one of the greatest of all time right behind Faker. While millions have failed at their craft after putting everything into it, Smeb is the one case of a man wh | Forum

In September, espnWs weekly essay series will focus on college football. Hydro Flask Coffee Nz .When I was 14, my brother enrolled at the University of Oregon, and I felt something like betrayal when he, and then my parents, started watching the Ducks. At that age, I was at peak insecure snottiness, and I pictured myself being above the weekly bacchanal that overtook Eugene every fall.A few years later, two things happened. First, I moved to Portland for college. Its not far, but its far enough and big enough that the Ducks arent the center of the universe -- especially within the ivory tower confines of my college -- and I found, to my surprise, that I missed them.I was homesick, awkward and wrestling with my identity. I wore my Oregon hoodie like armor in the campus coffee shop. And then LaMichael James happened. James, in 2009, was slippery and tough at the same time. He ripped through seams in defenses, always stayed up five or 10 or 50 yards longer than anyone expected. He had a side gig as a passable collegiate-level sprinter. Watching him, I realized for the first time: this is fun.Saturday afternoons, I would hole up in my dorm room, put on the Ducks game and forget about whatever existential crisis I was going through. My boss in college was a graduate of Oregon State University. He teased me about the Ducks reliance on Uncle Phil -- Phil Knight, Nike co-founder and Oregon booster. My comeback was always lethal: we were winning.Although DeAnthony Thomas didnt come along until two years later, nobody embodied the jubilant excitement of that time for the team like the electric running back. If James was a bullet train, Thomas was a fighter jet -- blistering fast, always faking and juking and making everyone else look like useless man-babies. He, too, ran track in the spring, better than James.?Thomas was undeniable. It was impossible not to get excited watching him.James, Thomas and the divinely gifted Marcus Mariota were the faces of Chip Kellys no-huddle, speed-of-sound offense. They were the bannermen of a charmed era in Oregon football.Southeastern Conference purists will tell you the Ducks only looked great at that time because of the conference they played in. Theres some truth to that, but it didnt matter to me. All I knew was that whatever else seemed confusing and uncertain in my world, I always knew the Ducks were going to win the day. The only question was whether theyd win by 50 points, or just 10.Everything about that time felt special. We (we is how Id begun thinking of the Ducks) were exciting, flashy and cool. The team would take the field in mirror-finish or black helmets and jerseys with wings on the shoulders and perform a weekly ritual of running opposing defenses to the point of exhaustion. Nobody could catch us, and we looked good, too.Although it took me 18 years to figure it out, this is the fact: underneath the slick uniforms, the speed, the 12-0 seasons, the more powerful attraction is always the tribe, the feeling of understanding exactly where in the world you belong.The Ducks still feel like home.Katelyn Best is a writer and journalist in Portland, Oregon. Her work has appeared in Portland Monthly, Excelle Sports and the Toast. Follow her on Twitter @BestKabest Hydro Flask Ombre Sale . There are surprises among the Vezina candidates, but most of the others are standard top-tier performers, even if the two Hart Trophy runners-ups have never been quite as good as they have been through the first half of the season. Hydro Flask Nz . He was followed closely by David Clarkson, donning red, seconds later. Clarksons actions one night earlier, leaping off the bench in defence of Kessel during a pre-season game against the Buffalo Sabres, will cost him the first 10 games of the regular season. http://www.hydroflasknzsale.com/hydro-flask-32-oz-sale.html . LOUIS -- Valtteri Filppula assisted on three of Tampa Bays four goals, and the Lightning beat the St. Since the inception of its professional domestic league almost five years ago, the country of South Korea has been known for its world-class top laners.From the days of Bok Reapered Han-gyu leading MiG Blaze to the first Champions title to Yoon MakNooN Ha-woon becoming the first recipient of the MVP in Korea during his title run with NaJin Sword, the top lane has always been a position of pride for South Korea. And whenever legends of the top lane would deteriorate or retire, promising talents