Shining Star, the Supernova of the Women's Academy League and the Solo Queue #1 Coach
Recently, one domestic team's name has been lighting up the Eternal Combat community. It's not a familiar men's Division 1 powerhouse like Fnatic Esports, Nostalgia, or BlackWings. Nor is it a women's Division 1 team like Beyond the Game or Evergarden. It's Shining Star, the women's team from the Academy League—not even Division 2 or 3.
This team, currently tied for first in the women's Academy League, is drawing attention not just for their skill. Shining Star has been unveiling strategies we've never seen before in nearly every match.
The level 1 Rosifit bait strategy that turned the Eternal Combat community upside down came from this team. And so did the tactic of killing the enemy with reflected damage from 5-Blade Armor—a build dismissed as theoretically possible but impractical in real games.
They're not just about innovative strategies, either. In last week's Academy League match, Shining Star's first support, Kim Eunjae, pulled off an acrobatic stunt: mid-air from her Moon Priestess's Moonlight Leap, she kicked her own Moonlight Arrow to forcibly bend its trajectory. The fact that such a spin is possible in that split second is astonishing, and even thinking to try it is mind-blowing. It's been three years since the Eternal Combat league launched, and no one ever realized this was possible.
(excerpted...)
Shining Star's carry, Shin Sera, said in a post-match winner's interview during the season: "Most of our team strategies are planned and taught by Coach. We trust him and work hard to absorb the strategies he teaches us. If we can properly digest what Coach teaches, I think first place is totally within reach."
Watching Eternal Combat solo queue #1 ranker Coach Kang Yuseong and the Shining Star team he leads—it'll be fun to see how far they go.
"You see this? An article about our team dropped last night."
"For real? Whoa, there's even a GIF of you, Eunjae. Well, yeah, that mid-air kick was seriously cool, right? Where'd Eunjae go? Gotta show her this."
"She went to take a call earlier. But man, there's barely anything about us players—it's all about Coach."
"Jealous?"
"Yeah. I wanted to be the star."
"Ooh, but Sera, you must've talked a lot in your interview? Since when were you such a chatterbox?"
"...I didn't say much..."
"Obvious. Reporters gotta pad out short answers, so they probably took 20% of what Sera said and made up the other 80% themselves."
As I entered, the players' eyes—all huddled together reading the community article—snapped to me in unison.
Sera tilted her head, glancing at me like I'd read her mind.
"...How'd you know?"
How'd I know? Every team interview, everyone but me gave one-word answers, but the articles always came out bloated with extra fluff.
"Doesn't matter how I know. I came for a meeting to prep for the next match... Where's Eunjae?"
"She stepped out for a call a bit ago."
"I'll drag her back. Wait here."
Out in the hallway, sure enough, Eunjae was on her phone, chatting with someone.
"So, this Sunday? Got it."
"Kim Eunjae! Meeting time—what're you doing!"
"Tch, I was talkin' to a friend! Call's over now!"
"How long ago did I finish your one-on-one training, and you're already slacking? Still need more map practice?"
"N-no! It was a super important call! Won't happen again, please no!"
"Fine. Hurry up—the others are waiting."
With all five in the meeting room, I unrolled the briefing map.
"You know our next opponent next week is Brilliant, right?"
"Yes!"
Brilliant, the team we'd tied 1-1 with toward the end of Round 1. Since then, both sides had won every match against others, keeping us tied for first even into the mid-early Round 2.
A rematch before Round 2 was even half over. A powerhouse we couldn't beat just by playing our usual way.
"We need strategies for Brilliant. Anyone got ideas? Speak up if you do."
Lately, I'd been nudging the players to come up with strategies themselves and pitch them to me. To build independent thinking and strategic foresight.
The goal was to drop hints and let them figure out why a strategy works. Understanding the principles and executing beats rote memorization and blind mimicry—worlds apart.
First to raise her hand: our captain, Hayoung.
"Go ahead, Hayoung."
"Assuming their mid is Patchman, core build around 5-Blade Armor. Even with great sustain, only one spot to defend—so pick simultaneous-push champs that can pressure from multiple angles."
"Half right."
"Huh? Why?"
"Normally, yeah, you'd be spot on. But not against Patchman. I'll show you why starting now. Everyone, load into game."
I put all our players on the enemy team and started a 1v5 defense demo.
For quick demo, tweaked custom settings: decent items for them, scenario where they push my inhibitor tower.
My items: four of them.
Increases strength and defense. Sacrifices some health to gain an equal amount of mana. Unused mana gained this way vanishes after a set time.
Blinks to target location. Can't use briefly if hit by enemy champion or summon.
Consumes one charge to restore health and mana over 3 seconds. Effect cancels if attacked. Max 3 charges. Refills fully at fountain.
Greatly increases movement speed. After 3-second channel, teleports to allied minion or structure. Cancels if target dies/destroyed; cooldown runs normally.
