Greatness does not always equate to gold, a fact that is very prevalent in the Korean League of Legends scene. There are a multitude of extremely talented players that have never raised an OGN Champions Trophy. Looking back at the Korean League of Legends scene, here are the top 10 greatest players to never win an OGN Champions season. Keep in mind that this list will not include players currently on a starting position in SBENU Champions Spring 2015.
10.
Won "Mafa" Sang Yeon
Support
OLYMPUS Champions Winter 2012-2013
2013 MLG Winter Championship
NLB Spring 2013
Asian Indoor-Martial Arts Games 2013
HOT6iX Champions Summer 2013
Season 3 Korea Regional Finals
PANDORA.TV Champions Winter 2013-2014
IEM Season VIII - World Championship
Mafa is such a forgotten name that people many times assume that you simply mistook him for the superior Mata. Yes, Mafa is not on the level of other Korean supports like Mata, MadLife, or PoohManDu. However, Mafa has always quietly been a good player, historically being one of the best defensive supports.
During his career on StarTale and KT Rolster Mafa was rarely criticized, hardly ever losing in lane, performing well in team fights, and being a contributing shot caller to the most strategically intelligent team ever. In addition to his always acceptable play on most champions, Mafa had the best support Fiddlesticks in the world, and most notably shown during Champions Winter 2013-2014, making huge impacts on every game he played that season. While Mafa rarely ever shined the way the aforementioned supports did, his versatility and ability to play make still make him one of Korea’s better supports, and one of the best players never to win a Champions season.
9.
Jeong "NoFe" No Chul
Jungle
NLB Spring 2013
AMD-INVEN GamExperience
GIGABYTE NLB Summer 2013
2013 WCG Korea Qualifiers
PANDORA.TV Champions Winter 2013-2014
Korea is famous for having many incredible junglers. There are the junglers that seem perfect like DanDy and KaKAO, both being mechanically prodigious as well as possessing great decision-making abilities. There are the mechanical prodigies like inSec that have amazing play making ability but lack in making good decisions for their team. Then there is NoFe. NoFe may not have been the most mechanically potent player, but his brilliant jungle pathing and decision making made him one of the most respected junglers in Korea. NoFe also displayed great adaptability, able to shift between both herbivore and carnivore style jungle champions.
Although NoFe never experienced great success in Korea, his intelligence as a player can be considered one of the main factors for the success of the newer Najin White Shield (when Ggoong, Zefa, and GorillA were picked up). NoFe’s great performance in PANDORA.TV Champions Winter 2013-2014 and strategical brilliance do not make NoFe one of history’s greatest junglers, but it certainly makes him one of the smartest.
8.
Gu "Expession" Bon Taek
Top
NLB Winter 2012-2013
GIGABYTE StarsWar League
emTek NLB Spring 2013
GIGABYTE NLB Summer 2013
Season 3 World Championship
ZOTAC NLB Winter 2013-2014
After MaKNooN won OLYMPUS Champions Winter 2012-2013 and was hailed the MVP of the tournament, the star top laner was asked who he thought the best top laner in the world was. At the time there were incredible top laners. Korea had Shy, Ragan, and MaKNooN himself. Outside of Korea, names such as Darien, Caomei, and PDD were surely considered. MaKNooN’s response? Expession.
Despite such a flattering comment from one of history’s best top laners, Expession has never won a Champions season. Or made a finals, or a semi-finals, or a quarterfinals. Although he never made it to the playoffs in Champions, it is possible that Expession just prefers playing online, never placing below 3rd in four NLB tournaments. Not only did he play tanky top lanes at a considerably strong level, he shined brightly on split push heavy champions like Irelia and Jax. Although his decision-making in team fights was quite mediocre, he possessed an incredible laning phase, capable of crushing even the most formidable of top lane adversaries, that he could later convert into a locomotive like split push. This led to both Najin teams he played for to center their styles around him split pushing, a one-dimensional but at least somewhat effective playstyle. Such a playstyle almost defeated SK Telecom T1 at the Season 3 World Champions, only edged out by a single game. Although he was not one of the most strategically intelligent or flexible players, for what he did well he did fantastically, and will remain one of Korea’s best top laners in history.
