Top 10 All NA Draft

There has been a lot of talk recently of MVP’s and the best players in the NA LCS so I tried to make a list of the top 10 players in the NA LCS in the best way I know how. This top 10 list was put together under the hypothetical situation that all GM’s in the NA LCS had a draft featuring the best players in the league. The first ten players selected would presumably be the best players available at the given time. Honourable mentions include players like C9 Sneaky, P1 Arrow, IMT Xmithie and others. Now, lets move on to the list.

1. Bjergsen

This one shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to most. Bjergsen, arguably the best player in the entire western region is definitely the number one pick in an all NA LCS draft. He has proven to be able to play multiple different styles. He can pop off if needed and can play supportive when needed. This also ties into the fact that he virtually can’t be banned out due to his massive champ pool. Outside of the game, he’s been shown to be a great leader with an incredible work ethic that players like Doublelift often mention as a reason they feel the need to work harder. Even just looking at accomplishments, he has 4 NA LCS titles and a record 3 NA LCS MVP’s. In my estimation, Bjergsen is still the most complete and best player in the NA LCS and is definitely the number one draft pick.

2. Ssumday

Ssumday and Bjergsen have a lot of similarities actually. Ssumday, like Bjergsen, is also a very versatile player who can play tanks when needed and can solo-carry on split-pushers when needed. He is the complete package for top lanes in NA. It’s no surprise he’s already the best top laner in NA considering he was one of the best top laners in Korea, a region known for it’s stacked top lane talent. The main thing separating Bjergsen and Ssumday is mainly just the roles they play. Bjergsen, due to the fact that he plays in the mid lane, inherently can have more impact on games. This still doesn’t mean Ssumday’s impact is not considerably high which is why he would be my number two pick in this all NA LCS draft.

3. Jensen

This one will come as controversial with all the NA LCS MVP talk. How is Jensen number 3? I admit this was one of the hardest decisions for me debating between number 2 and number 3 for Jensen. In the end I decided to put Jensen at 3. Jensen is a laning god who produces massive leads by himself. He’s also very adept at taking the leads granted to him by his teammates and turning them into C9 victories. That being said, Jensen’s lack of spreading his lead to other points of the map and sharing his lead with his teammates has held C9 back at times although he has been improving on this a lot). Also, Jensen’s unfortunate moments in the last two NA LCS Finals against the likes of Bjergsen have seeded doubt in fans minds that Jensen might be a choke artist in the biggest moments. We will see this season if Jensen can prove that those unfortunate moments were just a few moments and nothing more. For now though, I would say number 3 is a solid place for the NA LCS MVP frontrunner.

4. Doublelift

Doublelift is easily the most dominate NA born player in NA LCS history and his dominance continues. Even with a stacked adc pool in NA in terms of talent, Doublelift still reins supreme. Since rejoining TSM after his Spring Split break, he has slowly been working his way up to his usual lane dominant and team-fighting menace form. Doublelift since originally joining TSM has to many become a much more dependable and mature player. Double can still pop off on champs like Tristana but as seen at Rift Rivals, he can also play supportive AD’s like Ashe at the highest level. Even more so, he seems to have matured as a person becoming more team oriented in his mind set. Although its a short, edited show, TSM Legends shows multiple instances of Doublelift providing helpful insight into the game to enhance discussion about problems regarding TSM’s play. Doublelift would be an amazing carry for any team but his transition into being more of a leader and shot caller is really what sets him apart. He may not be quite as good as the players above him but he’s damn close with all that he brings to the table. Thats why Doublelift seems like the perfect choice at number 4.

5. Aphromoo

I can’t mention Doublelift without mentioning his counterpart and his former Rush Hour teammate Aphromoo. I know Olleh and arguably even Smoothie are having better splits then Aphromoo right now but again, this is about building a team around someone. With that in mind, I don’t think there is a better support in the league. Aphromoo has proven time and time again that he can not only be an incredible playmaker for his team but can also be the voice of reason. Aphromoo is simply one of the best leaders, not only in the current LCS but in LCS history, showing the ability to lead both in and out of game. He’s supportive in every sense of the word. Theres no doubt in my mind that if any team were to take a support player, Aphromoo’s skill and experience would make him the first one picked.

6. Lira

This one is a little interesting. Lira’s stint in the LCS is definitely on the shorter end when compared to the others on this list. That being said, you could argue his impact in game is one of the largest. Originally, the star jungler of Afreeca, Lira decided to join Team Envyus during the season 6 offseason. After prior issues were sorted in regards to his visa, Lira finally started for the team and the team instantly became a threat to take games. To put Lira into perspective, Team Envyus was the 10th place team in NA at one point and Lira was arguably the best jungler in North America, a region full of jungle talent. Lira was putting up monster individual performances that pulled Envyus into games they had no business being in. Now, with one split under his belt, he has helped guide Envyus to a 6th place finish in a stacked NA LCS, granting the team a playoff spot. Lira is just an extremely quality player who’s not only mechanically skilled but also extremely intelligent. It’s these characteristics that have helped Envyus improve greatly since his acquisition. Therefore, the best player to build around at #6 is Lira.

