League of Legends: Global Positional Top Ten Players – March 2

If you thought I wasn’t going to come back with another round of the top ten players by position just because of some controversy, think again. I’m not afraid to say that players like Alphari, Blaber, and CoreJJ are among the best in the world, even though they play in the “dregs” of the LCS.

To be clear, these lists of the top ten players are not going into who are the most talented players but who are the best performing. We’re attempting to compare their key statistical outputs (KDA, GPM, estimated damage differential, and matchup-adjusted gold+XP difference at 15) because they have been among the most reliable indicators of success both individually and for their team. Mock all you want, but there’s a reason why the top ten players in each position are usually massively ahead of their peers in at least one of those categories.

Top Lane

1. Barney “Alphari” Morris (Team Liquid, LCS) 
2. Andrei “Odoamne” Pascu (Rogue, LEC)
3. Jang “Nuguri” Ha-gwon (FunPlus Phoenix, LPL) 
4. Kang “TheShy” Seung-lok (Invictus Gaming, LPL)
5. Chen “Bin” Ze-Bin (Suning, LPL)
6. Li “Flandre” Xuan-Jun (EDward Gaming, LPL)
7. Kim “Rascal” Kwang-hee (Gen.G, LCK)
8. Choi “Doran” Hyeon-joon (KT Rolster, LCK)
9. Martin “Wunder” Hansen (G2 Esports, LEC)
10. Bai “369” Jia-Hao (Top Esports, LPL)

A slight change in the power dynamic of the top laners, as the LEC now has three members on the list, equal to the LCK. Wunder has jumped onto the list at the ninth spot, while Bin and 369 have also made it onto the list, replacing fellow LPL tops Zoom and Breathe. For the LCK, Khan dropped off.

Obviously, the big controversy will be in having Alphari number one, followed by Odoamne at two. What you have to understand, though, is that Alphari is statistically the best laning top laner in the world.

His matchup-adjusted gold+XP differential at 15 minutes is over 1000 (1066.9 to be exact). You know how many top laners have a MAGXD at 15 that’s over 500, half of Alphari’s? Two, TheShy and Flandre.

Even though he is going against weaker competition overall in the LCS (Niles and Licorice are all bottom five for the top lane), don’t forget that LPL tops get to feast on Ziv and Cult, while in the LCK they get to feast on Hoya and Rich. Even accounting for the strength of competition, Alphari is outperforming all top laners around the world.

Here are the top ten players in professional League of Legends for each position!

Jungle

1. Zhou “Bo” Yang-Bo (FunPlus Phoenix, LPL)
2. Robert “Blaber” Huang (Cloud9, LCS)
3. Marcin “Jankos” Jankowski (G2 Esports, LEC)
4. Jiang “beishang” Zhi-Peng (Team WE, LPL)
5. Lu “Leyan” Jue (Rare Atom, LPL)
6. Kim “Canyon” Geon-bu (DWG KIA, LCK)
7. Zeng “Meteor” Guo-Hao (Bilibili Gaming, LPL)
8. Hung “Karsa” Hao-Hsuan (Top Esports, LPL)
9. Wei “Weiwei” Bo-Han (Victory Five, LPL)
10. Javier “Elyoya” Prades (MAD Lions, LEC)

The jungle top ten players has only one replacement, with Karsa moving into the top ten and Selfmade falling out. A lot of people will be shocked to see MAD Lions Elyoya in the top ten again, but he’s one of my favorite carry junglers in the world. He definitely has a defined style, as he’s able to excel on champions like the Nidalee, Udyr, and Olaf, but hasn’t been quite as good on the likes of Lillia, but if MAD can play to those strengths I think they’ll continue having success.

Bo is a player who I am really high on, and am thus disappointed to hear about his alleged match-fixing scandal. I hope it all gets resolved soon so we can see him back in the starting lineup again.

One jungler not on this list because of a lack of playing time is actually T1’s Moon “Oner” Hyeon-joon. At only 18 years old, Oner has looked extremely impressive in his seven games this year in the LCK, far outperforming their starter Moon “Cuzz” Woo-chan. With T1 apparently shifting their view towards the future, rather than playing veterans like Faker, I can’t understand why Oner isn’t getting more games.

