Who were the Best Laners in the LCS in the 2020 Season?
By Josh Tyler
We break down which LCS players were the best laners in 2020 to help inform how they might do in 2021.
Mid Lane
Daniele “Jiizuke” di Mauro
You may have forgotten about the Italian Stallion, but he quietly was the most dominant laner among all mids in the LCS last year. With an over AGXD of +539, his lead over the rest of the pack wasn’t as massive as Blaber or Licorice, but he was still the most impressive mid in the league. Not bad considering he was favored to win lane only 55.9% of the time.
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Like Licorice, Jiizuke had a much wider champion pool than most of the players we’ve discussed today, so he doesn’t have a lot of high-volume champion picks. That said, he was extremely good on Leblanc (+870 AGXD) and his pocket-pick, Ekko (+1036 AGXD). If he’s back in the EG starting lineup next year, mid laners should definitely fear him.
Nicolaj “Jensen” Jensen
A contender for the best overall mid laner in the LCS last year (for me it was either him or PowerofEvil), Jensen posted a +341 AGXD during the 2020 season. What stood out to me as most impressive, though, is that of all the champions Jensen picked at least three times, he had a positive AGXD on all of them.
That means, on the champions Jensen was most comfortable on (Zoe, Twisted Fate, Syndra, Orianna, Leblanc, Azir), Jensen always outperformed expectations in lane. In fact, he had an “underperformance” of laning phase to expectations on those champions only 13 times in 43 games (a 69.7% “won” lane rate).
Yasin “Nisqy” Dinçer
Though he was known as an “enabling” mid laner who was more about helping his jungler than winning his own lane, Nisqy actually out-performed his lanes relative to expectations. With an average AGXD of +306 on the year, he managed to roam and still win lanes. He was also often put in position to win lane, expected to win 64.4% of the lane matchups he faced.
His best pick in 2020, Galio, exemplified his roaming playstyle and mastery of the champion, as he posted a +624 AGXD on the Colossus. However, his other two most-picked champions – Twisted Fate and Zoe – were a bit more middling despite also being able to have that roaming playstyle. He had a +170 AGXD on TF and +109 AGXD on Zoe.