Unofficial End of Season Gold Player Rankings - By Toxin
Hey everyone, it’s Toxin! One of the most requested things people ask for in our community is player rankings. In the beginning of the season, I did a quick top 10 for each role based on everyone’s starting rosters. In the midseason, I went through each player and ranked each starter in a tier list from C to S (or Smurf tier in the case of Snowlife). For the final regular season rankings, I’m going to combine the two and make a top 10 list for each role with a few honorable mentions. These lists will also be broken into tiers, with S at the top and A at the bottom. I chose to do it this way mainly due to the fact that some rosters completely boomed multiple times throughout the split, or changed their players out from week to week. Thus, I didn’t really feel confident ranking every player that played this split. Instead, I want to highlight the cream of the crop in the league. I also don’t have a lot of time to individually breakdown each player about how cracked they are at the game and their best picks, but I will try to give some explanation of why they were ranked where they are. Also, I asked for other people’s opinions in order to fully get the rankings of each role to a place where I was happy. A lot of time was spent arguing over where each player is put, but this is where they ended up. Let’s get into the rankings!
Top Lane:
S tier:
ShadowBalls000 (CB Rangers)
Altazi (VBU Argon)
Clarken (NSG Infinity)
At the top of the top lane tier list is Shadow, Altazi, and ClassyKru. Shadowballs000 is the best top laner in my eyes due to the dominance he showed throughout the season. I didn’t really see a series where he was consistently behind in his matchup, and I thought he was the best performing player on CB Rangers in the final. Altazi is next and an argument can be made for him being the best, but I think that Shadow outperformed him in the finals. I might be an Argon player, but I’m going to give Shadow the nod. Third is Clarken, which was the only other top laner that really gave a problem to Shadow. Personally, I think Altazi’s carry potential is higher than Clarken, which is why Clarken is third.
A tier:
S10 Survivor (CB Royal)
Classykru (Oasis NADS)
Yung Natz (Limitless Chaos)
Feathers and Fur (Trying for Third)
Actual Bird (Imperial Gaming)
Synirr (Crimson Dolphins)
Triple Cute (CB Obsidian)
Jumping down into A tier, you have S10 Survivor at 4th and Classykru at 5th. Statistically, Classykru was the 2nd best top laner in the league, and S10 Survivor gapped him in their first round matchup in the playoffs. S10 Survivor put up a good fight against Altazi in the Quarterfinals, but that was primarily through ganks and not individual play. That’s why S10 finds himself in A tier instead of S, and why Classykru is 5th. Next up on the stats train is Yung Natz, who did a good job of CSing throughout the season. That being said, he hopped around to three total teams, and would randomly decide to turn his mic off and permasplit if things were not going well. At his peak performance, he would be higher. But with those things considered, he finds himself here. Feathers and Fur was the big carry player on Trying for Third’s miracle run, so he gets major points to find himself in 7th. Actual Bird is 8th mainly due to the dominance he showed over the two players directly beneath him. I think that the biggest debate on the top lane tier list is between 9th and 10th. Statistically, Triple Cute is better but he was also on the better team. Personally, I have Synirr in 9th due to his ability to contend with both Clarken and Yung Natz throughout the regular season, whereas Triple Cute did not play against a single player in the top 10 until playoffs.
Honorable Mentions:
Habloufough (Collective Cosmic)
Kappa Krusader (Twin Spirits)
Th0r22 (Gob Squad)
For top lane, these are the three honorable mentions worth shouting out. I think Habloufough did well into Triple Cute but unfortunately, I don’t have the West top lakers ranked very highly in my mind. Kappa Krusader is a solid player, but top lane is not his main role and he was exposed pretty hard in the playoffs. Th0r22 was statistically a strong performer on a non-playoff roster, but I valued players ability to make the playoffs more than stats. That being said, I did want to shout out the great job he did despite not being seen in the playoffs.
Jungle
Graduated Tier:
Kral Sultan (VBU Argon)
PacaPaul (Literal Monkeys)
So specifically for Jungle, I wanted to put a Graduated tier for the two players that ranked out this split. I think both Kral Sultan and PacaPaul would easily be in the S tier, and we will never know where they would have ended up if they had finished the season. That being said, they both smurfed in the games that they played and deserve recognition.