7. Froggen

Putting Froggen as the seventh best player to draft around in the NA LCS was extremely hard for me because I’ve been a fan of his for a while now. He shares a lot of the qualities of the players named before him. He’s obviously very good at the game, posting incredible laning and damage statistics throughout the summer split of NA LCS s7. He is also a very vocal player who works hard with the young players on Echo Fox to try to improve as a whole. The problem is, they just haven’t improved enough, despite his seemingly stellar performances. Unlike Lira who’s one position above Froggen at the moment, Froggen has yet to have a significant positive impact on Echo Fox in terms of producing wins despite being in NA for almost 2 seasons now. This in part can be attributed to his teammates being lacklustre which is an easy out but you could also argue that Froggen’s play-style has significantly harmed team success. As amazing as a carry as Froggen is, he’s not known to be the person to spread his lead around and instead often looks to carry on his own. Continuing on, Echo Fox’s achilles heel in the NA LCS has been their inability to close out games and Froggen, being an experienced veteran in League should be able to have a larger impact in curing this flaw. Yet and still, throughout Froggen’s tenure, Echo Fox’s late game decision has seemingly not improved whatsoever. Although the task of late game decision making should not completely be on Froggen, as a leader of the team, he should take some responsibility for their shortcomings in late-game moments. Due to these reasons, I think Froggen is rightfully slotted at number 7 in the list of the best players to draft in the NA LCS.

At this point, the picks become a little wonky for me. See, there are still solid, proven veterans left to pick from who have shown the ability to carry. That being said I don’t feel like they have the potential to be a true “franchise player.” Therefore, the last 3 selections are focused more on the younger, less experienced members of the LCS.

8. Hauntzer

Hauntzer debuted on Team Gravity and was known as nothing really too special. He was just pretty average. But after joining TSM, Hauntzer has slowly developed into a more complete and carry oriented player who has helped bring TSM two straight NA LCS titles. He proved this the best during the 2017 NA LCS Spring Split where he finished second in MVP voting with people thinking that he was possible robbed of the MVP award. He posted multiple carry performances on his stint on TSM, particularly on champs like Camille. Not to forget, he is still a tremendous tank player as his Maokai play inspires the phrase TreeSM. Hauntzer has been showing his fare share of weaknesses though. At his first ever world championship Haunter played pretty mediocre to say the least. This could be attributed to the nerves of a young player at his first worlds so we’ll look past a it a bit. Haunter still has other flaws domestically, the number one being a overconfidence in-game. Haunter is often times seen getting killed by extremely telegraphed ganks and dives. With this all in mind, Haunter is of course a risky choice. That being said, Haunzter’s ability to bounce back from his own mistakes by keeping even in cs and demonstrating tremendous team fighting prowess makes him the 8th best player in my estimation.

9. Stixxay

When were talking about potential, who better to talk about then a CLG member. Stixxay is the ADC for Counter Logic Gaming. Being hailed as Doublelift’s replacement, Stixxay has had pressure on him before he even played a game in the NA LCS. Despite the pressure mounted upon him, Stixxay time and time again has proven to be a worthy replacement of Doublelift. In his first LCS season, he helped CLG defeat TSM and Doublelift who had joined TSM after being dropped by CLG. Stixxay was vital during the series including a pop-off performance during game 5 on Tristana to secure CLG their second straight LCS title. After winning, CLG then proceeded to participate in MSI 2016 where Stixxay again showed up big for CLG, being a big reason for their second place finish in the international tournament. Even with CLG’s disappointing exit at Worlds, Stixxay again showed that he is more than capable of showing up on the international stage. Stixxay’s knack for showing up in big moments paired with his impressive mechanical prowess makes him the 9th best player in the league. In fact, it can be argued he should be #8 above Hauntzer. Spots #8 and #9 are totally interchangeable and I think would mostly be based on the requirements of the organization.

10. Smoothie

The second support on this list and the 10th best player to start your LCS franchise with in my opinion has got to be Smoothie. Smoothie is an english speaking NA LCS native who can not only be a playmaker but also a primary shot-caller. His shot calling is at least partly responsible for C9’s success as they made it to two straight NA LCS Final’s both in 2016 Summer and 2017 Spring. Smoothie also has a very diverse champ pool to work with that can adapt to all kinds of different teammates and play-styles. The spectrum of Smoothies champ pool can range from Blitzcrank to Janna to Alistar to Taric. The possibilities are virtually endless. Due to Smoothie’s team oriented nature both in personality and play-style, I think he would be a valuable pick at #10 with a lot of potential to grow.

These would just be my picks of who would be the top ten draft picks but I would like to hear about your opinion. Who would you replace or who would you move around in this list?