Cody Sun, the 21 year old AD Carry of 100 Thieves, is a player who seemingly ignites dispute over his level and status as a player with every win and loss of his team. Should 100 Thieves win, there are those who rush to point to his strengths and highlight him as a potential top talent at his respective role. When pr0lly’s men fall, as they did towards the end of the S8 Summer split, losing both their status as the top ranked team in the league and even the play-off BYE, then one can be sure Cody will be in the crosshairs for criticism.

If you win then you must be good

A common problem for esports and sports fans alike, especially the more casual viewers, is differentiating top players from players who happen to play on top teams. Any hardcore NFL enthusiast can tell you that Julio Jones is a better Wide Receiver than anyone on the New England Patriots, even though Jones’s Falcons were nowhere near winning the Superbowl or the top record in the league, while the Patriots were close to the former and owners of the latter. Likewise, even the most ardent fan of the Golden State Warriors, the NBA champions of the previous season, is unlikely to claim Draymond Green in his own right, an all-star Power Forward, is better at his position than the monstrous Anthony Davis, an MVP candidate despite playing for the lowly 48 win Pelicans.

100 Thieves were the best team in the NA LCS for most of the split, in record unquestionably and arguably in terms of understanding of how to convert the mid game into victories. As such, Cody Sun has won most of his games and can be found high up on numerous statistical rankings. But does that actually make him one of the best players, even at his position?

Cody Sun is an average AD Carry in the NA LCS. He has talent, to be sure, and perhaps some promise of improving further in the future, but a consideration of his circumstances highlights how overblown the case for him being one of the best AD Carries in North America, nevermind best players, is.

Riding with the best

Cody Sun has the second most gold earned in the league and the highest per minute played. When one considers he plays both a position traditionally thought of as a carry role and particularly a lane played through for the past couple of years, this is perhaps not a huge surprise for someone on one of the best teams in the NA LCS. Add in that at times his 100 Thieves squad played funnel compositions and made him the recipient and those statistics begin to seem less immediately impressive.

Despite being such a focal point of 100T’s approach, Cody Sun is not even considered the best player in his team. That title would fall upon the Korean LCK finalist Ssumday, a player who has been at worst serviceable his entire career and in his peaks one of the very best Top laners in League of Legends. Many have him positioned as not just the best player on 100T but in the entire league this split. In numerous games in which Cody Sun’s misplays or break-downs under pressure looked set to see victory stolen away from his team it was Ssumday who ensured the win returned home with them.

If your team runs a system based around playing to and through you, yet it’s your low economy Top laner both carrying a bunch of the games and clearly establishing himself as the best on the team then it suggests your importance to your team’s victories is less significant than it may initially appear.

“So when I had Olleh, if I made a mistake or if I made a positioning error, and I was a goner, that would be my fault and I totally understand that, but with Aphro, even when you make a mistake or you do something and you misstep, he’ll sacrifice himself to try to save you, so it’s kind of different. He’s like a “get out of jail-free card”. So I think the other ADCs, like Stixxay or Doublelift that played with him, had it really good. He’ll save you from your own mistakes and I didn’t really have that in the past.”

-Cody Sun (Spring 2018, TheShotCaller)

In that bot lane, which has been played through so much this split, seemingly at the behest of coach pr0lly, sits Aphromoo as well as Cody Sun. The same Aphromoo who is a two time NA LCS champion and three time finalist. The MVP of the Spring split and thus, by logical extension, considered the previous best player on 100 Thieves. A Support player famed for his ability to both synergise with his ADC and also lead the team in shot-calling and macro understanding. Aphromoo’s career is exceptional and even moreso for his rotating door of ADCs, making him the only connecting factor in three different line-ups’ successes.

The bot lane of CLG was the star of the team’s victorious S5 Summer championship run, with Aphromoo proving to be the true hier to Chauster as the Support player who could accompany Doublelift, one of the very best Western ADCs in history, to the elusive and seemingly forever out of reach promised land of an LCS title. With Doublelift looking like the best player in that team it is entirely significant to note that when CLG went back-to-back, winning the Spring split the following year, they did so without Doublelift and utilising effectively a rookie player, without anywhere close to the same level of raw talent or promise, in his place. That very same roster, almost inarguably weaker man-for man, with only Doublelift changed out, then accomplished arguably the best international finish any North American squad has managed in the LCS era.

After years of fallow, as CLG refused to make bold upgrades, Dardoch experimentation aside, Aphromoo saw his stock fall and his days of excellence appeared behind him. With the arrival of franchising and his daring decision to leave CLG for 100 Thieves, the world has once again seen Aphromooo accomplish greatness individually and lead a third unique line-up to an NA LCS final, being the only connecting factor between all three appearances.