would take their place to create their own legacy.Jung Impact Eon-yeongPark Shy Sang-myeonLee Flame Ho-JongChoi Acorn Cheon-juJang Looper Hyeong-seokLee Duke Ho-SeongJang MaRin Gyeong-HwanThese are the names, along with Reapered and MakNooN, that have shaped the foundation of South Korean League of Legends over the years.Impacts superb Jax play prevailed over Chinas Royal Club to win Koreas first Summoners Cup on SK Telecom T1.Shys longevity on CJ Entus has allowed him to start with the same organization who scouted him in solo queue more than four years ago.Flames solo lane domination needed to be seen in 2013 to be believed and prompted the creation of the term Flame Horizon for whenever a player out farms his positional adversary by over 100 CS.Acorn and Looper of Samsung put a stranglehold on the position in 2014 when the top lane shifted from the one-on-one theatrics of Flames style of play to more team-oriented teleporting and utility tanks.After the Samsung top laners departed to China, it was Duke. Even with the top laners heroic efforts to carry, the former top laner of KT Rolster made his name by winning the MVP on a hapless NaJin team that missed the playoffs with a 5-9 record.But ever since then, the top lane position (in not only Korea but also the world) has been controlled -- outside of Jang MaRin Gyeong-Hwans apex in 2015 -- by two players: KT Rolsters anchor, Kim Ssumday Chan-ho, and the ROX Tigers ace, Song Smeb Kyung-ho.Over the past three seasons of League of Legends Champions Korea, the premier league in South Korea, the pair of aces have won all of the regular-season MVP awards, with Ssumday winning in the summer of 2015 and Smeb winning in both the spring and summer of this year.Saturdays matchup between the ROX Tigers and KT Rolster is a battle between the two clubs that have been under the three-peating thumb of SK Telecom T1 the past two years. While there has been a Big 3 in Korea for more than a year now among T1, the Tigers and KT, the result has been the same: Either the Tigers or KT playing Lee Faker Sang-hyeoks T1 in the final, and SKT T1 winning in decisive fashion. SKTs overall domestic finals record over the past two years sits at 9-2.KTs slaying of SKT T1 in the semifinals has opened up the third possibility that many thought wed never see: ROX vs. KT, and the battle between the worlds two greatest top laners. Ssumday, the centerpiece of the KT Rolster organization, and Smeb, the man who embodies everything the Tigers stand for as a team.The two battled in the semifinals of last years summer split, and it was Ssumdays KT that advanced in a close set. Smeb got the upper hand in the World Championships, where the Tigers knocked out KT Rolster in the quarterfinals to eventually finish second place in the world against, guess who, SK Telecom T1.Since Smeb toppled Ssumday in Europe a year ago, the Tigers frontman has taken the mantle as the worlds best in the top lane while simultaneously battling with Faker to be called the best in the world. Ssumday, who was embarrassed by Smeb at Worlds, and then by Faker in the semifinals of this years spring split semifinals, has finally redeemed himself; this finals is his chance to make amends for his falters in the past.The Heir of KT RolsterWhile the finals between ROX Tigers and KT Rolster feels like itll be the first big championship win for either of the teams top laners, it wouldnt actually be Ssumdays first domestic title if KT win on Saturday. The KT Arrows, widely regarded as the worst team to ever win a Korean championship, won in the summer of 2014 with an ultra-aggressive, kill-or-be-killed-even-harder team that won each of its playoff matches 3-2 to narrowly tightrope its way to the finish line.Ssumday in 2014 on Arrows was a good, solid role player. Thats to not take away from his accomplishments on the team. It was a five-man effort which pulled out the victory, but he wasnt anywhere near the player he is today. Back then, the team was built around the mid lane and jungle power of stars Song RooKie Eui-jin and Lee KaKAO Byung-kwon with Ssumday acting as a cog to make the machine run smoothly. He had moments where he would simply win lane and snowball from there, yet, for the most part, the Arrows was KaKAOs team - the charismatic leader who won the MVP award that summer.Ssumday has been KTs pet project over the last three years. He came into the league as a bright-eyed rookie who only knew how to play Renekton and spent time on the bench before evolving into an instrumental part of the championship Arrows team. Hydro Flask Clearance. . When KaKAO