With The Recent hate of LolEsports top 20 list I thought I would make a smaller list with players that did not make the cut but are underrated players in their role that helped carry their team to the Championship.
This List will be based on Group lane matches along with Summer Split / Summer Play off / IWC Performances
- Kami – Pain Gaming’s Star Mid Laner –
In the IWC Chile Pain Gaming went a flawless record of 4-0 in the group stages beating both KLG and HR both times they faced them and 3-0’ing KLG in the finals for a final score of 7-0. Kami is credited with carrying Pain even when playing on supportive champions such as Orianna, and Lulu. With brTT playing cleanup for the lineup. For Pain to make it out of Group A Kami will need to put the team on his back either in damage or in utility. His match up’s individually in this group is not too big of a difference in my opinion. With the Likes of CLG, Koo, and FW in there group, Kami is 100% on the same level if not better than Pobelter and slightly worse than Maple and Kuro. (I would Rate the mid laners in that order) While Pain Gaming Lack in other area’s I.E. Top/Jungle Kami and brTT have to pick up the slack if they want to do well at worlds and on the back of Kami I believe they can and will getting either 2nd or 3rd in there group.
“The Next 3 people on the list are from TSM. Note this is my Favorite team so I’m writing these 3 as what needs to happen for them to have a realistic chance to make it out of groups and why I rate them higher than other people would making them Underrated =) (Realistically I think TSM has about 5-15% of making it out of groups)”
- Dyrus – The 5th time Returning –
This is Dyrus’s 5th and most likely final time returning to the League of Legends World Championships as a player. The biggest struggle for Dyrus at Worlds these past years is the prone to being ganked excessively putting his team at a huge disadvantage. Dyrus is known mostly for playing the tank champions his team needs such as Maokai, Nautilus, ect… but back in the day Dyrus was known for his Jayce, Vladimir, Singed, Darius, Ect… Now with the Juggernaut changes and Fiora rework, will we see Dyrus get the attention he needs from his team and can he use the advantage they may get him? I believe in Dyrus coming out strong in this Meta due to previous splits and his ability on champions that are coming back into Meta… But will it be enough. With TSM arguable having the hardest group I don’t think it will have the biggest effect. But Dyrus has been down played and hated on for his play can he show up for TSM one last time? With a group of top teams like LGD, KT, and OG, Dyrus will have a hard time keeping up with Top laners such as Acorn/Flame of LGD, Ssumday of KT, and Veteran top laner Dyrus knows well in Soaz. This will be a tough match up for Dyrus to do well but for him and TSM to succeed Santorin will need to get him an advantage and TSM will have to be able to play around it. Along with their star mid laner in Bjergsen can TSM snowball their way out of groups?
- WildTurtle – Nut up or Shut up –
This may be Wildturtle’s last stint with TSM if he performs mediocre. Wildturtle’s League of Legends Career was kick started all because of Choax’s Lack of “motivation” to say the least. This Season Wild Turtle has been the lowest rated in years, that’s the one thing Turtle always had going for him he was a solo q monster now he is not top 10 while over the years he has multiple accounts in top 5. Is this a “worrying trend” for TSM? Turtle’s summer split has been the worst by far but Wild Turtle usually pulls himself together for play offs and shows up big, I.E. Quad vs C9 last summer, His play all of play offs last split and hell he even performed well in these past playoffs when Bjergsen played Lulu Wildturtle was able to play clean up mostly on Jinx but still lackluster for the supposedly best team in NA. Team Solo Mid has used turtle well for the past 3 years it’s time for turtle to show up and perform well and TSM to get out of groups or its very likely that he will be replaced.
- LustBoy – The Second Best member on TSM underrated?
Lustboy has had a long and somewhat complicated career always in the shadow of Madlife back in his CJ days the less flashy of the two. But one thing Lustboy has been is consistent for his team. One of the few players in NA who can properly engage, but the team is almost never on the same page. If lustboy focused on his communication and plays at his top form TSM will be in a better place.
8+7 – Im just going to talk about Wildturtle and Lustboy as a lane vs the rest of group D bot lanes.
LGD – Arguably the best bot lane in the world Imp the clear best ADC in the world and PYL a top 3 support in the world and leader of LGD. TSM’s bot lane has almost 0% chance of winning this lane.
KT- A second lane that TSM will almost 100% lose, Piccaboo and Arrow, Both stronger than there TSM counterpart. TSM will have to over perform expectations and KT would have to choke and or underperform.
OG- Another Lane that TSM is almost certainly set up to lose. Neils has been the strongest performer for OG and Arguable top 2 in the west. Mithy just has the communication to work with his team better which Lustboy despite being in NA for over a year and still has not improved his English to the level it needs to be.
