This year, the LEC made a controversial decision regarding the LEC Awards. The All-Pro team, which is supposed to celebrate the best players in the LEC for each respective role, has become a community vote after years of letting an expert panel decide. It’s not a widely-celebrated choice. All across the community, the criticism is simple: this is prone to becoming a popularity contest.
The community controls who will make it to the LEC All-Pro team this year. Image courtesy of Michal Konkol for Riot Games.
A clear example of a similar vote becoming a popularity contest is provided by the LEC itself: their post-match MVP votes have often been swayed by player popularity. While that MVP leaderboard is mostly considered trivial, the All-Pro team has carried a certain level of prestige with it. It acknowledges a player’s excellence over the course of the entire Split and their consistent superiority over their colleagues in the role. Last Summer Split, despite Astralis finishing tenth, it gave Barney “Alphari” Morris the acclaim for being an outstanding top laner.
To mitigate fans flocking to influence the vote, the LEC makes everyone submit a full ranking of the players in each role. It’s an ok solution to a self-created problem. But if you’re out there with no idea who to vote for, or would like to polish your list, we’ve got you covered. Take some advice from someone who has seen every single game that was played, many of them twice. While we can’t go in-depth about each player in every role—this article is based on 24 pages of notes—we’ll tell you who we think you should consider to putting at the top, and who to place in the… not-so-top.
Top Laners
Image courtesy of Rogue.
The LEC’s top lane was dominated by two players this Spring Split. To absolutely nobody’s surprise, G2’s Martin “Wunder” Nordahl Hansen continued to show his proficiency. On curveball picks such as Ivern, Dr. Mundo, and Karma he nearly flawlessly waltzed through games. From his performance, you would never guess that Wunder barely plays League of Legends outside of his scrims. His intuition and natural aptitude were, once again, something unique to behold.
The second standout top laner has been Andrei “Odoamne” Pascu, who donned the Rogue jersey at the start of the year. It may have been the best move of the entire LEC offseason. Not only did Rogue solidify themselves as a top two team in the region in part because of his excellent showing, but Odoamne himself has flourished. Odoamne boasts the best laning stats out of all the top laners in the LEC. He has been the rock in the top lane Rogue needed to be able to lean on, and adapted well to almost every situation his team was in.
From here, the top lane performances flatten. Still, a three-name sub-top can be formed pretty reasonably. Gabriël “Bwipo” Rau is probably the first name that jumps to mind for many. And yes, while he has had standout games—everyone will remember his Riven game—he has been very inconsistent in his ability to step up and carry the team when they needed him to. Sergen “Broken Blade” Çelik had the same consistency issue Bwipo suffered from, showing up in top shape one week and being barely visible in the next. Meanwhile, İrfan Berk “Armut” Tükek was an impactful top laners in his team’s fights, but often had to fight his way back up from his struggles in the laning phase.
The other top laners in the LEC haven’t necessarily been terrible—the top lane pool has actually been pretty decent this Split. Most of them have shown signs of progress over the course of the Split, although they just fall short of having a top-five performance.
Junglers
Image courtesy of Riot Games
The jungle has a similar situation as the top lane. There’s a pretty easy-to-determine top, after which the quality skips a bit and consistently drops down. King of the jungle in the LEC was, once again, Marcin “Jankos” Jankowski. G2’s jungler was in absolute top shape this Split. From helping his laners get ahead to understanding when he was the one who needed to carry, Jankos proved to everyone that he’s far from close to retiring. He continues to innovate and perfect his craft, rarely dropping the ball.
But another Polish jungler is chasing Jankos’ crown. And he’s catching up quickly: Kacper “Inspired” Słoma. Already in the top-three last year, Inspired has only solidified his position. His early game is close to impeccable, and he is incredibly influential in helping his laners succeed. He exerts pressure wherever he roams. Inspired is the oil in the machine that is Rogue. He often leads his team across the Rift to secure a pick on an enemy, off the back of which the team could secure objectives.
MAD Lions jungler Javier “Elyoya” Prades Batalla is the final name in the top-three of junglers in the LEC Spring Split. Though only a rookie, Elyoya showed early on that he came to rule, out-jungling Jankos in the very first game of the Split. Elyoya has room to improve when it comes to his pathing and knowing when and where to help out his team. But overall, the Spaniard has made a splashing debut being versatile in his champions and flexible in his playstyle.
The rest of the jungle pool ranges from decent to pretty bad, looking back the LEC Spring Split performances. Whereas 2020 was an outstanding year for Fnatic jungler Oskar “Selfmade” Boderek, his performance this Split has left much to be desired. Erberk “Gilius” Demir can be criticized for a similar drop in performance, albeit one step below Selfmade. It’s quite a drop-off to go from leader of Schalke’s Miracle Run last year to struggling to be a visible contributor now.
Mid laners
Image courtesy of Riot Games.
Long has the meme “EU mids, man” been used to indicate that the region is rich in top-tier mid lane talent. Well, after this Spring Split, perhaps it’s time to rethink that… The performance of mid laners has been very unimpressive in the past two months. Much like in the top lane, there’s just two names that stand tall above the others.
