Worlds 2020: Rating and Ranking Every Jungler at Worlds
By Josh Tyler
We break down every jungler that you will see at Worlds 2020.
20. Mads “Broxah” Brock-Pedersen (Team Liquid) – 73 OVR
Unfortunately, the hits keep coming to the LCS as their junglers are rated among the worst in the world. For Broxah, the problems are not quite as champion pool based (his Lee Sin and Graves win rates and KDAs are very good) but more focused on one particular area: the early game.
Against NA junglers (which is unfortunately proving to be weak competition) Broxah was among the worst early game junglers, averaging -154 gold and -104 experience differentials at 15 minutes. While he did manage to turn around that gold deficit into a gold advantage in the playoffs (+174g at 15), his experience deficit ballooned to -381 at 15 minutes. Already one of the slower-paced and lower-damage junglers, Broxah needs to figure out how to improve his early game play to help leverage his teammates and get them ahead.
19. Huang “Gemini” Chu-Xuan (Machi Esports) – 75 OVR
Gemini’s champion pool might be even more narrow than Broxah’s. In 77 games in the PCS, he played only 11 unique champions and two champions – Graves and Lee Sin – accounted for 37 of those games. That being said, he’s a ridiculously good Graves player with over an 80% win rate and a KDA over 7.00.
However, in playing primarily two high-damage carry champions, Gemini’s aDPM is 262.1 and his damage-to-gold ratio is 0.66. Neither of those numbers are terribly below average, but in a less-competitive region playing exclusively carry champions, it’s not a great sign that his damage contribution is this low.
18. Kirill “AHaHaCiK” Skvortsov (Unicorns of Love) – 75 OVR
AHaHaCiK, on the other hand, has a much more diverse champion pool than just Lee Sin/Graves/Trundle. Yes, Lee and Trundle are two of his most-picked champions, but his third most-played junger is actually Karthus. After the Deathsinger, AHaHaCiK has also played a considerable number of Kha’Zix, Kindred, and Volibear.
With this wide champion pool, AHaHaCiK put up some decent damage numbers and his aKDA of 4.86 is among the highest for his role. Where he really struggles, though, is his low vision score (1.31 VSPM) and kill participation (61.9% during the LCL regular season). While the meta does suit carry junglers, you’d still like to see the jungler enable players on his team, especially when he’s paired with players like Nomanz in the mid lane.
17. Leo “Babip” Romer (Legacy Esports) – 76 OVR
Babip stood out for his ridiculous gold per minute (averaging 359 raw GPM) but the fact that his 19.1% gold share isn’t too much higher than the jungle average makes me suspect the numbers are inflated due to his team’s performance. One stat that is not inflated, though, is his 4.31 aKDA, which is thanks to the fact that he rarely dies (averaging 1.3 deaths per game during the regular season).
As for his champion pool, it’s quite a large variety (Trundle, Nidalee, and Olaf are his top three) but Nidalee is unquestionably his most successful pick. He has a jaw-dropping 14.71 KDA and averages over 6 kills per game on the Bestial Hunter. Expect his team to lean on the pick heavily at Worlds.
16. Lee “KaKAO” Byung-kwon (Papara Supermassive) – 76 OVR
The legendary KT jungler is making his return to Worlds for the first time since 2015, this time as a member of the Turkish representative. KaKAO may be a part of the older guard and his champion pool (Trundle, Olaf, and Elise) largely reflect that. That’s not to say he can’t be effective on those old-school picks, particularly his Olaf, on which he has a KDA over 10.
One area that KaKAO’s experience has served him well is in his early game pathing. He dominated TCL junglers and averaged a gold lead of over 500 and an XP lead of almost 700 during the regular season. Now, he’ll have to show that this early game prowess is the result of his play, not just the quality of opponents he was facing.