2016 MSI player rankings by position
By Andrew Ross
1.) Mata – RNG
One of the true greats in League of Legends: Mata.
In the five games at Katowice, Mata averaged a 3.5 KDA, 70.8 percent kill participation and placed 1.41 wards per minute. However, it’s never really been about the stats for Mata.
Instead, it’s always been about the leadership and shotcalling that have made Mata great. Those qualities led Samsung White to a World Championship, and now it has led RNG to a LPL title.
If there are openings for RNG to win games, Mata is going to find them. It’s up to his teammates to execute once he makes the decisions.
2.) Wolf – SKT
Lee “Wolf” Jae-wan is usually considered the worst player on SKT, but being the worst player on SKT is like being the poorest billionaire in the world. It’s not a bad thing.
He used to have issues with getting caught out a lot, but he has fixed that over time and has become one of the best supports in the world.
Wolf brings a lot of flexibility to SKT with his ability to to be aggressive when they need it or defensive when they need it, and he has proven to be a perfect partner for Bang.
Supports will usually die a lot just to protect their ADC, and you would think that’s the case with Wolf and Bang, but it isn’t. While Bang finished Katowice with a 19.6 KDA and only five deaths, Wolf was right behind him with a KDA of 11.9 and only eight deaths.
They are the bot lane that doesn’t die.
3.) Aphromoo – CLG
CLG is a team filled with role players who are simply trying to do their best as a complete unit, and Zaqueri “Aphromoo” Black is the one who gets all those players to work correctly.
Like Mata, Aphromoo is the man calling the shots for CLG and nearly everything they do can be traced back to a decision he made.
His stats aren’t anything to brag about, but he deserves all the credit in the world for starting the season with puppies and turning them into dogs to win CLG another NA LCS title.
CLG knows they can count on Aphromoo to show up, because that’s exactly what he did at Katowice. The stats don’t tell the real story of how well he played. He just didn’t have that much help.
4.) Hybrid – G2
Similar to his lane partner, Glenn “Hybrid” Doornenbal doesn’t do anything phenomenally, but he is a solid support.
The worst thing a support can do is get caught out and killed all the time, and that’s not a mistake that Hybrid makes often. In fact, during the regular season, he had the second-fewest deaths (25) among anyone that played the entire season. Hybrid finished the regular season with a 7.9 KDA, 71.2 kill participation percentage, placed 1.23 wards per minute and cleared 0.44 wards per minute.
It’s good that Hybrid dies so little since his ADC dies a lot. He will put G2 in good shape if he can keep Emperor safe and continue doing what he’s been doing.
5.) SwordArT – FW
Hu “SwordArT” Shuo-Jie looked really good this past split, but playing next to NL helps him out greatly.
He likes to play champions that allow him to initiate fights for his team, but that’s where he could be hurt at MSI – his champion pool.
SwordArT played a total of six champions over the course of the regular season and playoffs, but 65 percent of those games were on either Thresh or Alistar. He is fine on both Braum and Trundle, but it’s clear that he always wants to play either Alistar or Thresh.
Teams will target him in champion select, and it will be interesting to see how he does against top competition when he isn’t on a comfort pick.
6.) Dumbledodge – SUP
The last player of these rankings: Mustafa “Dumbledodge” Kemal Gokseloglu. That’s right, the legend himself.
If you remember last year’s MSI, one of the best moments from the event was when Dumbledodge had the highlight of his career by killing Faker.
There’s a 100 percent chance that SUP send a four-man gank Faker’s way in an attempt to get Dumbledodge another kill on the game’s greatest.
Seriously, though, Dumbedoge is a fine support that will be able to keep up with pretty much everyone else at his position besides Mata and Wolf. Achuu is going to have a difficult time at MSI, and it’s going to be up to Dumbledodge to make his teammates life a little easier.
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