Thanks to everyone that read my Power Rankings for the Top lane on Saturday. I received tons of great feedback (much of which I agreed with), and I will be taking some of those lessons into this edition focused on the Jungle.
I do not think that the competition in the Jungle improved as much from 2020 as Top lane did, but overall the role is without a doubt more competitive than last split. Only 4 teams (C9, EG, DIG, and TSM) will be returning with the same Jungler, meaning that there is a lot of room for a change in impact from debatably the most important role in the game.
Along with Support, Jungle is one of the hardest positions to power rank due to the lesser impact of statistics focused on CS, KDA, and Damage %, as there are drastic differences in effective Jungling playstyle. For Jungle, I will try to focus on statistics such as vision score, first blood percentage, and kill participation %, as well as the intangibles that go along with watching their gameplay.
There was also a lot more subbing in the Jungle in Summer of 2020, with 14 different Junglers playing and 10 that played more than 10 games. I will focus on those 10 players for the statistical comparison. With that, lets get into the power rankings!
S Tier — Kings of the Jungle
1. Santorin — Team Liquid
I don’t know if there is a legitimate case for any other player outside of Santorin for the top spot in the power rankings. Santorin was the compass of FlyQuest, guiding a team that was consistently underestimated to consecutive 2nd place finishes in the LCS. He was the most sought after Jungler in the off season, and for good reason: he placed 1st in almost every key Jungling statistic in Summer of 2020.
- 1st in Kill Participation (78.1%) — The highest in the League!
- 1st in Vision Score/Minute (1.64) — The highest of any non-support player
- 1st in First Blood % (61.1%)
- Never a victim of First Blood (0%)
- 2nd in KDA (6.4)
Even on the world stage, Santorin had a knack for finding a path to first blood for his team:
Santorin always has an idea of exactly what he need to do in the early game for his team to be successful. His first route is intentional, and he knows exactly where he will path to find the first kill of the game, and this shows in his stats. With success domestically and not a bad performance internationally (especially by NA standards), I am incredibly excited to see what Santorin can do with Alphari and Jensen as his solo laners, and fully expect another dominant season from the LCS’s top Jungler.
2. Blaber — Cloud9
If it hadn’t been for the complete and utter collapse of Cloud9 in the second half of the Summer Split, Blaber most likely would have been at the top of this list. Blaber absolutely dominated the Spring Split and the first half of Summer, and it’s hard to believe he would be anything other than one of the best North American Junglers going into 2021. Even with Cloud9’s rough second half of the split, Blaber finished:
- 1st in CS/Minute (6.6)
- 2nd in Kill Participation % (75.5)
- 1st in GD@15 (697) — more than double the second place Jungler (268)
- 3rd in KDA (6.4)
Not only was Blaber great, but the way in which he was able to take over a game is something that no other NA Junglers have been able to replicate. His aggressive playstyle creates pressure on all laners, yet you never know when he may just be power farming on Olaf into a 40 CS lead at 10 minutes for an unstoppable mid-game power spike (see C9 vs EG in Summer). Either way, Blabers play has a bit of flash to it that I hope he can bring into 2021. Even though this play was completely ruined by Licorice, it is without a doubt one of the best Lee Sin engages I’ve ever seen in LCS:
If you were to make a case against Blaber being power ranked 2nd, it would probably be around a potential lack of ability to adapt to a non-jungle centric meta. There are still many patches until the start of the LCS, but with the current tank meta in solo queue, it will be interesting to see if Blaber can adapt.
A Tier — High Performers
3. Spica — TSM
In LCS Summer Playoffs, Spica had not one, two, three, four (kind of), five, six, seven, eight, but nine Dragon/Baron steals. The craziest part of all this is that in all of those smite fights, Spica only actually gets out smited at the drake once, by Dardoch. I can't find anywhere that tracks that specific statistic, but it has to be an LCS playoffs record. Although Spica’s combat statistics are not great (low damage share, KDA), he does a lot for his team that doesn’t show up in statistics. The ability to snag objectives, and have insane engages like this Shen taunt around dragon in game 5 of the LCS Summer lower bracket finals:
That being said, it felt somewhat wrong to put Spica ahead of Closer in the tier list because some of his statistics from Summer 2020 are actually pretty awful, particularly ones that are crucial for jungle.