7.
Jang “Looper” Hyeong Seok
Top
PANDORA.TV Champions Winter 2013-2014
HOT6iX Champions Spring 2014
SK Telecom LTE-A LoL Masters 2014
HOT6iX Champions Summer 2014
2014 World Championship
Looper was easily the worst player on his team. However, considering the fact that his team was the second best in history, this is nothing to deride. Famous for his exceptional use of Teleport, Looper has always been a strong force in the top lane. An astounding fact about Looper is his ridiculous KDAs. In PANDORA.TV Champions Winter 2013-14, Looper won the top lane KDA award with an amazing 10.40 KDA. In Hot6ix Champions Spring 2014, Looper again posted an impressive 5.7 KDA, only narrowly beat out by his Samsung counterpart Acorn with 5.8. However, in Hot6ix Champions Summer 2014 Looper once again was the king of KDA, winning the top lane KDA award with 5.90.
Although Looper never had to carry his team, he was certainly not dead weight, consistently playing well and always fitting the needs of his team. Originally famous for his strong Singed play, Looper never struggled with versatility, steadily adjusting his champion pool with every change in the meta. Although Looper cannot be placed higher due to him enjoying top tier players in every other position on his team, he was still a valuable asset to his team and deserves the seventh spot.
6.
Yu "Ggoong" Byeong Jun
Mid
GIGABYTE NLB Summer 2013
PANDORA.TV Champions Winter 2013-2014
HOT6iX Champions Spring 2014
ITENJOY NLB Summer 2014
2014 World Championship
To be competent in two eSports of different genres is an impressive feat in itself. However, not only was Ggoong a professional Starcraft: Brood War player, but also in his prime playing League of Legends was one of the world’s best mid laners. Ggoong never appeared to be the most naturally talented player, but his experience as a professional Starcraft player gave him a worth ethic that allowed him to diligently practice his way to being a top tier mid laner.
Ggoong is not the most versatile player, only being an average mid laner when the meta called for ranged burst mages like Xerath and Syndra. But when granted champions he’s comfortable with such as Nidalee, Orianna, Zed, Leblanc, and Ahri, there was little stop Ggoong. Although on his team he was overshadowed by Save in the top lane, on the right champions Ggoong still had his moments in carrying his team to victory.
5.
Heo "PawN" Won Seok
Mid
2013 WCG Korea Qualifiers
HOT6iX Champions Spring 2014
SK Telecom LTE-A LoL Masters 2014
HOT6iX Champions Summer 2014
2014 World Championship
Any player to win Worlds is at least somewhat decent in their position. Considered Faker’s archenemy, PawN has always been formidable player in the mid lane. While his performance against other mid laners does not compare to his dominance against Faker, and having three of the best players of all time on your team certainly helps, the point still stands that PawN is an extremely good mid laner.
PawN’s career while playing for White in Korea was based around outputting consistent performances, which allowed DanDy to exert pressure around the map in all lanes and shape a victory. On most champions PawN was simply an above average player, but giving him his power picks like Fizz, Nidalee, or Yasuo turned PawN into a monster, pummeling his opponents in lane and being just as fearsome in team fights.
4.
Baek "Save" Young Jin
Top
AMD-INVEN GamExperience
GIGABYTE NLB Summer 2013
HOT6iX Champions Spring 2014
ITENJOY NLB Summer 2014
2014 Season Korea Regional Finals
2014 World Championship
Save’s excellent decision making and fantastic mechanical skill make him stand as one of the great Korean carry top laners. During his prime in OGN Spring 2014, Save was the best top laner in the world, displaying an extremely fearsome Shyvana that could best even the likes of Flame. Additionally, Save’s Teleport usage was among the best in the world, utilizing it to initiate advantageous fights for his team.
