I normally don’t venture into this kind of territory or article, but certain conversations lately have struck a bit of a chord with me and these are always very fun for some discussion whether it be controversy or varying points of view. Here are the top ten mid laners of all time.

How do I determine placement and who exactly is on the list? My criteria ranges from the following: player’s peak level of play in the context of his relevant time period; length of peak level of play; overall achievements both domestic and foreign; importance of the player’s in the context of their teams; strength of overall competition through their career. With that said, here is the list.

10. Heo “PawN” Won-seok

Notable Achievements

2013 WCG Korea Qualifier – 2nd

2014 HOT6iX Champions Spring – 3rd

2014 SK Telecom LTE-A LoL Masters – 1st

2014 HOT6iX Champions Summer – 3rd

2014 Season 4 World Championship – 1st

2014 G-League – 1st

2015 Demacia Cup Spring – 1st

2015 LPL Spring – 1st

2015 Mid Season Invitational – 1st

2015 Demacia Cup Summer – 1st

Kicking this off is one player I struggled to put on this list, the current mid laner of EDward Gaming. Personally I do not find Pawn as impressive as many others do, but it would be a crime to leave him off this list considering the achievements and recent run of success he has strung together. Starting his career off on MiG Blitz, he first competed in Champions Summer 2013. Fresh out of solo queue, he struggled against a handful of mid laners such as Ryu and Kuro during his first split. Growing as a player and showing promise, he would fill the roster spot vacated by Easyhoon on Samsung Blue. His break into the spotlight occurred at the WCG Korea Qualifier where he solo killed Faker twice, once in lane and once in an impressive bot lane skirmish, leading to Blue knocking reigning Champions winners and World Champion SK Telecom K out of the tournament. After an unceremonious exit for Blue in the quarterfinals during the following Champions Winter, the Samsung organization would shake things up, moving the rising star in Pawn to the main team, White, and moving White’s slumping mid laner, Dade, down to Blue. The roster swap would prove to be the greatest in League history as both teams would see more success and hit greater peaks than ever before. Pawn lands in 10th place on my list as he has the achievements to back some placing on this list, but his peak level of play has never been incredibly high and he has nearly always been a lower priority member on the team’s that he has been most successful with, Samsung White and EDward Gaming.

9. Yoo “Ryu” Sang-ook

Notable Achievements

2012/2013 OLYMPUS Champions Winter – 3rd

2013 OGN Club Masters – 3rd

2013 HOT6iX Champions Summer – 2nd

2013 Korea Regionals – 2nd

2013/2014 PANDORA.TV Champions Winter – 3rd

2014 IEM Season 8 World Championship – 1st

2015 EU LCS Spring – 3rd

The first contentious placement on this list, the current mid laner for EU LCS squad H2K Gaming left a surprisingly strong legacy back in his home region of Korea. Brought up into Champions alongside friends Score and Mafa, he saw middling performances during his first year on amateur team StarTale. After the break up of the amateur team in late 2012, he, along with Score and Mafa, would land on the B team of regional telecommunication esports giant KT Rolster. Here he would carve a legacy as arguably the most consistent mid laner Korea had seen at the time. Being at the forefront of the assassin heavy meta that dominated the latter part of Season 3, Ryu was as close to being meta independent as it gets in a time where many of his contemporaries fell off in being unable to adapt. Performing at a high level in nearly every match through 2013 across every champ to set foot in the meta, he was an aggressive, feared, and extremely well-rounded player, leading the Bullets to top three placements in three of their first four Champions seasons. Unfortunately for Ryu, his rise occurred at the same time as Faker and as such he has largely been overshadowed in the history books. Keeping Ryu on the bottom end of this list are his overall lack of achievements, along with only one single tournament victory to his name. His peak level of play and its length spanning nearly a full year during 2013, along with being the definitive, invaluable leader on the consensus second best team in the world during that year place him on this list. He’s definitely in his waning years, but he may finally reach the World Championship tournament this year for the first time in his long career.

