2014 League of Legends Awards

From the TeamLiquid League of Legends Staff

We here at TeamLiquid are a generous bunch of people, but we rarely get the opportunity to demonstrate how generous we are. And nothing gives us the opportunity to show just how generous we are than giving away lots of awards to people within the eSports scene.

The 2014 awards highlight some of what to us were the most memorable aspects of the year in League of Legends that we feel should be revisited. In today's 24/7 Reddit-cycle of news, there never seems to be time for reflection and consideration of the days gone by. Instead, stories are quickly forgotten and replaced with the latest gossip or rumour, backed up with a singleton badly timed message on a Jungler's stream or a tweet from the newest investiRenekton on the scene. And that's a pity, because 2014 had so much to offer. Who was the best player in each role? What was the best series played in 2014? How much drama could a drama llama drama if a drama llama could ramalamadingdong?

We here at TeamLiquid have set out to answer these pressing questions. So grab a warm mug of brew, sidle up to your screen and complain bitterly about classic TeamLiquid favouritism enjoy!

Biggest Rise

Over the past few seasons, there have been many teams that have come out of nowhere to make a big splash. Very few of them, however, were able to break into the rankings of the top of their respective League. Even fewer have fought their way to Worlds, been placed in a group packed full of talent, and still looked good. And yet LMQ did all of that.

The moment LMQ arrived in NA they crushed the Challenger scene, winning the 2014 NA Spring Challenger Series #1 and #2, the North American Challenger League Season 2, the 2014 NA Spring Challenger Series Playoffs and qualifying for the LCS Summer Season - all within about three months. They then converted that momentum into a top-three finish in both the regular season and the playoffs, before launching themselves into one of the hardest groups at Worlds, narrowly missing out on advancing.

That's not to diminish what the other teams nominated in this category have achieved though. For example, Alliance morphed out of Evil Geniuses at the very end of 2013, performed well in the EU LCS Summer Season following a remarkable improvement from the Spring Season. Edward Gaming crashed onto the LPL scene and solidified themselves as leaders of their region. But what really distinguished LMQ was that this was a team of players that weren't simply transfers in from previously great teams in Season 2 and 3. Very few people had heard of anyone from LMQ before they arrived in NA, while the same could not be said of Alliance and EDG.

It is with some sadness that LMQ in its Season 4 form was a casualty of the post-season swaps. Will the new Team Impulse follow in the footsteps of Alliance and EDG, and continue to pave their own path to glory? Or will they fade away into obscurity like most new NA teams that have briefly tasted success? Only time will tell.

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Hardest Fall

Where did it all go wrong?

You started off as a bunch of scrappy players in Season 2, who - after hard work - finally made it into the big leagues in Season 3. You took top three in both the Spring and Summer seasons, displacing the natural order of the world that was the CLG/TSM/Dignitas/C9/Curse stranglehold on the scene.

You didn't do too well at Worlds, but that was OK - we forgave you, because you were still new and had so much more left to learn. But when you changed yourself from Vulcun to XDG, it was like something inside of you also changed. The raging fire of the volcano that you once held from your namesake of the Roman god Vulcan was replaced with a mangled form of poorly-thought-out strategies, mirroring the mangled consonants that formed your name. It was like watching an alternative universe where the Netscape client remake had been called NTXSCP[GG].

What could have been is now but a footnote in the history of NA League of Legends.

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Biggest Confusion

First Witch: Alliance! Alliance! Alliance!

Alliance: Had I three ears, I’d hear thee.

Second Apparition: Be bloody, bold, and resolute. Laugh to scorn. The power of man, for no team of the great regions born shall harm Alliance.

Alliance: Then live Group D. What need I fear of thee? But yet I’ll make assurance double sure, and take a bond of fate. Thou shalt not live, that I may tell pale-hearted fear it lies, and sleep in spite of thunder. What is this that rises, a visage of our team, with no sense of initiate, nor does it of wave-clear fixate?

