Ginyu Force Breakdown Analysis

Just as Frieza recruited the Ginyu Force to conquer enemy planets, we at Team Liquid have put together our own unstoppable LoL Force to take on the competition at the 2018 World Championships. Our elite LoL team recently proved that their elite skills and abilities can easily outmatch anyone in the NA LCS. And they couldn’t help but strike an intense pose at the opening ceremony, before crushing our rival Cloud 9, 3-0. Each with their own unique abilities and strengths, the TL LoL team becomes even more powerful when they work together.



There is more to this pose than meets the eye. Yes, it’s fucking sweet with the fog wafting at their feet and the lights dramatically blasting out behind them. But it’s more than that. They practiced this in the mirror pose beforehand, perfecting each outstretched arm and finger point. Practiced striking the pose at the exact right time…

3...2...1…

The pose was purposeful and deliberate. They held it for a good 10 seconds. And it was important enough to distract Doublelift from a post-win press conference, since he spent the interview Tweeting about the photo instead of paying attention.

“This is the best thing we’ve ever done,” he stated.

Right after winning the NA LCS.

Right after winning back to back championships.

This pose was a long time coming for Peter “Doublelift” Peng. He wanted to pull off the pose last year with TSM but “they were too scared.” It takes a team as confident and brave as Team Liquid to pull it off. And with his new team at his side, Doublelift’s dreams of T-posing on the NA LCS stage came true.

While Doublelift has more respect for his opponents than Burter, he still shares the character’s sharp tongue. His dry and sarcastic sense of humor often gets him in trouble with his own teammates. When Olleh first met Doublelift he was hurt by his jokes, but he soon began to understand that harsh criticism is DL’s “way of showing love.”

Xmithie once said that it’s okay if Peter bullies him, because they’ll still win NA LCS and Worlds.

Already halfway proven. Almost there.

As a support, Kim “Olleh” Joo-sung always has DL’s back, and that’s what makes his pose all the more fitting. Jeice is known to share a close bond with Burter, and they often perform synchronized attacks together, relying heavily on one another to take out rivals. The team has a lot of trust in Jeice, and Jeice has a great amount of respect for his teammates in return. And while Twitter at first slammed Olleh for not copying Jeice’s exact pose, they soon realized that Olleh had embodied him in spirit.

“We did a rehearsal and I decided to change my pose,” tweeted Olleh. “I didn’t do the same pose because I didn’t want to cover Peter.”

So no hate plz.

One can only wonder how long this pose rehearsal was, because if the LoL team is anything like the Ginyu Force’s elite mercenaries - and they are - perfecting this pose was almost as important as the matches themselves. And anyone who knows a thing or two about our LoL boys had an inkling that self-proclaimed weeb Pobelter was the one orchestrating it all.



Taking on Captain Ginyu’s pose, bottom center, Eugene “Pobelter” Park, an intelligent and methodical player who uses his 200 IQ to land genius plays as our mid laner. To Pobelter, LoL is a game of pure intellect, and being swole has no advantages here. Pobelter has a keen eye for the competition’s strategies from heavy pre-game research, much like when Captain Ginyu was the only one in his crew to notice Goku trickily concealing his true power level during his encounter with Frieza. That’s the kind of stuff you notice when you’re “really fucking good” at what you do.

“I don’t really look up to any NA mid laners,” he once said, “because I’m the best out of all of them.”

After years of feeling like he was being overlooked, Pobelter has finally been given a chance to showcase his true potential. And it’s clear that he wants that recognition. He’s hungry for it. And he won’t be satisfied until the squad takes on Worlds together. No matter how impossible a match may seem, Pobelter said he is always the one to tell the squad “we can still do this.”

But if our NA LCS rivals’ strength was around 50,000, the competition at Worlds has a power level more around 180,000. Luckily, Captain Ginyu has a team skillful enough to hold their own in South Korea.

Doing the “lord of dance” pose on the top left is Jake “Xmithie” Puchero, one of the best Junglers in North America. Known for stealing objectives and landing smite so frequently, it seems like Xmithie loves toying and taunting his opponents, much like Recoome. But even though his plays can be harsh on rivals, Xmithie shares Recoome’s fierce devotion to his own comrades.

Xmithie has become a fan favorite for playing games with his Discord community quite regularly, counteracting his sometimes aloof persona. Still, he can’t help getting a little cheeky like his pose spirit animal, Recoome. Once on a Reddit AMA, Xmithie told a fellow TL staff member to stop being his fan since she loved pineapples on her pizza. But that seems pretty understandable.

Right below Xmithie is top laner Jeong “Impact” Eon-yeong. While he is far from a coward in battle like Guldo, Impact can be a bit quiet IRL. His shy demeanor came through at the NA LCS championships when he was the first one to break the pose. Not one to enjoy the spotlight, Impact prefers to express himself through memes and tweets of his many Korean BBQ excursions. Despite his reserved nature, Impact showed no hesitation in participating in the Ginyu Force pose, though, showing his trust and love for his team.

A special level of confidence is required to pull off a pose like this before facing your rivals. You almost have to know for a fact that you’re going to win.

We may have gotten 27 kills, 10 towers, one baron, three drags and the rift herald (compared to Cloud 9’s 12 kills and one single tower), but what truly sends shivers down the spines of our Worlds competition is the serious stares of five guys boring through their souls as they confidently hold the Ginyu Force pose for ten seconds, fog rolling at their feet. What could have been one of the cringiest things of all time ended up being an intense moment that defined a team as they look to take on their biggest rivals yet.

“I feel like winning is cool,” said Doublelift. “It gets you some fans. But these kinds of things gets you the most traction with fans.”

This may currently be the “best thing we’ve ever done.”

But wait till you see what’s to come.