The 20 Worst Players at LoL S5 Worlds
I saw this thread on Reddit the other day about how the lolesports top 20 ranking was an absolute joke, which made me feel rather sad because I thought it was rather reasonable. I mean, it would be rather disheartening to see 20 Korean/Chinese players in the Top 20 with maybe an appearance by Huni or Yellowstar. I think it's completely valid to hype up the western players a bit by putting players that are household names (at least to people who watch LCS) in Western LoL such as Aphromoo or Bjergsen on the list. Thinking that Aphromoo > Piccaboo, that's a completely different story.
However, that (and another Reddit post) got me thinking - if the BEST players list was absolute trash, what about a WORST players list? I mean, it's horrible, it's pretentious, and it's completely judgmental, but it WOULD be kind of fun to make one. It's also the only way I can think of for more Western players to make a "top players of worlds" list. So, without further ado, let's count down the 20 worst players to make it to worlds this year.
This list does not go in any particular order. I don't want to be rude (although I guess I'm already being rude enough by making this list in the first place, so I don't know why I'd bother)
20. All of BKT
Great. I'm sure that BKT is probably a good team in their region, but the truth is, their region (the GPL in case you're wondering) is so developmentally behind that there just isn't much talent available. And even if the next Faker just happened to be playing in Garena, the infrastructure there just isn't at the level needed to nurture and develop a talent to become the next superstar. I'll be honest here, I don't even know who's on this team. I haven't watched a single game of theirs this entire split. But just by being a Wildcard team, I can make the inference that their players are probably not on the level of teams like SKT, EDG or even H2K (because they're all in the same group!)
14. All of paiN
Same deal with paiN as with BKT. I honestly think that Granted, I am of the opinion that paiN is actually a pretty good team and could potentially upset some mid-to-bottom LCS teams in a Best of 5 (and potentially take a game off of the Flash Wolves), but their players just don't seem to be at the caliber that worlds requires them to be at. Let's be real here, as talented as brTT and Kami might be, I just don't think they can hold up to players like Kur0, Pobelter, Doublelift, Pray and even NL. They're good, but not good enough for worlds, is what I'm trying to say here.
9. Loulex
This is probably going to become a recurring theme. Loulex is good, but not really at the level of the rest of his teammates. An argument can be made for every single H2k member to be a top 3 player at their position in EU - Odoamne, Huni, Cabochard - Ryu, Febiven, Nukeduck - Hjarnan, Rekkles, Niels - Mithy, Yellowstar, KaSing - but I really can't make the argument for Loulex. Is he decidedly better than players like Fr3deric and Airwaks? For sure. But is he better than the upper echelons of EU junglers, such as Jankos, Amazing, Svenskeren or ReignOver? Not at all. His smiting skills rival those of Saintvicious, his Lee Sin play suffers from far too much over aggression, and his vision control is lackluster to say the best.
Update: made some good plays against SKT but revealed his final form against EDG - that is, to say, he fucking sucked.
8. Balls
Hurr durr Diamond 2 worrying trend for Cloud 9 now let's get the memes out of the way. I honestly don't think Balls is the same player that he was back in C9. I watched pretty much every single game of the NA LCS this split, and I can almost never remember a game where Balls carried his team. It was always Sneaky, Incarnati0n, or the enemy team throwing that led to a Cloud 9 victory. Granted, he had some pretty good showings near the end of the split on Fizz and ... um, wait... um... his Maokai was ok I guess. Let's go back to the basics here. He's good, but not good enough to avoid being dumpstered by Huni, Zz1tai, Ziv or Jatt.
7. Hai
But he's the legendary shotcaller for Cloud 9 how could he be on a worst players list?! Well, let's just say his mechanics are a little bit, well, lackluster. Role-swapping from mid to jungle didn't help either. His jungle sense is just a little bit... off, and he seems to resort to non-meta picks quite frequently in an attempt to almost "cheese" the enemy (see: Kha'Zix, Shyvana). Do I think he's a good jungler (here we go again)? Yes! He held his own against Move, IWDominate and Rush, who is widely considered to be the best jungler in NA. Do I think that he can hold his own against KaKAO and ReignOver? Hopefully, but I don't think so. I swear, if Hai makes the lolesports top 20 list, I'm going to quit playing League forever.