All: Listen but speak not to it.

Third Apparition: Be lion-mettled, proud, and take no care. Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are. Alliance shall never vanquished be until the descendant of Jupiter shall come against them.

Alliance: That will never be. Who would impress the King of the Gods, bid their love, and sire a son of wisdom? Sweet bodements! Good! Rebellious teams, shall never beat us for till the wisdom from high heaven descend, and our high-placed EU team shall live the lease of nature, pay our breath to time and mortal custom.

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Team of the Year

In truth, League of Legends is divided into two tiers - the Koreans and everyone else. That is not to say they are immortal or made of Chemical X, using their ultra super powers to dominate the League of Legends scene. We've seen that teams can't simply import a Korean player and expect to suddenly overwhelm all. But it is telling that the podium-placed teams at Worlds this year all had Korean players, no Korean team ranked lower than the Top 8 at Worlds, and the hottest commodity in the post-season shuffle have been Koreans. So it should be, therefore, somewhat unsurprisingly that the Team of the Year would be Korean.

The Korean scene in 2014 had a wealth of talented teams, who have all had periods of incredible performances. Apart from the two sister Samsung teams, there were also the sibling teams from the KT Rolsters, SK Telecom T1, NaJin and CJ Entus families who all started 2014 with the potential to show brilliance. Yet out of all of these, only the two Samsung teams were able to show consistency, with a podium finish in all three of the OGN Champions Tournaments. Other teams such as KT Rolsters A and SKT T1 K had flashes of brilliance, but were unable to maintain their form.

The two Samsung teams were easy candidates for Team of the Year, but the choice between the two was very difficult. Samsung Blue is the only of the two sister teams to win an OGN Championship, which in some respects is just as hard as the World Championships. They also achieved back-to-back finals appearances, and have a better head-to-head record against their sister team. However, what really set Samsung White apart from Samsung Blue was the fact they were consistently in the top 3 of the OGN Championships. That level of consistency is insane given how fierce the competition in Korea is. Combined with their well-deserved win in Worlds and dismantling of Samsung Blue in the semi-finals at Worlds, Samsung White proved that they weren't just a fluke by maintaining their form throughout all of 2014.

It is with some sadness that both Samsung teams have effectively disbanded in the post-season, victims of a refocusing in the wider Samsung empire. At least we can take heart that we'll be able to see these players once again in the Chinese leagues they have headed off to.

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Top Laner of the Year

At the highest levels of League of Legends, it is rare for a Top laner to carry his team. The tempo-setting assassin Mid and the late game DPS of the AD Carry makes it difficult for the Top laner to occupy a niche other than an initiating tank at best. In spite of the tendency of Top-lane picks to gravitate towards pure tank picks, and the prevalence of the lane-swap meta, Gogoing manages nonetheless to play the carry role.

Often, a player is tasked with the honor and burden of carrying his team because of his raw ability in comparison to his teammates. As players like Faker and Uzi well know, their immense talent often places the entire fate of the game in their hands alone. It’s a testament to Gogoing’s skill how often he finds himself in the carry role despite having Xiyang, Cool, and San as teammates. Though he had a lackluster showing at All-Star, Xiyang managed to take the LPL MVP award in convincing fashion during his debut season. Cool’s return saw him quickly reclaim his position as the star Mid of LPL, and San improved from one of the worst ADCs in China to one of the best. With such a star-studded roster, Gogoing takes the limelight in more than his fair share of the games.

Gogoing had the tournament of his life during the Season 4 World Championships, which perfectly exhibited all the qualities that made Gogoing the most feared Top laner of LPL. OMG’s memorable game against Fnatic would not have been possible without Gogoing’s absolute domination on the simultaneously tanky and threatening Ryze. When pitted against the great Top-lane carry of Korea, Save, Gogoing showed up in spectacular fashion, with strong performances on Irelia, Jayce, and Maokai, completely nullifying Save all three games.



