League of Legends Worlds 2024: Vikings Esports, Entering The Ragnarök (2/20)

The League of Legends 2024 World Championship kicks off in Berlin on the 25th of September. A total of 20 teams will compete to succeed T1 at the top of the Riot Games MOBA world hierarchy. On this occasion, Sheep Esports brings you a daily feature on one of the teams taking part. This September 6th, the second episode of our series is focused on Vikings Esports, Vietnam 2nd seed.

Vikings Esports' season has been an overall flawless series of matches in the middle of a league shaken by the match-fixing investigations. Although VKE couldn't grab any VCS title, being beaten by GAM Esports in the finals twice, they have earned their spots after a well-fought season with a consistent showcase of collective play.

The Spring Split regular season was the warm up for the Vikings, exiting the stage at 7-5, they showed that they clearly belonged in the top 4 of the league despite struggling against the top teams GAM Esports and Team Secret. The team heavily relied on their mid-adc backline composed of former GAM player Đặng "Kati" Thanh Phê, as well as well-established adc Nguyễn "Shogun" Văn Huy. Fortunately for them, the three players concerned by Riot's investigation were the topside and the support. So against GAM in the opening BO3 of the playoffs, the two carries managed to shine alongside the substitutes who unexpectedly did a very great job despite the tough conditions. Shogun was even able to get himself another pentakill against Vietnam's powerhouse.

This BO3 showed a key strenght of VKE : adaptation and scouting. Recognizing GAM's struggles when unable to play through mid, the Vikings placed Kati and Tô "Tomrio" Minh Khoa on very aggressive mid-jungle champions and have been able to execute a simple lane-skirmish snowball gameplan with little preparation. It is to be noted the coach of the team, Huỳnh "Hankay" Tấn Đạt, was formerly part of the 2023 GAM crew, and did a great job at revealing the best of his players this season. The next victory over Secret saw VKE transfer a global map win condition to a more botlane-focused one, with Shogun and supersub Lê "SofM" Quang Duy pulling double range botlanes to counter TS' botside centric game system. Sadly for the Vikings however, GAM found the answers in the finals, abusing Nguyễn "Fireblade" Minh Tùng's inexperience and preventing their botside to be snowballed, sending VKE home and crushing their MSI dreams.

Though VKE's games in the playoffs were encouraging, the substitutions were temporary. Jungler Lương "Gury" Hải Long would however see his ban lifted, and therefore rejoined the team. Meanwhile, former Team Whales support Trần "Bie" Đức Hiếu and rookie Phùng "Nanaue" Đức Tài joined the team. VKE's Summer split was a major success with only one defeat against GAM in the second week. While Gury would keep his good streak with a wide variety of picks, Nanaue would prove to be a good rookie for Vietnam with a signature splitpush playstyle fueled by Twisted Fate and Renekton. Once again, VKE's adaptation and versatility were key, with very different gameplans being executed throughout the season, sometimes through carry junglers like Kindred, sometimes through splitpush, etc.

VKE would also not hesitate to play very aggressively if needed, all-in-all, they excelled the most when being able to funnel Kati and Shogun to dominate the map, but fast-paced games directed by Gury's actions helped VKE several times to win matches. Nanaue's position on the toplane nonetheless remains the weakpoint of the Vikings, if unable to pressure through his split push, he would often die a lot and struggle to find other ways to have an impact on the game, a weakness GAM was glad to abuse during the two BO5s the teams played in the playoffs stage. Gury also tended to show a tendency of either dominating his opponent or being lost on the map when he would play carry junglers.

Vikings Esports are a force to be respected, with very versatile drafts and strong preparations, they can easily punish teams which don't pick the right tools to counter them. However, they rely a lot on their lanes to not be pushed to their limits too much and struggle to come back from gold deficits. But if let unbothered, they can fearlessly unroll their gameplan with great efficiency, and as a team with little to lose, they are dangerous in the Play-In phase and could very well grab a main event slot.

The standout players of VKE are undoubtedly the mid-adc duo of Kati and Shogun, but despite Kati's unmatched 7 domestic title trophy case, this season has seen Shogun taken the spotlight for the Vikings. Still looking for his first title in Vietnam, Shogun left a mark to the international scene in 2022 with a strong performance in the MSI and Worlds. After an underwhelming 2023 season, he seems to be back in shape with his picks usually being at the centre of VKE's draft, whether he is on Ziggs, Aphelios, Kalista or Zeri, Shogun has established himself as the main leader of VKE when things come to the very last teamfight.

- Phùng "Nanaue" Đức Tài

- Lương "Gury" Hải Long

- Đặng "Kati" Thanh Phê

- Nguyễn "Shogun" Văn Huy

- Trần "Bie" Đức Hiếu

- Huỳnh "Hankay" Tấn Đạt (Coach)

- Lê "SofM" Quang Duy (Coach)