While Save did display weakness while playing utility champions in the top lane, Save was extremely strong on champions with carry potential; playing great on mages like Kassadin, Nidalee, and Ryze, as well as being damn near invincible on tanky champions like Renekton and Shyvana. Although Save was not one of the most versatile or consistent player, his amazing streak in OGN Spring 2014 and somewhat strong play afterwards make him truly worthy of being considered one of the best players to never win a Champions season.
3.
Ryu "Ryu" Sang Wook
Mid/Jungle
OLYMPUS Champions Winter 2012-2013
2013 MLG Winter Championship
NLB Spring 2013
Asian Indoor-Martial Arts Games 2013
HOT6iX Champions Summer 2013
Season 3 Korea Regional Finals
PANDORA.TV Champions Winter 2013-2014
IEM Season VIII - World Championship
Two spots ahead of the player that dominated Faker is the player who got dominated by Faker. Why would I make the choice to put Ryu as better than PawN? Simple, PawN had much better team mates than Ryu did, and Ryu was an overall better player, despite his poor performances against Faker compared to PawN’s.
I am of the belief that the reason for Ryu’s constant dour face is that he secretly always knew that despite his incredible intelligence, diversity, and consistency, he would never win the highest honor in his country. Being an incredible player as well as the cornerstone of arguably the most strategically brilliant team in history, it would not be surprising if this was the case. In 2013, Ryu was undoubtedly the second best mid laner in Korea and perhaps the second best mid laner in the entire world. However, it was bad year to be the second best, considering 2013 was also the year of the ascension of the greatest player of all time, Faker. Three times that year Ryu was defeated by Faker, in the OGN Summer final, the S3 Korean Regional final and the OGN Winter semi-final. Ryu was a total package; great mechanics, a deep champion pool, mind-numbing consistency, and fantastic shot calling ability. The only thing standing in his way from being the best mid laner in Korea was SK Telecom T1’s golden boy.
For those not familiar with Ryu, he can best be described as a more refined version of Cloud 9’s mid laner Hai. Like Hai, he played a more supportive role for his team, focusing on securing objectives rather than securing himself kills. The other similarity Ryu holds with Hai is that he was also one of the shot callers for the KT Rolster Bullets. Considering just how canny the Bullets’ decision making and objective control was, one can assume he was a quite talented one. The main difference between Hai and Ryu is that Ryu was far more mechanically potent, as well as possessed a more versatile champion pool. While Ryu may not be remembered as being as skilled as other mid laners like Faker and Dade, his astounding amount of intelligence, versatility, and mechanical ability is something very few players rival.
2.
Choi "inSec" In Seok
Jungle/Top
IEM Season VII - Cologne
NLB Winter 2012-2013
2013 MLG Winter Championship International Exhibition
NLB Spring 2013
Asian Indoor-Martial Arts Games 2013
HOT6iX Champions Summer 2013
Season 3 Korea Regional Finals
PANDORA.TV Champions Winter 2013-2014
IEM Season VIII - World Championship
2014 LPL Summer Playoffs
2014 World Championship
An unwritten rule is that any player to have a move named after them at one time was extremely good. That is not the only remarkable thing about inSec. Another notable attribute of inSec is that he has played at a top level in both the top lane and the jungle. That’s right, inSec has demonstrated great strength in two positions, something very few players can claim to have done.
In the top lane, inSec has been characterized as good, but not anywhere near the likes of some of the Korean top lane gods. However, being just an above average player in a region known for its plethora of exceptional talent in that position is nothing to scoff at. During inSec’s two OGN seasons as a top laner, he posted fantastic results, holding his own against exceptional top laners such as Shy, Expession, and Flame. Another testament to inSec’s strength in the top lane is the during OGN Summer 2013, inSec possessed the highest KDA of any top laner at the end of the season and was second only to Faker in MVP points. While this fact is in part due to his abuse of the overpowered nature of Zac at the time, the point still stands that inSec was very good in the top lane. Although he mostly played tanky champions like Zac, Shen, and Renekton, he occasionally also played carry top laners like Riven. While he certainly was not the best top laner in Korea, inSec was still an extremely valuable asset to his team; coordinating successful ganks with his jungler KaKAO and effectively initiating fights for his team.