There’s more to being the carry of your team than simply having the most farm and the most kills, and Gogoing is not a “Carry Top Laner” in capital letters, since that moniker evokes images like Flame split-pushing while his team loses critical objectives. Gogoing’s playstyle is as versatile as his champion pool, ranging from the classic tank walls like Maokai and Mundo, to the poking DPS of Jayce, to the tank/DPS hybrids like Ryze, Irelia, and Shyvana. Ultimately, what makes Gogoing the best Top laner of 2014 and the most important carry of OMG is his ability and willingness to be exactly what his team needs him to be, in any situation.

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Jungler of the Year

Very rarely do Junglers shine as bright as DanDy did in 2014. The role of a Jungler in League of Legend’s history has not been a glorious one, often overshadowed by their teammates. Mid laners are predisposed to making flashy plays, and AD Carries are known for their flashy footwork. DanDy, however, breaks the mold, and from his origins on SuperStar, managed to become one himself.

Back in 2012 and early 2013, MVP Ozone spent most of its time patrolling weekly and monthly tournaments, with a few NLB appearances in between. Despite a 2012 Summer NLB victory, MVP Ozone never managed to break into the big leagues. Even so, DanDy was already making waves as a prodigious Jungler. Two years pass with the blink of an eye, and titans have come and gone. Names like CloudTemplar that were once contemporaneous are now no more than the faint whisperings of a bygone age, but DanDy stands taller than ever before. DanDy didn’t just survive as the professional scene and the game evolved, he thrived.

DanDy gave a disappointing performance in the S3 World Championship, but he made it clear that was a one-time fluke. Throughout 2014, DanDy found exceptional success with tempo-setting Junglers, often deciding the entire laning phase with a well-timed counter-gank. Famed for his preparation, intuition, and chillingly accurate Smites, DanDy always forces opponents to think twice before grabbing an objective, lest the “Prince of Thieves” strike again.



Though he has shown himself more than competent on tanky and supporting Junglers, DanDy was especially suited to Junglers who can become a late-game damage threat in their own right. From Elise and Evelynn, to Khazix and Rengar, opponents of Samsung White often found themselves facing an assassin from the Jungle as well as Mid lane.

DanDy’s playstyle meshes perfectly with his teammates, often taking the initiating playmaker role to build on a well-placed Looper TP, aided by Mata’s impeccable vision control. If DanDy manages to surprise the opposing team from a good angle - as he often does - Imp and Pawn can clean up the fight with ease. For leading Samsung White to the S4 World Championship, both in game and in spirit, DanDy is the best Jungler of 2014.

With DanDy departing to China, we eagerly await to see what he can accomplish on VG.

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Mid Laner of the Year

When you think of dade, you might think of that guy who died a lot at the 2013 World Championships and was in that Korean team that didn't get out of the group stages. Or maybe you think of that guy who MonteCristo tweeted about but then got crushed by Fnatic. But summing up dade as "that inconsistent Korean who does badly in Worlds group stages" is like saying "Roger Federer is some inconsistent chump who plays tennis badly on clay".

Most teams think that they are well-learned and respectable. They have coaches and analysts, they research their opponents, theorycraft about the pick/ban phase, and always remember to be home before 10pm. So when they see dade, they go load up YouTube. "What's this? The boy's highlight videos are all Yasuo or Zed? What a one-dimensional player who can only play FotM champions; this should be a cakewalk. Our well-prepared, well-behaved team should have no problem." But these teams walking into battle against Samsung Blue are like naive children going off to college - they all think they're perfect, but they all have dade issues.

