LPL player power ranking: why Knight is the best mid in the LPL

At the quarter-mark of the 2019 LPL Spring Split, Knight has surpassed the lofty expectations of him entering the season. What separates Knight from the other LPL mids, and where do those Chinese mids rank behind him?

If you asked most spectators to hazard a guess as to who would be the most impactful mid laner in the LPL, most would have picked the amazing mid of the defending world champions, Invictus Gaming’s Rookie. Some might have strayed to more “hipster” picks like Bilibili’s Kuro, Suning’s Maple, or FunPlus Pheonix’s Doinb. However, TOPsport’s (“TOP”) Zhuo “Knight” Ding has eclipsed them all.

According to our player power index, no mid laner in the LPL even comes close to Knight statistically this year. In spite of the fact that most of TOP’s other members are underperforming (apart from Ben, no other players are ranked in the top five at their position), Knight has been able to carry this shaky roster to a 3-1 (6-3) record on the year, putting them square in the “true contenders” tier of our latest LPL power rankings.

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While Knight’s greatness is certainly not in question, we must wonder where the other LPL mid laners stack up, and who can challenge Knight’s claim to the throne. The LPL mid laner power rankings ahead!

16. Yang “Mala” Hyeon-jong – Snake Esports

Snake as a whole has not been impressive so far this split, but Mala might be the biggest reason that they started the season 1-4 (3-9). He has the unfortunate distinction to “lead” all LPL mid laners in lowest gold per game, gold share, and kill participation. His 2.22 KDA is also bottom five in the LPL, though luckily he is not the worst in this category.

15. Chen “Jay” Bo – Vici Gaming

Vici as a team has a bit of a higher ceiling in terms of performance than Snake, but unfortunately, their mid laner is also dragging the team down so far this year. While Jay’s KDA and gold shares aren’t terrible this split, he is one of the least impactful mid laners in the LPL when it comes to damage contributions.

14. Xie “icon” Tian-Yu – OMG

Icon gets a lot of hype for his flashy plays, but unfortunately his high death numbers (his average 3.38 deaths per game is second-worst in the LPL). He’s also, surprisingly, towards the bottom of the rankings in terms of kill participation and kill share for mid laners, despite being comfortably towards the top in damage. This would indicate that he is a player who is often taking big gambles and throwing advantages by not staying alive long enough to do his full burst.

13. Huang “Twila” Ting-Wei – SinoDragon

SinoDragon is currently sitting in the middle of the pack with a 2-2 (5-4) record, right in the hunt for a playoff spot. Unfortunately, their mid laner might be holding them back. Twila has the lowest kill share of any LPL mid laner despite having gotten some powerful picks in the meta (Ryze and Lissandra twice). It’s not as though he’s not being put in a position to carry, and he’s doing plenty of damage, but this inability to close out kills puts him towards the bottom of the league in GPM and gold share.