In this article, I will give you the top 5 League of Legends player rankings for 2019. Of course, the top listed here is a personal opinion and you may find some entries arguable.
Given that there are so many exceptional LoL players out there, making a top 5 is not easy and the list is never all-inclusive.
Many talented superstars will be inevitably left out simply because there’s room for only so many people.
Selection Criterion
In League of Legends and many other esports you win or lose with your team. If you do an exceptional job, the results are often spectacular even if your team isn’t the best or wasn’t supposed to win.
Take for instance the case of s1mple in CS:GO. He’s the best player in the world and as a result, his team somehow manages to stay near the top just because of his performances, even though they’re far from amazing overall.
For this League of Legends player rankings, I looked more than anything at results.
If a team had great results in 2019, then its players probably did something right. Right?
In the sense that, when it’s all said and done, results speak for themselves and it’s quite rare to have truly great players not achieving anything all year.
And by achievement, I don’t necessarily mean that the team has to win a big trophy.
It can be something as “small” as simple participation at Worlds or Mid-Season Invitational.
In any case, the expectation is that a player managed to help his team achieve something.
Otherwise it’s hard to say with certainty that he actually excelled in 2019.
Top 5 League of Legends Player Rankings
The list goes from number 1 to number 5, although in many cases it’s hard to separate these players.
Kim “Clid” Tae-min, T1
T1 or the former SK Telecom T1 is perhaps the most famous team in LoL’s history, along with Fnatic, G2 and a few others.
After finishing 2nd at Worlds 2017 and then missing the tournament completely in 2018, T1 finished 3rd – 4th at Worlds 2019, 3rd – 4th at Mid-Season Invitational 2019 and 1st in both regional Playoffs (in South Korea).
These results would not have been possible without Clid, a formidable jungler whose performances had a huge impact on T1’s success.
Marcin “Jankos” Jankowski, G2 Esports
Jankos is a member of G2 Esports and he plays the role of the jungler for them. Much like Clid, he had a great contribution to his team in 2019, resulting in the best year his team has ever had in League of Legends.
They won both splits (groups and playoffs) in the European region, the Mid-Season Invitational and the Rift Rivals 2019 (NA-EU). G2 also finished 2nd at Worlds 2019.
This is an absolutely phenomenal string of victories and top results and when you look at the player stats, it’s hard to not see Jankos’ contribution.
Kim “Doinb” Tae-sang, FunPlus Phoenix
FunPlus Phoenix took the world by storm in 2019 winning both Splits (Group Stage) in the Chinese region (LPL), one of the LPL Playoffs and then the biggest prize of the year: Worlds 2019.
For a team that got formed almost out of thin air just a few years ago, these results look like witchcraft.
Just consider the fact that numerous other teams from very powerful regions have been steadily improving year after year to the point where they were able to get a good result at Worlds. And FunPlus Phoenix just came in and won it at their first participation.
Of course, when teams excel in this manner, players should be credited. In FunPlus’ case, Doinb is one of the main people who should receive credit for his performances as the team’s midlaner.
For the first time in quite a few years, we’ve been blessed to see someone as good or even better than Faker.
Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok, SK Telecom T1
Very recently, it was announced that Faker turned down a $10 million offer to leave South Korea and join another esports organization.
His loyalty to his one and only team (so far) is quite impressive and I’m sure that few people would have had the power to say no to such an offer.
When you’re young, you always want to explore the world and take advantage of the best options that come your way.
And at 23, given his reputation as the best LoL player of all time, it’s actually strange that he doesn’t feel the need to compete in Europe, North America, or China for a while. Especially when the offer is so good. That aside, Faker has had a good year with T1 in 2019.
It wasn’t his best year with the team but it was still an encouraging year after the 2018 disaster that resulted in him missing Worlds and disappearing for a while from the spotlight.
Kang “TheShy” Seung-lok, Invictus Gaming
And finally, the last entry on this list of League of Legends player rankings is TheShy, who is the Top Laner of Invictus Gaming.
As you probably know, the Chinese team finished 3rd – 4th at Worlds 2019, 3rd – 4th at Mid-Season Invitational 2019, and won the LPL Spring Playoffs.
As one of his team’s cores, TheShy had a huge impact in almost every game and proved himself to be one of the best in the world in his role.
