Credits to @pengarrow on Twitter for this amazing edit!

With an exciting conclusion to the Spring regular season in Vietnam, the four play-off contenders will prepare for the play-offs phase. For those that are unaware who the top four teams are, well here comes a big spoiler (close your browser right now if you don’t want to know);

EVOS Esports, Team Secret, Team Flash and GAM Esports are your contenders for the Spring play-offs. Wonderful!

Now, to glorify this season we also pair it with awards. If you haven’t seen it already, our discord community is holding an VCS Award for the Spring 2020 regular split. The awards are the following categories; most improved player (MIP), most valuable player (MVP) and top three in their own respective position (top, jungle, mid, bot and support). You can check the form, and how to vote in our discord!

Without further ado, lets delve into the “most valuable player” award in the VCS and the five names that you should be looking closely into.

What defines “Most Valuable player” (MVP)?

The red inhibitor getting MVP for his peformance in CES vs. FL (Source: VETV FB)

First off all, we need to think about the terminology “most valuable player” because there are multiple ways to think about the award. Whenever this is in the conversation, there are multiple answers to this question.

Number one: The MVP is the best player in the league.

This comes from being the best player in the league and the player is simply unrivaled in comparison to other players.

Number two: The MVP is the best player in the league THIS SPLIT.

This comes from being the player who had a phenomenal split, which he hasn’t shown previously before. The player is the best in the league without any contenders for MVP this split.

Number three: The MVP is the most valuable asset for their team.

In short terminology: Bang for their bucket. This player, maybe on a struggling team is the player who wins his team the games which other players in his position might be unable to do. It is the player who contributes the most to the teams successes.

The five players:

The superstar jungler:

EVS Sorn (Source: VETV FB)

Name: Nguyễn “Sorn” Minh Hào

Team: EVOS Esports

Position: Jungle

The morning Sorn. As dust rises from the ashes, morning has risen as Sorn has taken another jungle camp from his opposition. Sorn has been one of the main contributors on why EVOS Esports is making it into the play-offs. The jungler has had a impressive split and is looking to make an impact in his second play-offs contention in his career. The main strength of Sorn lies in various assets. In the first half of the split, Sorn was mostly on teamfighting junglers such as the Jarvan IV, Sejuani and Lee Sin. However his style of jungling changed from the second split to a more carry oriented style, where he could dominate inside the enemy junglers position. Things like the Rek’Sai, Olaf and Nidalee were his most picked champions and it shows versatility in his playstyle. We have to see in the play-offs if he could bring the same level of impact against the three other star junglers in DNK, Yijin and Levi.

Highlight play: :( No highlights (but I promise you he is very solid!)

The veteran of Vietnam:

TS Celebrity (Source: VETV FB)

Name: Nguyễn Phước “Celebrity” Long Hiệp

Team: Team Secret

Position: Bot

They call him Mr. Pentakill, as he has racked up another pentakill for himself during the regular split in the VCS. Celebrity has been a long-standing VCS player, who goes all the way back to 269 Gaming in 2014, and it all the more impressive that he is one of the only few players that are still playing in the VCS as of today.

While his most played champions in his career are Ezreal, Lucian and Tristana, it is the opposite of what we see today. Being quick on the meta play, Celebrity has dominantly picked Aphelios and Senna as main picks in the VCS. Celebs stats don’t really look pretty if you only look at the CS numbers. This is not why Celebrity is an MVP candidate. Celebrity is a player who you can assure you that he does the most out of his job as an botlaner, and does a boat load of damage. A lot of kills, a lot of damage, that’s indeed what you get from him.

Highlight play:

The best international Vietnamese jungler:

GAM Levi (Source: VETV FB)

Name: Đỗ “Levi” Duy Khánh

Team: GAM Esports

Position: Jungle

We all know him, and if you watch international events you most likely love him as well. The man, the myth, the legend: Levi. Regarded as one of the best players, if not the best player that Vietnam ever produced internationally, Levi is currently in his second season in the VCS after his stints on 100 Thieves and JD Gaming.

The expectations of Levi are sky high, as should be expected from him. Whereas Levi was the main carry of the GAM Esports side in 2019, the role of jungler has been changed into a bit more of a supportive side towards Dia1. That being said, his performances are still great and are wonderful to watch. Levi stands high on multiple stat checkers, such as; CS per minute, damage percentage, assists, low amounts of deaths, damage per minute, gold difference and many more stats. You name he’s got it. Apart from some slip ups against Team Secret and Team Flash, GAM Esports as an overall have been solid, and Levi is a big contributor to the teams successes.

Highlight play:

The young midlane prodigy:

GAM Dia1 (Source: VETV FB)

Name: Lê “Dia1” Phú Quý

Team: GAM Esports

Position: Mid

As for those who are reading my articles, you might’ve seen this name before and you’re correct. Two months ago I made an article about Dia1 that highlighted his growth as a player. Well today nothing has changed, as he is still the hottest midlaner in the VCS right now with some of the most outside of earth stats that mankind have never seen before.

Dia1 has the highest average kills (7) of any player in the league, and the closest player after that is Divkid (5.2). Not only that, but his CS numbers are through the roof as he also wins out against his direct midlane opponent to which he shows no mercy to. The amount of solo kills? A whopping 36. The player after that in PHT has only 18. In contrast: GAM has played 32 games in the regular split. That is averaging 1 solo kill per game! We could write a book about Dia1 and call it the bible of Dia1, because it sure knows how to win games for GAM Esports.

Highlight play:

The one in the shadow:

FL Yijin (Source: VETV FB)

Name: Nguyễn Lê “Yijin” Hải Đăng

Team: Team Flash

Position: Jungle

When we say value, the value of Yijin must’ve skyrocketed when he defeated GAM Esports in the first half of the split to which he severely outjungled Levi with his pocket Qiyana. While the split was going on, Yijin maintained form throughout the rest of the split and contributed in various Team Flash wins with unique champion picks such as Trundle, Qiyana and Olaf.

The objective control of Yijin and Team Flash have been super consistent. Having insane objective control priority such as drakes and herald, the team forces a playstyle around it with various team fighting picks. However that is not the only style of Yijin. Yijin can also carry through dominating the enemy opposition with heavy farming junglers such as his famous Nidalee which he often picked during the regular season. It is no wonder why Team Flash are still doing fine, even with the departure of Optimus last season.

Highlight play:

Get ready for play-offs, so watch the next VCS match!

So you want to watch the next VCS match? Join us on the live broadcast on either the official Vietnamese broadcast or the English broadcast! Starting next Thursday on 10AM CET, the first match that will be played is going to be Team Secret versus. EVOS Esports.

You can also join our VCS English Discord to discuss even more about VCS.

I hope you had a wonderful read about Last week before play-offs; Which teams will make it?, and on every Tuesday I will post an new article which features various things about the VCS as well. So stay tuned!