The Best League of Legends Players Ever

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FAKER

Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok is indisputably the best LoL player of all time. He started his professional career in February 2013 and was a World Champion by September. Since then, he’s won two more world titles and finished runner-up in 2017. This gave him the best results of any of the League of Legends players in international competition. He has also won eight domestic titles in Korea with T1 and has earned himself part ownership in the organization to secure his post-playing career.

Faker has one of the most versatile champion pools the game has ever seen. He has played 71 unique champions in his career, making him impossible to target in drafts. His most-feared champion is Leblanc, an assassin who was so frequently banned that it took until 2015 for him to lose his first game on her. However, he still maintains an 80% win rate. Faker is also famous for his Zed. Specifically, his outplay on Ryu “Ryu” Sang-wook in the Champions 2013 Summer Finals.

Faker’s ability to thrive as the primary carry for his team through so many roster iterations is a testament to his skill and adaptation. Plenty of players have peaked near Faker’s level for short periods. But nobody has ever come close to his sustained level of success. Considering he’s still an elite player on a solid team, Faker doesn’t look like he’s slowing down anytime soon.

MATA

Cho “Mata” Se-hyeong, like Faker, debuted as a professional League of Legends player in Korea in the Spring of 2013. He won his inaugural split with MVP Ozone, taking the Champions 2013 Spring title. Mata then cemented his legacy in 2014 by winning a World Championship with Samsung White. SSW had one, if not the most dominant run of all time, dropping only two games in the entire tournament and defeating Star Horn Royal Club 3-0 in the finals. As a result, Mata was named MVP of the tournament, the only support player ever to earn that honor.

Mata’s dominance forced the public to re-think the impact that supports could have on the game. Mata could play the enchanters and play them well. But he excelled on playmaking supports like Thresh, Alistar, and Rakan that could dictate trades and fights. Mata won 81 of his 113 games on Thresh in his career, making him easily Mata’s most effective champion. So even though he can’t match Faker’s legacy, Mata arguably made a more significant impact on how the game is thought about and played.

UZI

Jian “Uzi” Zi-Hao is the greatest League of Legends player never to have won a World Championship. He’s come close, though – twice finishing runner-up with Royal Club in 2013 and 2014. However, Uzi has achieved everything short of that goal, including multiple domestic titles and international success, by winning the 2018 Mid-Season Invitational. He has spent most of his career with the Royal Never Give Up organization, save for brief stints with Oh My God and Qiao Gu Reapers.

Uzi is the ultimate ADC hyper carry, always the focal point of his team. His laning prowess and mechanical skill are so legendary that his team has so often drafted supportive picks for the rest of his team that it’s been coined the “protect-the-Uzi” composition. Though he never picked up bot lane mages or bruisers, Uzi has thrived through every popular ADC meta from Ezreal, to Sivir, to Kai’Sa. Uzi plays to crush his opponent in lane and is the best ADC ever to do it.

DOINB

Kim “Doinb” Tae-sang is a Korean mid laner who adopted China as his home. However, Doinb never played in Korea, instead starting his career in the LPL with Qiao Gu Reapers in Summer 2015. He had solid, playoff-level results throughout his career, but things took off when he joined FunPlus Phoenix in 2019. After finishing first in the regular season in Spring, Doinb and FPX won the LPL Summer Split. From there, the team dominated the 2019 World Championship, culminating in a 3-0 sweep over G2 Esports in the Finals.

Doinb is the mad scientist of top League of Legends players. He has consistently shown a willingness to play off-meta champions like Nautilus and Nocturne to gain an advantage. His most notable innovation was Righteous Glory Ryze, a pick that helped him win the 2019 World Championship. In addition to his large champion pool, Doinb is the premier shotcaller in League of Legends. While playing the most mechanically intensive role and in the most action-packed lane, Doinb makes the calls for his jungler and teammates across the map. Doinb is a player whose intelligence has gotten him much farther than his mechanical skill ever would have.

DOUBLELIFT

Yiliang “Peter” “Doublelift” Peng is one of North America’s best League of Legends players of all time. Always known for his mechanical abilities, Doublelift debuted in March 2011 with Counter Logic Gaming but did not pick up his first domestic title until his second stint with CLG in Summer 2015. He now has won eight LCS titles. However, the problem for Doublelift has been a lack of international success. He and Team Liquid made it to the finals of the 2019 Mid-Season Invitationals, but none of Doublelift’s teams have ever made it out of the World Championship Group Stage.