8. Enrique “xPeke” Cedeño Martinez

Notable Achievements

2011 Season 1 World Championship – 1st

2011 IEM Season 6 Cologne – 1st

2011 IEM Season 6 New York – 1st

2012 IGN ProLeague Elites – 3rd

2012 DreamHack Winter – 1st

2012 IGN ProLeague Season 5 – 2nd

2012 IEM Season 7 Cologne – 2nd

2013 EU LCS Spring – 1st

2013 EU LCS Summer – 1st

2013 Season 3 World Championship – 3rd/4th

2013 IEM Season 8 Cologne – 2nd

2014 IEM Season 8 World Championship – 2nd

2014 EU LCS Spring – 1st

2014 EU LCS Summer – 2nd

The only player on this list to have competed from the Season 1 World Championship to the present day, the front man during the first four seasons of Fnatic’s existence lands him firmly on this list with a plethora of achievements. Individually, he is and was a highly skilled, streaky player that was the engine for his team’s success over the years. In spite of a relatively weak season two that saw the introduction of rivals Counter Logic Gaming Europe and Moscow 5, the xPeke-led Fnatic squad would resume their dominance over Europe during the latter part of 2012 and all through 2013 in LCS. Always regarded as the third name on the Mount Rushmore of European mid laners, he had never quite overcome his two main rivals from CLG.EU and M5 on individual levels, yet through the years he showed he could match them blow for blow and even in 2015 is standing in a better position than either. One of the few players that can earn the title of being timeless, xPeke should be a no-brainer for anyone’s list of top mid laners. He really has it all; the varying peak levels of play, endless achievements, and immense competition for the vast majority of his career, xPeke is the eighth best mid laner of all time.

7. Kang “Ambition” Chan-yong

Notable Achievements

2012 Azubu Champions Spring – 1st

2012 MLG Summer Arena – 1st

2012 Korea Regionals – 2nd

2012 MLG Fall Championship – 1st

2013 IEM Season 7 Katowice – 2nd

2013 IEM Season 7 World Championship – 1st

2013 OLYMPUS Champions Spring – 2nd

2013 WCG Grand Finals – 1st

2013/2014 ZOTAC NLB Winter – 1st

2014 SK Telecom LTE-A Masters – 3rd

2015 SBENU Champions Spring – 3rd

A second surprise on my list for most people, the former CJ Entus Blaze mid laner has been one of the most polarizing players the game has seen. Even I am not too fond of him these days as he trudges on in the post-apocalyptic Korea. Coming up as the mid laner on MiG Blaze, Ambition quickly stamped his mark as one of the best mid laners in the world, upsetting MiG Frost and taking home the first place trophy in Korea’s very first main regional tournament. Known for almost inexplicable ups and downs in his performance, Ambition is one of two mid laners that I feel can seriously lay claim to being the undisputed best in the world at his position over a very significant time frame. The only other mid laner being Faker. While he has passed on and is currently the jungler for CJ Entus, I feel his career on Blaze as a mid was criminally under-appreciated and far too often the down slopes over shadowed how incredulous his play was for extended periods of time. While he did slump in 2013 post-Spring finals, he bounced back nicely with strong Winter and following Spring performances. The definitive legacy player of Korea, Ambition has inspired certain mid laner to play champs he himself excelled at and was the very first truly great mid out of Korea. Many people newer to the scene look back on the solo kill Faker got on Ambition during his debut split and wonder why it’s so exceptional. Why people freak out over it. Looking at it with zero context, it was a sloppy play by Ambition, letting his hubris get the better of him for the umpteenth time, and Faker made a solid split second reaction to take advantage. Look at it in full context, it was a hyped rookie mid laner solo killing the best mid in the world at the time on his signature champ, a passing of the torch if you will. Ambition’s peak play is unquestioned with various lengths of dominant play, and while he may lack on the upper echelon of achievements, I rightfully couldn’t allow that detail to conceal the greatness that was his overall career.

