Recently, the international League of Legends community was abuzz when Knight – the mid laner for Top Esports, officially reached the milestone of 32 solo kills against opponents during the group stage of the LPL Summer 2021, thereby breaking the previous record held by Marin – who had achieved 31 solo kills during the group stage of the LCK Summer 2015.
Almost all international media outlets, including some reports from Riot, confirmed Knight’s record-breaking achievement over Marin, making him the player with the most solo kills in the group stage of an independent region tournament. He is just 2 solo kills shy of tying Marin’s 34 solo kills in a single season (including Playoffs).
However, during this time, Mabinogi – a commentator for the VCS English channel, an independent streaming channel (not part of Riot Games or Garena) that broadcasts VCS in English, spoke out to correct this information.
She stated that, on an international scale, neither Knight nor Marin actually holds the solo kills record for League of Legends.
“In terms of independent regions (major), meaning not Wild-card, this record actually belongs to Dia1. He has achieved 39 solo kills at the VCS Spring 2020 tournament.” – Mabinogi shared on Twitter.
This female commentator also noted that the international media labeling Knight and Marin as the solo kills record holders is likely due to their statistics system only counting metrics from top-tier regions (tier 1), including LPL, LCK, LEC, or LCS.
However, she expressed dissatisfaction with this calculation method, as defining top-tier regions is quite arbitrary and lacks a specific measure. The clearest definition used by Riot Games to categorize regions includes only: Major (independent regions) and Wild-card. According to this definition, both VCS and PCS should indeed be included in the statistics, and this means Dia1’s record needs to be acknowledged.
Through inquiries on the statistics site Gol.gg, the information indeed matches what Mabinogi shared, as Dia1 actually achieved 39 solo kills against opponents after just 32 games in the VCS Spring 2020 season. This number far exceeds Marin’s 34 solo kills and Knight’s 32.
Nevertheless, despite Mabinogi continuously asserting this information, it seems international media remains largely unconcerned, perhaps for a quite simple reason: the VCS has been completely absent from the international stage since after the 2019 World Championship, leading to the diminishing influence of this tournament in the eyes of the global League of Legends fan community.