Mid Lane

1. Emil “Larssen” Larsson (Rogue, LEC)
2. Zhuo “knight” Ding (Top Esports, LPL)
3. Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon (Hanwha Life Esports, LCK)
4. Chu “FoFo” Chun-Lan (Rare Atom, LPL)
5. Rasmus “Caps” Winther (G2 Esports, LEC)
6. Lee “Scout” Ye-chan (EDward Gaming, LPL)
7. Heo “ShowMaker” Su (DWG KIA, LCK)
8. Yuan “Cryin” Cheng-Wei (RNG, LPL)
9. Kim “Doinb” Tae-sang (FunPlus Phoenix, LPL)
10. Luka “Perkz” Perković (Cloud9, LCS)

The LCS gets some representation in the top ten players list for the mid lane, kind of. Perkz climbs past V5’s Mole and joins the list, edging out some other contemporaries like Bdd, Yagao, and Ucal.

Atop the list, these top three can be switched into any order you’d like and I’d have no issues. These three – Larssen, Knight, and Chovy – are the best mid laners in their respective leagues and are separated by very little statistically.

What is most interesting is how unique they’ve been stylistically. Larssen as tended to lean more towards the powerful Azir pick, a staple of his, while also going to the Lucian pick as well. Chovy, on the other hand, has mostly played Orianna, but he’s also gone for aggressive picks like Yone, Leblanc, and Jayce. Finally, Knight has been more of a control mage player, with Syndra, Zoe, and Orianna rounding out his champion pool, with a little Twisted Fate and Viktor thrown in.

AD Carry

1. Yu “JackeyLove” Wen-Bo (Top Esports, LPL)
2. Martin “Rekkles” Larsson (G2 Esports, LEC)
3. Steven “Hans Sama” Liv (Rogue, LEC)
4. Park “Viper” Do-hyeon (EDward Gaming, LPL)
5. Lin “Lwx” Wei-Xiang (FunPlus Phoenix, LPL)
6. Chen “GALA” Wei (RNG, LPL)
7. Tang “huanfeng” Huan-Feng (Suning, LPL)
8. Zhao “Jiumeng” Jia-Hao (Team WE, LPL)
9. Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk (Gen.G, LCK)
10. Lee “Gumayusi” Min-hyeong (T1, LCK)

Only one swap on the list, with Fnatic’s Upset falling out of the top ten players among ADCs and T1’s Gumayusi rising into it to replace him. T1 actually has an embarrassment of riches at the ADC role, as Teddy is literally in the #11 spot behind his teammate. A big reason why each is suppressed a bit in the rankings is due to the fact that they have been splitting time on T1.

Support

1. Mihael “Mikyx” Mehle (G2 Esports, LEC)
2. Tian “Meiko” Ye (EDward Gaming, LPL)
3. Lou “Missing” Yun-Feng (Team WE, LPL)
4. Shi “Ming” Sen-Ming (RNG, LPL)
5. Jo “CoreJJ” Yong-in (Team Liquid, LCS)
6. Erik “Treatz” Wessén (SK Gaming, LEC)
7. Cho “BeryL” Geon-hee (DWG KIA, LCK)
8. Fu “Hang” Ming-Hang (Rare Atom, LPL)
9. Liu “ShiauC” Chia-Hao (eStar, LPL)
10. Wang “Zhuo” Xu-Zhuo (Top Esports, LPL)

Three shifts in the top ten supports, as Crisp, Aphromoo, and Kaiser all dropped out, replaced by two LPL players (Zhuo and Hang) and one LEC support (Treatz). Treatz’s inclusion on this list might seem a bit reactionary, given he just had an exceptional week, but he was in the top 20 supports last week, so he’s been performing well all year.

Observations

• The LPL had 29 of the top 50 players in the world, compared to 27 last week. The LEC had 9 players on the list (11 last week) while the LCK had 10 (8 last week). The LCS still has four players on the list out of 50.
• The LCK has the strongest overall pool of top laners, but they’re actually worse than the LCS in both bot lane positions, ADC and support. The LEC beats out the LPL in mid and support, but the LPL wins out in jungle and ADC.
• Once again, the LEC appears to be the strongest region, followed closely by the LPL. The LCk is slightly ahead of the LCK in terms of overall individual talent (take that Reginald).
• There are two teams that have all five players graded as top ten in their position: G2 Esports and Top Esports. Interestingly, despite their individual prowess, TES have not been able to translate this into wins, as they’re only 5-3 on the year. The number one team in the LPL, EDG, has four of their five starters in the top ten, and are overall actually graded higher than the TES starters.

Source: https://blogoflegends.com/2021/03/03/league-legends-global-top-ten-players-march-2/