6. Yu “Misaya” Jingxi

Notable Achievements

2011 IEM Season 6 Guangzhou – 1st

2012 NVIDIA Game Festival – 1st

2012 StarsWar 7 – 2nd

2012 Go4LoL Pro Asia Season 1 – 2nd

2012 World e-Sports Masters – 1st

2012 International e-Culture Festival – 1st

2012 GIGABYTE StarsWar League – 1st

2012 Enter the Dragon – 1st

2012 IGN ProLeague Season 5 – 1st

2012 Han Pro League – 1st

2013 G-League Season 2 – 1st

2013 GIGABYTE StarsWar League Season 2 – 2nd

2013 NVIDIA Game Festival – 1st

2013 IEM Season 8 Shanghai – 1st

2013 National Electronic Sports Tournament – 2nd

2013 LPL Summer – 3rd

2013 WCG Grand Finals – 3rd

One of the founding members of the prestigious and extremely popular Chinese team World Elite, Misaya is one of the most successful and revolutionary players of all time. Just looking at the list of achievements, there’s no argument against Misaya being a top class mid. He was a leader and the second carry of a roster that did not drop a set or lose a tournament from the 28th of October, 2012 all the way till the 23rd of April, 2013. Outside of the pure achievements and success? The man revolutionized the game and popularized the idea of a roaming mid laner. Playing, for the most part, in a time period where the mid lane was extremely static, he brought this dynamic style that was far less about winning the lane for himself and far more about winning the map for his team. This exact style is something you can see a mid laner like Dade adopt and master. Entering season three, more and more mids dropped the style Froggen brought to the forefront of the meta in season two and adopted this roaming style. Being the mid laner of the undisputed best team in the world for roughly five months in various competitive environments cements Misaya’s legacy.

5. Alexey “Alex Ich” Ichetovkin

Notable Achievements

2012 IEM Season 6 Kiev – 1st

2012 Kings of Europe – 2nd

2012 IEM Season 6 World Championship – 1st

2012 DreamHack Summer – 2nd

2012 Elite of Europe – 1st

2012 IGN ProLeague Elites – 1st

2012 Europe Regionals – 1st

2012 Season 2 World Championship – 3rd/4th

2013 IEM Season 7 Katowice – 1st

2013 EU LCS Spring – 2nd

2013 EU LCS Summer – 3rd

2013 IEM Season 8 Cologne – 1st

The de facto main carry of the legendary Moscow 5 roster and the second face on the Mount Rushmore of European mid laners, Alex Ich lands on the edge of my top five. One of the most well-rounded and unshakable players in the history of the game, Alex Ich led a group of rogues on Moscow 5, players that you would never expect to mesh so well. Leading the most successful European roster in season two, arguably the best roster in the entirety of season two, the team itself eventually fell off with the introduction of the EU LCS, however Alex Ich and his individual play continued onward at a world-class level. Always consistent and calculated in his play, he squared off and bested nearly every top mid laner between his stellar season two and three play. Even on the decline of their careers in season four, Alex Ich was the final one of the infamous Moscow 5 roster performing well, doing his best to carry his weakened teammates through his snowball oriented game play. Like nearly every other entry on this list, Alex Ich surpassed all metas and excelled on any patch. To go along with the near perfect mid lane gameplay from season two, he owns an endless amount of achievements seen above.

