Reign of Gaming

Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii 

I have to reply to this as a fan of Azubu. 

If you look at TSM play, you can pretty much predict the outcome of the game by looking at whether Reginald wins his lane or not. In a sense, Tuck's using of the word "star player" is synonymous to the word "playmaker." Individual players can be good, obviously it's the best when you have the skilled players in your team. However that doesn't mean the team cannot have a star player. Reginald is renowned for his aggressive playstyle. If you actually watched the TSM plays since years ago, you will see that Reginald takes every single chance that he sees. No matter how slim the chance of success looks, he will burn flash and ulti just for one or two enemy players. The reason he does this is because he has to carry the team. TSM has definitely has gotten better since an year ago, and everyone improved greatly. They have improved their synergy between themselves. However it is still true that Reginald is the playmaker in this case. He takes his chances to go initiate and everyone else follows in. Just because Chaox cleans up all kills after the teamfight doesn't mean that he is the star player here. I think there was an interview few months back where TSM members actually did admit that they play around Reginald. 

Now let's shift over to Azubu Frost. This team is full of pro players. It's not just MadLife that people admit to be in the Korean 'God'-tier. If you looked at S2 Korean rankings toward the championship, 90% of Azubu members were in the first 2 pages of solo queue rankings. Who says MadLife is the only one good in Azubu Frost? Even MakNooN admitted that Shy is a better top laner than himself and it has been shown in the tournaments that Shy does win lane against MakNooN more than MakNooN does against Shy. RapidStar is one of those mid laners that has been in the shadow of Toyz during the championship. He is in the top 10 of the Korean solo queue ladder. He is also considered one of the top players in Korea as well. We have often seen him do well with lux and make plays all around. But so did GunWoong. He cheated in the championship and everyone just hopped on the Woongfucker bandwagon. That doesn't make him a bad player. He did perform quite disappointingly during the championship, but he still is a proper AD Carry that knows what he's doing.

MadLife is good, he makes plays everywhere and often makes plays that wins games. However, that doesn't mean that he is the star player of the team. All individual members of the team can make the plays as much as they want, they even might be consistent with their playmaking and keep winning, In a sense, everyone in Frost is a playmaker and a star player. But the truth about Frost's success is their synergy. They all know what everyone else is doing, they know their potentials in teamfights, and they have faith that all lanes are going to be laning at least evenly. And even if one lane loses, they try to minimize the loss and maximize the other lane's victory. That's how they win games, not just to depend on one guy (ex. doublelift, Maknoon, Reginald) but to win everything together as if they are played by one person. 

p.s. To Tuck, I think it's a great read and I wholeheartedly agree with what you have said, but I think it would be better if you define the role of "Star player" more specifically. I think you meant something more similar to a "play maker" not a "big back hard carry."