In a shocking turn of events, wunderkind Rasmus “Caps” Winther once again had a great Split. Though in the early weeks Caps didn’t really need to pop off like he did in last year’s Summer Split, the times he did were immediately the highlight of the show. But while his roaming style often stole the show, Caps proved to any skeptics (do those still exist?) that he’s just as proficient on lane-focused champions like Lucian and Yone.
Emil “Larssen” Larsson continued to assert his dominance in the lane. Almost every game, Rogue’s mid came out of the laning phase ahead of his opponent. Though the team didn’t experiment with Larssen’s champion pool this Split—he played six champions overall—the luxury with Larssen is that he didn’t need to reach far for lane advantages. In most cases, he would be fine anyway. On multiple occasions, Larssen has expressed his desire to kick Caps from his throne. In the Spring Split, he was the only one in the LEC who is remotely close to reaching that level.
There’s a large drop in quality from here. Marek “Humanoid” Brazda is absolutely not a bad mid laner, no matter how much people like to joke about him for the few games where he died unnecessarily and repeatedly. He should definitely be considered highly. Yasin “Nisqy”Dinçer showed signs of greatness too—remember his Irelia game?—but, much like Humanoid, showed up too inconsistently to be added to the absolute top of the league. Many of the other mid laners have had their moments of greatness, but haven’t managed to be consistent. A great mid laner is a stable core for their team. However, there are glimmers of hope. A few players who started picking up the pace towards the end.
In the end, you can make a case for many different rankings for the rest of the LEC mid laners.
Bot laners
Image courtesy of Riot Games.
Now we’re talking! The bot lane role is stacked in the LEC. Just as it was last Summer Split, and it continued to be so this past Spring Split. Not too surprising when only two new bot laners joined the league. The LEC’s most renowned bot laner, Martin “Rekkles” Larsson, fit perfectly into G2 and was putting on world-class performances, especially in the first half of the Split. Without missing a beat he hammered down on everyone he faced, making it clear that he’ll fight to keep his bot lane crown no matter the jersey he wears.
Interestingly, his successor at Fnatic, Elias “Upset” Lipp, is in direct contention too. While Fnatic as a whole has been a massive letdown in the regular Split, Upset was on the top of his game almost every week. While Fnatic veterans faltered, Upset stood impressively strong. He seemed completely unleashed and unchained compared to whatever held him back at Origen last year. Another player who elevated their play this regular Split was, undoubtedly, Steven “Hans sama’’ Liv. He went from being a stable factor for Rogue last year to having insane pop-off games, taking his teammates by the hand and leading the charge. Hans sama played with more aggression than he did previously, but wasn’t reckless: he struck precisely.
When considering who the best-performing bot laner is in the LEC this Split, it’s impossible to ignore Patrik “Patrik” Jírů, the bot laner for Excel. While Excel failed to make the Playoffs yet again, Patrik cannot be blamed. He once again performed incredibly, and not just in the games that his team did manage to win. Oftentimes, even if Excel lost the game, Patrik was out there trying to drag the dying horse forward. He showed incredible resilience and persistence, from the start of the split, all the way to the end.
Many bot laners played well in Spring, and the above just showed excellence. In general, the level of play from many bot laners was satisfying during the eight weeks of competition.
Supports
Image courtesy of SK Gaming.
The average level lowers again now that we’re into support player territory. Only a few supports standing out. Almost universally agreed upon to be the best support player in the region, once more, is G2’s Mihael “Mikyx” Mehle. From the get go, Mikyx was firing on all cylinders, much like he had at Worlds 2020. Perhaps it was Rekkles standing by his side that motivated him more, or perhaps he just wanted to steal the spotlight from his new bot lane partner. Whatever motivated him: it worked. Aside from moments of instability, Mikyx continued to be an exemplary support player, competing to be the best in the role worldwide.
Who is following Mikyx’s trail? Two other support players had a great impact on their team. The first one has been discussed numerous times over the course of the Spring Split: Erik “Treatz” Wessén. He has been the winning factor on SK Gaming, a truly unique accomplishment for a support player. Time and time again, Treatz was the one who found the perfect opportunity to engage with his opponents for a team fight. It’s safe to say that, without him, SK Gaming would not have been close to making it to the Playoffs.
Though that wouldn’t be the case for Rogue—they have four outstanding players in the other roles too, as argued earlier—it does not take away anything from the performance of Adrian “Trymbi” Trybus. The rookie had a rough beginning of the Split, awkwardly diving in at seemingly random moments, but recovered magnificently. Over the course of the Split, he learned to tame his aggression and communicate with his team better, becoming a reliable shield and engager when needed. With twelve different champions played Trymbi was one of the most versatile players across any role, and he piloted the majority of them impressively.
Fnatic’s Zdravets “Hylissang” Iliev Galabov statistics look bad—and his play was not up to par with the ones mentioned above, no doubt—but there is room for nuance. Hylissang was instrumental in Upset’s performance, setting him up for greatness, often at the cost of his own life. As for the rest of the supports, there is no way around it: it has been a bleak Split, bar a few individual games. Onto the next Split, and hopefully, things get better for support players!
The LEC All-Pro team voting closes on March 19th. You can cast your votes and have your say in the LEC All-Pro team on this page.
