It's Friday, and our series of top players at each position going into the World Championship is sadly coming to a close. After going through top laners to AD carries from Monday to Thursday, we end on the unsung heroes of Summoner's Rift: the supports. The crop heading to San Francisco in less than a week's time is stacked with stars old and new who form the backbone of any team reaching for the Summoner's Cup.
5. Hu "SwordArt" Shuo-Jie
Region: Taiwan
Team: Flash Wolves
SwordArt, the third Flash Wolf in the rankings this week, could be the most important of them all in terms of the Taiwanese champions going far at Worlds. While the jungle and mid partnership between Huang "Maple" Yi-Tang and Hung "Karsa" Hau-Hsuan is the micro prowess of the team, SwordArt is the man who makes sure the macro ideas are executed proficiently. SwordArt's game planning against the Tigers last year and SKT T1 at the Mid-Season Invitational this campaign led to his team sweeping both Korean giants in the group stage of those respective tournaments.
The summer season was another successful one for SwordArt. He led all supports when it came to assists, and he died the least of any starting support in Taiwan's premier league. The issue for SwordArt and the Flash Wolves, like it was at Worlds last year and MSI this year, will be the AD carry position. Hsiung "NL" Wen-An was only adequate in his appearances at Worlds last year, and he was out of his depth at the Mid-Season Invitational come the bracket stage. In the series which eliminated FW from MSI against North America's Counter Logic Gaming, NL had an abysmal scoreline of 3/9/14 in the four games played.
With the meta enforcing 2v2 lanes, it's going to be up to SwordArt to make sure NL, clearly the shakiest link on the Wolves, doesn't completely crack against the likes of SK Telecom T1's or Clodu9's bottom lane in a competitive Group B.
4. Cho "Mata" Se-hyeong
Region: China
Team: Royal Never Give Up
The most troubled support coming into Worlds is also the one who has won the MVP of the tournament before. Mata's spring split was fantastic in Royal's rebranding renaissance as Royal Never Give Up, going all the way to the finals and winning the championship in the climactic match. RNG's performance at home during MSI in Shanghai was also a treat to watch, and it was through Mata's playmaking abilities that Royal appeared to be the tournament's favorite heading into the bracket stage before defending world champion SK Telecom T1 woke up in the semifinal.
During the offseason before the summer split, RNG upgraded its bottom lane with two-time Worlds finalist Jian "Uzi" Zi-Hao coming in to seemingly solidify the star-studded roster. Calling the summer split a disappointment for Royal might be too harsh, but the final month of the season was forgettable for Mata and crew. RNG barely made it out of the semifinals against I May, and then it got shellacked by undefeated Edward Gaming in the domestic summer finals. At his peak, Mata is the best support in the world, but coming into the World Championship he'll need to re-earn the title he has held many times throughout his illustrious career.
3. Alfonso "Mithy" Aguirre Rodriguez
Region: Europe
Team: G2 Esports
This will be the third World Championship for G2 Esports' starting support. Yesterday we highlighted Mithy's bottom lane partner, Jesper "Zven" Svenningsen, in the top five of the AD carries traveling to America this upcoming week; the fact that both are among their respective roles' top fives is a testament to how strong they are as a unit. When Zven was transitioning from the world of amateurs to the one of pros, Mithy was the catalyst in helping him blossom into one of the world's top marksmen.
When it comes to European supports, Bora "YellOwStaR" Kim might be the greatest of all time, but Mithy is closing in fast. He has made four domestic finals (three consecutively) and was finally able to win his first championship alongside Zven after he joined G2 this past May. While the Lemondogs failed to do damage at the 2013 World Championships, a semifinal finish in 2015 was one of the best results any non-Asian team has ever accomplished.
Statistically, Mithy had a career summer season: top three in both wards placed and cleared of all starting supports, and top assists at the support position while also having the fewest number of deaths.
2. Kang "GorillA" Beom-hyeon
Region: South Korea
Team: ROX Tigers
The best support at last year's World Championship comes in at second in our rankings heading into this year's festivities. In arguably his worst season out of the last two years, GorillA still was an elite-level support that topped the KDA rankings of the supports in League Champions Korea. A lot of the year it was the Song "Smeb" Kyung-ho and Han "Peanut" Wang-ho show for the Tigers, but that doesn't take away from GorillA's insane consistency over the past three years. Since making the finals of the spring season of South Korea's domestic league in 2014 with NaJin White Shield, GorillA has competed in no fewer than four of the last six major Korean finals.
GorillA has a lot in common with Mithy when it comes to results. Both players needed to make it to their fourth domestic final before finally winning one, and it'll be both supports' third time coming to the World Championship. The similarities don't end there; GorillA and Mithy both went home early in their first Worlds (Mithy 2013, Gorilla 2014), and the two had incredible runs last year in which Gorilla made the Summoner's Cup finals and Mithy made the semifinals. In both cases, it was SK Telecom T1 who eliminated the two superstar supports from the tournament.
1. Tian "Meiko" Ye
Region: China
Team: Edward Gaming
When Meiko first debuted with EDG last year, I overlooked him as a good player that was propped up by playing with a virtuoso by the name of Kim "Deft" Hyuk-kyu. By the time EDG upset SKT T1 at the 2015 Mid-Season Invitational final, I started to see Meiko as someone to respect as an individual and not just as Deft's support. Now, after a summer season where EDG didn't budge once in the face of an upgraded RNG squad and other challenges, I see Meiko for what he truly is: a support player who can stand on his own legs alongside any AD carry in the world.
Deft is the best teamfighting AD carry in the history of League of Legends, but he'd never been much of an early game player before developing synergy with Meiko. The best supports can make an average AD carry great, and in the case of EDG's bottom lane, Meiko has turned an elite AD carry into the undisputed world's best at his position. In a lot of cases, having an AD carry and support with differing styles can kill a team; if one swerves right and the other left, it means death for both. Yet, due to trust in one another and immense talent shared between Deft and Meiko, you have an aggressive, playmaking support bringing the best out of a player that has always been considered a counter-puncher instead of a knockout artist in the laning phase.
If you're picking one support to lead your team into battle for a do-or-die best-of-five series for the Summoner's Cup, you still might pick Mata or Gorilla. But with the momentum he and his team are carrying into San Francisco, no support right now is playing as well as Edward Gaming's fifth man.