10 dominant players and their most feared champions
Riot··3 votes·151,560 views
Some players’ mastery over their best champion becomes iconic. The most notable instance of this phenomenon came in Season 2 when Toyz led TPA to the World Championship floating on the ball of Orianna.
While you can always take a trip down memory lane and watch the VoDs of the since-retired Toyz doing work, there are pros who have reached the same level that you can watch right now.
Let’s take a look at some of the best player / champion combinations in professional League today.
#10 Froggen’s Anivia
Though much more known to play Anivia in Season 2, Froggen has continued to show prowess on cold-blooded bird. It's perhaps surprising that of all the skills in Anivia's kit, it's the application of Crystallize (W) that sets Froggen apart from every other player. In Froggen's hands, the ice wall can shut off jungle paths to prevent ganks, provide a barrier to aid his personal escape, and secure kills for his team by hindering the movement of his opponents.
#9 Madlife’s Thresh
Madlife is God. He has earned a reputation for being able to hook an enemy with impunity, often through minions, into fog, over terrain, following a Flash… in short his enemies are never safe.. He has also mastered timing and position of lanterns, both to set up ganks, and to rescue his allies.
#8 Dade’s Yasuo
While Dade made his name with Ryze, Jayce, and Zed, it is now his Yasuo that is most feared. His initiation into 1v2 situations looks suicidal, but is well calculated. He uses Sweeping Blade (E) to dodge skillshots, confuse opponents, get into brushes, go over walls, and chase. Evasion, split-pushing, and precise timing all make Dade an incredible Yasuo.
#7 Arrow’s Draven
While the most inexperienced player on this list, Arrow’s Draven became infamous faster than any other paring. Arrow’s strength comes from his positioning and knowledge of Draven’s strengths and weaknesses. He knows when to use his abilities for offense and chasing, or defense and kiting. And he always catches the axe - even when you think he can’t.
#6 Alex Ich’s Ryze
Few pros are as outspoken about their favorite champion as Alex Ich is about Ryze, going so far as a pro player pick on Ryze. Alex is able to mitigate Ryze’s low range and mobility with precise timing, and patience before engaging with an enemy. This patience, and knowledge of individual matchups, allows him to snowball faster and more frequently than any other Ryze player.
#5 xPeke’s Kassadin
While xPeke played Kassadin in probably the most famous play in League of Legends history, his proficiency with the champion doesn’t stop there. xPeke’s roaming and aggressive timing in teamfights on Kassadin is what makes him special. Often teams will specifically watch for him to jump in, and yet are still unable to adjust when he is tearing through backlines.
#4 Uzi’s Vayne
While those in other regions may immediately think of Piglet or Doublelift, no player has been more synonymous with Vayne than Uzi. For a long time, Royal Club was dependant on Uzi to carry them through matches in the late game. And as a result, his positioning, mechanics, and timing are nothing short of perfect.
#3 Faker’s Zed
It’s a tragedy of epic proportion that Faker has been restricted to less demanding, supportive mid laners. When he’s at his best, he’s on an assassin--specifically, the master of shadows, Zed. Faker shines most on Zed when using his shadows not only for personal mobility, but also positional outplay - his ability to dodge skill shots is unparalleled. No mid laner has proven a more skilled duelist on a champion.
#2 InSec’s Lee Sin
InSec innovated most of what are now Lee Sin fundamentals - ward jumping over walls or to engage, using Sonic Wave (Q) to escape, or, most notably, combining both to Dragon Rage (Ultimate) an enemy back into his team to initiate a teamfight or gank. Now whenever a Lee Sin kicks an enemy into his team, it is referred to as an ‘InSec’. Since InSec’s innovations, other players have replicated his moves, but his creativity in ganks, precision in escapes, and aggressive early moves continue to impress.
