In 2014, Samsung White won the World Championship and is considered to be one of the greatest teams of all time. They had incredible macro play and had the best support at the time in Mata, who ended up as tournament MVP. Although only Mata (3), Dandy(7) and Imp(15) were in the Pre-Worlds Top 20 players list, Looper and Pawn were also amazing players.
Why are we talking about season 4 (2014)? Because it is also the period when the Worlds tournament format is in the process of finishing, the 2014 season is the first season of Worlds in a complete format with 16 teams, 4 groups and knock- out from the quarterfinals. This is also the last professional season to witness the appearance of the old Summoner’s Rift map.
There is an interesting story about the championship of Samsung White. They were underestimated by Samsung Blue (Gen G in the present), which is quiet understandable, even that season, the Samsung Galaxy leadership even made an unjust decision : swapping positions of two mid laners, Pawn and Dade, taking Pawn from Samsung Blue to Samsung White, and taking Dade (from Samsung Ozone) to SSB in the opposite direction.
They wanted to put all of their efforts on Samsung Blue to conquer the titles, and at that time, Dade was more appreciated than Pawn, as well as Deft was always higher than Iimp, all of them were on SSB’s roster, in SSW only plays a “backyard” role.
So, when SSB knocked 3-0 by SSW, the whole world was stunned, because this was not only the victory of a team that was underestimated, but also the victory of a The internal contest between SSB is expected, and SSW has to sacrifice its best players for each other. Mata was awarded as the MVP of 2014 season.
But what happened to this Legendary roster and where are the players now?
Well, the 2014/15 off season was the great Korean Exodus and saw every single member move to a new team in China. So lets see what everyone has been up to!
Top Laner Looper: He left SSW and after a tiny stint with Masters 3, He would be the Top Laner for Royal Never Give Up from December 2015 to December 2016. He had a pretty successful year and was named Best Top in LPL for the 2016 season. Then he would go to North America and play in the NA LCS for Echo Fox but only lasted a year before he officially retired from pro play.
Jungler Dandy: After winning worlds 2014 Dandy went to Vici Gaming in the LPL but never came close to the success of his SSW days. However, after retiring from playing in 2017 and a year hiatus, he came back and was the Coach for RNG. He is currently the head coach of the Chinese team, eStar Gaming.
Mid Laner Pawn: Like his teammates on SSW he left for China and joined EDG. He was part of the first Chinese team to win the Mid Season Invitational in 2015. He would stay on EDG for 2 years before moving back home to Korea and playing for KT Rolster. His success continued and won the 2018 LCK Summer Split. He would spend a year on KING-ZONE-Dragon X before retiring in September of 2019.
ADC Imp: Leaving for China, Imp went to LGD who famously won LPL but then bombed out of worlds in 2015. This would mark the beginning of a long decline for Imp. Having next to no success for the next few years. Until in 2019 when he led JD Gaming to a second place finish in the Spring Split of LPL, losing to the defending world champions, Invictus Gaming. This would be his last Hur-ah as at the end of 2019, Imp retired from pro play.
Support Mata: The MVP of worlds 2014 was the most successful player of the 5 after leaving SSW. Like the others he went to China and actually joined Looper on RNG after a year on VICI gaming. After Worlds 2016 he went back to Korea to play for KT Rolster for the 2018 season. Then he went to SKT T1 to play alongside Faker and in 2019 came the closest to being a World Champion for a second time when SKT took 3rd-4th, losing to G2 in the Semi-Finals. He would announce his retirement in December 2019.