In a recent stream, former world champion in League of Legends – IG Ning, had a brief chat with his viewers. The topic of the conversation was Ning’s personal opinions regarding the current junglers in the LPL.
After receiving questions from the audience, Ning drew conclusions about the level and ranking of the junglers in the 2020 LPL season, while also explaining why League of Legends junglers often fail to maintain peak performance:
Impressive statistics or rankings do not prove that you are a good player, but they can greatly affect a player’s mentality. GODV is an example; he played like a dragon in LPL 2015, but after his disastrous KDA at Worlds, he disappeared.
The jungle position is highly “seasonal”; a jungler can have explosive performances, but usually only maintains that form for about a year. They are often referred to as “one-season kings”; Peanut in 2016 is an example. Any jungler who can perform consistently over three seasons deserves to be called a god of the jungle. Bengi did not always show explosive performances, but he adapted to every meta throughout his career’s peak.
The strongest junglers in the LPL right now are Tian and Karsa. To reach the world-class level, participating in Worlds is the clearest proof. For Karsa, he has shown his competitive experience year after year.
Tian played poorly at Suning, but everything changed when he joined FPX. He fits into the team’s playstyle and has reliable teammates.
Kanavi is also good, but he is benefiting from the meta; his true level will be clearer later. XLB has potential but carries a heavy burden, as he must lead RNG and prove himself.
In summary, when it comes to junglers in the LPL right now, only Karsa and Tian stand out. The only player who can compare to me at my peak is Tian, in terms of both personal stats and titles.
Ning’s opinions received considerable agreement from stream viewers. Most agreed that Karsa, Tian, Kanavi, and XLB are the most exciting junglers to watch in the LPL right now. Meanwhile, SofM – who was once voted by the Chinese League of Legends community as one of the three most impressive junglers of the 2019 season – has left little significant impression so far in the 2020 season.
In fact, Suning Gaming’s performance is not much better compared to SofM’s former team – LNG Esports. However, the deeper reason may stem from the fact that this team missed out on signing the star player JackeyLove, while failing to retain Smlz, leaving SN’s current roster as a patchwork of names with inconsistent performance.
With such a roster, it is understandable that SN is increasingly falling short of playoffs, and it’s not due to any temporary mistake by any player. Perhaps it is precisely because of SN’s poor performance that while other junglers continue to develop steadily, SofM remains stagnant.
And as Ning pointed out, the jungle position is one where players’ careers can be “short-lived”; thus fans have even more reason to be anxious as SofM continues to struggle in mid-tier teams, despite being highly regarded by experts in the LPL.