However, when people think of inSec, they think of him in the jungle. inSec’s tenure in the jungle is among the greatest in history. While his play in the jungle was less than successful domestically, never advancing past the Ro8 in an OGN season, inSec still stands as being one of the five greatest junglers in League of Legends history. inSec’s champion pool is amazing, playing not just standard meta picks at an exceptional level, but also picking more exotic champions; Rammus, Fiddlesticks, Zed, etc. Other than Diamondprox, no jungler in history has ever experimented with the jungle meta as much as inSec has. In addition to his champion pool, inSec is one of the most mechanically talented in history. inSec’s Lee Sin was incredible, creating dozens upon dozens of incredible plays on the blind monk. For a long period of time, giving inSec Lee Sin was the equivalent of giving Blitzcrank to MadLife, Zed to Dade, or Leblanc to Faker - almost a guaranteed win to his team. While inSec’s decision making and consistency are not exceptional, his innovation and play making ability allow him to stand among the greatest players in history.
1.
Lee "Flame" Ho Jong
Top
2012 OGN Champions Winter
2013 IEM VII Katowice
2013 IEM VII WC
2013 OGN Champions Spring
2013 OGN Champions Summer
2013 WCG Korea Qualifier
2013 WCG
2013 OGN Champions Winter
2014 OGN Champions Spring
Flame possesses almost all the qualities that make up a legendary eSports athlete. Talent? During Flame’s 13-0 winning streak with CJ Entus Blaze in OGN Spring 2013 before being defeated by MVP Ozone, his laning, one-on-one skills, and general mechanical ability was great enough to easily regard him as the most talented player in the world. Longevity? While other famous Korean top laners such as MaKNooN have only displayed brief flashes of brilliance before darkening out of top tier form, for the past two years Flame has always been held in the conversation for best top laners in the world, continually playing at an elite level. Dominance? While I just mentioned the amazing consistency that Flame holds over other great top laners, Flame had one of the most dominant streaks of any League of Legends player in history. During the aforementioned 13-0 win streak, Flame was incredible in every way. Commanding laning ability, an ocean-like champion pool, incredible mechanics; Flame had a level of perfection in his position only matched by the likes of Faker and WeiXiao.
The only component holding Flame back from being one of the five best players ever to compete in professional League of Legends is achievements. In Flame’s career he has never won an OGN Champions season. He has never competed in the World Championships. He has never completed the final step in being a true legend: success. If Flame had won OGN Spring 2013, and gone on to prove his excellence at the World Championships, it is very likely that we would consider him to be a top five player. But because that never happened, there will always be that question. But even so, the level of skill Flame has displayed is high enough to ignore such a shortcoming. Despite Flame never winning an OGN Champions season, never competing on the World Championships’ stage, and never defeating Dade’s fearsome Zed, he is still one of the best players in Korean history, and the best top laner of all time.
In my definitely not biased opinion, I think you could make a compelling argument that White/Ozone is the best team historically but I enjoyed the read nonetheless.
I mean I understand the concern - it was just one good season and even if he did have a worse moment, we didn't notice because of the rest of his team. But I hate how common are the ideas that "he was DEFINITELY worst player in his team" and "now that he's on M3 we see his true colors" when I'd say that he's doing better than everyone's beloved Dade, Dandy, Mata and (hate to admit it) KaKAO.
