Rating and ranking all 24 top laners at the League of Legends World Championship
By Josh Tyler
3. Kang “TheShy” Seung-lok (Invictus Gaming) – 83 OVR
TheShy, this season, has been Huni on steroids. He dies more than almost anyone at Worlds, posting only a 2.00 aKDA (worst among tops from the major regions) and a 2.02 Kill Efficiency. So how the heck is he third on this list?
The simple answer is that those high deaths are due to his massive damage contributions (576.9 aDPM, second-best among top laners) and getting gold (426.8 aGPM). TheShy might not be a reliable carry like Wunder or Zeros, but he can have those pop-off games and carry his team.
2. Gabriël “Bwipo” Rau (Fnatic) – 84 OVR
Although Wunder gets most of the credit and accolades for being the best top laner to come out of EU, in opinion Bwipo outclasses him. While, yes, Wunder beats Bwipo in terms of aKDA and Kill Efficiency, he does far better than Wunder in terms of gold (425.8 aGPM to Wunder’s 401.2), damage (495.5 vs. 551.8), and kill participation (108.3% aKP vs. 92% aKP).
In short, while Bwipo is sacrificing his life a lot more for his team but he’s doing it to do damage for his team. Oh, and in case you think that his high death count is an indication he’s worse than Wunder, note that Bwipo also had more solo kills in the Summer Split than Wunder (7 for Bwipo, 6 for Wunder).
1. Jang “Nuguri” Ha-gwon (Damwon Gaming) – 94 OVR
The main reason that I decided to include the overall ratings in this ranking is because of Nuguri, specifically to show just how insanely far ahead of the rest of the top laners at Worlds he is. The average aDPM for a top laner is 442. Nuguri’s is 640. The average aGPM is 402.1. Nuguri’s is 458.2.
Next. Ranking all 24 teams at the League of Legends World Championship. dark
The only statistics where Nuguri isn’t just outclassing everyone are Kill Efficiency (he’s still in the top five among top laners) and laning score (which is excused by him having to play top lane in LCK). Nuguri is far-and-away the best top laner at the World Championship and looking at the other tops he’ll get to feast on in the play-ins makes me want to give them a blindfold and a cigarette.