The players tilted their heads at my items. Not Oh Sujin's usual build—mostly low-stat early-game stuff, no real power spikes.
"Coach, why only those items? No stat boosters? You sure that'll hold?"
"Last time Oh Sujin blocked us 'cause our comp sucked. This push setup? She'd crumble fast."
"We'll see."
"Hmph, no way!"
They picked tanky champs with summons/illusions for body-blocking and pushed all three lanes. Not their mains, but push-focused now.
I dropped Self-Destruct Robot March on top to clear minions/summons. Mid and bot flooded with theirs.
Then: Ring of Life Transmutation to trade HP for mana, Water Flask to recover both, blink with Escape Dagger to mid tower. Ult—Mechanical Reset—resets cooldowns (most items/skills), no cooldown on ult itself. Mana-hungry, but Ring covers it.
Mid cleared. Bot next: Ult reset, Ring mana pump, Flask heal, Dagger blink, Robot March.
Mana dips a bit each cycle, but enough to hold lanes.
Three-lane push? Laughably easy block. During downtime before next wave, fountain for Flask charges—back to square one.
Rinse and repeat.
By wave four, Yuna shrieked.
"What the hell! This is total BS!"
"That's me solo. Real game? Four more besides me. Think you can break? While they block, I'd Teleport Boots across the map, sniping your minions."
"Damn it... Give us 5-Blade Armor!"
"As much as you want."
I tweaked settings, gave everyone 5-Blade Armor.
Added one more item myself.
They clustered one lane like last time vs. Oh Sujin. I layered Robot Marches—they charged, activating 5-Blade.
"Even Coach can't—"
"Why... no kill message?"
Increases intellect and mana regen. Slight movement speed boost.
Cyclone (Active): Lifts self or target briefly in whirlwind. Airborne target invincible; enemies take minimal damage on landing.
Second they activated 5-Blade, I Cyclone Scepter'd myself airborne. Reflect lasts 2 seconds. Cyclone invuln: 2.5.
Plenty to yeet reflects into the sky. Perfect 5-Blade? Nullified by one Cyclone. Its cooldown shorter than 5-Blade's—plus Mechanical Reset wipes it.
After failed attempts, I spilled the survival secrets. Players looked shell-shocked.
"So... how do we break this?"
"If they build like that, we can't either."
"You know Spell Immune Amulet?"
Spell Immune Amulet: 10-second spell immunity on use. Stats low for price; duration shortens by 5 seconds per use. No sell-back—stuck with shortened time.
They nodded.
"Yeah, but... that work? Can't skip in teamfights to break defense. Won't kill Patchman anyway..."
Hayoung was right. Immunity dodges skills 5-10 seconds, but Patchman blinks away. No kill possible then. Valid point, but not the answer.
"Why bother killing Patchman?"
"Leave her alive, she turtles hilltop doing that space defense forever..."
"I built pure defense with cheap items and held. But can you win pure defense?
Patchman teams must attack to win, so she needs better items. Knows she farms whole map—lanes, jungle solo?
"Yeah, wrecked us last game."
"Picking Patchman forces map-wide farm. Or pick's pointless.
But resources are finite. Minions, jungle. She solos everything? She grows fat. Others?"
Hayoung clapped, realization dawning.
"The other four starve!"
"Exactly. Patchman team must do that. Direct matchup? Tough. But Spell Immune Amulet ignores her zones, dive in.
While she's neutered those few seconds, can four starved scrubs stop you?"
"No way."
"Right. No need to rage-kill Patchman. Say our core (carry/mid/off): 34/33/33 power. Theirs: Patchman 80, others 10/10.
Amulet on? Ignore her—she's useless then. Crush the rest easy."
"But will they bite the init? We pop amulet, they bail? Or all physical—no magic? Useless."
Hayoung nailed it now. My tactic? Division 1 standard. Her counters? Common too.
Quick patch notes check. Patch hit three days ago.
'New champ this version, for sure...'
New champ scanned—I grinned.
"Seona, come here."
"Yeah?"
"You know the patch a few days back?"
"Yep!"
"Read it all?"
"Of course! You always say study patch notes."
"Good girl. Know the new champ?"
"Yeah. Looks tricky, haven't tried yet..."
"Use it vs. Brilliant."
"Huh? New champ again? Nightcrawler practice took time already..."
"Seona, drop everything else today. New champ only, all day. Skip solo queue quota during."
Players' eyes widened.
"New champ on Seona now? Too risky this late!"
"It's the answer to Hayoung's question."
"Huh?"
"Fast init. Vs. physical comps. Vs. Patchman split-push. Late-game carry."
This version's new champ—so hard to handle, took ages to discover. If memory serves, pro debut over a year post-release, North American league.
Meaning: No one worldwide has used it yet.
I still had cards left to shock the world.