No. it's not that. Faker is just way too overrated. He's good. He was the best at some point, but those days are long gone. You need to understand how the game changes and the people have access to so much information about how the game can be played. There are so many little tricks that were not known back in the day. Optimal jungle routes, best back timings, wave manipulation etc are all things that were not done back in the day to the extent we see today. The few people who were doing those actually became the best, to which point Faker became the best at some point, because he understood the game.
Over the next years though, more analysts came in and so much more knowledge and strategy and mechanics came to be known, even to the casual player. But those challenger players who were already good at the game now got even more knowledge and eventually were able to surpass Faker. Look at the best mid laners right now; BDD is insane. Positioning, going in and out of the fight, CSing, laning pressure, roaming, teamfighting. The guy does so many things so well. Nobody can prove to me that Faker is better than BDD in 2018. There are also other western mid laners, like Febiven, who are also extremely skilled and could be believed to be the best. And let's not mention how many better players exist in other lanes. Khan is insane, Pray is insane, Peanut, Kiin, Smeb etc. All these players are strong and probably better than Faker.
So, what changed? Faker got to the top by abusing assassins. Want to make a name for yourself? Play something that has the ability to outplay. Yasuo, Zed, Riven, play those and everyone will call you a god. Faker did, during a time where people still didn't know how to play against those champions. Back when mid lane solo kills were a thing, back when assassins were meta. Faker abused his mid-lane class advantage of picking assassins to make flashy plays and stomp against ADCs for example.
But look at how the tables have turned now. Assassins are not as viable anymore because, people will say, supports are OP. But the real reason is that people learned how to play against them. They learned how to poke them before they get strong so that their all-in won't be as easy, they learned how to freeze waves, zone out of xp range etc. And on the back of that, ADCs now have emerged to the top. Junglers have emerged to the top, as they control the map. Those are the impactful roles now, leaving mid laners feel less important in the grand scheme of things. Therefore, no more assassins, no more highlights, no more Faker being the best in the world.
If assassins came back, would Faker be the best once again? I don't know. Literally, at this point, I think he isn't as good as he was back then. You can see that he doesn't have the same hunger as he did 3 years ago. And why would he? He beat everyone, he conquered everything. And it shows. It shows when other non-accomplished players are so much more hungry than him to succeed and show it on the rift.
Faker's days are gone. He is a welcome sight to see, but there are better players out there.
As for the assassin meta, if it ever comes back, it will come with A LOT of problems. It will have to overcome the utility that mages / Galio offer (roaming, safe waveclear, magic damage, scaling), and the way for that to happen will probably be to overtune assassins so much, that they become toxic. Look at Zed now. In soloQ, where people still play stupidly vs him in lower elo, he stomps. He gets a random kill at level 6, then he roams and every time his ulti is up, it's a guarantee kill. And that's now (I believe that Zed is OP right now is soloQ). Imagine what happens if somehow they buff his waveclear, or his cooldowns, in order to make him viable in pro play. That would break him beyond belief, because if they don't buff him that much, then there won't be a purpose for Zed to be picked over Taliyah, Galio, Azir etc. In a controlled environment, Zed won't do much. The mid laner will hold him in place, and the correct vision control will deny any roams that will happen. But in the chaos of soloQ, it will break the game.
that there's no point in individual skill expression and one mistake can cost his team the game since passive gold gain and a kill makes a lane impossible to win.