I personally think score should be on the list and if it wasn't for the whole GE tigers best team by far kuro would but I'm biased as fuck towards kuro ~_~
On March 07 2015 03:30 AlterKot wrote: Man I hope Looper finds a better team than M3, he's a contender for most underrated player of all time :/
I think kuro and score are more underrated than looper was on the whole. Mostly because even though kuro's 18-2 with viktor peeps still seem to blank out on him even though he's 1v5d the IM organization to relevance in LoL multiple times
On March 07 2015 04:27 AlterKot wrote: Premise says that the players can't be on current KCL rosters.
I thought people had high opinion of Score, saying he was the struggler of KTB - maybe I'm wrong.
I think the team as a whole struggled collectively.
I also think the decision to swap Kakao down to KTA and Insec in was incredibly poor.
On the whole, I think Insec is actually way too high on this list. Even the article admits that he never really performed well in Korea and never made it past Ro8, so why is he #2 on the list for winning some foreign tournaments?
Eh, Pawn, Deft, Imp, Acorn, Beast and Ella are probably enjoying life. Also KaKAO played on a very fun team, won Champions and wasn't belittled by older players so again - it was a good move for him.
Keep in mind that this list will not include players currently on a starting position in SBENU Champions Spring 2015.
Is KT even a team nowdays.
H0R0 still probably should made it then over NoFe, being core of SKT T1 #1 for 2 years > having one out-of-your-mind playoffs and not showing anything in other.
Expession makes me feel weird though, but I can't even think about possible sub who hadn't won OGN season.
But yeah seeing as score is off the table there's not much I really object to here unless you want to say something stupidly old school like cornsalad, SBS or hoon.
On March 07 2015 06:18 Fusilero wrote: You forgot your one true love swift :>
But yeah seeing as score is off the table there's not much I really object to here unless you want to say something stupidly old school like cornsalad, SBS or hoon.
My one true love Swift will win LPL Summer, all good, no need in winning those filthy OGN seasons :>
the thing about Expession is he's sorta like the Korean SHook, I guess in hindsight if someone put SHook on a list of best eurpoean players to only perform in scrims, it might also bring up a lot of questions, but back when he used to play, all the other korean players said, in scrims, Expession was the best top laner in Korea
On March 07 2015 06:31 Slusher wrote: ?? wasn't swift on blue when they won?
the thing about Expession is he's sorta like the Korean SHook, I guess in hindsight if someone put SHook on a list of best eurpoean players to only perform in scrims, it might also bring up a lot of questions, but back when he used to play, all the other korean players said, in scrims, Expession was the best top laner in Korea
You're thinking of spirit, swift was the guy that made CJ frost randomly win things by himself
oh yea, the guy who randomly got tied to a coach and thus wound up not on any team, that was bizzare, he was a good player if that guy didn't blackmail him or whatever the fuck happened
On March 07 2015 06:35 Slusher wrote: oh yea, the guy who randomly got tied to a coach and thus wound up not on any team, that was bizzare, he was a good player if that guy didn't blackmail him or whatever the fuck happened
He's in QG now, LSPL team, going to make LPL next season.
On March 07 2015 06:35 Slusher wrote: oh yea, the guy who randomly got tied to a coach and thus wound up not on any team, that was bizzare, he was a good player if that guy didn't blackmail him or whatever the fuck happened
He's in QG now, LSPL team, going to make LPL next season.
Are we talking about Promise? Sounds like Promise.
The promise thing was the coach lied about AHQ's involvement and basically set them up as a match-fixing ring. Swift's case was just bizarre, when world elite gave hiro the boot for ruining everything for everyone he basically put himself up as LFT with promises of bringing swift with him. How he bound swift to him nobody knows, rumor says he claimed his life by beating his parents in a game of broodwar and now he's coaching QG with V/Swift/SomeOtherKoreanDude/Avenger/Mor
"considering the fact that his team was the second best in history"
What the fuck is this? A fact? Samsung White has a winning record against SKT and performed significantly better over a longer period of time. A few good months doesn't make SKT the best ever. If Samsung actually paid their players what they were worth and they still existed, they would still be at the top of the world.
