When trying to assess the most valuable player on a team, a common pitfall is to look for its best player. For a team like EDward Gaming, support Tian "meiko" Ye is rarely considered next to giants like Kim "deft" Hyukkyu and Ming "clearlove" Kai. clearlove has gained a lot of international recognition thanks to a meta that celebrates strong junglers, while deft, as ADC, deals 32.1 percent of his team’s damage on average.

They are certainly EDward Gaming’s strongest individual players. But the advantages they are able to consistently turn into wins don't come from nowhere. Arguably, a team's MVP is the player who controls the flow of the game and creates the most opportunities for the team to succeed — who is able to set up and create multiple openings for victory. For EDward Gaming, that person is meiko.

Based on how much recognition clearlove has been getting recently, the natural conclusion made by someone who hasn't watched a lot of EDG matches is that he's a heavy play-making jungler. But it's his followup plays that truly stand out. As a jungler, clearlove focuses much more on farming and counter-ganking, turning the bottom lane after an opponent's engagement. When he controls the enemy jungle, he does so only after vision has been placed.

As for deft, he was much less aggressive before coming to China. meiko’s ruthlessness in lane and his control of the flow of the 2v2 have facilitated deft's development as a more punchy laner. Among LPL bottom lanes, deft and meiko’s greatest strength is their synergy, particularly in how they control their wave to set up a bait or a thoughtful invade. Unlike many duos, they’ll make plays for early advantages even in weak lane matchups.

As the World Championship draws near, bottom lanes and junglers will figure prominently in analysts' rankings. With the popularity of Teleport and weaker bottom turrets, bot will be the lane to control in the early game. Rather than opening up the map through the mid lane, the bottom lane will be where victory starts and trickles upward, spreading in rashes of vision throughout the map.

Does the team control bottom lane through a jungle advantage, or control the jungle through a bottom lane advantage? That will be a near-semantic distinction to draw when classifying Worlds contenders.

For EDward Gaming — a team with some of the best players in jungle, ADC and support roles — the line is especially blurred. But more often than not, they control the jungle by establishing a lead in the bottom lane first.

Photo credit: 刘一村

There are a few methods they tend to use to achieve early bottom lane control, and almost all of them revolve around meiko. The first involves controlling the wave on the bottom side of the map in order to place vision, an approach they used in the first game of their LPL semifinal against Team WE. deft and meiko pushed out the lane aggressively, engaging WE in a trade and using the threat of their Tahm Kench to head off an Alistar all-in.

The pressure was successful, forcing their opponents back and allowing meiko to place a ward at the entrance to WE’s bottom-side jungle. That ward spotted Xiang "Condi" Renjie, and clearlove invaded WE’s jungle to force out Condi’s flash, which gave EDG easy control of bot side. On the surface, it looked like the play came from clearlove’s initiative and aggression, but it was meiko and the bottom lane that made it possible.

In a variant on this strategy, meiko and deft will use their control of the lane and the vision they set up to prepare a pincer on their opponents. They will push out the lane quickly to place a ward in the second bottom lane bush, then let the enemy team build up a large minion wave, intentionally avoiding last hits. As their opponents push forward, Chen "mouse" Yuanhao Teleports in to flank.

In some cases, after they exert control on the wave, meiko and deft will allow the enemy team to push back in order to bait them into a dive and set up an easy counter-gank for clearlove. This situation can lead to problems, however, if EDG have the weaker jungle matchup or don't properly expect the first gank. For example, in Game 3 of WE vs EDward Gaming, and meiko, deft and clearlove set themselves up for a gank or jungler and duo lane 3v3 in the bottom tri bush. But when Condi initiated, WE’s burst killed meiko almost immediately, and in the followup, EDG lost clearlove as well.

Even if the jungle matchup is even or favors EDG, when meiko and deft are too greedy in a weak 2v2 matchup, the entire team struggles. In their second game against Saint in Week 9, meiko and deft made their usual play for early bot lane control, but as Kalista and Alistar against Sivir and Nami, they lost the trade. The game became an uphill battle, though EDG did eventually win.

These early pushes make or break EDward Gaming. Knowing this, meiko and deft will frequently look for early opportunities to invade and get an edge before even getting to lane. Even at Worlds in 2015, meiko commented that studying the early game was something EDward Gaming did frequently. That came in especially useful against H2K, when they predicted an early invade.

Invades like this were seen throughout the LPL season, but surprisingly, they tended to be led by the bottom lane, rather than clearlove. meiko highlighted his thought process at the press conference after the LPL final when he explained why he decided to invade Royal’s jungle in Game 2. "When I sent to their bush," meiko said, "Taliyah didn't come, so I could judge that there wasn't a ward there." From that, meiko judged RNG wouldn’t anticipate the invade, and knew it was time to strike.

Photo credit: 刘一村

Playing around vision and keeping track of vision timers appears to be one of meiko's greatest strengths. If he pings a ward, he and the rest of the team are good at keeping track of when it will die, and he rarely roams in that area until it expires. Part of the reason EDG have been more successful on their blue side is that it’s easy for meiko to walk up the river and place a ward near the enemy blue buff on red side, which helps EDG with map control substantially. Whereas, on red side, roaming to get vision of the blue-side red buff is riskier.

It’s really important to underscore that clearlove, in contrast with a jungler like Royal Never Give Up’s Liu "Mlxg" Shiyu, is much less likely to initiate a gank or some other action without knowledge of the enemy jungler. He understands that he needs to keep himself and his laners ahead, so he avoids getting trapped in situations where the enemy team can counter-gank him or counter-jungle while he ganks.

