Best LoL players to miss Worlds 2023

After a long season of competitive League of Legends, a platoon of the world’s best players are headed off to South Korea to compete for one of the most illustrious trophies in esports today: the Summoner’s Cup.

The 2023 World Championship will feature some of the best teams from around the globe, but there are only so many spots and too many talented squads that have missed the cut. As a result, there are also plenty of superstar talents who will be watching the tournament from home like the rest of us.

Whether you were a veteran looking to add another international event under your belt or a rising star trying to make a name for yourself, many capable players missed out on the tournament of the year. There are, however, some players who were the cream of the crop, only to miss out on Worlds 2023.

The best players to miss Worlds 2023

Park “Viper” Do-hyeon – Hanwha Life Esports

It’s only been a couple of years since Viper won the Summoner’s Cup, but the 22-year-old has already fallen out of the spotlight with his return to the LCK with Hanwha Life Esports. At the beginning of the year, many people were excited about the potential of this roster, especially after signing two solo lane standouts from DRX’s Cinderella run at Worlds 2022, Kingen and Zeka.

The addition of Viper as the AD star made this lineup even more intriguing, but fans quickly realized that even with his immense firepower, the roster didn’t have enough consistent performances to stand up to the juggernauts of the region. Even in a lost season, Viper had the third-most kills and the second-highest damage share of any LCK ADC through the summer, according to Oracle’s Elixir.

Yu “JackeyLove” Wen-Bo – Top Esports

For the second year since joining Top Esports, JackeyLove has fallen short and will not be attending Worlds. The 22-year-old superstar has had a roller coaster of a time with TES, even though they have always been considered a top contender. This season, however, he and the rest of his teammates had a rough time trying to break into the true upper echelon of the region.

He has actually only won a single LPL championship since leaving Invictus Gaming, and this summer, TES only managed to reach fourth place in the regular season before getting bounced from the postseason by LNG Esports.

JackeyLove has always been one of the most explosive players in the world, and even had the fourth-most kills and the highest damage numbers in the league this summer, according to Oracle’s Elixir. But without a strong roster around him, he simply isn’t able to keep up with more complete teams with multiple carry threats.

Marcin “Jankos” Jankowski – Team Heretics

One of the best junglers in European history has missed Worlds, but he didn’t do so without putting up a valiant effort. Even though Heretics missed the mark this whole year, Jankos never stopped trying to drag the team over the finish line as the best player on the roster by far. His efforts were, however, in vain, as they ended up floundering out of the playoffs against Fnatic.

Many fans have agreed that if Jankos weren’t on Heretics, the team would likely be near the bottom of the standings. The 28-year-old veteran did a lot of heavy lifting by making plenty of the in-game calls while also performing well on his own this year, including an incredible season during the spring where he led all junglers in kills and was top three in kill participation and damage in his role, according to Oracle’s Elixir.

Emil “Larssen” Larsson – KOI

The year has ended early for KOI, but the team has already supposedly locked in its future by signing Larssen to a reported four-year contract extension, which is a great indicator of just how good the 23-year-old has been over the last year alone.

Even though his team struggled to find consistency and finished outside of the top five for the majority of 2023, Larssen was the highest-producing player on KOI, with a role-leading 34 percent of his team’s total kills and the highest KDA of any LEC mid laner through this past summer, according to Oracle’s Elixir.

It’s a travesty to see Larssen miss Worlds for the first time since he joined the league, but he’ll need his squad to improve vastly over the offseason—whether that’s through bootcamp and training or through roster changes.

Joseph “jojopyun” Pyun – Evil Geniuses

It feels odd to say that North America’s most valuable player isn’t going to Worlds, but Jojopyun has fallen right into that category with his latest performance for Evil Geniuses. The young star had one of the best years of his short career and was the main reason why the roster was so competitive this year—even though they eventually flopped in the playoffs.

When comparing his numbers to previous years, for example, Jojopyun clearly had to increase his capacity for carrying, with his kill participation, average share of team damage, average damage to champions, and average gold share all hitting career-highs, according to Oracle’s Elixir. He also had dominant early-game stats and multiple highlight moments to his name.

During the regular season, Evil Geniuses even looked scary to top-tier squads as they finished in third with an impressive 12-6 record. The roster didn’t look nearly as frightening as other teams on paper, but his efforts were able to elevate his squad to new heights. Unfortunately, they were picked apart by more experienced rosters with stronger firepower in the postseason, but now, the 18-year-old phenom should have plenty of motivation to start up his winning ways once again in 2024.