I have seen almost no one blame Ruler for this series, and it confuses me greatly. I’ve seen people blame Kanavi, and that confuses me, he played pretty well outside of the game 4 circus. But most of the point of no return mistakes in this series can be attributed to Ruler. The portal in game one removed any chance of victory, from what was shaping up to be a positional advantage for JDG. Getting caught shopping in game 3, then letting Faker scoop him to completely lose the game. Getting hit by the bard ult in game four and wasting his ghost and ult, when 369 easily reacted to it in time without flash.
Three moments in these games where Ruler could have stepped up, or at the very least not ran it down, and in all three he did not live up to the best ITW title, he didn’t even live up to being the best ADC at worlds.
That’s not even talking about his tempo mistakes getting his backs cancelled in game 4, or the fact that Missing almost out damaged him in game 2 despite it being both a good kalista game, and his best pick in the meta. Or his complete lack of impact at the herald fight game one. Or his lack of impact in game three prior to inting it all despite being given a really free lane by the invade into lvl 2 bot dive.
369, K9, and Missing had their share of bad plays. 369 sold JDG up the river, but the players making good plays to recover the game, was Kanavi and those three players. When Ruler got caught game three? 369 and K9 stepped up, with K9 hitting a nasty shove on Renata and a Kalista. When they were down in game two, it was Kanavi who pulled them back with a shmick flash. When Kanavi over extended after killing Guma game 2, it was 369 who managed to kidnap Oner and put JDG in a position to take Baron. When Kanavi and k9 died later in that game, it was 369 and Ruler who stepped up and carried the fight.
But when it comes to rulers turn in game 4? As a super fed Zeri, looking down the barrel of three pretty easy kills? He choked it. When it was game 3 and JDG had baron and a chance at elder in five minutes, relying on Ruler to siege mid lane? He choked it. When he flashes on Guma, as a Zeri in ult with ghost, he choked 5 out of 6 Zeri Q’s with his only Q hitting taking Guma down to half health, meaning if he hit a single other Q, he kills Guma and JDG get out one for two at worst. Down a drake, but still in it, because Ruler stepped up.
But he didn’t.
There were a lot of players on JDG who had bad games today, but Ruler didn’t even seem to want to load onto the rift.
Finally I find someone saying this. I’d go a step further and say any other top tier ADC in his shoes and they win that game 3, and the game 4 goes differently.
Ruler solo lost game 3, and him missing 5 out of six Zeri Q’s in the Guma 2v1 outplay completely destroyed JDG’s chance to stay in game 4. To say nothing about him failing to dodge the bard ult to collect three free kills.