#1 Xiyang’s Syndra
Fans were outraged when Xiyang was chosen to succeed China’s MVP. Boy were they wrong. Xiyang’s ability to hit long range stuns, often on multiple targets, with multiple different orbs, is unmatched by any other Syndra player in the world. Often even the threat of a long range initiation is enough to freeze a team away from an objective - and that is why Xiyang’s Syndra is the most powerful pro/champ combination today.
Think we missed any? Let us know in the comments who your favorite champion / player pairings are.
Hey guys, just wanted to respond before it snowballed. I mentioned Toyz Orianna in the article as the prototype. In my opinion he might be #1 of all time on a specific champion, and the reason I started learning Orianna, but this article focused on current pros playing champions they use today.
Misaya TF, Toyz Orianna, Alex Ich Kha'zix, Meteos Zac, Balls Rumble, Dade Jayce all come to mind, but are either not current pros, or not champions they use.
Please do a all-time. I already love this article as most of these are true, but a all-time article on the best players and their dominating champion would be awesome.
Then why put Uzi's Vayne in there. He transitioned to mid lane for awhile and I understand he went back to adc still he missed time at adc. Since then I think Imp has proven that he is one if not the best adcs in the world. Imp should have gotten Vayne or Caitlyn which even doublelift has said is the best in the world.
Uzi is so closely associated with his Vayne. During LPL in 2013, Royal ran a composition they called "Protect the Puppy" which was basically protect Uzi's Vayne, similar, to how people ran "Protect the Kog'Maw" strategies in other regions. His Vayne became dominant as a result.
He did play mid briefly, but has been at ADC for the majority of this season and is once again a dominant ADC. While Imp and Piglet both have great Vayne play, they are also known for their other champions, which they play well, and I think Uzi's skills and strengths cater to Vayne better.
One thing in particular is his liberal use of Cleanse. He uses Cleanse faster, and more often, than any other ADC I've seen, and uses it especially effectively on Vayne, often taking risks in team fights and duels, because he knows he can Cleanse.
I'm gonna have to side with Facial H on this one. However even if we say that Uzi is the number 1 Vayne (I still contend that I've seen Imp use her better), Imp needs to be there over someone like arrow. If only for his incredible Caitlyn play, he is the best in the world, that is just pretty much fact. All in all however, apart from that fact, I do like your list, even if it is somewhat out of order. Good job.
My issue with this list, as a long standing fan of LoL and the esports scene literally since season one. Is that Arrow and Xiyang are on it so high up. In fact you even said it's supposed to be more recent pros and such. Also neither of them really are terrifying on that champion.
I've seen both of them get absolutely crushed on their best champions and they didn't even need to be camped to get crushed. I think you need to reconsider your list. Or at least make it an all time and replace some people with like Misaya and what not.
Also Toyz Orianna is just about the only reason TPA won worlds, also the reason I learned Orianna. And still have her as a main champion today.
Then why put Alex on Ryze in this list? That was his known S2 pick, and was far more common top then mid this season, and he still has a very known reputation for his Kayle. Dade Yasuo isn't intimidating sure, but not more so than Froggen's Anivia who he's played with disregard to meta and done so successfully, and maintained that reputation for 3 seasons. Xiyang honestly shouldn't even be on this list, at least imo. You're writing for a western audience that was only told he was known for his Syndra at All-Stars, that doesn't make it feared or worth the number 1 spot, putting him before Insec and Faker is just kind of nonsensical to me. There's just very little consistentcy. You say you want to focus on dominant players and their current champions, yet by that standard quite a few of these players shouldn't be on here. Feels like lazy writing.
The reason why Toyz isn't on their list is because Toyz was amazing on but he was also good at many mid champs, while the rest named on the list at the time were a million times better at their one champion than the rest of the champs they played.
Um... Faker has a thing or two to say about Xiyang's feared Syndra. I'm pretty sure it should be any champion in the hands of Faker is to be feared. It just seems a bit wrong to have Xiyang's Syndra on this list after what Faker did to him at All-Stars.
