for an aggressive strategy, and Kingzone always uses aggressive strategies.

Constantly prodding the enemy with intensive play, Kingzone puts an immense amount of pressure on the enemy team and punishes them rigorously whenever they make the smallest tactical mistake. Such a team is understandably stressful to play against, especially in front of enormous audiences.

Last year, back then playing by the name Longzhu Gaming, the Kingzone squad demolished Fnatic in the World Championship with a viciously fast 20-minute game where they needed just five kills to end the entire match.

With only slight modifications to the lineups, the teams will once again face each other at the Mid Season Invitational.

While nothing should be excluded in terms of possibilities, it looks like Kingzone is guaranteed to wipe every other team off the field, claim the trophy, and make it look easy.