4. Henrik “Froggen” Hansen

Notable Achievements

2012 Kings of Europe – 1st

2012 Corsair Vengeance Cup – 1st

2012 DreamHack Summer – 1st

2012 Europe Regionals – 3rd

2012 Azubu Champions Summer – 2nd

2012 Season 2 World Championship – 3rd/4th

2012 MLG Dallas – 3rd

2012 DreamHack Winter – 2nd

2013 EU LCS Spring – 3rd

2014 EU LCS Summer – 1st

Froggen is the top European mid in the history of the game. Hard carrying a sub par roster through season two into not just relevancy, but greatness, Froggen defined the meta that was season two. Whereas Misaya popularized a mid lane play style, Froggen went a step further in creating the meta that dominated season two with his incredibly defensive and actively passive play style. He was nigh unbeatable in lane due to this and with surgical precision and efficiency Froggen would create leads out of thin air. Despite the somewhat disappointing lack of overall first places, what he did garner came straight off of his back game in and game out. CLG.EU were a top three staple at nearly every single event with only a handful of teams capable of beating them. He lacked the supporting cast his contemporaries had and as such he does not look as impressive in the achievement sense, but make no mistake, Froggen deserves his place near the top of this list. He holds the very distinct quality among western players of coming within one match of winning a Champions season. On top of his absolutely phenomenal peak level of play in season two, he holds longevity that surpasses nearly every other mid on this list, remaining relevant in the European scene to this day. Arguably the most impressive piece of Froggen’s career came in a time when the meta directly countered his own carved out play style in season three. Despite the meta shifting into assassin heavy champs, Froggen persevered and adapted, almost single-handedly carrying a very weak Evil Geniuses roster to the World Championship. Dropping all but one of the weak members, he would enter EU LCS renewed in season four, leading a team he built from the ground up to a first place finish in EU LCS and a World Championship berth. He is the best western mid laner in the history of the game and very few were near his level at his peak.

3. Yu “Cool” Jiajun

Notable Achievements

2012 Gunnar Invitational – 2nd

2013 LPL Spring – 1st

2013 StarsWar 8 – 1st

2013 National Electronic Sports Tournament – 1st

2013 LPL Summer – 2nd

2013 WCG Grand Finals – 2nd

2014 Demacia Cup Season 1 – 3rd

2014 LPL Spring – 2nd

2014 China Regionals – 3rd

2014 Season 4 World Championship – 3rd/4th

2015 Demacia Cup Summer – 2nd

The greatest Chinese mid laner to ever touch the game, Cool has been the most dominant mid laner in the second strongest region over the past three years. His list of achievements, both domestic and international, are nothing short of incredible and he helped extend China’s international strength after the decline of World Elite by leading OMG. His performance through 2013 led OMG to a season three Worlds berth, however a huge upset to Royal Club ended their trip. Despite the upset, OMG was arguably the third best team in the world and Cool was a top three player at his role worldwide, even going toe to toe with Faker himself at Worlds. While his inconsistencies have shown through within the past year, he’s still one of the top mids in a revamped Chinese region housing some of the best Korean talent. His highs have always been extremely high and his peak level of play is at the very top of the world. On top of all this, he’s still going strong with no end of play in sight. While OMG itself has seen a few hiccups over the past year, Cool has attempted to remain one of the few constants. His hard carrying of an underperforming roster, including one of the most absurd best of five series performances against Star Horn Royal Club, led to OMG somehow finding its way to the Season 4 World Championship. One of the most spectacular players to ever come out of China, Cool is the best mid from that region and the third best mid of all time.

