Even though Samsung White won the 2014 World Championship, Gu "imp" Seungbin wasn't known as the tournament's best AD Carry. Zhu "NaMei" Jiawen had the most eyes on him before the World Championships began. Jian "Uzi" Zihao had the flashiest plays. Kim "Deft" Hyukkyu did the most damage to champions.

At the end of the event, the debate among English-speaking analysts on the desk waffled between Cho "Mata" Sehyeong and Choi "DanDy" Inkyu for the title of MVP of the tournament. No one of them mentioned imp. He was just the third best player on his team and considered at most the second or third best performing AD carry at the World Championship.

That's not to say that imp has never stood out in his own right. When MVP White formed in 2012, he was the best player on the roster. Even the acquisitions of Mata and Bae "dade" Eojin when the team became MVP Ozone didn't detract from imp's time in the limelight until almost halfway into 2013. Much of the team played around imp, whose bold style granted him a reputation as a demanding player.

As the roster ramped up, imp became over-shadowed by the team's other three stars: Mata and DanDy controlled the map, dade was the main carry and imp served as a trump card during some of dade's inconsistent periods. When Heo "pawN" Wonseok replaced dade, imp regained his place as the squad's main damage dealer, but White's control of the early game evolved to such an extent that he still just seemed to be along for the ride to see the DanDy-and-Mata show.

Though Samsung White's roster had incredible talent, most of their advantages came through early-game skirmishing and vision control. If teams lasted long enough against them to play in team fights, full brawls could turn into disasters. That's often how sister team Samsung Blue seemed to get the best of them, even with a gold deficit.

Central to some of White's apparent woes was imp's tendency to use his re-positioning abilities too aggressively. His critics, including myself, observed his recklessness in team fights when White had an advantage. He could Rocket Jump into groups playing champions like Tristana and cost his team.

As a result, the narrative surrounding imp as he moved to LGD Gaming away from Mata and DanDy this year was an expected decline in performance. One common speculation was that, because of his occasionally questionable decision-making, imp only looked good in 2014 under Mata's control, but aside from that, imp had already won a domestic Champions title. He had already won a World Championship. As with many Koreans who went to China, it seemed like an attractive option for imp to rest on his laurels and earn his paycheck.

imp chose to join LGD Gaming, not because they gave him the best offer, but because he wanted to play with captain Chen "Pyl" Bo. It was speculated that he turned down potentially higher salaries to play with the Chinese support, who had a strong reputation as a leader. That should have been the first sign that imp came to play.

During the 2015 LPL Spring regular season, Deft still soaked up the attention. Edward Gaming fashioned their playstyle around setting Deft up to carry. During this period, LGD Gaming could control their lane transitions early. Most players on the team appeared strong, but it was hard to definitively call them the best in their positions. Their regular season experimentation saw some of their stars play champions that didn't fit the met, belying their skill.

One of the biggest difficulties LGD faced involved splitting Pyl's focus between jungle roams and laning with imp. It became very clear early into Spring that Pyl would not devote a significant chunk of his in-game time peeling for imp or laning. LGD's early play revolved around warding their jungle to protect Zhu "TBQ" Yongquan from invasions and support his gank attempts. This meant Pyl spent a lot of his time roaming.

Within the context of his team, imp couldn't afford to over-extend or misplay team fights. A lot of LGD worked to shore up weaknesses from scattered play as the roster acclimated. imp was left alone in lane as an AD Carry more than most of his peers in the LPL, which occasionally put him in 1v2 scenarios. This initially made playing Kalista difficult. imp and Pyl would do extremely well in their lane, but the rest of the map suffered from gank pressure from opposing junglers.

Though imp played on LGD Gaming with yet another elite support, the team's style wasn't as forgiving as Samsung White's. Where Samsung White excelled in the early game, mid lane and bottom lane often put themselves behind to ward and place vision or played more conservatively against the opposing jungler. LGD continued to try picks that didn't initially suit them, like the Kalista lane, and eventually dropped off to sixth place.

To the shock of many, LGD then demolished the 2015 LPL Spring Playoffs until the Finals against Edward Gaming. Kalista became one of the LGD's strongest picks, and the team perfected lane swapping as a way to control the jungle. Scaling picks suited TBQ well.

In the Finals, however, LGD's pick and ban strategy revolved too much around denying picks rather than playing to the team's strengths. imp played Deft's preferred Jinx. Though he looked powerful on the champion, it wasn't necessarily a pick he was known for. Edward Gaming drafted to target him in team fights with heavy dive, and Deft stole the show with a memorable Pentakill to end Game 5.

