League of Legends LCK Week 9 player power rankings – the case for Nuguri as MVP
By Josh Tyler
Who are the best League of Legends players in each position in the LCK after Week 9?
With one week left in the LCK regular season, the question of who is the best League of Legends player in Korea is – in my mind – all but answered. While there are some really good mid laners, a couple of superior ADCs, and some of the best junglers in the world, the man at the top of my ballot will be from the top lane.
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I’ll justify the pick, as well as the ranking for each player at in the LCK, by using our own proprietary statistics, developed from the traditional stats available for all major regions. We explained these statistics a bit more in the first LCS breakdown, but you can see the full statistics here. All underlying statistics are per our friends at Oracle’s Elixir.
Top lane
1. Jang “Nuguri” Ha-gwon (Damwon Gaming)
MVP. He’s the MVP folks. Nuguri has straight-up carried Damwon to being one of the best teams in the league.
Not only are his raw numbers insane (314.8 gold per minute, accounting for 25.2% of his teams gold, and 594 DPM making up 30.7% of all damage done by his team), his adjusted numbers show just how insane he’s been compared to other players not just at his position but in the LCK.
His aDPM (which accounts for raw damage per minute as well as percent of team’s damage relative to others in his position) is 638.1. That is not just the highest for all top laners, it is higher than everyone in the LCK and there are only two players (both ADCs) within 100 aDPM of him (Viper and Aiming). His adjusted GPM might not be the best in the LCK (there are three ADCs actually ahead of him) but it’s still the best among all solo laners by a wide margin.
2. Kim “Kiin” Gi-in (Afreeca Freecs)
3. Park “Summit” Woo-tae (Sandbox Gaming)
4. Kim “Khan” Dong-ha (SK Telecom T1)
5. Choi “Sword” Sung-won (Griffin)
6. Choi “Doran” Hyeon-joon (Griffin)
7. Kim “SoHwan” Jun-yeong (Hanwha Life Esports)
8. Hwang “Kingen” Seong-hoon (KT Rolster)
9. Kim “Roach” Kang-hui (Gen.G)
10. Kim “Rascal” Kwang-hee (Kingzone DragonX)
11. Lee “CuVee” Seong-jin (Gen.G)
12. Lee “Flame” Ho-jong (Damwon Gaming)
13. Lee “TaNa” Sang-wook (Jin Air Greenwings)
14. Park “Thal” Kwon-hyuk (Hanwha Life Esports)
15. Song “Smeb” Kyung-ho (KT Rolster)
16. Heo “Lindarang” Man-heung (Jin Air Greenwings)