Warning: If someone telling you that your favourite player isn't actually that good offends you, then prepare to be offended.

The League of Legends Season 5 World Championships are almost upon us and, as usual, I find myself drowning in ignorance and false praise. Whether it's tweetar analysts, lolesports, various talk shows or /r/leagueoflegends, I'm being constantly bombared with dumb and inaccurate statements about how players and teams match up. Don't judge this list as '9 players who Gosickboy thinks are bad', I actually like some of the players on this list. No this list is to ground the perceptions of certain players headed into Worlds.

1. MaRin, Toplaner for SK Telecom T1

MaRin is an aggressive and strong role player who acts as the team captain and primary shotcaller for SK Telecom T1.

MaRin is not the Faker of the toplane, a top 3 toplaner in Korea or the secondary carry for SK Telecom T1.

MaRin makes the viewer fall into the same trap that Looper, Impact, and so many others have done. Toplane, being a rather team dependent role, allows toplaners on strong teams to look better than they actually are. What're MaRin's weaknesses? His warding, his teamfighting, and his 1v1 laning. 

How does SKT compensate for these weaknesses? Faker draws so much jungle pressure that it's rare for MaRin to get ganked, Bengi is the ultimate low economy vision focused jungler, and SKT always set up MaRin to get a favourable matchup or sometimes an out and out counterpick in the toplane. MaRin only plays Fizz as a counter to Maokai, only plays Malphite as a counter to Fizz, and generally just plays a lot of Maokai. While it's true that MaRin is probably the best Maokai in the World, that alone doesn't make the guy some kind of superstar of the toplane.

No team can ever punish MaRin's weak laning and poor warding because Bengi's warded for him. On top of that, if you waste too much time ganking MaRin, Faker's just going to carry anyway. Try and ban out MaRin and you unleash Faker on your whole team. Save your toplane pick for last and Faker gets to counterpick midlane. Bengi and Faker protect MaRin like good team mates and strategy should but it's important that we realize this.

2. Bjergsen, Midlaner for Team SoloMid

The good news for TSM fans? Bjergsen is the only TSM player on this list.

The bad news for TSM fans? Bjergsen is the only TSM player on this list.

TSM are at their lowest point ever; the most successful and prestigious team in America has fallen so low they've even become a joke domestically. A crushing defeat at MSI, a humiliation by a resurgent rival and a group of death draw with the #1 team in CH, #2 team in KR and #2 team in EU spells certain pain for TSM and their charming and lovable fanbase. Not only are they severely outgunned by LGD, KT, and OG, but their recent form is also far lower than their group stage opponents. To make matters worse, the squad are plagued by internal issues (and we know about them thanks to their all too revealing reality show) and their owner enjoys publically undermining and humiliating their young and emotional coach.

TSM's one hope? That Bjergsen can carry them. Surprising they've had this strategy for close to 6 months now and yet nothing has been done to solve the issues. Riding a high of their NA LCS Spring Split victory, TSM chose to not replace their obvious weak links Santorin or Wildturtle with the foreign imports they could've both afforded and signed in accordance with Riot's rule change. This decision has come back to hurt them like only gonorreia can. Now even the average TSM fan has lost hope and when TSM fans stop telling you that Wildturtle is world class you know your team is shit.

Normally a list like this would be almost forced to include all 5 TSM players (I know this list last year that went unpublished did), yet this year I can't even justify it. There's virtually no praise of love being displayed for TSM players that aren't Bjergsen except from the most bottom feeding cretinious Twitter and Reddit users (and they're really not worth talking about except in a humourous way).

Having said that, I'm still going to set the record straight on the Bjergerking of TSM.

Bjergsen is the best and most fully developed player in NA -- a talented and impressive player with an impressive amount of domestic success and performances.

Bjergsen is not an internationally elite midlaner, the best midlaner in the West, or one of the all time greats.

It continually surprises me how poor the NA midlane pool is. If I was a coach (it's gonna cost you mad $$$s Martin Shkreli, better spend that drug money) then the first thing I'd do is bench my midlaner and fly in some Korean, European, or even Chinese midlaner. One of my biggest behind the scene tragedies is that CLG, after the 2014 Spring Split, had the chance to sign Nukeduck to replace Link from Ninjas in Pyjamas. Not only would this reignite the Bjergsen vs. Nukeduck rivalry, but it would've prevented Nukeduck getting banned and stopped Nukeduck from looking like Cousin It.

Bjergsen's splits in Europe were no more (or in some cases much less) impressive than the debut LCS splits of PowerOfEvil, Nukeduck, Febiven. EU is famed throughout the world for it's impressive midlaners:

Generation 1: xPeke

Generation 2: Alex Ich, Froggen

Generation 3: Nukeduck, Bjergsen, Incarnati0n (DDOS'd for 2 and a half years, RIP)

Generation 4: Kerp (maybe one day you'll not let your Mum rule your life mate), Kori

Generation 5: Febiven, PowerOfEvil, Peperiino

Bjergsen is simply a small part of a greater system. Bjergsen maylook amazing in NA but when he has played vs. international carry midlaners like PowerOfEvil, Febiven, PawN, and Faker he has looked average at best. Bjergsen is capable holding his own vs. anyone but that's his limit. He's not going to be solo killing Nagne in lane, he's not be throwing xPeke into the retirement home and he's certainly not going to be disarming GODV. TSM has one player capable of holding his own, that's not really enough for a solid W.