At the very least use "arguably"
Sincerely, An MVP Ozone - Samsung White / Samsung Blue fan
On March 07 2015 08:57 FeltFace wrote: "considering the fact that his team was the second best in history"
What the fuck is this? A fact? Samsung White has a winning record against SKT and performed significantly better over a longer period of time. A few good months doesn't make SKT the best ever. If Samsung actually paid their players what they were worth and they still existed, they would still be at the top of the world.
At the very least use "arguably"
Sincerely, An MVP Ozone - Samsung White / Samsung Blue fan
Oh, c'mon. SKT T1 #2 was better team in 2 seasons, DanDy/Mata/Imp + 2 were better team in 2 seasons and in 2013 Spring they went 3-3.
But having perfect season + being only team to back-to-back win Champions and winning Worlds inbetween > being consistent performers for 2 years and Worlds winners.
Samsung lost game to TSM and SHRC :> Not to mention Blue kryptonite. Altough imo much easier to snowball and have the better team always win in S3. Hard to compare I'd argue.
samsung certainly had the superior team staff. skt got pretty lucky with faker and their subsequent attempts to build a team, relative to the resources they commanded, isn't that good.
samsung had two world class teams. their recruiting 'prestige' wasn't that high compared to cj and skt, but they were risk takers with young and brash players with bad reputations, and had the best talent development staff to mold the players and instill habits.
of course this does not seem to remain their strength after all of their coaches got poached
On March 07 2015 09:13 AlterKot wrote: Samsung lost game to TSM and SHRC :> Not to mention Blue kryptonite. Altough imo much easier to snowball and have the better team always win in S3. Hard to compare I'd argue.
do you honestly count that TSM loss against them????
On March 07 2015 08:57 FeltFace wrote: "considering the fact that his team was the second best in history"
What the fuck is this? A fact? Samsung White has a winning record against SKT and performed significantly better over a longer period of time. A few good months doesn't make SKT the best ever. If Samsung actually paid their players what they were worth and they still existed, they would still be at the top of the world.
At the very least use "arguably"
Sincerely, An MVP Ozone - Samsung White / Samsung Blue fan
It's obvious I'm not talking about SKT being the best. Clearly, the best team of all time is Taipei Assassins. ;S
On March 07 2015 04:27 AlterKot wrote: Premise says that the players can't be on current KCL rosters.
I thought people had high opinion of Score, saying he was the struggler of KTB - maybe I'm wrong.
I think the team as a whole struggled collectively.
I also think the decision to swap Kakao down to KTA and Insec in was incredibly poor.
On the whole, I think Insec is actually way too high on this list. Even the article admits that he never really performed well in Korea and never made it past Ro8, so why is he #2 on the list for winning some foreign tournaments?
I'm not even sure I'd put Insec on the list at all. He's obviously incredible mechanically, but he's always been a loose cannon, and it keeps him from making deep playoff runs. He comes up big much more often than he throws, but winning a championship is about consistency, not peaks.
The series of decisions that led to KTB imploding seems like possibly the worst management in competitive LoL history to me, although I'm sure the management had access to a lot of information that I don't. Even if the long-term goal was to set Kakao up for success on KTA, seems like there should have been a way to do it without destroying the flagship team. Insec also just seemed like a really bizarre fit for KTB stylistically.
Save is the most overrated player to ever touch the game. The ONLY reason he was arbitrarily claimed as the best top laner in the world was because they put him on carry champions when Blaze started doing really shitty with Flame and people desperately wanted someone they could call the best. Hell, Save couldn't even stay consistent for ONE damn split and was clearly not half as good when his shyvanna got banned. Calling someone the best in the world is so fucking stupid after they do well in like 5-10 games on comfort champions with 0 international competitive experience. He got completely outclassed in every possible way by Gogoing at Wolds and showed he wasn't even in the same league.
And absolutely cannot agree with Pawn being that low on that list. The whole reason why Ryu couldn't win a championship was because he consistently got outclassed by his opponent, namely Faker. This wasn't the case for Pawn and Pawn at his peaks was definitely the better and more talented player.