S tier:
Jg isnt Ruined (VBU Argon)
Anderson Cooper (CB Rangers)
Outside of Kral Sultan and PacaPaul, I think there are only two junglers that can be considered an S tier jungler in the league, and that’s Anderson Cooper and Athena (Jg isnt Ruined). Both of these players are insanely smart on the game and know how to facilitate their team to bring home the dub. That being said, the finals showed that one was clearly above the other, so it is clear that Athena is number one and Cooper is number two.
A tier:
Vandrahl (CB Royal)
Warhead852 (Oasis NADS)
Creepin (KQC)
Bªtman (Final Esports)
Jayyster (NSG Infinity)
Swággy P (Imperial Gaming)
Myth Jones (CB Obsidian)
Flatzoner (Limitless Chaos)
Now we get into the A tier, which is all of the other junglers that stood out as being strong players on their rosters. I think the only other jungler that gave Athena a difficult time throughout the season was Vandrahl, so my opinion of him is pretty high. My next couple picks can be pretty controversial, but let me explain. Warhead852 was statistically the next best jungler after the top 4(including the two rank-outs), and his play with Classykru was very strong throughout the season. As for Creepin being 5th, the main thing you need to know is that he was on KQC, one of the worst teams in the league. Despite that, his stats were solid and he was constantly the strongest performer on his team. I think that on most rosters, those players would have upgraded them a good amount. In 6th is Bªtman, who, although he didn’t have the best player around him, is consistently a strong player within the role. Multiple people vouched for him to be high up on the list, so I am solidly putting him here. 7th is Jayyster, which is where I start to value playoff longevity. I think that credit is due for the work he put in to make it to the semifinals, but ultimately I think he was more so along for the ride than the one driving the bus. Swággy P gets 8th place primarily due to his performance against CB Obsidian, where he genuinely was smurfing out there with his cracked Sejuani gameplay. That series is also why Myth Jones finds himself at 9th despite a strong regular season. Finally, I think Flatzoner gets the final nod for 10th due to his victory over Ëmperör in the playoffs.
Honorable Mentions:
Ëmperör (Twin Spirits)
EternalCr1es (Trying for Third)
KronicN1nja (Collective Cosmos)
Finally, we have honorable mentions. I think that Ëmperör could have been a top 10 player, but it was hard to argue against putting Flatzoner beneath him after the playoff series. EternalCr1es and KronicN1nja are the other two shoutouts as players that made the playoffs, but I thought that Ëmperör was clearly above them in skill level.
Mid Lane:
S+ tier:
Kaïten (VBU Argon)
I think that watching Kaïten play the game throughout the season has placed a strong belief in my head that he was the MVP of the league. There was not a mid laner that really contested him throughout the season, and the only player that came close really was only due to champion pool differences rather than actual skill. For that reason, Kaïten belongs in his own tier.
S tier:
BTG (CB Royal)
BuhRock (CB Rangers)
Karma Divine (NSG Infinity)
S tier for me are the next three best players after Kaïten that could have potentially come close to him in skill level. Of all the players in the league, BTG gave him the hardest time throughout the season, which is why he is firmly ranked second. 3rd place would then go to Buhrock, who stomped players throughout the season until he made it to the semifinals. I thought that Karma Divine and him were both of equal skill, but ultimately Buhrock won the match, which is why Karma Divine falls to 4th.
A tier:
Eastonn8 (Final Esports)
Azurexfire (Imperial Gaming)
A Clogged Toilet (Trying for Third)
JJH (CB Obsidian)
SayJoe (Collective Cosmic)
TheFireOfTheFox1 (Limitless Chaos)
Starting off the A tier is Eastonn8, which was a very strong player in the mid lane statistically. While he did not have any playoff success to speak of to propel him into S tier, I think his stats, along with the fact that he beat Azurexfire during the regular season, made him the easy choice for 5th place. Next up is Azure and A Clogged Toilet, followed by the West mid laners JJH, SayJoe, and TheFireOfTheFox1. The reason that I have them in this order is due to the fact that JJH got absolutely gapped by Azurexfire, and SayJoe was taken down by A Clogged Toilet in the playoffs. For that reason, my opinion of the West mid laners is automatically a lot lower than the other two. Looking specifically at the three from the West, JJH beat them both in the regular season, and SayJoe was better than TheFireOfTheFox1. Then if you compare Azure and A Clogged Toilet, Azure beat the better mid laner from the west, so he finds himself in 6th.
Honorable Mentions:
ExStarZ (Crimson Dolphins)