3. Rekkles, ADC for Fnatic

Fnatic are the best team the West has ever seen since Season 2 and capable of proving themselves a top 4 team in the World this year; this much is undoubtedly true. However, like every time a team dominates a region, they do not have the best of each role in the West or even Europe on their roster. When I think of Fnatic players I break them down like this:

Carries: Huni, Febiven

Backbone: Yellowstar

Role Players: Rekkles, Reignover

Because the cool kids club in eSports have decided that Reignover is complete trash and keep bringing up some matches he played on Incredible Miracle as an example (which is pathetic since Smeb was on the same team and was terrible back then as well), the community has decided that the Rekkles hype is real and he's a white blonde clone of Deft. After all, Fnatic can't have two bad players, right guys?

Rekkles is a strong clean up ADC who's capable in lane and grown tremendously in his versatility and aggression as the split's gone on.

Rekkles is not an elite ADC on the level of Imp, Deft, Ohq, TnT, Uzi, Pilot, Fury, or XQ. 

When Rekkles rejoined Fnatic he replaced Steeelback (a talented player who got far more shit than he deserves). Not only were Steeelback and Rekkles stylistically identical and employed a similar champion pool, but Rekkles was undoubtedly an individual upgrade over the young French player. A very attractive 'plug and play' option for Fnatic, this roster change was good because it didn't require Fnatic to change a lot for it to work. ADC is probably the most plug and play role anyway but this change took the biscuits and tea for how obvious and simple it was. 

Don't upsell Rekkles' importance or individual skill though. His team fighting has improved and he has carried some games this split (an Attack Damage Carry carrying, wow), but Fnatic was strong before Rekkles and I believe a lot of their team growth would've been mostly the same without him. Rekkles can be proud of his performances on Fnatic, but he's not even close to the star player of this young European team.

4. Meiko, Support for EDward Gaming

Meiko is a breakout Chinese support, proficient in all areas with no fatal shortcomings.

Meiko is not a top 3 support in the World comparable to Aphromoo (lol), Gorilla, Pyl, or Piccaboo.

The youngest and most inexperienced player on Edward Gaming, Meiko fills the decently sized shoes that Fzzf (another overrated player) left. Partnered with Deft, they make up a respectable Chinese botlane and the way he almost immediately stepped into the role was impressive. However, make no mistake; Meiko is a painfully mediocre support player. Just because you're a starter for an exceptional team does not mean you're an exceptional player. I've even seen some fans calling Meiko, undoubtedly the weakest player on EDG, a top 3 support at S5WCs which is laughably ignorant.

5. ?Zionspartan, Toplaner for CLG

Even his teacher calls him overrated!

Zion is the best non import NA toplaner.

Zion is not a World Class toplaner capable of going toe to toe with the best in the World.

I'm not going to rag on CLG too much because this is the first time since season 2 they've not been a huge joke but I will say this: Zion is not the Bjergsen of toplane. If he has to go against KOO Tigers toplaner Smeb in an unfavorable matchup, he will crumble, and if he gets a favourable matchup, he'll be incapable of punishing. People say Zionspartan is a carry toplaner but I don't think there are any carry toplaners in North America.

Also CLG vs. yFW is almost entirely in Zion (and Doublelift)'s hands; if Zion is capable of getting a small advantage and taking over the map then CLG will win. But yFW are the smartest team in Taiwan and Karsa will punish even the smallest overextension in lane by Zion. I believe Zion isn't a smart player who relies on brute forcing with his mechanical advantage to gain advantages -- what happens when he has no mechanical advantage?

6. Westdoor, Midlaner of ahq eSports

The only surviving starter from last year's ahq, Westdoor is probably the most famous Taiwanese player that hasn't won Worlds. Last year, Westdoor got drawn into a group with Samsung White and EDward Gaming and pulled out one of the biggest upsets of the tournament with ahq forcing a tiebreaker with the #1 seed in China. Well, Westdoor is back and he's brought some new friends. ahq revamped their entire roster and many people view them as the strongest team without Koreans on the roster. 

What's unique about the LMS? Literally no one in the West watches it. Time wise it conflicts with LCK, lacks an English stream (which is ironic given that the GPL still has one) and doesn't have the star power of other leagues for a Western audience. Sure players like Guger, Toyz, Ziv, SwortArt, Maple, Karsa, Olleh and Bebe might be fun to watch but they don't really compare to Ssumday, Piccaboo, GBM, Pilot, Chaser, Ohq, Duke, Faker, Crown, Fury, Gorilla, Smeb, Madlife, Coco... 

An unfortunate byproduct is close to 100% of the information we have on LMS wrong, starting with fan's perception of Westdoor and ahq.