On March 07 2015 04:24 Fusilero wrote: I personally think score should be on the list and if it wasn't for the whole GE tigers best team by far kuro would but I'm biased as fuck towards kuro ~_~
On March 07 2015 03:30 AlterKot wrote: Man I hope Looper finds a better team than M3, he's a contender for most underrated player of all time :/
I think kuro and score are more underrated than looper was on the whole. Mostly because even though kuro's 18-2 with viktor peeps still seem to blank out on him even though he's 1v5d the IM organization to relevance in LoL multiple times
Kuro has only been a top player for like.... this split. He was below average every season before (and no, please don't use recent results to justify that he has always been good) when you consider the fact that the other mid laners were Dade, Pawn, Faker, Ggoong, and rising talent like Rookie and Coco who showed up WAY more than Kuro.
Also lol.. when you have to put Nofe and Expession on this list that tells you the game isn't old enough for a list like this.
On March 07 2015 09:13 AlterKot wrote: Samsung lost game to TSM and SHRC :> Not to mention Blue kryptonite. Altough imo much easier to snowball and have the better team always win in S3. Hard to compare I'd argue.
do you honestly count that TSM loss against them????
People count TSM's loss against GamingGear.eu at S3 worlds, despite them running a quadruple lane swap. Community doesn't seem to care if you're trolling, if you lose you lose.
On March 07 2015 04:24 Fusilero wrote: I personally think score should be on the list and if it wasn't for the whole GE tigers best team by far kuro would but I'm biased as fuck towards kuro ~_~
On March 07 2015 03:30 AlterKot wrote: Man I hope Looper finds a better team than M3, he's a contender for most underrated player of all time :/
I think kuro and score are more underrated than looper was on the whole. Mostly because even though kuro's 18-2 with viktor peeps still seem to blank out on him even though he's 1v5d the IM organization to relevance in LoL multiple times
Kuro has only been a top player for like.... this split. He was below average every season before (and no, please don't use recent results to justify that he has always been good) when you consider the fact that the other mid laners were Dade, Pawn, Faker, Ggoong, and rising talent like Rookie and Coco who showed up WAY more than Kuro.
Also lol.. when you have to put Nofe and Expession on this list that tells you the game isn't old enough for a list like this.
When seven different teams win eight different tournaments with only six players ever getting two championships you kind of run out of players to put in a top 10 list. You can't just say they don't deserve to be on the list without putting someone else in.
Why are we grouping NoFe and Expession together? Expession was a cut above MaKNooN and Shy at their absolute peaks if we just look at the laning phase, and while it is true that he had a weak mentality and a general ineptitude when it comes to looking at the game holistically, under the right circumstances we're basically talking about the Flame of season 2, and NoFe for all the carrying he did for MVP Blue was just another cerebral jungler with weak mechanics like CloudTemplar, and was just one of the top junglers in an era where Korea had yet to have truly superb players in that position. Expession was respected and feared throughout the entire Korean solo-que and professional scene in an era where numerous Korean teams was a lot more dependent on having a superstar top laner.
On March 08 2015 04:22 Letmelose wrote: Why are we grouping NoFe and Expession together? Expession was a cut above MaKNooN and Shy at their absolute peaks if we just look at the laning phase, and while it is true that he had a weak mentality and a general ineptitude when it comes to looking at the game holistically, under the right circumstances we're basically talking about the Flame of season 2, and NoFe for all the carrying he did for MVP Blue was just another cerebral jungler with weak mechanics like CloudTemplar, and was just one of the top junglers in an era where Korea had yet to have truly superb players in that position. Expession was respected and feared throughout the entire Korean solo-que and professional scene in an era where numerous Korean teams was a lot more dependent on having a superstar top laner.
Because Expession never achieved anything in his life. When your biggest achievement is 2-1'ing Gambit with Voidle in quarterfinals of Worlds, you know that there is something wrong, especially with all hype he was getting.