6. LemonNation
Three members of C9 are on this list, which kind of shows you how mechanically weak their team really is. In my opinion, C9 got to worlds mostly on the back of extreme mental fortitude, late game shotcalling, decisiveness, and having the best dank memes along their storyline (excluding CLG, you can never outmeme CLG). Lemon was one of the players that really helped C9 in their pick-ban phase, but with the introduction of coaches in S5, the need for an in-game pick-ban expert has diminished, as thus, Lemon's role in C9 too. His mechanics as a support aren't the greatest, and like Balls and Hai, has fallen off from when he was the best in NA back in S3. His Karma support is also quite the worrying trend for C9.
5. Xmithie
Now Xmithie isn't actually a bad player (here we go again). Other than a few missed Xmithie - sorry, Sejuani ults during the Spring Split playoffs, he's actually a pretty good jungler for CLG - a team that has carry potential in all three lanes. He's not the kind of jungler to make the flashiest of plays like Rush, nor the type to sit back and be invisible, like certain other NA junglers on other teams (not mentioning names here). He ganks enough to provide pressure for the rest of the team, stays alive well enough to avoid getting caught, and generally plays pretty average. So why is he on a "worst players" list? Because almost every other jungler at worlds is better (excluding certain obvious exceptions, such as other NA junglers that will not be mentioned here) - can Xmithie really stand up to Bengi or KaKao?
4. Dyrus
Since I wrote the rest of this "article" before the group stage, I didn't know how well the other players would do. Turned out Hai, LemonNation and the rest of C9 embarrassed AHQ 4v5, as I'm pretty sure AHQ's jungler Mountain disconnected after the first gank on Veigar. Xmithie landed a game-winning cocoon on Kkramer of the Flash Wolves in CLG's inaugural international game of Season 5. Loulex made some alright-kinda-decent plays against SKT on Gragas but then proceeded to suck ass against EDG. Now we get to Dyrus. The only frame of reference I have of him is TSM's match against KTR. I don't think it's legal to reference that here. Let's just say that Ssumday is my new favourite top laner to watch, and not even Bjergsen solo-killing Nagne in lane could win TSM that game. Actually, speaking of TSM, let's move on to the #3 player on this list, which is...
3. WildTurtle
Some players lose their skill after a few seasons of playing - like legendary support player Madlife or S4 finalist inSec. Some players, such as Flame, are known as gods during one period and mediocre during other period.s Then there's WildTurtle, who's skill level dropped off a cliff from S5 Spring Split to S5 Summer. I swear, back in Spring Split his Kalista and Sivir were really quite scary champions, and he regularly carried games for TSM. Then Huni picked Cassiopeia top and since that fateful game, Turtle's play has just not been the same. His once-actually-pretty-good teamfight positioning completely evaporated over the course of one tournament, while his already-weak laning phase became painfully obvious during the course of the Summer Split. If I had to pick out one player that was most responsible for TSM's loss today vs KTR, it would probably be... yeah, Dyrus. Turtle comes in a close second though. No offense
2. Santorin
I could write something about Santorin, or I could just post this image here.
1. Misc
Now that might seem a bit strange - after all, there isn't actually a player at worlds called "Misc." But I didn't want to put anyone else here, so here's a few honorable mentions that I feel are too strong for this list but too weak to be actually that good.
> xPeke - his play in the Summer Split finals was really not up to par. Here's hoping that he gets the legendary "worlds buff" that I've heard so much about.
> Odoamne - wasn't this guy in contention for best top laner in EU? What happened? His play, like Turtle, seems to have fallen off of a cliff.
> Kkramer - didn't NL have to sub for this guy? From what I've seen, FW with NL > FW with Kkramer. No offense.
> Steak - predicted by a lot of analysts to suck. So far he's proven them wrong. He's on this list purely because of the analysts, from what I've seen he's pretty good.
> Kid - oh no a Chinese player is on this list oh no, but let's be real here he's not very good, iG is at worlds mainly because of KaKao and Rookie
> TBQ - for a team that wants to be the best in the world, with potentially the second best mid laner in the world, the best ADC in the world and the best support in China at least, he seems really out of place. He is to LGD what Loulex is to H2k. That's not a compliment.
> Kitties - marginally better than Kid
> Mountain - please don't ever pick rengar ever again
tl;dr eu > na
