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Jordan Corby's New Hong Kong eSports
With a new philosophy in hand, coach Jordan Corby and his HKE squad are starting fresh in LMS.
Gear is holding down HKES in mid lane
© Riot esports
Hong Kong eSports is the most prominent Hong Kongese team in League of Legends, having supported the scene in Hong Kong since Season 3. While the organization has never had the chance to play internationally it remains competitive in the LMS, only missing playoffs once in the last 2 years.
Recently, the team suffered from strained roster relations and it became clear that changes needed to be made. HKE shed its legacy players, Xue “Dinter” Hong-Wei, Kim “Olleh” Joosung and Jeong “Raison” Soobin, leaving it only with its less experienced players, Yang “MapleSnow” Yu-Wei and Lam “Gear” Kwok-Wa. Elite Challenger Series (ECS) rookies Wong “Gemini” Cho Hin and Hsu “Nestea” Pao-Yuan have been added to fill the void left by Dinter and Olleh. Behind them, HKE has embraced a new era and brought on an entirely new staff to guide these young players, with American coach Jordan Corby at its helm.
Corby's crew
Jordan was well known for being the assistant coach/analyst for Machi e-Sports in 2016, when the team managed to finish 3rd in Spring Split and 2nd in the Worlds Qualifier. Despite that success, he wanted more than 3rd or 2nd place. “So after our loss in the regional qualifier to ahq, I was pretty unsure what I wanted to do going into Season 7. I either wanted to leave LoL or rebuild with a new team and a fresh start with younger players. After talking to a few of the orgs in the LMS, it just seemed like HKE was the best fit. They are putting the most resources into the scene and have a lot of new players who just need some guidance to shine.”
HKE held on to the remnants of their successful Season 5 roster for a bit too long, but has steadily trended toward investing in new talent. LMS caster Clement Chu sees the new roster as having “done away with a lot of their troublesome players, a la Kurtis “Toyz” Lau, Dinter and Olleh.
Top laner MapleSnow has been around the league for 2 years, but HKE was the first team to really give him an opportunity in an established environment. In Raison’s Summer return, HKE lost Korean mid laner Jun “Rokenia” Young-Dae and dipped into the Hong Kong talent pool, bringing on Gear for his first competitive split ever. Now he profiles as the main carry for HKE, despite having just 4 months of experience. As inexperienced as MapleSnow and Gear are, they’re actually veterans in the presence of the hungry rookies that HKE pulled from the ECS.
It’s great to see an LMS team make such aggressive, uncertain changes, but there is always the other side of the coin. Dinter and Olleh continued to decline in skill, but their synergy was still to die for and it kept HKE relevant through a tough 2016. The team atmosphere also may have suffered from their public tension, but overall HKE succeeded despite that.
“I think the change is a minor short term detriment, but can be a huge payoff in the coming months. Losing the experience of Dinter and Olleh will hurt, especially because most of our players on the team haven't played at the LMS level very long, or at all. Jungle and Support are also usually the most crucial points for gathering and giving information about the map.”
However, Jordan also exclaimed confidence in his rookies Gemini and Nestea.
Gemini and Nestea have been amazing as rookies
© [unknown]
“The skill level of Gemini and Nestea for being rookies is insane. They can come into the LMS and be at the top of their roles very quickly. Building game knowledge, building that sense of right and wrong takes time, but I have faith that both of them will be huge positive surprises.”
Gemini and Nestea both played together on Non-HK prior to joining HKE, so at the very least these players will have some pre-existing synergy. In the ECS and on the Korean ladder, both players have shown themselves to be exceptional talents worth developing. Nestea is another fantastic LMS support in the making, a position that the LMS has been plentiful in. Gemini will be a more important prospect, as Karsa tends to feast on just about every other Taiwanese jungler.
There tends to be a good bit of talent recycling in Taiwan and HKE moving forward with young players is extremely promising. This extends to the entire League of Legends scene as well, to a lesser degree. Constantly putting hope in less-desirable imports or veteran players that have pretty much capped out will only get a team so far. A youth-movement with talent investment and trust in younger players is just what HKE needs after a salty 2016 and Jordan agrees.
“One of the differences I noticed right away was how much these guys just really want to learn about the game, constantly reviewing their own VODs and better players to see where they can improve. They're younger and they're kind’ve more interested in growing individually,” Head Coach Jordan recounts.
Hong Kong eSports is doing things differently
© Hong Kong eSports
This also applies to players like MapleSnow and Gear, but it can be tough to find players from solo queue that actually have any desire to actively improve. Newer players like Gemini and Nestea will certainly want to be better at League of Legends and win games, but the actual mindset necessary to achieve those things must complement that unrefined desire. That’s where coaches really become important to talent and Jordan thinks so too.
“You know, you can tell any player how to play, how to think, where to be on the map, where to ward, how to lane swap, how to trade, anything BUT if the players aren't actively pressuring themselves and thinking about the game out of their own desire, then nothing will come out of it. I need to make sure they always feel pressure not necessarily from me, the org, or the fans but from themselves. If you can help bring out this personal motivation in a player -- no matter their starting point -- consistent improvement will follow. There is a difference between wanting to win and actually exercising discipline and doing the work. That's always the first thing to nail down.”
There will always be an emphasis on strategy and teamwork in the League of Legends coaching sphere, but the drive to improve starts on an individual level. It’s important for a coach to remember that before the game, comes the mind, and that a player can only develop as much as they desire. Coach Jordan wants to build his players from the ground up, before scrims even start.
Building out of that philosophy, Jordan won’t be without his help on HKE. His assistant coach Nelson Sng recently aided the Singaporean All-Star team and has been nestled in the SEA scene for a long time. To that experience, he attributes his primary role on HKE. “Personally I have experience in nurturing young/more emotional players and I will do my best to keep the players motivated to improve. We will be looking to make sure that they understand that League of Legends is more than just a game of mechanics, which is basically what the ECS is about.”
MapleSnow may take a role as mentor on the team
© Riot esports
He also points out that the more experienced players on the team will be key to the rookies’ and overall team development. “I think it will be Gear, Liu “Wulala” Sheng-Wei, and Maplesnow who will all play a big brother role in helping the new players understand that the LMS is a way different beast compared to ECS.” Making the transition from a Challenger scene to the big leagues is a drastic change and requires extra leadership. Head coach Jordan expands on MapleSnow as a specific beacon of leadership for this team.
“Maplesnow is working to fill the void of team leader left by the more experienced players. All the players respect his knowledge and trust his experience immensely. He'll even stay up to watch the reviews of scrims after we do it as a team with the newer guys and find what they can improve on together.”
HKE’s success rides on the effective introduction of rookies Gemini and Nestea into a system that revolves around MapleSnow and Gear. MapleSnow and Gear were merely followers before, but now they will have to be the leaders of an effectively new team. HKE is looking to be something totally different compared to the last two years.
As exciting as the new HKE is, it still is young leaders combined with greenhorns. “I think a lot of people look at the HKES brand and expect us to make a big splash right away but we're a completely new team.” Jordan says. Being an established team means that expectations will always be had, but that’s just part of being a brand. “Things will take time to ramp up but the players, staff, and myself are competitors. And we’ll always be aiming for the top spot”
In Spring HKE profiles as a middling team fighting to be a contender and the coaching staff is realistic in the steps that must be taken. Rebuilding doesn’t necessarily have to be drab and dreary and HKE is keeping its spirits. “I think right now, we are probably 5th-6th. But personally, my goals are to break the ahq-Flash Wolves monopoly,” says Assistant Coach Nelson. Right now it’s just a goal for HKE and it’s a big undertaking, but all success starts with a goal.
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