CGA Aria with RJ Art (Source: CGA Instagram)

Ceros and Ramune. Those are the two names that people recognize once you are talking about LJL mid laners, since they both made it into international events several times. But deep inside the LJL cesspool of mid laners, there is one little gem that could do it all. I would like to introduce LJL fans and League of Legends fans to the church of Aria. The church where the plays that he makes are so clean, that it would relieve your sins!

In this article I will explain why Aria is one of the more underrated mid laners in the world.

Who is Aria?

Lee Ga-Eul (이가을) — also known as Aria — is a Korean mid laner for the Japanese LJL team Crest Gaming Act. In the beginning of the LJL 2019 Spring split he joined CGA, after being on Gwangju team for IeSF and Kespa cup in 2018. Currently, his most played champion is Sylas with a 75% winrate in 8 games. With Crest Gaming Act, they are not doing so hot with 5 won games and 9 losses. However, they barely made play-offs by scraping a much needed win over a tiebreaker between Burning Core and them.

What makes Aria special?

There are several points that make Aria super special. The first being the large champion pool that Aria brings. This LJL spring split only, the Korean mid laner already has shown us 10 different picks in 14 games. From super aggressive like the LeBlanc and the Ekko, to more reserved picks such as Azir and Zoe, he can play it all!

The second special point that makes Aria special is more of an stat, but still a prominent one. This split only, he has always won in CS (creep score) in comparison to his opposite mid laner. It is even more impressive when you’d think that the team only has 5 wins. Thus, he can always be relied and can create his own leads through superior CSing.

The last thing would be his raw mechanics overall. The amount of outplays that Aria can make is astonishing. Take a look to these two examples, one on Sylas and the other on LeBlanc:

Sylas game winning fight

Leblanc raw mechanics

It is really awesome on what he can do overall, and with those three arguments on the list he makes for a beautiful balanced mix of being aggressive and developing leads on his own terms.

If Aria is that good, why isn’t Crest Gaming Act doing well?

There are multiple problems with Crest Gaming Act, that are really prominent and gatekeeping them from being a good team in the LJL. The synergy between every player is nowhere to be found, and it looks most of the time like a solo queue team that has been dropped into the LJL. Their jungler in Yoshi has been one of the worst performing members in the LJL. On top of that, both their jungler and support (Grendel) have a high amounts of prone errors, which leads to them having high death numbers.

Is Aria the best LJL mid laner?

Who knows if Aria is the best LJL mid laner. It is very difficult to compare him to Ceros, since both of the players have entirely different champion pools and are utilized different for their own teams. Whereas Ceros plays a lot of mages (in fact only mages), Aria plays a more well rounded style of champions that can burst other champions. Put Aria at Detonation FocusMe and put Ceros on Crest Gaming Act and we would see how it would fare.

Could Aria be a star player in an major region?

In my opinion: yes most certainly! Aria should be on the radar for scouts to see him as a potential pick-up player. His LJL performances in the last one and a half years should be enough to set him up on a list. Unfortunately the LJL is mostly overlooked as a weak minor region, so it is difficult to judge him based on the enemy opponents. However, I still think he should be given a shot onto a bigger stage. Who knows, maybe one day he could be one of the big talents that people look up to.

Do you want to watch the magic of Aria? Tune into the next LJL match!

Interested in the LJL? Come and watch the next LJL broadcast either on the official Japanese broadcast or the English broadcast! Starting next week, the LJL Spring play-offs will be broadcasting the qualifying teams from the regular season.

Join our LJL English Discord to discuss and learn even more about the LJL!

I hope you had a wonderful read about The church of Aria, and on every Thursday I will post an new article which features various things about the LJL as well. So stay tuned!