Westdoor is a midlaner with an extremely unique, restricted and potent playstyle who can hold his head high on the international stage having brought pride back to the LMS.

Westdoor is not the Bjergsen of LMS, the sole carry of ahq.

Yes, a year ago ahq were a Westdoor focused team, that's correct. But the current ahq have evolved, that's why they benched 4/5ths of their roster. ahq now are a more side lane focused team which occassionally sets up Westdoor to be the start player. Ziv, in paricular, is the first Taiwanese that has been bombarded with offers from LPL clubs (which is pretty momentous, especially when you consider the political tensions between the two nations). 

The current ahq is a Taiwanese powerhouse with solid team play and strategical diversity (thanks Anime villian EDG Aaron). Please don't think they crushed Taiwan because Westdoor is some sort of domestic midlane god, because he's not and the other players are good too.

7. Wolf, Support of SK Telecom T1

Wolf is a competent support player, a known choker and the weakest player on SK Telecom T1.

Wolf is not the MVP of any OGN Finals SK Telecom T1 has ever played or a World Class support.

No real analysis, it's just people (read SKT coaches) who said Wolf was the MVP of the OGN Summer Final tilt me like a game of limbo in Jamaica. I also don't think people, even Bang, realize how much Wolf holds Bang back.

8. Zzitai, toplaner of Invictus Gaming

I never liked Zzitai even when he was a midlaner, I always found Chinese analysts (which I'm locked in an eternal war with) have massively overpraised his mechanical ability and his 'large' champion pool. To me he represented everything I hated about Chinese LoL.

It got worse when Invictus Gaming signed Save, one of my favourite ever players, then signed KaKAO and Rookie two weeks after. While iG did give the Save, KaKAO, Zzitai roster a go it turns out that Zzitai decided to not bother practicing and Save was benched after 2 games or something stupid. iG then found more success with Pokemon, KaKAO and Rookie before Zzitai convenietly decided to learn toplane and replaced Pokemon in the toplane. Now Zzitai is at Worlds while Save rots away on the Young Glory bench, THANKS INVICTUS GAMING! I can only hope that Save manages to escape the filthy clutch of iG in 2016 and refind his drive to be a pro player...

Anyway moving on... 

Zzitai is a veteran player who's adapted well to a role swap. Having stabilized his play and his champion choices, he's become a somewhat reliable secondary carry for the legacy Chinese side.

Zzitai is not an elite toplaner, some kind of gaming prodigy, or a clever player.

One of my biggest pet peeves is when people mistake a wide champion pool for a deep champion pool. A player with a wide champion pool is someone who plays a lot of stuff, a player with a deep champion pool is a player with multiple champions he's capable of being a serious and game winning threat on. Zzitai, as a midlaner, had one of the shallowest champion pools I've ever seen. Reliant on gimmicky counterpicks to survive the laning phase, Zzitai could play everything badly. 

Zzitai's transition to the toplane saw a good amount of that change. For example I'd say Zzitai is a better toplaner than midlaner and has seemingly stopped his random shit picks which cause unneccesssary stress to his team mates.Zzitai prefers bruisers over AP carries and tanks and enjoys hard diving the enemy backline. Zzitai looks at his best when he plays aggressive and fast, and he shows a solid understanding of every champion he plays with logical builds.

However, is Zzitai the best toplaner in his group? No, both Ziv and Huni are fundamentally better than him. His laning also leaves something to be desired, often dependent on KaKAO to bail him out of deficits.

9. Hai, 'Jungler' for Cloud 9

If you think TSM have had a shit split then you're right, it's been bad from start to finish. But Cloud 9 have had an even worse time; it's only thanks to the complete meltdown on Team Liquid, Team Gravity, and Team Impulse that they made it to Worlds to begin with. Cloud 9's circuit run, while highly entertaining, was a shit show from start to finish. Hai's individual performance wasn't the most terrible thing, but enough jokes have been made about Balls in the last 10 days to last a lifetime, and it is what I want to focus on.

Hai is a good team captain

Hai is not a good jungler or an amazing shotcaller.

My issue with Hai is not a simple or even a personal one. I think, considering the pathetic hand he's been dealt, Hai's performed about as well as you could expect the legacy North American player to. Yes it's bad that his champion pool isn't even close to being meta, yes his jungle pathing is predictable and inefficient and yes his mechanics are still shit. But he was at least there for Cloud 9 to act as the emotional leader they so desperately needed.

Having said that, I'm sick of this constant and unquestioning praise for Hai's shotcalling. It appears that Hai's ability to shotcall was somehow linked to the seat that he sat in, because that most certainly hasn't returned. I mean he's clearly the one still calling the shots, but he's certainly not doing it at anywhere near the level he did before he retired the first time. Cloud 9 are now making strategical errors, something that was completely unheard of before the Spring 2015 finals. I hope, for Cloud 9's sake, that their 2016 rebuild is as deep as it is efficient and well thought out. 

If you enjoyed this content, feel free to follow the author at @Gosickboy_for more.

Images courtesy of Fnatic, SKT, Esportspedia, CLG, Cloud 9, iG, EDG, and TSM.