Dade is far from being a one-dimensional Mid laner, playing everything from odd-ball Soraka, Kog'Maw and Karma picks, to the standard Zed, Kassadin, and Twisted Fate picks. Alternatively, those of you who prefer to measure your Korean players in units of Faker rather than their champion pool, dade beat Faker three times in a set of televised 1v1 matches. Do you prefer a slightly more professional metric? dade was the MVP player in two consecutive OGN Champions tournaments, and narrowly missed out on winning the hat-trick. Speaking of missed hat-tricks, he also narrowly missed out on three OGN Champions wins as well. For reference, the four StarCraft Brood War players who won 3 OnGameNet tournaments are considered some of the best players of all time. It is easy for armchair Mid laners to argue about who the best Mid laners are, but stats don't lie. But one of the few regrets he will have is never quite making it to the World Championship finals in both of his attempts. And with the Samsung teams disbanding, that dream has moved ever so slightly out of his grasp.

But with his move to Masters 3 (formerly WE Academy) maybe, just maybe, there is a chance he can find his true dade in the sun.

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AD Carry of the Year

Only one player in the history of League of Legends has managed to reach two Worlds finals, and he did it in consecutive years with two completely different sets of supporting teammates. Indeed, there is little doubt that the other four members of Royal Club are just that – a supporting cast for Uzi, the best ADC of 2014.

Uzi’s accomplishments are all the more impressive in light of how, well, unimpressive his team’s accomplishments are. During the Spring 2014 season, Royal Club saw a seemingly endless permutation of roster changes and role-swaps, featuring no fewer than three Supports over the course of a season, among other things. A lackluster sixth-place finish saw Royal move quickly to stabilize its roster, importing Insec and Zero, as well as tapping domestic talents Corn and Cola. Though undoubtedly an upgrade from the previous squad, the new roster still struggled. Insec and Cola are capable of both spectacular carries and tremendous fails in seemingly equal measure, and Corn was often unable to compete with top LPL Top-laners. With so much volatility from the rest of his team, Uzi was forced to refine his ADC play away from the aggressive positioning, designed to maximize damage output, and into a more stable and consistent style. With Zero’s help, Uzi maintained his reputation as one of the most feared ADCs in LPL, often forcing opponents to rethink their entire draft in order to accommodate the inevitable lane swap to avoid meeting Uzi in a 2v2.



Rarely do we see a 4-protect-1 strategy work at the highest levels of competitive play, but Royal manages to find success with it time and time again - a testament to just how frighteningly effective their ADC is.

Uzi is Royal Club.

While it’s true that the likes of Namei, Imp and Deft sometime outshine Uzi, they are doing it with a much stronger supporting cast. League of Legends is a 5v5 game, and watching an entire team play in perfect harmony is one of the most beautiful things to witness. But there is something even more viscerally satisfying about watching a single player dictate an entire game. It doesn’t happen much, which is why when it does - as is often the case with Uzi - it is something spectacular to behold.

Uzi is, by their own admission, OMG's kryptonite, and it will be exciting to see what he can add to the Forces of Darkness in 2015.

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Support of the Year

Search for the name of any good Support player and you can find clips of them on YouTube, often showing their "godhand" with Thresh. These players show pizzazz and flair. They curve hooks around impossible bends, flay through futile escape attempts, and man-mode into fights when their team members decided to pick a team with no other initiation.

But while these plays are flashy and make great highlight videos, being good at Thresh doesn't make you the best Support player in the world. Furthermore, there are many players who have made their name through strong Thresh play, but are otherwise unremarkable when playing anything else. No, to be the best you have to show you can make or break games on more than a champion everyone else is good at.

Mata does with aplomb, but does so most notably on Janna. Janna is in many ways the Support with the highest skillcap in the game and is incredibly difficult to master. While she has one of the best toolkits in the game and an amazing passive she is also one of the few champions that has the potential to make big "anti-plays" or no plays at all, just as much as she can make big plays for her team. There's a fine line between holding on to your spells waiting for "the big one" and just blowing it all up-front, but Mata carries his team on his back and struts that fine line. Mata is the reason the Samsung Galaxy White bot lane was one of the best, if not the best, bot lane in Korea by the end of 2014. Mata is the reason that everyone on Samsung Galaxy White could go ham, because they knew he would always have their back.

