Hai is the best player NA has ever produced. He may not have the strongest mechanics but when comes right down to controlling the game on an international stage no NA player has ever delivered as hard as he does. When he finally does actually retire I am glad to know that the scene will be better if it is smart enough to follow in his footsteps. Thoughts?
100% agree.
Hai has done more than any other player for the North American E-sports scene.
I actually made a thread about this a couple of days ago however.
Hai is very smart, that much cannot be denied. He is the best* shot caller*, but he is not the best player. Bjergsen is the king of NA.
Mechanically, no way. Maybe in shot-calling, but he really isn't that great in play.
Hai actually has pretty good mechanics. He is showing that playing jungle now. Back when Bjergsen first came to NA, he said Hai was his toughest opponent. This was when Hai was good, pre-problems. Hai always had good mechanics, he just had a really small champion pool. He Westdoor'd it. But after his injury and downtime, his mechanics went down, AND his champion pool compounded it. And, he was having to play mid, one of the harder lanes to dominate, AND make the calls from there. Of course he went downhill.
But as we can see with him jungling, his mechanics are actually really good on the mechanical junglers. Hell, he looks great on Elise and Lee sin. Shows just how much mechanical ability other roles have to have to be relevant. He swaps from retired mid to jungle, looks better on Lee Sin than any other NA jungler (Rush doesnt count; I mean real NA).
Honestly, it shows that you really need your shot-callers to be in the jungle and support roles. Because, the other positions really need to focus on outplaying their opponents in lane. Just look how strong c9 looks now with a mid who never loses lane, and all other lanes focused on their game, and Hai in a place where he will never feel out of it. Thats one thing about being a jungler; no matter how bad its going, you arent going to be 0/7 in lane down 60cs not being able to do anything and have that mental strain on you. I think Hai's shot-calling is better than ever right now. It also helps, when you have 2 lanes always winning, in Incarnation and Sneaky.
I also think Hai is one of hte best players ever. I'm glad he came back and is finally getting the credit he deserved.
you say best player but straight up bjergsen is way better than hai just because someone is a good shot caller does not mean your the best player in NA. He came back because cloud 9 became clown 9 and they started winning again but was it because hai has god like skill and can out play anyone no not even close it was because cloud 9's moral was so far in the dumps their plays were just bad but when hai came back in they became a team again.
Best player is very hard to define. The reason why he quit mid lane is because he was constantly losing mid lane to other players. His champion pools was very bad too; he was resorting to Zed because that was the only champion he can actually use with good results. Lets not forget in the peak of C9 domination, he was using those strong champions like Soraka mid.
So while you can claim his shot calling is the best in NA, you also have to take into account the other players. They said it themselves, they trust each other a lot; this was constantly the motto that they said back in S4, they didn't have a roster change for so long that they build a relationship and trust with each other. So I'd argue that yes, Hai is probably the best shot caller, but that's also his team that's doing a lot of work. His shot calling isn't that absurdly better than others. I'd also argue that Bjerg and other shot callers are nearly just as good and better mechanical players
No one is a better mid than Faker. No one is a better shot caller than YellowStar.
Boom.
-drops mic and leaves-
