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SKT T1 K SK Telecom T1 K cannot be ignored as a candidate for Best Team 2013. Firstly and most obvious, they won the Season 3 World Championships with little friction. Outside of WCG, they've been maintaining their dominance in the strongest region for a very long time.
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OMG While OMG dropped to Royal Club in groups, they've had an astounding year in LPL. OMG featured one of the best transitions of support to jungle ever seen, with LoveLin leading his team to victory and helping Cool carry their way to a very successful year in China.
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Fnatic Fnatic may have fallen off in Season 2, but they came back more powerful than ever in Season 3. Fnatic nearly made it to the grand finals of Worlds in a largely asian-dominated tournament. The team has recently brought back Rekkles, a legendary ADC to complete their world-class lineup.
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NaJin Black Sword NaJin Black Sword didn't have the best performance in OGN winter this year, but they did perform well in NLB. While the middle of the year was bleak for the team, they started with a boom and ended with a bang. After smashing Frost in Champions Winter 3-0 and giving SKT T1 the only tough fight they had in the brackets of the Season 3 World Championship, NaJin Black Sword have shown they deserved this spot.
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KT Rolster Bullets Could be "KT Rolster Bullets may not always take first place finishes, but the consensus is they're always the biggest challenge." With InSec's godlike mechanics, KT Rolster Bullets have consistently been dominant in Korea since midway through the year, only falling slightly behind SKT T1 K.
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European Mix
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 Faker??? Team: SKT T1 K |  xPekeEnrique Martínez Team: Fnatic |  LoveLin?? Team: OMG | Uzi ??? Team: Royal Club | Madlife ??? Team: CJ Frost |
It wouldn't be a fair list without first mentioning Faker. Faker has all the qualities you'd want in a mid-laner, being excellent at farm, having amazing map awareness, great engagements, solid teamfighting, and awesome 1v1 potential. Joining him in the mid lane is xPeke, who leads as arguably the greatest AP player in EU, the king of mid players. While globally OMG hasn't seen much play, LPL enthusiasts will of course realize the talent of LoveLin, who may be the best jungler in the world. Applying tons of pressure and having the most impressive role transition gives LoveLin a very deserving spot.
Lastly, we have to give love to the bottom lane. Uzi has overall been the strongest player in his role, practically making zero mechanical mistakes and finding himself nearly untouchable. While we almost gave this to Namei, who was MVP in LPL, Uzi felt individually stronger as a player. The last contestant obviously goes Madlife, often called "Godlife" for his insane skill on his support champions. Everything about how Madlife plays is how any player who wants to master supports should learn how to play. Essentially, he was having Season 4 battle influence in Season 3, carrying his team without any gold.
Honorable mentions: Diamondprox, Darien, Meteos, DanDy, Froggen, Doublelift, sOAZ, Cool, San, Alex Ich, Tabzz
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| Shy ??? Team: CJ Frost |  sOAZPaul Boyer Team: Fnatic | Flame ??? Team: CJ Blaze | Gogoing ??? Team: OMG | Homme ??? Team: Ozone |
Top lane was a tricky category with the range of viable styles this year, but we've selected strong candidates from a range of performance types. CJ Entus Frost's Shy has made a name for himself playing a variety of champions and styles. He could carry his team, provide good tanky initiation, and split push with ease. Fnatic's sOAZ complemented his mid laner, xPeke, by providing his team with a second threat and extra map pressure. CJ Entus Blaze's Flame perfected the tower dive initiation, singling out priority targets and escaping unscathed.
There is no true terror like a perfect area of effect initiation ultimate, and one could argue that no one does it better than OMG's Gogoing. Finally, Samsung Ozone's Homme specialized in the tanky damage soak top laner, and his skills allowed him to overcome other top picks in this category even when assassins were more popular in the Spring.