and Rookie left to join the ranks of other elite Korean players chasing a higher salary in China, Ssumday, the third or even fourth man on the title-winning Arrows team, was now pushed into a role as a main carry.Maybe more than any other player in League of Legends, Ssumday has followed the same timeline, albeit a bit more spedup, as many traditional athletes whove become superstars. Theyre drafted and protected in the early days before being put into more strenuous situations. Ultimately, after all the grooming and preparation, theyre ready to be the leader and ace of the club that entrusted its future to them.Ssumday is that kind of a player. He debuted around the same time as Faker, but instead of being an all-star from day one, its been a steady process from KT Rolster, building him up to be one of the best players in the world. Hes been in finals, won a championship as a role player, and now, in his second year as the man on KT Rolster, hes ready to hoist a trophy won off his shoulders as the heir KT Rolster always thought he could be.The Story of SmebUsually when kids struggle with something, someone older will approach them and tell a story about how with enough hard work they can someday become a master.I dont want to pull back the curtain or anything, but a lot of times that story the kind person tells isnt reality. Floundering with the same task after a certain amount of time means someone just doesnt have the knack to excel there. Usually a new path is the answer.The story of ROX Tigers Smeb is something out of an overly cheerful picture book. There once was a boy who really liked playing games. The boy thought he was so good at a particular video game called League of Legends he decided to go pro. Sadly, when the boy played in the world of pros, he soon found out he was seriously lacking. The boy was made fun of, becoming a joke to the commentators as the worst at his position.But then one day, after seemingly quitting his dream, the boy returned to play on a new team with fellow outcasts and rejects. The hodgepodge of players grouped together to become the best team in the world, and the boy who was once the joke was becoming one of the very best. After two years of progression, the boy had become a man, and his teammates were atop the globe as the greatest team with the once-loser now the teams star player.Seriously, it sounds like bad fan fiction, but its true. Smeb was a joke. He was really, really bad. He had a silly ID (no one really knew what it meant in the Western region), and his play was nonsensical much of the time. It all changed when he joined the Tigers, a band of rejects plus world-class support Kang GorillA Beom-hyeon.Smeb is the ultimate outlier in not only esports but also sports in general. He wasnt a highly touted rookie who had a few rough seasons before he turned it around. To put it as bluntly as possible: Smeb was definition of a failed professional in esports when he was on Incredible Miracle when he started out. His team never competed in the playoffs, and outside of a few nice performances, he was a player whose name many were hard-pressed to remember after his weakling team was eliminated from the premiere league.On Saturday, Smeb will walk into the finals with the chance to become the champion of the league that once made him a punch line. Hes won the MVP twice this year, and with a runners-up at Worlds under his belt, Smeb could become the greatest top laner of all time if he wins the domestic title and then wins the Summoners Cup in the fall.Fakers story of the Unkillable Demon King is a special one. Like LeBron James or Tiger Woods, Faker was a once-in-a-generation prodigy who exceeded the lofty expectations. He is far and away the greatest player to ever play the game. When you expected greatness from him, he delivered, and so the title of God was presented to him.Smebs story, though, might be even better. There are many examples of superstars like Faker, but there is no other story like Smebs. He rose from a player once considered the absolute worst in the league to back-to-back MVP awards and a few steps away from becoming one of the greatest of all time right behind Faker. While millions have failed at their craft after putting everything into it, Smeb is the one case of a man who was shunned and laughed at by the world and persevered through it all.Ssumday is an heir of a franchise.Faker is a God.Smeb is just a boy turned to a man who didnt let anything or anyone take away his dream.And strangely enough, thats even scarier than an Unkillable Demon King or an heir to a throne. ' ' '