In League of Legends, legendary team “Griffin” led by coach cvMax plays a special role. The coach shaped a strong team from some talents that no one knew starting in 2017 and brought them to the Worlds in 2019. However, the Griffin team fell apart at the end of 2019 due to a scandal. Two years later, five players from Griffin dominate the LoL scene in Asia. Three of the players just became champions with Gen G., when they wiped out T1 with a 3-0.
This is what makes Griffin special:
- The South Korean team Griffin played in the 2nd Korean League in 2017 and took an unusual path. They entrusted the fate of the team to an outsider: coach Kim “ccMax” Dae-ho (now 32), who had no experience as a former LoL pro.
- cvMax recruited five nearly unknown players for the team starting in 2017, who are now between 21 and 23 years old. When they joined Griffin, they were teenagers. cvMax signed young players from solo queue or streamers he saw potential in, and then trained them with apparently extremely rigorous training.
- Although the team failed due to a scandal after three years, all five players are now extremely successful and are mega-stars in Asia. Three of them have just become champions in the LCK, and a fourth even achieved the role of a key player with the world champion team EDward Gaming.
Extreme success is also evident in this trailer for League of Legends:
Team rises from the 2nd league to 5th place at the Worlds in 3 years
This was the rise of Team Griffin: Team Griffin climbed from the second league to the top of South Korea within 3 years and even made it to the World Championship in 2019.
Just because the team was extremely young and had a weakness in their lineup with top laner Sword, it was not enough to reach the very top: Team Griffin lost a total of three final games in South Korea in 2018 and 2019: twice against T1 and once against KT-Rolster.
At the Worlds 2019, they were eliminated in the quarter-finals against Invictus Gaming and only placed 5-8. The Chinese ruthlessly exploited the weakness in the South Korean team’s roster: top laner Sword was victimized by TheShy, who is considered one of the best top laners in the world.
Nevertheless, the team made headlines in 2017, 2018, and 2019 and was considered the hottest topic for the future of League of Legends.
During Griffin’s rise, particularly the young mid laner Chovy (featured image) made history and was regarded as one of the greatest talents in the world. As soon as he turned 18 and could play in the LCK, he immediately looked like the best player in the league.
Scandal about player contracts and a coach who choked players ends the rise
This was the fall of Team Griffin: Before and during the Worlds 2019, a scandal hit Team Griffin:
- Before the Worlds, in September 2019, the team fired the extremely successful coach cvMax. It was later stated that he had allegedly choked his player “Sword”.
- The scandal extended to the manager, who was accused of giving his players unfair gag contracts. Therefore, in October 2019, the manager was also fired, who was apparently in a power struggle with the coach.
- Ultimately, they terminated the contracts with the players in November 2019 and the team disbanded.
In the end, the team was broken just as they had reached their peak with participation in the World Championship.
3 players from Griffin become champions, wipe out T1 with 3-0
Where do the 5 players stand now? In 2022, three players from Team Griffin joined “Gen G.”
- Mid laner Chovy – He is now considered one of the strongest players in the world and the founder of the “Church of Chovy”
- Top laner Doran, who at that time could not get past Sword
- Supporter Lehends
All three became champions in South Korea for the first time over the weekend. They defeated the “great” T1 in the LCK finals with a score of 3-0. So it was a real spanking. This makes Gen G. the top favorite to win the Worlds 2022.
The “eternal losers,” who four years ago lost to SKT1 in the finals, are now the kings of South Korea.
By the way: Faker did indeed play Renekton in Game 2 in the mid lane and lost 1-5-0 against Chovy with Sylas (9-0-5). Meanwhile, Renekton had already had a really bad day in the professional leagues.
The former ADC of Team Griffin, Viper, has even gone a bit further. He won the World Championship with EDward Gaming in 2021 and is considered one of the best LoL players of all time.
Jungler Tarzan (23) is now the franchise player of LNG Esports after three years with Griffin and is regarded as one of the best junglers in the world.
The five talents that cvMax discovered starting in 2017 are among the best players in the world in 2022. cvMax demonstrated an incredible knack for talent.
Wonder coach was banned for life, then pardoned – now without a team
What is the wonder coach doing today? cvMax has had a hard time. For choking a player, he was banned for life, but was then pardoned after 20,000 fans rallied for him.
Until 2021, he coached the Korean team DRX. After the end of Griffin, two of his protégés followed him there: Chovy and Doran. This team also led cvMax to the World Championship. But afterwards, this team also disbanded. Doran and Chovy played for separate teams in 2020 until they met again at Gen G. in 2021, where things went exceptionally well for them.
However, things did not go well for DRX without the two stars in 2021, and coach cvMax was dismissed on November 15 (via inven).
Since then, he has not had any professional job in LoL.
cvMax signs 3 of the best players of their generation and gains nothing from it
This is what it’s about: It’s unbelievable how much of an eye for talent cvMax demonstrated several years ago. Just discovering Chovy alone would be quite an achievement. After all, he could be one of the best LoL players of all time.
But finding two more candidates for the “Top 5” in Viper and Tarzan, along with Doran and Lehends as two more key players, is quite unusual.
This also explains why the players, after the collapse, showed a certain loyalty to cvMax: Doran and Chovy both went to Dragon X with him.
It is a shame that cvMax cannot benefit from this success now. But choking a player does not exactly qualify him to work as a coach for a professional team:
LoL: Genius coach allegedly choked a player – here’s how the court drama ended
