Taipei Assassins – Full Team Profile

One of the world’s best League of Legends teams that ever participated in international competitions was Taipei Assassins. For a long period of time, Taipei Assassins were considered to be the most powerful League of Legends teams in the world. However, their dominance in the world of League of Legends did not last long. The team’s results started to fade away relatively quickly.

In a short period of time, Taipei Assassins went from being on top of the world to being almost forgotten. However, that did not happen only to them. Many other eSports teams have gone through the same issue, and many are going through it now. Even though the team like we used to know them back in 2012 does no longer exist; their achievements will be present forever in the world of League of Legends eSports competitions.

Taipei Assassins History

Taipei Assassins is a League of Legends team that was founded in September 2011. The launch of this team has been a story shared by so many other eSports teams in the world. The story of Taipei Assassins started with Chen Hui Chung or MiSTakE who after meeting Wang June Tsan decided that it might be a good idea for them to launch their own League of Legends team.

The idea lingered for a while among those two players. However when they met Chiu Po Chieh or NeXAbc, the implementation of that idea became very realistic. The last player that joined their efforts of creating their own team was Liballz. Until that moment played for Counter Logic Gaming. Not long after Liballz joined the efforts, mid lane player A8000 also became the part of that effort and eventually, these players launched a team called Team For the Win (FTW).

Their first tournament success came at Garena G1 eSports when FTW won the first place which enabled them to play at the 2011 World Cyber Games. With that performance, they grabbed the attention of some big companies and soon after the tournament, several companies were interested in signing sponsorship deals with FTW.

World Cyber Games

In 2011, FTW participated in World Cyber Games, but they were eliminated at the start of the tournament. However, Garena offered them the official sponsorship, and on March 9, 2012, it was announced that Garena has acquired the entire roster of Team For the Win and it was revealed that the new name of the team will be Taipei Assassins.

Over the years, the team had many good and bad results, but ever since they appeared in the League of Legends world, FTW or Taipei Assassins have been an example of self-made and self-led success, and many teams have attempted to do the same in the years that came. However, not many teams succeeded.

Taipei Assassins Signed With Azubu

After several years of playing as Taipei Assassins, the team signed a huge sponsorship deal with the company called Azubu and because of that, the team changed their name to Azubu Taipei Assassins, but they continued with their good performances despite the change of the brand. They were one of the first teams in the world of eSports who had huge sponsorship deals with some of the biggest companies at that time.

In the last couple of years, Taipei Assassins are a shadow of their past selves. Even though the team is trying to get back where they once were, that seems almost impossible at this moment. At this moment, Taipei Assassins are playing under the name J Team or in some instances J Gaming. On April 19th, 2016, the team announced that their new owner is Jay Chou and he decided to change the name and the logo of the team.

Currently, the team is competing in the League of Legends Masters Series of LMS. During their first year in the LMS, J Team made quite an impression. They managed to finish in the first place in the Summer Split’s group stage. Their record in that Split was ten wins, four draw results, and no defeats. However, they were not able to perform in a similar fashion in the playoffs, and they were soon eliminated.

Current Roster

Currently, the team features five players and those five players are Chen ‘Morning’ Kuan  Ting, Li ‘Jay’ Chieh, Chen ‘REFRA1N’ Kuan-Ting, Chieh ‘FoFo’ Li, Chen ‘Alex’ Yu Ming, and Cheng ‘BeBe’ Bo-Wei. Considering that this team has been playing together for a little more than just a year, it can be said that their previous results have been very good.

As we have already mentioned, J Team debut in the LMS was very good. These players had everything going for them in that Split, but they just could not handle the pressure of being the number one seeded team in the playoffs.

Before joining J Team or Taipei Assassins, Morning has been playing in several teams, and those teams were WhyTrollMe and Wayi Spider. Interestingly, at the start of his career and while playing in those two teams, Morning was playing as a mid lane player. However, once he joined J Team he made a switch, and he is currently playing as a top lane player.

Top J Team Players

Li ‘Jay’ Chieh is currently playing as a support player in J Team. Even though he has been a professional player for many years now, he has only played for Taipei Assassins and now for J Team. Chen ‘REFRA1N’ Kuan-Tin who currently plays as a jungler in J Team. He also has started his professional career several years ago. He started his career with Wayi Spider. However he did not stay long there because in December 2013 he moved to Flash Wolves. There he played as mid lane player at one time. He will remain in Flash Wolves until 2015 when the will became the part of Taipei Assassins or J Team officially.

Chief ‘FoFo’ Li is currently playing as a mid lane player for J Team. Back in 2016, when he joined Taipei Assassins, FoFo had an incredible first split. That resulted in him winning the award for the Rookie of the Split. He was also the part of the team who had the amazing Summer Split in their debut in the LMS. Last but not the least, Cheng BeBe Bo-Wei is currently the AD Carry for  J Team.

He started his career back in 2011 with Team WTF. Before he joined Taipei Assassins, he played for a short period of time in CrossGaming, but that episode in his career did not go as planned and he soon left that team in order to join Taipei Assassins. With the several other players that were mentioned before, he managed to bring back J Team or Taipei Assassins to the international scene.

Previous Results

The biggest result that Taipei Assassins had in the tournaments in which they participated happened back in 2012. At that time, Taipei Assassins were just starting their team, and with the help from Garena who became their official sponsor, Taipei Assassins managed to reach the League of Legends World Championship Season Two.

When the competition started, Taipei Assassins were total outsiders because they did not have a lot of international experience. However, as the tournament moved forward, Taipei Assassins improved their game. After their win in the quarter-final, everyone believed that was their maximum.  They had to face Moscow Five in the semi-final.

At that time, Moscow Five was absolutely the best League of Legends team in the world. In the semi-final match, Moscow Five took the win in the first game. However Taipei Assassins managed to come back and turn around that match completely. In the end, Taipei Assassins won that match. They advanced to the final which was the biggest upset that the world of League of Legends has seen up to that moment.

Facing Azubu Frost in the Final

In the final, Taipei Assassins faced Azubu Frost, and once again they were trailing after the first game. Just like in the semi-final, Taipei Assassins managed to win the next three games. That enabled them to win the trophy and the title of League of Legends World Champions. They also won $1 million for the first place.

Since then, Taipei Assassins did not have many good results. They were not even close to repeating their success from 2012. In the last couple of years, Taipei Assassins or J Team have focused their efforts on local competitions such as LMS. However some reports indicate that J Team might be returning to the international scene very soon.

Sponsorship Deals

In eSports, with success come sponsors and the case of Taipei Assassins is no different. Over the years, they had some very lucrative sponsorship deals. These deals came as a result of them winning the World Championship. Even now, when Taipei Assassins have become J Team. The sponsors just keep coming in even though they are not as successful as they used to be.

Currently, J Team has sponsorship deals signed with Logitech, the ASUS Republic of Gamers, JY Entertainment, DXRacer, mobile production company HTC. One of the biggest companies in the world, Nike is also their sponsor. All those sponsorship deals have kept this team afloat. Their results have not made them earn a lot of money.