Honorable mentions: Kerp, Balls, Wickd, Expession, Impact
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| LoveLin ?? Team: OMG |  CyanideLauri Happonen Team: Fnatic |
| InSec ??? Team: KT Rolster Bullets | Bengi ??? Team: SKT T1 K |
The role of jungler saw a great deal of change throughout the past year, from the advent of invade and armor shred junglers to heavy ganking support junglers, the best players in this category have certainly had to adapt. Our first pick, OMG's Lovelin has adapted well, transitioning from a support player to the level three tower-diving monster we saw at World's. Much of his team's success can be attributed to his early game plays. The next pick, Fnatic's Cyanide, managed to control the map while many of his laners split-pushed. He maintained consistency and a near perfect smite record all season.
The next three picks in this category are all Korean stars. KT Rollster Bullets' Insec made his team a heavy contender and garnered a huge reputation as a Lee Sin player. As for bengi, much of SKT T1's success is often attributed to Faker, but his early oracles pickups and heavy ganking often snowballed his team in Champions Summer. Finally, while many of our other selections in this category sacrifice all to make their teams shine, Samsung Ozone's DanDy was an unstoppable Evelynn player who proved himself capable of carrying when his team fell behind.
Honorable mentions: Meteos, Diamondprox
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| Faker ??? Team: SKT T1 K | xPeke Enrique Martínez Team: Fnatic | Cool ??? Team: OMG |  Alex IchAlexey Ichetovkin Team: Gambit |  BjergsenSøren Bjerg Team: TSM |
As always, anyone who would deny Faker a right to the mid-lane awards would be a fool. Faker's flawless execution in teamplay, lane, and farming makes him a topic candidate for this category. He can make plays, be flashy, stay stafe, and more; he really does do it all. Another top mid laner, who has stayed consistently strong and is also one of the few remaining season 1 veterans to perform at a top level is xPeke. He was chosen for constantly making noteworthy plays like the infamous "backdoor" as well as his strength in a wide array of champions and teamfighting ability. As for Cool, every good jungler should be paired with an amazing mid, and this is definitely the case for Cool.
The final two also hail from Europe, although the second one lives with Team Solomid now. Alex Ich manages to stay at a top level and be an awesome team player while simultaneously being a husband and a father. This trait cannot be attributed to anyone else, which puts Alex in a unique position where coupled with his lack of practice time with the team makes him a man of amazing talent. Lastly, we have the prodigy Bjergsen, who shocked everyone in his Copenhagen Wolves debut, and now rains fury over North America.
Honorable mentions: Misaya, Wh1t3zZ, Dade, Froggen, Mancloud
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| Uzi ??? Team: Royal Club | Space ??? Team: CJ Frost | NaMei ??? Team: PE | Pray ??? Team: NJBS | Imp ??? Team: Ozone |
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 Tabe??? Team: Royal Club | Madlife ??? Team: CJ Frost | Sicca ??? Team: PE | Cain ??? Team: NJBS | Mata ??? Team: Ozone |
Tabe and Uzi come in as fan favorites to the best duo lane of 2013 due to their synergy in and out of game. Uzi is essentially considered one of the most "perfect" carries in the game, and the fact that he only trusted Tabe as a support before moving to mid shows a lot. Space and Madlife deserve a mention because while Madlife is known for carrying the team, Space has been stepping out of his comfortable safety net and has started playing more self sufficient carries like Ezreal and Vayne. Namei didn't consistently have the most MVP points in LPL for no reason, and a lot of it was thanks to Sicca. Perhaps the most underrated of this category comes from these two.
In a time when Korea wasn't known for having incredible bot lanes, PraY and Cain were the outliers and consistently dominated their respective competition. This was, of course, until Ozone started showing their later half starting in the spring, where Korea's botlanes were starting to develop and the two were consistently winning lane. Imp plays very similar to Doublelift, and some would argue Mata is becoming equal to or better than Madlife (!!) It wouldn't be shocking considering he has the the highest KDA in his role.
Honorable mentions: Puszu+Yellowstar, Freeze+Deficio, Doublelift+Xpecial(All-Stars), Tabzz + Mithy, Mandu + Piglet
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Trick2g As a streamer, Trick has gone from niche viewing to rivaling pro players for view numbers. Known for his humour, aggressive playstyle with Volibear and Udyr, and maximum disrespect, Trick has become a League institution. His subwars and tip videos are massively popular and his fondness for rap music is a perfect match for his parodical nature.
