Ranking the mid laners at worlds (OPINION)
- FPX Doinb
- SKT Faker
- G2 Caps
- DWG Showmaker
- RNG Xiaohu
- FNC Nemesis
- GRF Chovy
- IG Rookie
- TL Jensen
- SPY Humanoid
- C9 Nisqy
- JT Fofo
- CG Damonte
- ISG Seiya
- UOL Nomanz
- GAM Kiaya
- AHQ Apex
- HKA Mission
- DFM Ceros
- MEGA G4
- MMM Tr1ple
- LKE Artifact
- FLA Goku
- RY Cyeol
Some general comments: There are major gaps (tiers?) between the mid laners. I believe that the top 3 are in a league of their own, with Doinb being the flex-picking roamer (global pressure with Kled/Panth/Righteous Glory Ryze/Nautilus), Faker being the ever-evolving all around mid, and Caps being the wildcard that can pop off (Claps) or sometimes shit the bed (Craps). The next batch, Showmaker/Xiaohu/Nemesis/Chovy are all insanely mechanically gifted. Showmaker is the ace on the only fast-paced LCK roster (maybe Afreeca is also fast but they're not here are they), Xiaohu has quietly had an extremely good summer split (besides finals vs FPX where he got outmatched by Doinb), Nemesis is like a Doinb-lite where he can pull out stuff like Twisted Fate and pressure bot heavily, and Chovy is the mechanical laning god that almost always wins lane regardless of matchup (the reason he's not higher is because he sometimes fails to transition that lead into something meaningful). The next batch are Rookie/Jensen/Humanoid/Nisqy. Rookie, once a top midlaner like Doinb and Faker, falls down to 8 due to inconsistent performances in the summer split (though this could be attributed to IG's terrible jungle situation). Jensen/Humanoid/NIsqy fill the good but not great mids. I don't see them making too many mistakes but I think they're not on the level of the previous 2 tiers. Next are Fofo and Damonte. Fofo/Damonte looked good in their own respective regions (insert Tanner time memes here) but I don't see them transferring that to the international stage against much harder competition. Both play safe in the early game and look to make plays in the mid game (see: Damonte's Qiyana and Irelia) but they won't have that luxury against mids like Caps and Chovy. Next are the best of the wildcards - Seiya, Nomanz and Kiaya. From what I saw, they looked at about the level of low tier LCS/LEC mids - decent but prone to making a lot of mistakes. The rest are below this, with Royal Youth's cyeol taking the bottom spot - I wasn't impressed at all with his play, he got stomped on by mids like Frozen and GBM and is clearly the weak link on that team.
