LCS 2021: Ranking Every Single Starting ADC in the LCS
By Josh Tyler
7. Matthew “Deftly” Chen (Evil Geniuses)
Deftly has always had a soft spot in my heart, as he’s proven to be a capable AD Carry during his limited stint in the LCS. His solid play continued during his time in the Academy league, so it’s great to see him get another shot at a starting role.
In Academy, Deftly was one of the best laners in the league. With a 586.9 MAGXD @ 15, Deftly was not only winning lanes, he was winning them far harder than he should have. Unfortunately, those lane wins rarely translated to strong income later into the game.
Deftly’s gold per minute was 434, which is just slightly higher-than-average. That wouldn’t be concerning if he wasn’t one of the top-performing laners in the league. A big reason for that might be that Deftly averaged 2 deaths per game, which is higher than average, and resulted in him having a below-average aKDA of 3.23.
Where Deftly makes up for that poor income, however, is in his damage output. Despite having about average income, Deftly managed to post 618 damage per minute and an EDD of 35.8.
The fact that Deftly is able to efficiently use his low gold to outperform his expected average is quite impressive. If he’s able to more consistently translate those strong leads into better income, he might be able to push into the upper echelon of the LCS.