Why the 2022 LEC Spring Split MVP is NOT Misfits Vetheo

Gather ’round children. Lemme learn you a thing or two about tunneling too hard on narratives and not learning to appreciate the more important qualities in players.

Why Everyone Thinks It Should Be Vetheo

Well, it’s because the kid had the balls to name his main SoloQ account “2022 Spring Split MVP” and then proceed to play like an MVP candidate – normally in esports, we see players that trash talk after they’ve won the game, but few do it before the game even starts. Vetheo’s assuredness in his abilities and the ensuing eye test leave little up for debate, he is certainly having an MVP-caliber split. I would even compare it to Caps’ latest MVP split in Season 10 summer, which also happens to be the last time where a mid laner won the award.

Why It Isn’t Vetheo

Because Shlatan’s contributions to his mid laner go virtually unsung in the face of the almighty LEC narrative gods, and anytime Vetheo has even a semblance of a good game, he is launched immediately into the heavens and praised for all of his eternal glory. This is not to say Vetheo is a bum – I had him leading the MVP race for a good portion of the split.

My biggest problem with the Vetheo MVP narrative is that Vetheo rarely creates advantages by himself. Yes, he is having a monstrous split and has shown not only deadly poise in Misfits’ famous comebacks wins but also a consistent mechanical output that simply transcends pretty much every other player in Europe – the only possible exception being Fnatic’s Upset.

But the key to a mid laner winning an MVP is him unlocking the full capacity of the powerful vantage position that mid lane grants and using that to impact the map and take over the games. In the aforementioned Caps’ MVP split, I saw Europe’s greatest talent simply brutalize his lane opponent mercilessly and then run away with the lead by snowballing his teammates – effectively locking out the opposition from being able to do anything in response, because of the massive pressure exuding from the middle of the map. While Vetheo has watched enough Chovy VODs to frequently establish gold leads in the early game and have flashy Akali mechanics, I simply do not believe he has mastered what it means to be an MVP from the mid lane position.

Engines and Wheels

I use the term “engine” a lot in my blogs; for example, in Fnatic, Hylissang (an MVP candidate in his own right) is by far their most powerful engine. He is the primary playmaker, with both the genius vision to see the plays and the mechanical excellence to execute those plays game in and game out.

For Misfits, their engine is undoubtedly Shlatan. The rookie jungler is pivotal in sending up big plays, which allows Vetheo to capitalize off of them and destroy the enemy team alongside Neon. It is the meme of Lebron and D. Wade, except photoshop Shlatan’s face over Wade and Vetheo’s eccentric smiling face over Lebron’s as he goes in for the dunk. Shlatan is the engine of the car that is Misfits and Vetheo is the wheels that carry the car to its destination. And what a splendid set of wheels he is! His mechanical proficiency and ability to navigate hectic teamfights make him an extremely powerful carry, but like I said before, he is not transcendent enough to establish his own leads… and this is the primary reason why I think Rogue’s Malrang is the MVP of this split.

Why the 2022 LEC Spring MVP is Malrang

It seems that everyone is tunneling hard on the games that Malrang has lost. They love to point at Rogue’s winless week and make fun of Malrang’s abysmal Lee Sin play. Fair enough, but we can also do that for Vetheo’s LeBlanc, which has been much less flashy and consistent as compared to some of his other picks like Sylas or Syndra. But this is the power of narrative; due to confirmation bias, people just automatically forget Vetheo’s lackluster games and, since people think Malrang is a gimmick, they tunnel in on when he doesn’t get off to an ungodly start due to his ganks.

The biggest reason as to why Malrang will have my MVP vote this split is because he creates his own advantages without always having to rely on setup from his teammates, whilst ALSO remaining a carry threat. Sure Trymbi’s roams are a big chunk of why Rogue is so good (Vitality, take notes), but it’s not like Malrang always needs Trymbi nearby to set up the ganks that keep catching LEC teams off guard to this very day. Meanwhile, without Shlatan’s aid through lane ganks or teamfight setup, Vetheo cannot properly get off the ground and carry games like we are used to seeing from him.

People seem to gloss over the fact that Malrang is an underrated carry threat even by himself. Many a games we have seen him not only get leads for his teams by gambling away his camps (a risk that the likes of Vetheo never takes in lane to get ahead) but also snowballs into a legitimate carry that has some serious damage pressure on the opposition’s carries. Remember our engines and wheels talk? The reason why Malrang is the MVP is because he is arguably the most powerful engine we have this split (Hylissang being a close second) whilst also being a very serious carry threat due to advantages he accrues from the success rate of his ganks. He enables his solid, but somewhat passive players even further with his high-risk style, and supported by Trymbi’s excellent roam timings, becomes a ferocious, near-omnipotent monster that has carried Rogue to yet another first place finish – that they’ll probably throw in the playoffs anyway, but that doesn’t concern this discussion!

Congratulations RGE Malrang! BlogOfLegends LEC MVP (1)