LCS 2021: Ranking Every Single Starting LCS Mid Laner

7. Nicholas “Ablazeolive” Antonio Abbott (Golden Guardians)

Another young player, Ablazeolive is actually getting his first look at life in the LCS after spending the 2020 season as the mid laner for Golden Guardians Academy. Replacing Damonte, Ablazeolive will figure to be one of the cornerstones of the young GGS roster.

In the Academy league, Ablazeolive had some obvious strengths like his high kill participation (75.9%) and laning. With a 407.5 MAGXD @ 15, Ablazeolive proved that he is able to take advantage of favorable lane matchups and outperform Academy level players. While he might not replicate this performance against stiffer competition, I don’t think he’ll be as out of place as someone like Soligo.

Moreover, while his raw damage output (514 DPM) was not great, it is actually more of a reflection on the champions picked than his skill. With an Estimated Damage Differential of 53.6, Ablazeolive outperformed his expectations on utility mids like Galio, Karma, and Twisted Fate. However, teams should also be afraid of his Viktor, which is also sneaky-good.

The more utility-focused champion pool also explains Ablazeolive’s low gold per minute (394), but it does not excuse or explain his 2.60 aKDA. Despite that high kill participation, Ablazeolive died 2.7 times per game and had the second-highest death share of all mid laners. He’ll need to get those deaths down if he wants to make an impact in his first LCS split.