Ahead of the intense Semifinals of the 2021 World Championship, the website Upcomer conducted a poll for the international League of Legends community to rank 20 players from the four teams competing in this round. Participants rated the players on a scale of 10. With 1,200 votes from around the world, a ranking has been established with many surprising results.
Notably, Faker is ranked only 6th with a score of 8.30/10. While this is not a low ranking, especially as Faker is now 25 years old and no longer delivers highlight performances as frequently as he did two years ago, it cannot be denied that, to compensate for his individual skills, Faker now plays more for the team, has better macro, and is a crucial core in T1’s gameplay.
Moreover, Faker is also the team’s mental pillar in crucial moments. However, as mentioned above, perhaps it is the age and the somewhat “retreating” performance that led to Faker not receiving a higher score.
Both T1 and DWG KIA occupy most of the top 10 positions, with the exceptions of Ghost (rank 17, 7.32 points) and Oner (11, 8.10 points). This is likely because Ghost, despite having some decent performances, has been overshadowed by DK’s focus on top lane and his own lack of impressive KDA stats, contributing only at an average level, thus not being highly rated. As for Oner, despite being his first year competing at the 2021 World Championship and his first year playing for the main team, Oner even ranks above all other junglers participating in the Semifinals, only trailing Canyon.
Ranked 10th is the player BeryL with 8.13 points. BeryL has a roaming gank playstyle across the map rather than solely protecting the AD Carry. However, it can be said that BeryL’s playstyle perfectly fits DK as he always ensures that his key players can secure as many resources as possible.
Among the top 5, Keria and Gumayusi are ranked 4th and 5th respectively with scores of 9.05 and 8.93. This ranking is indisputable, as both are the bot lane duo with the highest KDA stats in the 2021 World Championship so far, and Keria even surpasses Gumayusi despite playing the Support position. It can be said that Keria is currently regarded as the best Support in the world by the League of Legends community, while Gumayusi is helping T1 fans gradually forget about Teddy’s absence.
In the top 3 positions, Khan ranks 3rd with 9.14 points. On the verge of conscription age, Khan has only 10 games left to claim the elusive World Championship trophy that has always eluded him during the peak years of his career. At 25 years old, Khan still proves he deserves to be the number one top laner at the 2021 World Championship. He possesses most impressive stats such as solo kills, pentakills, and participation in first bloods, making him one of the key factors in DK’s gameplay centered around the top lane.
In 2nd place is ShowMaker with 9.42 points. This is a reasonable position as SMK has proven his abilities since DK won the 2020 World Championship. In the group stage, SMK completely outplayed his senior Doinb from FunPlus Phoenix with creative picks, even though Doinb is no slouch among the midlaners at this World Championship.
In 1st place is the jungler Canyon with 9.47 points. Canyon has been the best jungler in the group stage, but during the 3 games against MAD Lions, it can be said that it was not ShowMaker or Khan, but Canyon who was the main driving force behind DK’s dominant victory at that time, and his performance even surpassed his own in the group stage. The question now is: will Canyon successfully defend the championship with DK, or will one of Oner, Clid, or Jiejie be able to stop this “God of the Jungle” from Korea?
RANKING BASED ON INTERNATIONAL AUDIENCE VOTING
1. Canyon (9.47)
2. ShowMaker (9.42)
3. Khan (9.14)
4. Keria (9.05)
5. Gumayusi (8.93)
6. Faker (8.30)
7. Bdd (8.26)
8. Viper (8.25)
9. Canna (8.17)
10. BeryL (8.13)
11. Oner (8.10)
12. Ruler (7.99)
13. Meiko (7.77)
14. Scout (7.73)
15. Jiejie (7.51)
16. Clid (7.37)
17. Ghost (7.32)
18. Life (7.09)
19. Flandre (6.93)
20. Rascal (5.94)