Mata is the best Support player of 2014.

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Best Comeback of the Year

Fnatic is no stranger to close games, and snatching victory from the jaws of defeat through sneaky and tricky backdoor plays. When sOAZ on Rumble teleported to the Top lane and charged towards a completely exposed Nexus, it seemed as if Fnatic would once again pull out a surprise comeback win.

And yet, through poor Rumble ult placement, timing, and sheer darned luck, OMG survived with the tiniest of slivers of health left on their Nexus. With every single of their towers down, a nexus that almost died, all three inhibitors exposed, and nearly all players hitting 6 items reducing the importance of their 16k gold lead, OMG forces through the victory in a reverse comeback story of their own.

Recriminations quickly follow. Claims of bugs and tooltips fly, sleuths boot up games to test interactions, and Riot and our Glorious Leader step in.

Almost-comebacks, reverse comebacks, drama - this game had it all.

But while the community rides the drama llama, we here at TeamLiquid can't help but pause and wonder. If the game had gone the other way, it could have been Fnatic advancing from Group C over OMG (who eventually placed Top 4) to face NaJin Whiteshield. How would that quaterfinals have looked? What if NaJin had advanced to face StarHorn Royal Club? Would we have once again see Uzi make back-to-back finals given the super-saiyan performance NaJin showed against the other Korean giants to qualify for Worlds? If NaJin did make it to the finals, what would that clash have looked like?

We'll never know what alter-universe Worlds might have looked like. But we'll always have the story of the almost-comeback and reverse comeback to tell our children.

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Best Series of the Year

If you've been watching Korean eSports since Brood War, you get wary when people start to hype a grand final with massive upset potential. We've seen Flash 3-0 ZerO, MVP 4-0 MarineKing, or SKT 3-0 Ozone too many times to get our hopes up. So when the flashy, energetic KT Arrows led by the dive-happy KaKAO went up against Samsung Galaxy Blue, the team who had supplanted SKT K as the most dominant squad in the world, it was easy to expect the worst. The finals were held on Gwangali Beach in Busan, home to many a Korean StarCraft final, in front of a massive crowd. Most people expected that the superior Samsung team would roll over their opponents in a quick 3:0 and disappoint fans in traditional Korean fashion.

Except that's not what happened.

In a full best-of-five series that stretched both teams to their limit, the KT Arrows were able to harness their strengths and shore up their risky tendencies to go blow for blow with their opponent. Like Peter Pan or 'Yu-Gi-Oh!', our heroes on KT learned that day that believing in themselves, and their heart of hearts, was what truly mattered. One of the secret truths in eSports is that, on any given day, any of the top teams can beat another top team. What makes or breaks a long, grinding series, however, is mental stamina powered by pure belief. That belief can turn mere men into gods who achieve heights they themselves did not know they could reach. The lack of belief tears them down until they crack, and make mistakes which are ruthlessly capitalized upon.

The first game of the series set the tone, and fully demonstrated that this was to be a series won and lost on a knife's edge. A 30-minute back-and-forth slugfest was turned on its head by one perfect engage for KT, and was turned around again by heroic split-pushing from Acorn and masterful recall denial from Samsung. The game turned even once more - a poor engage from Spirit lost the game in a split second and put the upstart KT Arrows up 1-0.

Up 1:0, KT Arrows stuck to their guns in the second game as they drafted four of the same five heroes. The only surprise? Ssumday picked up Riven to face off with Acorn's Dr. Mundo, showing the kind of confidence and energy KT's fans had come to love. The game was broken wide open at a Dragon fight that ended with a Riven triple kill, and he picked up another double minutes later. The favorites were looking surprisingly mortal. But even a 6,000 gold lead doesn't mean anything if you can't close it out, and once Deft's Kog'Maw and dade's Kassadin came online, Blue's patient and methodical play narrowed the lead to nothing. Ultimately, Samsung's superior engage and KT's inability to sustain in a fight tied up the series.

