LPL player power ranking: why Knight is the best mid in the LPL
By Josh Tyler
5. Huang “Maple” Yi-Tang – Suning
Maple is, statistically, right up there with top-tier mids like Rookie and Kuro, far closer to their performance than Xiaohu and Scout. However, and this is a big “however,” Maple has had the advantage of playing with the best support (SwordArT), second-best jungler (H4cker), and third-best top laner (XioAL) in the LPL. Although his stats are impressive, it’s difficult to rank him so highly when he is supported by such quality talent, unlike our next LPL mid laner.
4. Kim “Doinb” Tae-sang – FunPlus Pheonix
Similar to Xiaohu, Doinb recently got to test his mettle against Maple and Suning in the last match prior to the split. Surprisingly, Suning opted to sub out their starter for the first two games in favor of sub Xiang “Angel” Tao. Angel performed very well in his first two games of the season, going a combined 13/4/17 on Zoe and Leblanc as the teams split the first two games.
In the deciding game three, Doinb got the best of Maple, hard-carrying on Urgot to the tune of a 7/3/5 scoreline. Given how close Doinb and Maple are statistically, we have to give Doinb the edge in our LPL mid laner power rankings.
3. Song “Rookie” Eui-jin – Invictus Gaming
Rookie was probably the odds-on favorite to be the first-team LPL mid laner coming off his incredible performance at last year’s World Championships. By no means is Rookie playing poorly this year, with the highest damage per minute numbers in the LPL and a solid 3.58 KDA. Unfortunately, those numbers represent a fairly significant drop compared to his performance last year.
Certainly, Rookie can bounce back and regain his form, but right now Invictus is being carried to a stellar record largely on the backs of Ning and TheShy, not Rookie.
2. Lee “Kuro” Seo-haeng – Bilibili Gaming
Maybe the comeback story of the year in all of professional League of Legends, Kuro has played insanely through his first six games with Bilibili. He’s averaging less than a death per game, has over a 70% kill participation, and the third-highest damage share numbers.
He’s also the LPL’s leader in KDA, at 12.2, performing well on a multitude of champions (five unique champions played in his six days). Most impressive, though, is the fact that only once has he died more than one time in a game this season, when he went 2/3/10 on Vladimir in a loss to OMG. When your worst game of the season still has you at a 4.0 KDA, you’re doing well.
1. Knight – TOPsports
As alluded to at the TOP (heh) of the article, the number one player on our LPL mid laner rankings is Knight. This man is the statistical leader in kills per game (4.78), gold per minute (431), gold share (22.9%), kill share (33.3%), and percent of damage done (31.8%). In short, Knight has been a massive carry for TOPsports and their success is dependent on him.
Unlike other massive carries, Knight isn’t overly reckless, averaging under two deaths per game, which is good for third-best in the LPL. He also does a fantastic job at accumulating gold and CS leads early, and has done a good job facing down against tough competition in his young career. Even in TOP’s first series of the year – in which they were swept by Invictus – Knight went toe-to-toe with Rookie in those games despite his jungler, top, and support struggling.
Moreso than Kuro or Rookie, Knight has had to be the best player on his team. If you replaced Rookie or Kuro with an average mid-laner, Invictus and Bilibili would still be top-tier teams. Without Knight, however, TOPsports might be mid-tier or above-average at best.
dark. Next. Patch 9.3 notes breakdown
Disagree with some of our rankings? Let us know who you think is the best LPL jungler in the comments below!