The Western Breakdown #9

Welcome to the EU edition of my awards predictions — The Western Breakdown #9 — covering all of the LEC awards this time. Since the…

Welcome to the EU edition of my awards predictions — The Western Breakdown #9 — covering all of the LEC awards this time. Since the All-Pro teams were released already, I’ll be comparing my opinions against the results (many of which I disagree with).

My LEC Ballot

MVP — Nisqy

I’m generally of the opinion that the MVP should be the best player in the league, which is what it has historically meant, and why Inspired will likely receive the award in the LCS. After all, when caPs and Jankos were trading MVP’s in G2’s golden years, they were competing over who the #1 overall player was, not over which players had the most impact on their team’s outcomes (which is why Vetheo won in Spring, and the justification for Nisqy’s candidacy for most people).

However, Nisqy’s effect on MAD was so pronounced — they went from 7th place to T-1st — and so obviously due to his leadership, playstyle, and raw skill that he does have a really strong case for MVP. Later in this ballot, you’ll see me make the argument that caPs is the best mid laner, and the best player in the league, but I think I still put Nisqy here because I feel that he deserves recognition for the effect he’s had — even if I prefer MVP to be the single best player in the league.

Top — BrokenBlade, Odoamne, Wunder

My top lane ballot is similar to the All-Pro, I’ve just left out Alphari because I don’t feel that his domination of lane when he’s funneled so hard is that impressive. We’ve known for a long time that Alphari can dominate lane, especially when champions like Gnar and Gangplank were meta for so much of the split — but this split was a perfect demonstration of Alphari’s inability to push that lead onto the rest of his team. Carzzy definitely threw away a lot of their advantages (especially at the end of the split), but since I value flexibility so highly, I still can’t justify putting him too high.

Why, then, have I placed Wunder at third? He may have tried a variety of champions (Fiora, Jarvan, Shyvana), but all 5 of the champions he had 1 game on were losses. He performed well on weak side picks with teamfight impact, like Gragas, Gwen, and Ornn, and earned a lot of praise for said performances. The key difference between Wunder and Alphari was that Wunder solo-won FNC several games even though he rarely received resources, and that his individual level on his champion meant that the slightest advantage was pressed well. The man was a highlight machine, and the only consistent point throughout FNC’s roller coaster of a season.

Jungle — Jankos, Elyoya, Markoon

I’ve picked the same 3 junglers for my All-Pro list, just being tempted to switch the order of Elyoya and Jankos, because these players are really hard to compare. Elyoya’s impact is a lot more visible, because he’s facilitated by the best supportive mid laner in the west, and has some of the most creative jungle pathing and strategy in the world. He’s always been an incredible carry player, and with Nisqy at his side he’s been unleashed, working with Kaiser effectively to keep Armut in his comfort zone, while keeping an absurd amount of pressure on the enemy jungle. Elyoya is the key to the MAD early game.

Jankos, for his part, is a supportive jungler who gets G2 through the early game by protecting and snowballing his incredible solo laners (and occasionally switching it up to give Flakked some love). It could be argued that the G2 solo laners are only as good as they are because of Jankos, and no jungler could fill that role better (at least in the west). Jankos is the perfect piece — he’s attested as the leader of G2, makes their every early game plan, and is the core of their culture. However, it’s hard to justify including these as factors, even if they are facts.

Mid — caPs, Nisqy, Vetheo

I am an unapologetic caPs fanboy, and for a while I figured that it was my own bias sneaking into my opinion that he’s once again a head and shoulders above the rest of the league individually. There’s basically no denying that his second round robin has qualified him for that honor without contest, but since the end of G2’s first round robin was characterized by some classic caPs inting, people considered whether the content of the whole split qualified him for the first All-Pro team.

The thing is, not putting him in #1 would come (for most) with the caveat that they still think he is the best player in the league, just that he isn’t the first All-Pro player because he had 4–5 lower performance games in the middle of the split. It starts to get really weird and I’ve already told you that I love this player, so is it really a surprise that I’m going to put him in first place?

Bot — UNF0RGIVEN, Comp, Flakked

Because of the meta being so centered around ADC’s, it’s really easy to feel like every player in this role is completely smurfing. Neon, Upset, and Patrik all feel a bit like snubs on my list, which indicates that either EU ADC’s are hyper competitive — not that they aren’t, necessarily — or that the game has become *very* bot-lane focused. UNF0RGIVEN earned my normal points for flexibility, and playing exactly how the team needed. While he may not have directly earned MAD their wins, like Comp did for many of Rogue’s games, it takes a lot of skill to play with a support as impactful as Kaiser and still remain solid in lane.

That’s the same reason I’ve rated Flakked higher than others, because his job has been to play the role that G2 demands of him, so his own weaker laning stats and lower DPM on paper mean more than they would in a vacuum. Additionally, Flakked really demonstrated a kind of flexibility that’s rare in ADC’s by the end of the split, so even if you don’t agree in the All-Pro placement, like caPs, you probably have to concede that he’s a top 3 ADC coming into playoffs.

Supp — Targamas, Kaiser, Trymbi

Targamas is the third G2 member to top my role lists, which opens me up to the same criticism made of the actual All-Pro list. If MAD ended tied for first with 4 out of 5 of the best players in the league, Armut would have to be the worst player in the league in order to drag this team down, right? Especially since G2 didn’t all appear on the All-Pro lists! Anyways, back to talking about support.

Targamas was absolutely, completely, totally robbed for the position of #1 All-Pro Support. I’m genuinely more passionate about this than I was about caPs for first, to be honest, because Targamas’ level is so much higher than other supports, in my view. Disregarding the statistical measures that he dominates, the fact that he’s at the core of the primary playstyle of the best team in the league, and he’s just an eye test for an amazing player, his flexibility puts him way above every other player. Kaiser plays really well, but primarily pilots Nautilus and Rakan, with 7 total champs played, Targamas has 12 total champs played, across a variety of styles and a lower rate of play for his favored champions.

Rookie of the Split — Jeonghoon

Astralis importing Jeonghoon was a heavily criticized move in the offseason, but I’m glad to see that they actually picked up a true talent. He’s demonstrated a lot of power on a variety of picks, highlights on Pyke (which automatically shoots him up my rankings as a player), and makes Kobbe look really good. The main way I settled on this decision was that even when other players talk about AST, they talk about Jeonghoon’s champ pool and his surprising impact as a support. Honestly, not a lot to say here because the choice was obvious and largely underwhelming compared to LCS (Berserker vs toucouille vs jojopyun).

I’m noticing flexibility played a massive role in my rankings here, but this is definitely a shorter, easier piece that lets me put my ideas out there quickly. Flexibility is valuable to me as a draft-minded analyst, and because most players cannot match the skill, it becomes a great point for me to analyze. Thank you for reading! There might be an issue #10 for the Western Breakdown, about playoffs trajectory, because 10 looks really nice and 9 is just frustrating.