Can I just say, putting PoohManDu in the top tier of all-time Korean supports, with Mata and Madlife, is extremely silly? The highs SKT managed with him being higher than the highs KT ever reached with Mafa doesn't make Pooh better. SKT, at least theoretically, accomplishes everything with Mafa that they did with Pooh, in that alternate universe.
On March 07 2015 04:24 Fusilero wrote: I personally think score should be on the list and if it wasn't for the whole GE tigers best team by far kuro would but I'm biased as fuck towards kuro ~_~
On March 07 2015 03:30 AlterKot wrote: Man I hope Looper finds a better team than M3, he's a contender for most underrated player of all time :/
I think kuro and score are more underrated than looper was on the whole. Mostly because even though kuro's 18-2 with viktor peeps still seem to blank out on him even though he's 1v5d the IM organization to relevance in LoL multiple times
Kuro has only been a top player for like.... this split. He was below average every season before (and no, please don't use recent results to justify that he has always been good) when you consider the fact that the other mid laners were Dade, Pawn, Faker, Ggoong, and rising talent like Rookie and Coco who showed up WAY more than Kuro.
Also lol.. when you have to put Nofe and Expession on this list that tells you the game isn't old enough for a list like this.
When seven different teams win eight different tournaments with only six players ever getting two championships you kind of run out of players to put in a top 10 list. You can't just say they don't deserve to be on the list without putting someone else in.
Besides NoFe super underrated zzz
Well, I trying to imply that I'd rather just not name someone than have to name Nofe/Expession. Probably would have made it a top 5 list.
On March 08 2015 04:22 Letmelose wrote: Why are we grouping NoFe and Expession together? Expession was a cut above MaKNooN and Shy at their absolute peaks if we just look at the laning phase, and while it is true that he had a weak mentality and a general ineptitude when it comes to looking at the game holistically, under the right circumstances we're basically talking about the Flame of season 2, and NoFe for all the carrying he did for MVP Blue was just another cerebral jungler with weak mechanics like CloudTemplar, and was just one of the top junglers in an era where Korea had yet to have truly superb players in that position. Expession was respected and feared throughout the entire Korean solo-que and professional scene in an era where numerous Korean teams was a lot more dependent on having a superstar top laner.
Because Expession never achieved anything in his life. When your biggest achievement is 2-1'ing Gambit with Voidle in quarterfinals of Worlds, you know that there is something wrong, especially with all hype he was getting.
This way we seriously can have Cornsalad here.
In season 3, Expession was merely a strong laner with terrible teleport usage, but in season 2, he was by far the most important player on a struggling team that wouldn't be even relevant as a professional team without him. Cornsalad, for all his talents, never carries games as consistently as Expession did for Najin Shield. Go watch his Battle Royal debut versus Shy, his games during the IPL5 qualifiers, his 1v9 game where he single handily drags his team past Psw Ares to get them into the OGN Champions, and his games during the Winter season and tell me with a straight face that anyone could have done more for his team. I dare you to name a single one.
Of course, as the game evolved past bullying your opponent with superior trading and farming, and concepts like 1v2, teleport usage, and wave manipulation got vastly more important, players like Impact was in some ways superior to Expession and did things for their team that Expession couldn't do. However, in season 2, Expession was the shit. And considering how Flame won next to nothing apart even in his glory days in Season 3, with a vastly superior crew, one wonders if people lament Flame because his team was competent enough to showcase his skills regularly, yet not enough to let him achieve true greatness. Plus, Expession never had the disgrace of being outperformed by the likes of Homme when he was at his absolute prime.
I'll put it this way, if Caomei, who was somehow mentioned in he article as being one of the greatest at his position in his era, played for Najin Shield, they wouldn't even have managed to appear on the OGN Champions, never mind getting decent results in it.
Articles like this bring me back to this site regularly, in part because the writers are willing to state their opinions boldly, creating a myriad of discussion points for the comment thread.
EPT
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