The Pressure on Piglet

By Rachael 'Liltalen' 

When fans found out that Chae "Piglet" Gwang-jin was coming to North America to play, the hype was insane.  Piglet, formerly of the World Champions SKT Telecom T1 K (SKT T1), is well known for his on-point mechanics and his defensive, hard carry ways, particularly on his well-known comfort pick, Vayne.
SKT T1 picked up Piglet, and he joined the main team in February of 2013.  From there on, most of us know the story.  Working side by side with his mid-laner, Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok, SKT T1 operated as a well oiled machine as one by one, teams fell before the two carries and together with PoohManDu, Bengi, & Impact, they crushed their final opponents Star Horn Royal Club in a convincing 3-0 series to win the Season 3 World Championship.
At the end of season 3, Piglet was considered the best AD carry in the world, but after their victory, the team seemed to slowly fall apart.  PoohManDu stepped down for a short time due to health reasons, and upon his return did not appear to bring the same high caliber of play he had once demonstrated.  The team struggled, and among others, the decision was made to bring Bae "Bang" Jun-sik in from SKT T1's sister team as the new AD carry.
Piglet was pushed to the side, and while he continued to practice diligently in hopes that another team would pick him up, the sad fact of the matter was that none of the other teams in the region were in need of a new AD carry.  Eventually, Piglet accepted an offer from Team Curse (who would shortly thereafter re-brand to Team Liquid) to duo in their bot lane as their AD carry alongside Alex "Xpecial" Chu.
Well known for his aggressive play-style, Xpecial was widely hyped by fans as the perfect support for Piglet.  Together, with their superb mechanical prowess and dedication to the team, the bottom lane of Team Liquid would be unstoppable.  When Piglet played for the first time in the North American region in week two, however, it wasn't as show stopping as fans might have hoped.
The lack of masteries (0/0/0) may very well have affected Piglet's early game, but the pressure and expectations riding on Piglet's shoulders, as well as the rest of the team, might have had something to do with the first loss.  Team Liquid hadn't even had much time to practice & scrim together with the recently arrived Piglet, and yet the fans were all aboard the Piglet hype train as Team Liquid took on Cloud 9.  It's enough to stress anyone out.
Game two, masteries on, went only slightly better, as Team SoloMid (TSM) had a stronger early game, managing to bully Piglet's Caitlin, starving her of desperately needed farm as WildTurtle rotated the map beautifully while Bjergsen, on Xerath, kept FeniX's Ahri at bay in mid.  The second loss hit the team hard.
From there, it's been a lukewarm performance from Team Liquid. There have been many factors that have attributed to this, particularly that it's hard to communicate with your team when you're still learning the language in which the rest of your team communicates.  Piglet is in a new country, learning a new language, and playing with a new team.  All those changes are sure to take their toll.
Keeping all those things in mind, however, at the end of week 4, Team Liquid made an announcement.
"Dear Liquid fans,
We have come to a very difficult decision that we hope will lead to better performance. We have decided that it would be best to have Piglet sit out for week five of the North American LCS. Our substitute player, KeithmcBrief, will move to the starting roster. 
This decision was not made lightly. There have been ongoing issues during scrims/training that have resulted in a poor team dynamic. Our staff and players have put in a lot of effort toward improving the situation, but unfortunately we have not made as much progress as we would have hoped. We understand that this is not easy for Piglet, and we will continue to do everything we can to resolve the issues at hand so that he can return to the LCS in the future. But at present, this decision is in the best interest of the team.  -Peter Zhang, Head Coach"
Just like that, a World Champion AD carry was left on the bench as Team Liquid brought in their substitute player.
Week 5 has seemingly brought only more pain for Liquid.  While it did seem that the team was perhaps a bit more cohesive in their movements and team fight, ultimately Keith delivered no more than Piglet might have.  The team lost their first game against Winterfox (WFX) and won their second against TSM.
The victory against TSM, however, was a struggle, to say the least.  In a battle that lasted just over 53 minutes, Liquid beat TSM back into their base, where TSM made their heroic last stand over and over again.  It took Team Liquid 2 Baron buffs, 3 Aspect of the Dragon buffs, and 7 inhibitors to take down TSM.  TSM stood their ground with 2 Nexus turrets down for almost 9 minutes, and if that's what it takes for Liquid to close out a game, to say we're worried for them would be an understatement.
Team Liquid are now 5-5 in the spring split, and have just announced their intent to keep Keith in for week 6.  We can only speculate at what this will do to Piglet, much less the rest of the team, as Liquid now struggles to harness their true potential, and fans everywhere speculate on the future of Team Liquid and their world class AD carry, Piglet.

Article written 2/24/2015