For this style of play, it's crucial to have either a good mid laner or support to secure vision and back up invades. Lee "scout" Yechan, who's playing his rookie split, has been more of a beneficiary of clearlove than a facilitator. The jungler has prioritized ganking mid much more this split, despite his reputation for favoring bottom lane pressure — in the summer playoffs, he averaged a nearly 50 percent mid-lane gank rate in the first 10 minutes of every game.

clearlove hasn't had a whole lot of choice in the matter. scout was heavily focused by Condi and WE mid laner Su "xiye" Hanwei in the semifinal, and afterward a distraught clearlove commented in the press conference that he felt WE’s mid and jungle were "stronger than ours." In the final, clearlove adapted by ganking mid early in two out of three games. He even hovered around the mid lane looking for a gank opportunity without actually finding one — twice — which he didn’t do for either top or bottom throughout either series.

Though EDG's map control begins on the bottom side, holding mid remains important. Luckily, with meiko’s agency and vision control, EDG’s bot can set up risky trades while clearlove focuses his pressure on mid. It’s a system EDG may apply more often at the World Championship. If that’s the case, any early lead EDG gain falls at meiko’s feet.

meiko and deft’s control of the bottom wave also provides the best opportunity for mouse to get ahead in top lane. By placing wards to set up Teleport opportunities, mouse is less isolated. That helps to make up for the lower priority clearlove has placed on top lane — across nine games in semifinals and finals, clearlove only ganked top once, and mouse averaged a CS deficit relative to his opponent of 6.27 at 10 minutes for the entire summer split.

With the way EDG plays, top lane will be a natural liability, but if meiko and deft can push out the wave and bring it back to turret reliably after placing a ward, mouse will have a strong bottom lane to fall back on to get back into the game. On the other hand, this puts even more pressure on meiko’s shoulders.

Following the laning phase, meiko serves as the primary initiator in teamfights, and his peels for deft have been instrumental. Two games that stand out in my mind are his Nami game against Royal Never Give Up in the summer regular season, and his Bard game (despite EDG's loss) against RNG in the spring final. In both games, Royal had more answers in their draft, but EDG were able to rely on meiko to reset fights. He managed surpass expectations, in particular outperforming legendary support Cho "Mata" Sehyoung.

Photo credit: 刘一村

Those who didn’t watch LPL closely this year expect Mata to still be the greatest support coming out of the region. Though Mata has bested meiko in wards placed per minute, he hasn’t worked as efficiently with his jungler and ADC, and he hasn’t been able to extend his presence to the rest of the map as effectively, getting caught out in solo warding missions more frequently or attempting foolish 1v2s after Jian "Uzi" Zihao backs. Some of meiko’s greatest moments this season were against Mata, invoking a comparison few dare breathe aloud.

Last year, meiko was still a rookie for EDG. He rose to the occasion at the 2016 Mid-Season Invitational with the most consistent performance of any player on the team. Despite this, he lived in the shadow of giants, and observers scrambling to find a player to blame for the team's faults settled on meiko.

This time around, meiko’s synergy with deft will be hard to ignore. Perhaps the most exciting thing about EDG is how well their bottom laners complement one another. meiko’s aggression is augmented by deft’s positioning, and this allows EDG to get lane advantages early. Sometimes their greed can backfire, and they end up in a disadvantageous position, but as long as meiko finds an opportunity to roam, EDG react well.

The team's unstable setup phase has meant they have averaged a smaller gold lead at 10 minutes relative to other Chinese teams heading to Worlds. But once meiko places the necessary vision, EDG become a team that reacts incredibly well to information, snowballing at an increasing rate throughout the next 10 minutes of the game.

Royal’s focus on the bottom side of the map whenever they face EDG isn’t just about keeping deft down, it's about preventing meiko’s roams as well. The key to defeating EDG is keeping meiko in lane and not allowing EDG to control the wave. As soon as meiko has freedom, he can set up wards that allow EDG comeback opportunities in the mid game. From there, meiko’s synergy with deft in teamfights allows the AD carry more freedom to position aggressively.

With the highest kill participation on the team at 73.5 percent this summer, meiko facilitates most of the action in EDG's games. Almost nothing the team does doesn’t go through meiko, whether it's setting up wards or instigating an engagement.

Throughout much of his career, clearlove has struggled to find a balance between his natural farming style and the need to create early game advantages for his team. With meiko this year, that balance has been much easier to strike. Not only is meiko EDG’s primary playmaker and MVP, he’s the best LPL support heading to the World Championship.

At MSI 2015, during meiko’s rookie year, his coach Ji "Aaron" Xing said, "He’s not a support who’s content to be just a support. I think he will at the very least become on par with Mata… All he’s lacking is some experience."

Photo credit: 刘一村

A year and a half later, meiko has proven himself instrumental to EDward Gaming’s domestic victories. He has overcome Mata this summer, even with the playing field level and teams of similar talent around them.

But Mata still has the legacy. He’s earned his respect internationally. Despite meiko’s past stability on the international stage, if he truly wants to aim higher, he’ll have to earn the same respect.

Teams at Worlds will study EDG’s games and realize how important meiko’s role is in the team’s success. Teams that tunnel in on clearlove without understanding meiko’s role will fail. meiko is not without his flaws — observant competitors will devise ways to pin him down and limit clearlove’s ability to act. He approaches trades with deft as if it doesn’t occur to him that they could lose, and sometimes they do. It’s easy enough to exploit with a strong support matchup. With more teams looking to counterpick support in red side last pick, this shouldn't be overlooked.

With all three of EDward Gaming’s stars performing better than they ever have, and a meta that favors them, meiko will still be the make or break factor in EDG’s final placement. No matter the outcome, viewers will know he isn’t just a footnote.

Photos from 刘一村's album.

Kelsey Moser is a staff writer for theScore esports who fervently believes EDG are out of excuses for not making semifinals. You can follow her on Twitter.