Xiyang is an amazing syndra but last time I checked he wasn't even the starter anymore for OMG (could be wrong have not kept up with LPL recently) but I know that his play at all stars was not nearly good enough to beat SKT who is not even the best team in Korea at the moment. Personally I think Insec, Uzi, and Faker all deserve number 1 over him but he should be top 10. Also Toyz Orianna defiantly should have been in this.
I am totally against uzi's vayne. Uzi is so overhyped. Just because doublelift hyped him doesn't mean uzi is good. You can not overlook imp's vayne and tell me that uzi is better at it.
Ok so the finish of this list makes no damn sense. First of all, xiyang isn't even in a pro league, he plays in LSPL (which is like the Challenger Series of LPL). So he shouldn't even be on the list due to not being an active "pro". Second of all, just because it was his main champ (read - only one he could play at a high level) does not mean it even belongs on this list. I'm not bashing on him or anything - he did very well for a rookie, but near the end of his stay with OMG he was getting wrecked nearly every game.
Thirdly - and probably most importantly - how much was his Syndra "feared" exactly? Well, take for example his showing at AllStars, which was probably his only appearance known to the general western public. In 1 game against SKT he played Syndra vs Faker's Orianna. The toplaner, jungler, and roaming support of OMG camped Faker at the start, causing him to start off the game 0/2 or something like that, after which Faker came back and owned him in teamfights. The very next game they had the same mid matchup, except Faker stole his Syndra and xiyang was the Orianna. Needless to say, Faker completely styled on him 1v1 with xiyang's best champion.
This example alone, even without taking into account the first 2 points, should be reason enough why xiyang's Syndra belongs nowhere near this list, let alone #1. Given that Faker's a f***ing god, if a guy completely styles on you with your best champ in a matchup you played the very previous game, then you're not feared by a long shot. And Syndra is nowhere near Faker's most played champion.
I'm not going crazy right? But there are absolutely no NA players on this list unless I've gone insane. I swear the people who write these articles are so bias against NA except TSM/C9/LMQ that its depressing. I'm glad they actually put CLG higher then everyone else for once but most the highlights talk about their losses more then their wins. Phreak constantly makes fun of doublelift to the point Jatt had to kinda come in to say Doublelift is very good to counter Phreak bashing on him one time.
I kind of oppose Xiyang's Syndra as the #1. Obviously there are better Syndras as when OMG's Allen was unprofessional and refused to shake SKT's hands at All-Stars Faker responded and picked up the Syndra and proceeded to smash Xiyang with the champion you put him as #1 on.
Xiyang didn't get to play Syndra at allstars against SKT because Faker picked it and made him look like a fool playing against it. If he's so scared of when playing it he should know how to play against it better than anyone elss. 10-4 were very good, but Faker on Zedd is the best player ever playing his best champion, enough said.
The lack of NALCS players on this list pleases me. Nice to see that Riot isn't biased towards their own and arguably the least respected region in the world.
Fnatic's and TPA's showing at worlds should be all the information in the world required to prove that NA has a fairly strong line up of teams, especially this summer.
Where is TPA Stanley's Nidalee which perform like a charm in S2 championship series?
Especially when they played with the "Giant M5" in S2, he successfully use Nidalee to take advatage of the four one split. And make opponent ban nidalee in the game which is not usual at all to see an nidalee ban.
Toyz Orianna not there shows how meh this article really is...not just that but why is Kassadin up there at #5? He was overpowered at the time by a mile, doesn't take skill to play a broken champion. He murdered the back line because that is what Kassadin did and nobody could stop him because it was overpowered. Lame choice to put at #5. Rather have seen Shiptur's ahri.
I really don't see how froggens anivia is 10th he should be a lot higher on the list and how is alex ich still on it while he isn't even a pro player right now
shouldn't be there as well, since he is currently playing for an amateur team in the challenger series ;)
but he was also good at many mid champs, while the rest named on the list at the time were a million times better at their one champion
than the rest of the champs they played.
and 
? sOAZ 
?
:D
? I would like to see him at least on the All-Time list. Also Chaox on 