2. Bae “dade” Eo-jin

Notable Achievements

2013 OLYMPUS Champions Spring – 1st

2013 AMD-INVEN GamExperience – 1st

2013 HOT6iX Champions Summer – 3rd

2013/2014 PANDORA.TV Champions Winter – 2nd

2014 HOT6iX Champions Spring – 1st

2014 SK Telecom LTE-A LoL Masters – 1st

2014 HOT6iX Champions Summer – 2nd

2014 Season 4 World Championship – 3rd/4th

The third contentious placement on this list, Dade is one of the most polarizing players to ever touch this game. It seems like half the people I speak to regard Dade as a solid domestic player, yet could never perform on the world stage. The other half tends to disregard the poor international showings in favor for his near perfect domestic achievements. I fall into the latter half. Dade is the only player that I believe can and has matched Faker’s peak. He was the best mid laner in 2014, but his greatness often gets swept under the rug by people pointing out his less than stellar second half of 2013, disastrous Season 3 Worlds performance, and his current showing in China. Regardless of all that, I believe Dade is the second best mid to ever play this game. What he achieved within the strongest region of play is nearly unmatched on a world level. He took a young, upstart MVP White roster and upset the Ambition-led CJ Entus Blaze to take home first place in only his second season of Champions. After a third place finish in Champions Summer, he delivered a horrible performance in his first international showing at the Season 3 World Championship. Moving back to Korea for the ensuing Winter season, his play recovered, but not yet to the levels of what he showed in the previous Spring. As such, he was demoted to the Samsung Blue roster. Washed up. People didn’t believe he was good enough anymore and that he was holding the Samsung White roster back from greatness. He proved everyone wrong by taking a Samsung Blue roster that had middling talent at top and support, a quirky, young jungler, and a growing marksman and turned them into champions. The best team in the world within a split. The General, as Dade is known as, led this roster to a dominating Spring and Summer performance, only being stopped in the Summer finals by a KT Arrows team that played the only perfect set in their entire lifespan. Dade was the first player to win two major tournaments with entirely separate teammates. He redeemed himself internationally at the Season 4 World Championship, being the only player on his team to show up on a consistent basis, only taking home a semi-final finish. Dade at his peak is arguably greater than Faker. When he is on a comfort champion and in a meta that suits him well, no one can stop him. What holds the General back from truly being the best are his well documented slumps and somewhat short, sporadic peak play. Everything else is golden.

1. Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok

Notable Achievements

2013 OLYMPUS Champions Spring – 3rd

2013 HOT6iX Champions Summer – 1st

2013 Korea Regionals – 1st

2013 Season 3 World Championship – 1st

2013/2014 PANDORA.TV Champions Winter – 1st

2014 SK Telecom LTE-A LoL Masters – 2nd

2014 ITENJOY NLB Summer – 1st

2014 Korea Regionals – 2nd

2015 SBENU Champions Spring – 1st

2015 Mid Season Invitational – 2nd

The single greatest player to have ever touched this game. That is the appropriate description for Faker. His individual performance and consistent level of play is entirely unmatched. He has been the best mid in the world for the past two years, with only Dade touching him at points. He entered the competitive scene slaughtering the best mid in the world at the time in Ambition. He carried a growing SK Telecom T1 2 roster right out of the gate to a top three placement in their first season of Champions. After only one split he had commanded his team to be the best in the world, taking home the following Champions Summer and Regional finals, entering the Season 3 World Championship. There SK Telecom T1 K took the world by storm. Dropping only three matches over the course of the tournament and besting the KT Rolster Bullets on the way there, no one had questions on who was the best team in the world. At the fore front of that team was the best player in the world sitting firmly in the mid lane, devouring his opponents. After returning back to Korea, they would enter into a 20 match winning streak, taking home Champions Winter first place undefeated and moving into the following Spring season. Despite the rest of his roster falling off hard in 2014, Faker stayed strong. Despite being at the top of his game, the game had evolved to the point where he couldn’t carry his team past the insurmountable odds presented in front of them by Samsung White in both Spring and Summer. He would miss the Season 4 World Championship, defeated two matches short in Regionals. Where most of his contemporaries would leave the region for greater monetary pastures, Faker stood firm in Korea, wanting to take the crown back for himself. Storming through a weakened Korea in Spring, he would yet again win Champions. His achievements are unmatched. Three time Champions winner and a World Champion, no one has his achievements. His peak play has seemingly never ended since he entered into the competitive scene. He’s an anomaly of a player. An alien not of this earth. The only times in his career that he appeared to show flaws were when his team played completely against him and he was working with zero help. His individual play is nearly unparalleled, his laning and his team fighting being on another plane of existence from almost every other mid laner. He plays with a cocky aggressiveness where he dares you to take a swing at him. He dares you to fight him because he knows he’s going to win. He is the Michael Jordan of League. The Pelé of League. The Lou Gehrig of League. The Jack Nicklaus of League. The best of all time.

Number one and two were clear-cut for me. I think Dade’s domestic performance far outweighs whatever international shortcomings he has. Cool over Froggen for number three is a bit more contentious. I weigh Cool’s peak play and longevity in a much harsher environment slightly over Froggen’s own peak play. The rest involved are fairly clear-cut. Froggen placing over Alex and Peke from Europe. Ambition and Ryu being included are two I felt deserved far more recognition than they deserved after thinking about it more.

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