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Impact Players: MaRin

Riot·10/20/2015, 4:40:02 PM·3 votes·46,574 views

Leading up to the 2015 World Championship Semifinals, we'll be discussing four of the top impact players left in the tournament -- one from each team.

MaRin

  • Position: Top
  • Team: SKTelecom T1
  • KDA: 5.19
  • Damage dealt per gold spent: 1.284 (3rd in Worlds top laners)
  • Team damage share: 24.1% (3rd in Worlds top laners)
  • Damage per minute: 499 (2nd in Worlds top laners)
  • Average CSD @10: +13.22 (1st in Worlds top laners)
  • Average CSD @20: +26.33 (3rd in Worlds top laners)

Champions Played at Worlds 2015: Fiora (4x), Darius (2x), Renekton (2x), Rumble (1x)

The expectations for MaRin coming into the tournament were varied. Given his propensity for playing tanks (and Rumble), and considering that Worlds was shaping up to be a carry top lane meta, no one really knew what to anticipate from MaRin. Ssumday, Smeb, and in some cases, Huni, have been considered to be better carry top laners than MaRin.

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However, what has happened is that MaRin has been the most important player on his team during Worlds, and a premier player in the tournament. And we've learned that yes, MaRin is in fact a carry top laner. As far as damage output and gold efficiency, he is third only to ahq e-Sports Club's Ziv and the KOO Tigers' Smeb. He has dominated on champions such as Fiora, Renekton, and Darius, racking up kills in crucial moments, and creating immense map pressure in side lanes.

MaRin's first test came early on Fiora when his team was having a relatively off game against H2K. But an overextension by H2K led to MaRin grabbing four kills and propelling his team to victory. His Renekton also made quick work of Edward Gaming's AmazingJ when he went 10/0/6. Finally, in what was likely the hardest matchup for him thus far, MaRin had some epic duels with Ziv in SKT's match against ahq, often fighting Ziv under ahq's Tier 2 tower -- and sometimes winning -- on Fiora and Renekton.

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MaRin will be key in SKT's success moving forward, both in terms of his individual play and as the team's primary shotcaller. Even though statistically SoaZ is the weakest of the four top laners left in the tournament, on the other side of the bracket awaits Huni and Smeb, who round out the best top laners at this Worlds in several categories (including damage output, and CS differential).

Thus far MaRin and SKT have gone undefeated, but for SKT to win Worlds, he'll have to keep up his performance throughout the Semifinals and, potentially, Finals.

Who are some of the other players making their mark on the 2015 World Championship? Tomorrow we'll talk about another player who will be key to their team making the Worlds Finals.

Frank Fields is a Senior Editor for Riot Games Esports Web Content team. Talk to him on Twitter about ordered lists, where your comments will be assimilated into the Matrix. You can also find him in Solo Queue in the Diamond 5 retirement home.

36 Comments

Pie Crust10/21/2015, 1:05:47 AM5 votes

impact players: marin i see what you did there

ValyrianBlade10/20/2015, 5:14:52 PM4 votes

I've been saying since SKT's first match that MaRin has been the MVP of his team and likely worlds.

All of the Faker hype, I'm not sure if it's other teams putting so much effort in to shutting him down that lets MaRin shine, but as far as I've seen MaRin is the primary reason SKT is looking unstoppable and Faker has been average (compared to the other world's elite, so still a million times better than I could even dream of being) at best.

JHei10/21/2015, 8:20:25 AM2 votes

Old Marin Maokai and Fiora New Marin

pwaph10/21/2015, 8:51:44 PM2 votes

Yeah he's sure a "Impact" Trundle in the top lane lololol

nin710/21/2015, 7:30:35 PM1 votes
  1. MaRin is obviously an exceptionally good player
  2. He benefits from the attention that other teams put on Faker
  3. The attention that other teams put on "not Faker" is still split between Top, Bot and Jungle
  4. Another thing that helps him shine is the carry top meta, that puts the spotlight on him (Tanks have a harder time getting numbers or splitpushing) (the fact that he was thought to be a tank+Rumble player but has surprised with his performance on carry tops...thats the impresive part)
  5. Finally, he is an important part of SKT's success, but SKT's success also helps him shine
Fekapeta10/20/2015, 7:19:47 PM1 votes

Guys I don't think he played Maokai on the tournament! He had 2 games on Renekton not 1...

Archanioł10/21/2015, 8:23:00 AM1 votes

This easyhoon is even better than this faker, other teams got even better midlaners, i didnt see any dominating or carry game by faker, Marin did it few times, Easyhoon also, he should play more games.

Gubbey10/21/2015, 7:31:09 AM1 votes

I bet the origen player will be Niels the tournement rookie and for Fnatic I guess Yellowstar?

Minaris10/23/2015, 12:38:21 AM1 votes

Honestly, i though that the Faker was the real key because the opposing team wastes so much to shut him down that Marin kinda naturally gets fed by wreaking every top laner :P. but then again, i just started league so i guess my opinion doesn't really make an impact :P

EliteAvarice10/20/2015, 9:38:51 PM1 votes

Without trying to get in to a "who's the better player" match, or "who deserves more credit", it's clear that SKT has a lot going for them. Faker is unquestionably a good player, and so is MaRin. I think that the hype around Faker is just bleed over from the general hype around Mid Laners as the premier spot on a given team. It belies the mentality crossover from traditional sports where you're looking at the Kobe, or the Beckham as the 'star' of the team - so too for the Mid Lane historically in LoL. Not saying it's right, just an observation. MaRin is undoubetdly a beast, and I wish I could play Renekton half as well as he does. But focus on Faker doesn't mean that he's any less talented of a player. In fact renewed interest in the Top Lane carry meta should indicate that MaRin and the others really do have something special that other players don't, and it's worthy of taking note.

TouchButNoSound10/22/2015, 1:13:57 PM

There's something kind of ironic about the title of this article.