There’s been quite a lot of discussion over where Rookie falls in the list of greatest players ever recently. Some people feel he’s a lock for 2nd and has been forever. Others feel that some players have overtaken him now. The most common names that come up in this debate are Uzi, Deft, Ruler so I’ve tried to distill their careers in terms of both team achievements but also personal accolades. Alongside this, you’ll be able to see the team they were on at the time and the team mates they had alongside.

 

Just to acknowledge my personal bias, I started this off because I fall into the camp of feeling Rookie is probably not 2nd anymore, but I have tried to present the data as neutrally as possible so that others can make their judgement.

 

Rookie The reason I started this is that I realised that he’s only ever even attended 3 Worlds and 2 MSIs in total, before we even talk about what he’s won. Of course winning isn’t everything, not even close, but if you don’t even make it to the international competitions, it makes it harder to judge a player against the strongest tests. Rookie’s legacy seems to fall back on his domestic domination (though he doesn’t have many league wins domestically either), and he has acquired numerous personal accolades which back up his level of play. An insane 2018 is notable.

 

Deft A strong mix of team and personal success for Deft, but also a crazy length of play. The worlds win last year on DRX does a lot of work for his legacy understandably, but he has multiple league titles in both LCK and LPL plus an MSI to fall back on. Very high peaks obviously in his personal play.

 

Ruler A shorter career than the others, but perhaps a higher density of titles and personal accolades within that timeframe. Similarly to Deft, multiple titles in both leagues, a Worlds, an MSI. Consistently one of the best ADCs in the world, and even contesting best player in the world in the past couple years.

 

Uzi Perhaps the best example of titles not being everything, Uzi is frequently put in the top 3 of peoples all time lists and it is off the back of his insane level of play. He came up just short internationally 3 years in a row, had a monster 2018 and then has struggled massively after that unfortunately. Consistently insane levels of play can’t be shown on a career breakdown like this unfortunately, but I think everyone respects him.

 

Faker This is just for fun, he’s obviously number one in anyone’s list, but it helps serve as a comparison tool at least.

 

One other player I didn’t do a career breakdown for was Xiaohu, but with 3 MSI titles (in 2 roles), and 5 LPL titles, 3 Demacia Cups, he’s clearly incredible even if he falls just short if being in the discussion, largely because of his level of play I assume.

 

Anyway, I hope this is interesting, I find the data useful to highlight consistency and peaks in players careers.