A year ago, if you were to make a bet on whether or not legendary South Korean player Kang "Ambition" Chan-yong would make his first World Championship or retire, the odds would have most likely sided with the latter. Today, however, Ambition has not only made the World Championship on his new club, Samsung Galaxy, but he's possibly playing some of the best League of Legends of his career, captaining these upstarts from SSG to the quarterfinals as the top seed coming out of the "Group of Death."
ESPN spoke to Ambition following the team's 5-1 group stage run that was capped off by a 23-minute blowout of Europe's Splyce.
"Generally speaking, coming into the tournament we first thought that the group stage was going to be really difficult," Ambition said. "But we finally made it through, and we're hoping to reach the semifinals, at least."
Ambition has been a part of some of the most talented teams in South Korean League history. He was famously the mid laner for the MiG/Azubu/CJ Entus Blaze squad that won the first domestic league in South Korea and were always considered a threat to make a deep run in a tournament. Unfortunately, through his four years of playing on the Blaze/CJ Entus roster, he was never able to make it to the pinnacle of international competition.
"Looking at the record we've been making, I think Samsung Galaxy is the strongest team I've been on [in my career]," he said.
Transitioning has been a key part to Ambition's renaissance in 2016. Not switching teams from CJ Entus to Samsung Galaxy, but switching positions, too, as Ambition was a mid laner for the first few years of his career before becoming a jungler in the 2015 season on CJ Entus. After having a limited champion pool and so-so play through his first year as a jungler, he's come into his own, taking over the responsibilities of being Samsung's veteran leader this year.
"There are a lot of factors that made me change to [becoming a] jungler," he said. "The [number] one thing was that I was pretty confident to play as a jungler. I was confident I could become a really good jungler, and from a longtime perspective, I thought I could perform better as a jungler [than a mid laner]."
When asked if he feels whether he is one of the best junglers in the world currently, he said yes.
Samsung's road to Worlds wasn't an easy one. After being terrorized by KT Rolster throughout the entire year without picking up a single map win, KT once again thwarted SSG by eliminating them in the summer domestic playoffs in a one-sided sweep. In the Korean Regional Qualifiers, however, Ambition & Co. were able to strike back with a best-of-five victory that pried the KT Rolster monkey off their back, opening the doors to the World Championship.
"Samsung [started] from the bottom," Ambition said. "People could watch us grow, and I think that's why [they] think we're such a fun team [to watch]."
"Honestly speaking, I don't care who we meet in the [quarterfinals]," he said. "But I think Edward Gaming is the strongest out of the second-place teams from groups."
A domestic champion, IEM world champion, and on the road to a Summoner's Cup title, Ambition has nearly completed everything possible. However, one moment still sticks out: Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok's debut game in the spring of 2013, where he solo-killed Ambition in the mid lane and almost instantly took the title of the world's best mid from that second forward. Three years later, he might finally have a chance to make amends.
"Of course I want to get revenge against Faker," he said. "But I think it's more important to win the game than focusing on [revenge]."
"I think it's not just luck [we're here]," Ambition said. "I think Samsung is one of the top teams among the 16 teams here. We're proving ourselves by our performance."