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SivHD Siv stands as one of the few LoL streamers who can compete with pros in terms of viewership numbers. His funny play-style and unique content have made him a massive success on both Twitch and Youtube. His collaborations with pros and his Leblanc prowess made him popular, but it’s his charity efforts (he raised over $100 000 for Save the Children) and community focus which have turned Siv into a top entertainer.
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Sp4zie A streamer and Youtuber who makes short League videos and comedy bits, the Swedish Sp4zie is known for his unique style of humor, “Epic-moment” montages, unusual strategies and commentaries. Some highlights from this year include his “AD Carry Rap” and his “Butthurt Desk”. While fans know him as a prolific video maker, he's also a genius of marketing himself, ending each video with a memorable, signature "DOOIITZ!"
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Sky Known for his rants and monologues, Sky Williams provides a unique and humorous perspective on day-to-day League. Having made the transition from small-time Youtuber to a full blown League personality, Sky’s stream and videos are both funny and insightful.
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Dunkey A Youtuber of no small repute, Dunkey is famous for his clip videos and compilations of his plays with voice over. Ridiculous, insane and loud, Dunkey is top of the pack for funny League of Legends content. Although his content is not exclusively LoL based, some of his most popular videos have well over 2 million views.
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Honorable Mentions: All of the great parody songs and content out there!
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Season 4 LCS Contracts The most recent drama came about when Riot released the streaming stipulations for LCS players in Season 4, forbidding certain games to be played on stream by players. This led to furious backlash by both the players and community, including players like Imaqtpie and Diamondprox showing some rather critical words about the policy. With many journalists offering their insight into the situation, Riot decided it was in their best interest to not just revert the changes, but shift them around in a matter
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Tabe / Chinese Controversy Former Royal Club support player Tabe has always been vocal about the poor treatment and pay of Chinese eSports players by L.ACE, an organization which not only hosts tournaments but is involved in the running of many Chinese teams. Things came to a head following the Season 3 World Championships when Tabe refused to cease speaking on player’s behalf – the L.ACE banned him from even being employed by any member team in any capacity or ever participating in one of their events.
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EdWard and Gambit In a move that shocked the community, support player EdWard left Gambit earlier this year to join North American team Curse, citing poor communication and frustration with his lane partner Genja. Shots Fired. However, after Curse failed to make the playoff, many speculated that EdWard would return to Europe, and despite many post from the Gambit members denying EdWard’s return, the Thresh Prince did eventually go back to his former team. Despite constant efforts from both the team and from the words of EdWard to deny the possibilty, The team returns to it's former "Moscow 5" state.
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The EU Superteam It seemed that not a day could go by during the off-season without new rumors surfacing regarding the formation of the “EU Superteam”. Reddit detectives dug through ranked 5 records and theories abounded, both ridiculous and plausible, although most of the speculation swirled around EG. That is, until the Alliance was revealed a few short days ago, once and for all shutting down the rumor-mill. While the team isn't exactly what everyone suspected, Alliance has been impressing with their debut at the Battle of the Atlantic. |
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TPA Implodes Despite their impressive victory at the Season 2 World Championships, the Taipei Assassins roster completely fell off the rails in spectacular fashion, leaving BeBe as the only remaining member. Many claimed issues with contracts and Mistake’s leadership, while others speculated that distraction and internal issues. Whatever the problems were, they must have been extensive for such a successful team to fall apart so quickly. While some of their players remain scattered across various teams, the majority have forfeited, and with them, came the grand downfall of the region's competitive standing on the global scale. |
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EXTRAS
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Image credits - Riot Games, Leaguepedia, in2LoL, Fnatic, YouTube, OGN
Written by - Michale "DreXxiN" Lalor, Kelsey "Prehistorique" Moser, Nicholas "Endspark" Doucet
Formatted by - Michale "DreXxiN" Lalor