Aphro won S5 Summer without Link, the player credited with the shot-calling in CLG prior to that split. He won S6 Spring and made the final of MSI without Doublelift, the best ADC in the league, and with players like Huhi and Stixxay, far from elite players at their position. In S8 Spring there were no former CLG team-mates accompanying him to the final and for S8 Summer, where his team long held the top spot in the regular portion of the split, MVP candidate Jungler Meteos departed the squad early and was replaced by another unproven name in AnDa. One thing that has emerged as a certain theme in Aphromoo’s career has been both his own individual greatness and his, arguably even more notable, significance as a shot-caller and team-mate.

Who wouldn’t benefit from playing alongside Aphromoo in the second year of their professional career at the LCS level?

Complementary pieces for days

Oh and while we’re running down the 100 Thieves roster, which as previously mentioned featured arguably the best Jungler in the history of the region until earlier this split, let’s not forget Ryu and their coach pr0lly. Ryu is a decorated veteran of three regions, famed for his stable play and ability to play decisively in team-fights. pr0lly built a strong legacy as one of the best coaches in the EU LCS and has strengthened it further with his success in 100 Thieves back in his native North America. If these are the complementary pieces in your team and organisation then you are set up for success from the get-go. The only part of the machine that can even be reasonably criticised is new recruit AnDa and the case could well be made that he was brought in primarily to be coached to play around the bot lane, where Meteos was more of a cerebral and individually driven player who wanted freedom to read the game and make his own spontaneous decisions.

What more could a Cody Sun want around him while competing in the NA LCS? Spa access and a personal on-site chef?

The old help was pretty nifty too

It’s not as if this is the first time Cody has had talent around him either. In Immortals he began with Dardoch, a legitimate potentially world class North American resident talent, in the Spring split of S7, which admittedly ended in disappointing fashion. After that in came Xmithie, another candidate for best Jungler in NA LCS history, and famed for his ability to play around and for his lanes and team. Just what a young ADC would want.

In the Top lane was Flame, one of the game’s historically greatest players at that position and still a more than average player in this region, coming off years of being broken of the mentality of having to be played around as a carry and thus willing to settle in the half-way compromise of playing bruisers or reverting to a small but effective pool of tanks, if necessary. In the Mid lane, Pobelter showcased a reliable mentality and performance to the extent it was easy enough to forget about him if not for the lack of bad games in an esport in which his role has practically always been integral to success.

In Cody’s lane was Olleh, a player many had highlighted as their MVP candidate during the regular split of S7 Summer, in which IMT secured a second place finish, tying the mighty TSM in wins, and a BYE into the second round. Yet another great season for a Cody Sun team in which it was the other player in the bot lane who was receiving plaudits and credit as the best player in the entire region, nevermind just the lane or their role. This pattern seems hardly insignificant.

Who plays with Olleh now? The very same Doublelift Cody is so often contrasted with. Doublelift does not find himself over-shadowed by his Support, but rather is the clear best player in that lane and one of the league’s MVP candidates in his own right. Funny how that works, eh?

Who wants it this bad?

Were Cody Sun a player with the confidence and swagger of a Dardoch, not just carrying games but also showcasing the fire in interviews to suggest he was the best, then it might be more logical why Cody had drawn such a fervent set of apologists and supporters. Instead, it often appears as if those fans want or need to believe he is among the best more than the man himself does. In a sense it’s entirely understandable. Of course it would be wonderful if there were another NA resident AD Carry who was both elite in his region and had a chance to go up against the world’s best, like Doublelift. The problem with that premise is that Cody Sun is no Doublelift and there is nothing to indicate he will become like the four time LCS champion ADC, who accomplished such success with three different line-ups.

Even the young Doublelift had phenomenal upside, as much as he had clear flaws and deficiences. He was a powerful laner, admittedly at the direction of Chauster, and a monstrous team-fight carry. Cody has his entire team set-up to help him through the early portion of the game, in some cases this split literally funnelling gold into it, and then at times can shine in team-fights, but not with the same consistency or clear star power of even the younger Doublelift.

Cody Sun is not as young as many still suggest either. At 21 years old, he is far from the raw unpolished talent Doublelift was when he entered the spotlight as a star back in Season 2. In terms of raw experience, Cody has now played almost four whole splits in the LCS, making two finals and even going to the World Championship last season.

The label of rookie fell off a long time ago and it is time to judge Cody according to his peers and the circumstances of his team, not some desired potential or awkwardly crow-barred status as a result of his team winning matches in the NA LCS. With so many decorated players around him for three straight splits now, many hall of fame level names for their respective home regions, it is time for Cody Sun to stand on his own merits and prove himself a top player in spite of such luxuries and good fortune. For now, he succeeds in the shadow of greater players.