League of Legends Worlds: Top 10 overperformers from the group stage

Riot Games /

The group stage of Worlds are behind us, but there were several impressively unexpected performances. Here are the ten League of Legends players who outperformed expectations!

As Worlds advances to the knockout round, it’s easy to overlook the players who outperformed expectations, especially when some of them are going home early. Nevertheless, respect shall be paid to the League of Legends pro players who played their hearts out and played their best on the Worlds stage.

To that end, we’ll be ranking the ten players who performed the best statistically at Worlds compared to their regular-season performance. As a caveat, yes these players are being graded on a much lower sample size in the group stage than they had in the regular split. Nevertheless, here are the ten biggest overperforming players from the group stage!

10. Tamás “Vizicsacsi” Kiss (Splyce)

Splyce and Vizicsacsi both benefitted from playing easier teams in Group B, for sure, but Csacsi did take full advantage to post much better numbers for his team in groups. His Kill Efficiency (2.03 to 2.47), Laning Score (-1.2 to -0.09), and adjusted KDA (2.04 to 2.45) all improved from some of the worst marks among top laners to above average. He was also one of the best team-fighting top laners in the group stage, posting the highest Vision Score Per Minute (1.28) at his position.

9. Song “Rookie” Eui-jin (Invictus Gaming)

The big concern for the defending World Champions coming into 2019 Worlds was that they didn’t have enough of their big players playing at the same level as last year’s championship run. Rookie, for his part, came online in the group stage posting a 5.28 Kill Efficiency with a 4.18 adjusted KDA. He also put up the second-most adjusted damage per minute among mid laners with 554.5 aDPM.

8. Jian “Uzi” Zi-Hao (RNG)

I gotta pour one out for Uzi because he played phenomenally in the group stage and did everything possible to carry a struggling RNG squad to the knockout rounds. His 618.2 aDPM was one of the highest in the tournament, as was his 533.9 aGPM. His team funneled most of the game’s resources into Uzi’s hands and unfortunately, it just wasn’t quite enough.

7. Zdravets “Hylissang” Iliev Galabov (Fnatic)

I was not quite as high on Hylissang coming into Worlds as most people were, but he absolutely proved himself to be a premiere support. Although his vision numbers (2.19 VSPM) and KDA numbers (1.12 Kill Efficiency, 1.29 aKDA), Hyli’s damage and gold shares are mind-boggling for a support. He is the only support to account for more than 15% of his team’s damage, doing 367.3 aDPM – over 70 higher than the next-best support!

6. Kang “TheShy” Seung-lok (Invictus Gaming)

By just about every statistical measure, TheShy was the best top laner at Worlds during the group stage. His 684.8 adjusted DPM was the highest for anyone at Worlds as was his 2.22 Laning Score. He averaged an 1135 gold, 25 CS, and 700 experience advantage at the 15-minute mark.

5. Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon (Griffin)

Griffin got huge performances out of all their star players, a stark contrast to what most expected given their underwhelming playoff showings. Chovy led the way from the mid lane, posting immaculate statistics across all facets of the game. He was also the best mid laner when it came to vision control, posting a 1.45 VSPM.

4. Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok (SKT)

The Worlds buff has been activated. While Faker‘s stats during the LCK Summer Split this year weren’t mind-boggling, his performance at Worlds has been.

With the highest adjusted gold per minute among mid laners (489.2, up from 403.7 in the regular season) Faker has been getting more and more resources from his team and turning them into advantages. He has the second-best laning score for mids (1.46) and averages a 954 gold lead at 15 minutes, best in that role.

3. Philippe “Vulcan” Laflamme (Clutch Gaming)

Even though Clutch went 0-6 in the group stage, the stats show that this is a team that should be damn proud of their performance. Just about every player performed better than they had during the regular split, indicating some real growth from the playoffs, and Vulcan was one of the standouts. He trailed only Norskeren and Baolan when it came to his vision control (2.79 VSPM) and saw his kill participation and death share both improve from his summer form.

2. Tanner “Damonte” Damonte (Clutch Gaming)

Before the Worlds tournament began, I wondered if we would get to see the insane level of play Damonte showed in the LCS playoffs and Gauntlet continue, or if it was an aberration and he would regress to his summer form. I’m happy to say that, although Tanner Time is done, for now, it’s clear that Damonte is a player on the upswing.

The statistical worst mid laner entering Worlds, Damonte held his own despite facing some massively tough competition in Group C. While many of his statistics are down as a result two important statistics that went up were his damage outputs and laning stats. The fact that Damonte was able to perform better in lane against the likes of Faker, Nemesis, and Xiaohu and translate his play into more damage later in the game is great news for ~~Clutch~~ Dignitas fans.

Next. How often to regions draw the Group of Death?. dark

1. Son “Lehends” Si-woo (Griffin)

I thought Lehends was a criminally underrated support coming into Worlds and it is mind-blowing that people still aren’t talking about him. Lehends was, by my estimation, the best player in the group stage so far.

His 10.8 raw KDA and 6.39 aKDA are both miles ahead of the next-best support (FPX’s Crisp, who has a 5.4 raw KDA and 2.83 aKDA). His adjusted damage per minute (294.9 aDPM) and income numbers (270.4 aGPM) are either the best or second-best in his role. While Lehends was the fourth-best support in my pre-Worlds rankings, it’s time to put some respect on Lehends’s name.

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