Undaunted, KT drafted identically in game three as they did in the first game, while Samsung mixed it up by throwing a dade Ziggs into the mix. Samsung exploited KT's tendency to dive blind early on to pick them off for an early lead. Even as a bad Dragon fight opened up a lead for KT, Samsung held on tight and survived through KT's power spikes. Only 28 minutes in, Samsung's superior engage and patience once again nabbed them the lead with a Baron, which they rode to a patient victory 15 minutes later.

This was Samsung Blue at its finest. With slow, patient play, and impeccable engagements, Samsung looked like they were going to squeeze all hope of a comeback out from their opponents. KT's path was clear - either believe in themselves and adapt, or die - and KaKAO on Nocturne was exactly what the doctor ordered. The dives started early and kept coming, as KT showed no sign of the pressure hanging over their heads. Though they fell behind in the mid-game after a bad fight, Ssumday and KaKAO began to find the engagements KT needed, and wrested control right back. Once they got the upper-hand, they never took their foot off the gas, and forced the blind pick.

This was it. Every KT fan knew we were on their turf now. KT sported a 100% win rate in blind pick, and Samsung Blue had never even played one. Hope welled up in their chests. Each team made their picks, and we found ourselves with three mirrors. There would be no more running, no more hiding. It would be a dance to the death of skill and trickery.

Ssumday vs Acorn in a Maokai Top-lane mirror match
KaKAO on Lee Sin vs Spirit on Evelyn in the Jungle.
Rookie vs dade in a Yasuo Mid-lane mirror match.
Arrow on Kog'Maw vs Deft on Corki in the Bot lane.
Hachani vs Heart on Alistar in a Support mirror match.

Go watch this last game for yourself.
KT Arrows may not have made it to Worlds – taken out by a streaking Najin White Shield – but there's a reason why so many fans were disappointed they didn't make it.
This series is that reason.

Samsung Galaxy Blue may no longer exist, and KaKAO and Rookie have moved on to other teams, but this series will live on in our hearts as proof that they were here. This series is not just a battle of skill, but a battle of willpower and the desperate thirst to win. It is a battle of the spirit, and the refusal to just roll over and die in the face of insurmountable odds.

And for that reason, we selected this as our best series of 2014.

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Biggest Drama of the Year

There was a lot of drama in League of Legends this year, and the list of nominations could have been long. But whether it was Junglers being ejected from America for visa issues, chat between pro-gamers being leakier than a sieve, rage at under-performing players, or conspiracy theories that the Reddit mods encourage drama to fund their RP addiction thanks to their monopoly on pitchfork factories - no matter what, Reddit is constantly fed to placate its insatiable hunger for drama.

And in a war where everything goes ugly, only Reddit wins.

However, it feels unfair to give an award to an abstract entity that is a collection of hundreds of thousands of people, who hold different views amongst themselves on the same issue, and a place where the highest voted thoughts don't necessarily represent the entire userbase as a whole. So we also want to give an honorary award to our Glorious Leader Nick Allen.




Supreme Leader and His Holiness Nick Allen speaks only the truth, preaches the benevolence of charity, and protects us against the threats of the dirty games, like DotA, Smite and Heroes of the Storm. Faith in our Dear Leader protects, for in the grimdark of the far future there is only lag and packet drops. *

* (Editor's note: We would like make clear that this is in no way an attempt by TeamLiquid to curry favour with Nick Allen preemptively before he finds out what we did wrong. Please don't fine us. I swear it was not I who touched that fluffy tail!)

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Writers: MoonBear, Chiharu Harukaze, Carnivorous Sheep, Chexx, Cameron
Photos, images and art: LoL eSports, Inven, 15w
Editors: Chiharu Harukaze, Sunset, Zess


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