Doublelift debuted as a Blitzcrank one-trick but grew into the most mechanically gifted NA ADC of all time. He is most famous for his Caitlyn and Ezreal, but has had the most success in his career with his 67.2% win rate on Lucian. Like Uzi, Doublelift prefers to bully his lane opponents and favors long-range and earlier spiking champions. But he is famous for greedily holding onto his Flash, leading to high variance mistakes and incredible outplays.

BJERGSEN

Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg permanently raised the standard of play in North America. He had a long reign as the best mid laner in the region. After breaking into the LEC with Copenhagen Wolves in 2013, Bjergsen joined TSM in 2014 Spring. In his seven years with TSM, Bjergsen won six LCS titles. However, Bjergsen had limited international success. Besides winning the IEM Season 9 World Championship, TSM’s best achievement was taking a game off Samsung White at the 2014 World Championship.  

Bjergsen was still at the top of his game when he retired to become TSM’s head coach. He came into the league as the best mid laner and left as the best mid laner – an incredible run that may never be touched again. Bjergsen was a star in every meta and carried the burden of being the star player on North America’s most popular team. Even when his teammates struggled around him, they all had nothing but great things to say about Bjergsen’s leadership and work ethic. The only hole on Bjergsen’s resume is his lack of international success. He will attempt to elevate NA now as a coach.

PERKZ

Luka “Perkz” Perković is the only multi-position player to make this list. He won four straight LEC splits as a mid laner for G2 Esports before later role-swapping to ADC. Perkz then won three LEC splits as an ADC and one more as a mid laner. As if that was not enough, Perkz moved regions in 2021, joining Cloud9. Perkz immediately won his first split in the LCS. In addition to domestic titles, Perkz won MSI 2019 with G2 Esports and finished runner-up to FunPlus Phoenix at the 2019 World Championship.

Perkz is known for his aggressive playstyle and willingness to go for kills in mid lane. While many mid laners are great at roaming, Perkz prefers to pressure his opposing mid laner. That bears out in his champion pool. He has preferred immobile mages like Ryze, Orianna, and Azir for dominating via CS numbers or champions with kill-threat like Leblanc, Syndra, and Akali. Besides mechanics, Perkz’ in-game leadership is widely regarded. His former jungler Marcin “Jankos” Jankowski spoke about how Perkz’ departure left a void on G2 Esports.

CAPS

If Perkz is impressive for being the only player to switch positions for multiple splits, Rasmus “Caps” Winther is impressive for being a player so good that Perkz was willing to swap positions. Caps helped Fnatic end G2’s LEC dominance in 2018, winning back-to-back titles. Caps then left for G2, where he and Perkz teamed up to win the next four titles. Caps played ADC for one split in 2020 Spring before swapping back to mid. Caps is the only Western player in history to make back-to-back World Championship Finals. He finished second with Fnatic in 2018 and second with G2 Esports in 2019. 

Caps’ run of form in 2018 was so good that Perkz offered to move to ADC in 2019 to bring Caps aboard. On a superstar lineup, Caps’ favored roaming style arguably made G2 even stronger that year. Caps is easily the most versatile Western mid laner of all time and probably the best overall. Especially with Perkz moving on to NA, Caps should continue to rack up LEC titles and add to his legacy. It’s noteworthy that G2 essentially picked Caps over Perkz when the latter wanted to swap back to mid lane. 

KARSA

Hung “Karsa” Hao-Hsuan outlasted the League of Legends LMS region and has continued to thrive as a member of the LPL in China. Karsa debuted in June 2014 with Machi 17 but came to fame for the Flash Wolves. They dominated the LMS region during his three-year tenure, winning four titles and performing well internationally. He then moved to Royal Never Give Up and won the LPL’s 2018 Spring Split, 2018 Summer Split, and 2018 Mid-Season Invitational with Uzi. Karsa most recently moved to Top Esports in 2020. There he won the 2020 Mid-Season Cup and LPL Summer Split.

Karsa is known for his intelligent jungle pathing and decision-making. Though he has adapted through every meta, Karsa has defaulted more often to champions with early game impact than late-game carries. Lee Sin is by far his most played champion with 113 games, but he has had incredible success with Gragas, sporting an 83.3% win rate in 60 games. His versatility and experience make him a perfect fit on any roster.