The Next two players on this list is H2k’s botlane, Most people have written h2k off as to only beat the wildcard team in there league which is pretty straight forward as the have the next hardest group to say with SKT, EDG, and BKT. I feel in this group it will heavily depend on the bot lane with the likes of Deft/Meiko, Bang/Wolf, and the lesser of Lloyd/Moss. I feel the H2K bot lane is there strongest link and will have to show up extremely well along with one of the favorites in this group of SKT/EDG underperforming.
- Hjarnan – EU’s Rising Star
This is Hjarnan’s First time at worlds along with his first year being in LCS. Hjarnan has been a shining star for H2K along with his support KaSing, they have been rivaled as a top 3 bot lane in EU and Arguable the west as a whole. Having an 11.7 KDA across the summer play offs and a 6.2 KDA across the summer split with a record of 11-7. In Both games that H2K win and lose Hjarnan always looks to be the best player on that team and a real rising talent for the squad. Being his first time at worlds will he show up to play or will he be a fluke to prove himself internationally another year?
- KaSing- The Missing Piece
When H2K first made it into LCS things looked rough losing one of their star players in Febivan to FNC to get Ryu sounded like a Decent replacement on paper but things were just not working out for them with a 2-4 record coming into the 4th week of the spring split they took a risk and benched support player Voidle for KaSing they Turned their season around from trying to dodge relegations to getting 3rd place in the regular split and beating out SK Gaming in the 3rd place match in play offs in a 3-2 fashion. Although this is not KaSings first year in LCS it is his first time at worlds and just like his ADC Hjarnan he has yet to prove himself as more than EU’s 3rd place team and Second Seed coming into worlds. H2K will need all of their players in top form but especially their bot lane of Hjarnan and KaSing to perform if they hope to try to make it out of their group of death.
4+5-
Again talking about H2K’s Bot lane as a whole, Group C is a top stacked group where there are two teams that are favorited to win the whole tournament in this group in SKT and EDG and then a wild card team that is expected to lose every game they play. So if this is accurate H2K at worst would go 2-4 in the group stage. But if they manage to take a game off SKT/EDG they would in tale would force a tie breaker for the second seed, which is a hard task ahead of them but not impossible. With the likes of Bang and Deft I think Hjarnan plays a similar role in H2K and can over perform expectations and make H2K have a chance at a real run at Worlds.
The Next 3 Players Are the 3 over performing players on the OG line up ( In my opinion Amazing was expected to perform well as he left TSM on a high note playing out of his mind at the time.) All 3 of these players where known to be very good but with Niels never player in LCS, Mithy being banned for a split and Soaz being very hit or miss at times, it left a lot of question marks for OG once they made it into LCS.
- Mithy – Reformed Summoner
Mithy along with former teammate NukeDuck were banned from the LCS for a LCS split this was back when they were both playing in EU CS for NIP. After the ban was lifted in the spring split many people wondered were Mithy would end up most did not expect him to go back to playing in the CS as it seemed he might be cursed in the relegation matches like former teammate Freeze. When he ended up joining Xpeke’s OG it was not as surprising and when OG destroyed the EU CS and got auto promoted into the LCS it was left to wonder where they would be in LCS. Most thought they would be a middle of the pack team but still many believed they would be a top 3 team. I for one was on this “band wagon” Because some players I really respected were on this team and I know if they practiced hard and played well as a unit they would do well. Mithy has changed his play style since he was first in the LCS with LemonDogs in my opinion he was known as being quite an aggressive support, and now he can play multiple play styles that his team needs. Working alongside Amazing OG’s Vision control is top notch and the two work well as a unit. Along with being about on the same level if not better than H2K’s Bot lane they kept up with FNC in the Finals and brought it to five games. Unfortunately OG did not win meaning H2K who they had beat prior had secured the second seed for worlds and OG had been locked into having to fight for the 3rd seed in EU. Which in turn gave them the harder group OG will have to play their best and hope for KT to Choke.
- Soaz – Best GP in the West
Soaz is one of the longest standing Veterans left in the League of Legends scene, who has had an up and down career to say the least. Soaz has always been known for playing off Meta champions and carry oriented champions. With the current top lane Meta this suits Soaz very well. Along with Soaz having this best performance of his career during play offs in EU this year can he carry the momentum with him to worlds and help carry OG out of a hard group I think it’s very likely if KT underperform OG will be ready to take the 2nd seed in Group D. Top Laners in this group are Soaz, Dyrus, Ssumday, and Acorn/Flame. I would Rank them as Acorn > Flame > Ssumday>/= Soaz > Dyrus. So I think Soaz will have a decent time matching up to these players and if he keeps the right mind set he should play out of his mind.
