Who's No. 1 in top lane? MaRin says it's him or Koro
Riot·5/8/2015, 5:10:23 PM·1 votes·37,443 views
After Korea's SKTelecom T1 convincingly defeated China's EDward Gaming on Day 1 of the Mid-Season Invitational, SKT top laner Kyunghwan "MaRin" Jang took no time to declare himself as one of the tournament's best top laners.
"Of the three players I played against today, I would rate myself first or second," he told Lolesports. "I think Koro1 is a really good player and he showed flashes of brilliance, so it's either me or him."
Tong "Koro1" Yang wasn't the only one with brilliant plays, though. Throughout the match against EDG, MaRin displayed his mastery of Rumble time and time again. His impeccable Equalizers (R) continuously put EDG between a rock and a hot place, and oftentimes he laid them down before his competitors were even on screen, anticipating exactly where they'd be coming from.
"I think that type of play really comes from my high comfort with Rumble," MaRin says. "I play Rumble a lot. That's first and foremost. Secondly, the way I play, I try to predict what my opponents will do. I try to take away their exit routes or I try to predict their tendencies."
SKT stands tall atop the MSI pack for now, as the only team with a 3-0 record. Today they'll face Fnatic and Ahq e-Sports Club, though MaRin hopes in the future he has the chance to play against EDG and Koro1 again.
"Playing against Koro1 is fun because I think we have very similar styles," he says with a smile. While MaRin doesn't think he can learn any new tricks from the Chinese top laner, he enjoys the challenge of playing against him. "He gives me that opportunity to perfect my style. But it's not necessarily [that] I'm going to take this and that from his game and apply it to mine."
EDG currently sits at 1-1 in the MSI rankings, and today they'll face Fnatic, Beşiktaş e-Sports Club, and Team SoloMid, so we'll have to wait until the end of the day to see if MaRin gets his wish.
You can catch every game today right here on Lolesports, and to catch anything you may have missed from Day 1 of the Mid-Season Invitational, head over to our spoiler-free VODs page.
Leah Jackson is a web content editor at Lolesports. Her favorite champion is currently Heimerdinger. Feel free to follow her on Twitter for esports banter and corgi pictures.
