Worlds 2020: Ranking and Rating All the Mid Laners at Worlds
By Josh Tyler
We break down the best mid laners that you will see at Worlds 2020.
20. Tomás “Aloned” Díaz Valiente (Rainbow7) – 69 OVR
Aloned really does not have a lot of good things going for him stat-wise. His aKDA a below-average 2.53, his damage (425.7 aDPM) is way below average, and he’s a good-not-great laner in the OPL.
The other big problem is that the only champion in his pool that he’s shown consistent performances is on is Azir (85.7% win rate, KDA). Having said that, he does have a lot of picks like Qiyana and Rumble that can catch some players off guard.
19. Bruno “Envy” Farias (INTZ) – 72 OVR
Envy is, for all intents and purposes, an Orianna one-trick in the CBLOL. He’s played more than twice as many games on the Lady of Clockwork than he has on his next most-played champion, and it’s his highest win-rate champion other than Lucian (who he’s 3-0 on in 2020). The recent Lucian pickup is encouraging for him and INTZ, but I’d expect a lot of Orianna bans to get thrown his way.
The good news for Envy is that his stats are generally not terrible. He’s got good KDA numbers, his kill participation is high, his gold and damage numbers are in line, and he’s a decent laner. Unfortunately, putting up a pretty good performance in the CBLOL is probably not going to cut it against better players at Worlds.
18. Onur “Bolulu” Can Demirol (Papara SuperMassive)
Bolulu put up a lot of impressive stats (4.97 aKDA, 393.7 aGPM, 553.8 aDPM, 1.05 VSPM, 1.407 damage-to-gold ratio) in the TCL, but the one area where he was not quite as impressive was his laning. In the regular season, he was great (+446g/+3 CS/+230 XP differentials at 15), but against tougher competition in the playoffs he wilted (-78g/-7 CS/-114 XP).
One unique champion in Bolulu’s arsenal is his Vel’Koz pick. In 5 games this season, Bolulu had a 14.25 KDA on the Eye of the Void. Don’t be surprised if this pocket pick comes out at Worlds.
17. Park “Tank” Dan-won (PSG Talon) – 77 OVR
Tank has put up some very solid numbers for PSG Talon in the PCS, including a 5.14 aKDA and 527.9 aDPM (with a decent damage-to-gold ratio to boot). He also tends to drive the play by averaging close to 5 kills per game and accounting for 31.6% of his team’s kills during the regular season, with a solid 76.9% kill participation.
His champion pool, however, is somewhat limited, as he played nearly half (29 out of 68) of his games on either Syndra or Azir. And, though his Syndra is quite good, his Azir has been very hit-or-miss. After those two, he has a few picks that he’s shown promise on like Corki and Orianna, but not much that is a reliable power pick for him.
16. Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg (TSM) – 78 OVR
You might be shocked to see the runner-up for LCS MVP runner-up and all-time LCS great Bjergsen this low, but 2020 was not as rosy a year as the highlights would make you believe. Let’s start with the fact that Bjergsen has never been one to be a high-damage threat (483.2 aDPM) but still requires a heavy amount of resources (417.3 aGPM for a damage-to-gold ratio of 1.16). In addition, he’s always been a weak mid laner in terms of vision control (0.89 VSPM) and his laning hasn’t been great in recent years (+15 gold/+1 CS/+13 XP average differentials at 15).
Part of that, to be sure, is due to the picks he plays. His most successful champions in 2020 were Zilean, Twisted Fate, and Syndra. But these are more enabling picks and he has struggled mightily on carry mid lane picks like Azir (22% win rate, 3.63 KDA) and Leblanc (60% win rate in five games). It might be an evolution of his game, but with fairly weak teammates at some point Bjergsen needs to be “the guy” for TSM.