During the Spring split, a lot of the changes to imp's playstyle went largely unnoticed. Where in the past, imp had excelled with peel directed his way or teams built around him, on LGD, imp had to play more self-sufficiently. A lot of peel went to fool-hardy engagements in fights and resetting TBQ's all-ins. GODV picked up an increased percentage of team gold throughout the season. imp remained impactful with less peel and often managed to hold his own in lanes by himself while Pyl roamed, but he didn't stand out in most of his games the way Deft did.

imp has played League of Legends professionally since 2012. His name has almost always hovered among the top five AD carries. Within his own region, he's had to take second fiddle to Chae "Piglet" Gwangjin and the upstart within his own organization, Deft. From China, he's been compared to the likes of Gao "WeiXiao" Xuecheng, NaMei, and Uzi.

During the 2015 LPL Summer season, Deft started to struggle more in a constantly shifting Edward Gaming roster. Some speculated he didn't perform as well in an unstable team dynamic. Jungler Ming "Clearlove" Kai expended more resources in other lanes without pawN and Tong "Koro1" Yang on the team. It became increasingly apparent that Deft could succeed with the help of specific players, but he wasn't getting the setups he needed. Other than Corki or Sivir, the champions available to him in the meta didn't suit his playstyle as well as Kog'Maw or Jinx or Ezreal.

Though imp wasn't the player in the regular season that he was during Spring Playoffs, he once again returned to form in Week 11 of LPL Summer. No one on the enemy team could pin him down, and his aggressive laning trades individualized him.

Perhaps QG Reapers' Feng "TnT" Qingyu could play a self-sufficient game, but he couldn't punish or pressure the laning phase like imp. That was made extremely apparent in the five game final where imp picked up a strong CS lead and out-damaged his opposite in every match. Last spring, LGD had the best bottom lane. This summer, they have the best AD carry.

When the final concluded, the entire team leaped from their seats and rushed to hug their AD Carry. Each player had at least one strong performance throughout the series. Choi "Acorn" Cheonju's Fiora impressed in Game 2. Wei "GODV" Zhen may have gotten out team fought in the first three games by Kim "Doinb" Taesang and dove several times by Baek "Swift" Daehoon, but his Ahri and Valdimir did a great deal to overpower QG Reapers in Games 4 and 5. Pyl played his persistent roaming support style only after helping imp secure lane leads, and even TBQ had strokes of brilliance.

But the team knew who had played the best in not just the final, but the semifinal victory against Edward Gaming that qualified them for the World Championship. For the entirety of LPL Summer, the MVP award should go to Clearlove or Pyl for weathering their teams through difficult changes, but imp was the singular MVP of the Playoffs.

The length of time during which imp has been near the top of the AD carry food chain is nearly unrivaled. No one else on the list of AD carry greats has played as long or as consistently well as imp. Despite his positional flaws or his demand of resources in the past, imp's periods of low performance have been considerably fewer and shorter than AD carries who have played for as many years as imp has.

In 2014, imp was compared most closely to Uzi, while Deft and NaMei were considered analogues. At NaMei's greatest moments, he was adaptable. He transitioned from lane-crushing carry force on Positive Energy to a safer team fight-oriented AD carry on Edward Gaming.

After this year, Deft reminds me a lot more of the situational carry, Uzi, and imp has improved upon NaMei's transition by taking the best of his punishing and aggressive trades on Samsung White and combining them with a self-sufficient style. Mata said imp wasn't necessarily a demanding player; the team just gave him resources because it made sense. imp has finally shaken off the notion that he ever needed them in the first place.

While LGD Gaming have looked strong all year, changes to drafting and imp's personal improvements have transformed them from a team that could beat Edward Gaming in the long run to a team that did in the semifinals. When asked why he started performing better in the past few weeks, imp said he "didn't practice much during the regular season." His change of dedication clinched LGD's LPL victory.

With an impressive track record, his current form, a World Championship, and domestic titles in the two most competitive regions in League of Legends, the only criticism left to lob at imp is his team. Like on Samsung White, imp is surrounded by high class players. Pyl's reputation for strategic play is only matched by his individual skill. GODV is one of the strongest mid laners internationally. Both Acorn and substitute top laner Lee "Flame" Hojong are in the highest class of top laners. Just because imp had the best overall performance on his team during Playoffs doesn't necessarily mean he is the best player on his team.

Yet sometimes, when a player has played for as long and as well as imp has, it's hard to come up with scenarios where he might fail. Even though imp hasn't been on a team with multiple players below his own level in a long time, he's still succeeded when expectations weren't high.

Despite his titles and his career with MVP and Samsung, there was one thing imp had yet to achieve: a performance that would take him from one of the best to the definitive top of the list of AD carries currently playing the game. It's hard to look back on his steady climb in 2015 LPL through his nearly flawless Summer Final and deny that that's exactly what he's now accomplished.

Kelsey Moser is a staff writer for theScore eSports. She's enjoyed watching imp transition and prove her wrong this year. You can follow her on Twitter.