- Niels – EU Rookie of the Year
This is Niels first Year/Split in the LCS and he is going to worlds… He has over performed my expectations to say the least, Niels is the Monster ADC that OG needed. He is the most consistent member on the team along with Amazing. Always in the backline dealing damage and even confident to get resets with Tristana W in high pressure matches like the Finals in Sweden. In my opinion Niels will be the next great player from the West, he will perform very well even internationally if it’s not this year it will come this guy is destined for greatness. Many People are already calling OG out because Xpeke not playing as good as he usually does but he always shows up for worlds I.E. SSB vs FNC Groups last year worlds. Xpeke has the Potential to show up big and with this line up I expect them to do well. Niels is very Underrated and may be the best ADC the west has ever seen in just a years’ time with all the experience he is getting early in his career I expect great things from this man.
2+4 – Mithy + Niels
Mithy and Niels are Arguably the second best bot lane as a whole in this group. They will almost 100% beat out Wildturtle and Lustboy, Arrow and Piccaboo is the tough one the Koreans may be better individually but have been playing together less than Mithy and Niels. And of course Imp and PYL the best bot lane in the world right now in my opinions.
I would rank the bot lanes in this group in this order
Imp+PYL > Arrow+Piccaboo >/= Niels+Mithy > Wildturtle+Lustboy
There is a lot on the line for these bot lanes and for any of the later 3 teams to win they will need to play at their top form.
- AN – AHQ’s Real Star
When people think of AHQ they immediately think of Westdoor, but with Westdoors awkward champion pool of not playing either of the S Tier mages of Azir and Viktor meaning AHQ bans them for the most part, Westdoor was known for his Fizz (somewhat out of meta), Cho’Gath (Cheese Pick) Diana, and Ahri makes him very able to be banned out and or just right out picked. AHQ has to relay on the next carry a man who has been stepping up when his team needed him AN the ADC. Having a stellar performance on Kalista in the Finals against HKE. AN plays the role of a cleanup ADC mostly because of Westdoor playing mainly Assassins and Ziv being known as playing top lane carries when able. AN has really grown into the ADC that AHQ needs. For AHQ to make it out of groups they will need to Cheese people with Westdoors assassins and play around their star ADC.
Match ups- This may be the best group for AN because it has the weakest Chinese ADC in it but it does have two of the wests best ADC’s in Sneaky and Rekkles. I Would Rank the Adc’s in the group Rekkles > Sneaky > An> Kid
Now we have to take into account the supports and how they will work togeather with their ADC or in one case drag down ones individual’s skill. Rekkles/YellowStar > An/Albis > Kid/Kitties > Sneaky/Lemon
Sneaky on an individual level is very good but with lemon underperforming it will be hard for them to stack up to the rest of this group giving AN the better edge in this group and an underrated player to watch out for!
Bonus – Underrated players / SUB players
Kkramer – In My opinion Kkramer should be starting for FW NL is past his prime and if FW can Fix the communication between and Kkramer and get his builds undercontrol ( I.E. Full Attack Speed Lucian, Frozen Mallet Kalista ect.. ) He could be a real good ADC, According to Lolesports he may be the start :)))
Maple – Star player on FW and most consistent Player for the team.
Flame- If flame does not play a game I will be sad. A top tier top laner being a sub sucks.
Huhi- On the CLG post it was said Xmithie will play for the group stages not being said if they make it farther if he would have more problems or what, just something to watch out for.
Ziv – Plays Carry oriented top laners and the Meta may Suit him well.
G4- The best player on BKT by far if they are to win a game it’s on his back.
Time – IG’s Sub ADC Known for having good mechanics if need be may be a good replacement for Kid.
BetongJocke – Loulex is almost 100% the weakest link on H2K and the young jungler may be a suitable replacement if need be!
Koro1 – It was recently announced that AmazingJ would be playing for EDG, I disagree with the decision as Koro1 in my opinion was the superior player and could perform better than AmazingJ in this Meta. If Koro1 does not play any game it would be just as bad as if Flame did not play if not worse because Koro1 was the starting player most of the season. Unless for some reason Koro1 is having Health issues again it’s an unjust reason to start AmazingJ.
Easyhoon – Is arguably the second if not 3rd best mid laner in Korea it’s another Position where it sucks for Hoon but I don’t think SKT would let him go shine elsewhere just in case they lose Faker they always have a strong back up.
Photo Creds : @lolesports , @lolesports.br, @garena, @Origen.gg, @Wildturtle, and @H2k