- 10th in Vision Control/Minute (1.29)
- 9th in Damage % (11.6)
- 5th in Kill Participation (70.8%), 4th for returning Junglers (RIP Xmithie)
However, like I said, I think Jungle is probably the hardest role to actually rank based on statistics, and he did do better on these during Summer Playoffs. Spica looks good and has impressed me a lot in the last 6 months, whereas the Closer hype has worn off a bit after he wasn’t able to bring the team to a winning season (GG finished 9–9). Spica has been looking really good in the NA in-houses as well, playing in most of the games Captian Flowers streams . I also trust Spica to adapt to the current tank meta in the jungle more quickly than Closer, with tank picks such as Sett, Volibear, and Trundle at the top of his list, and looking comfortable on off-meta picks like Shen and Skarner. If I get flamed for putting Spica too high in the list, so be it. I’m expecting Spica to improve on some of the fundamentals, and I am really excited to see how he leaves an impact as the only returning player on the TSM roster.
4. Closer — 100 Thieves
Closer came into the league with a lot of hype around him, and for good reason. This guy had some sweet plays, and was one of the premier Junglers when it came to showcasing the carry meta in the jungle on champions like Nidalee. The only problem is that he played 4 games of Nidalee in Summer and wasn’t able to win a single one. I remember watching those games, and Closer put on great performances in them, but at the end of the day he wasn’t able to carry the team to a victory.
The pro Closer argument would say that he helped lead what was expected to be a bottom 3 team in Golden Guardians to a great playoffs performance. Even though they didn’t end up making it to worlds, they were incredibly close and turned some heads in the process. In my personal opinion, GG was the most fun team to watch at the end of Summer 2020, and I would have loved to see them have the chance to perform at worlds. Not only this, but Closer did perform very well statistically for a middle of the pack team:
- 2nd in CS/Minute (5.2)
- 3rd in Kill Participation (73.7%)
- 1st in XPD@15 (693)
Even more than stats, big time plays like this is what puts Closer in the top 4:
At the end of the day, I think the Spica/Closer argument could go either way. They are both great players, and I spent a lot of time watching old games and reviewing stats to try an make a decision. I even ended up going to my Twitter circle to see if they had any additional takes, and the results were the same — an incredibly close call with Spica probably taking the edge:
B Tier — Xmithie Tier
5. Xerxe — Immortals (TL Xmithie)
If Xmithie was divided into 3 parts, Xerxe would be the brain. I’m actually really excited for Xerxe to be in the LCS because we don’t really have any other Junglers like him. His game is the opposite of Closer and Blaber, focused entirely around vision control, objective control, and scaling into the late game in order to out macro the opposing team. His playstyle really does remind me of Xmithie: it isn’t flashy, but it is good. Xerxe is however coming off of a really bad split, being a part of the collapse of Origen in LEC Summer, and his statistics show it. Out of Junglers with 10+ Games in LEC Summer 2020, Xerxe placed:
- 3rd lowest Kill Participation % (68.9%)
- 2nd lowest First Blood % (38.9%)
- Tied for 2nd highest First Blood victim rate (11.1%)
- Worst CS/Minute (4.9)
- 1st in Vision Score/Minute (1.81)
These stats are largely reflective of the terrible split that Origen had as a whole, and after looking at Xerxe in Spring he actually placed top 3 in most of these statistics that he did so poorly on in Summer. The only consistent factor was that Xerxe dominated the Vision Control/minute in both splits, and it was higher than any LCS Jungler for both of those splits as well. The incoming tank meta will benefit Xerxe more than many of the LCS Junglers, since many of his best picks fit the category, and the less aggressive picks being meta should work in his playstyles favor. It’s fair to say that the jungle pool is stronger in LEC, which contributes to my reasoning for placing him above the low performing LCS junglers from 2020.
The biggest question for Xerxe is if he will be able to corral a very weak looking lineup on Immortals. Xerxe struggled to get anything done with Alphari as his top laner, but I actually think his slower pace of play will work well with Immortals, as Revenge and Insanity also seem to like the scaling style, and Xerxe may be exactly what the team needs to get them through the early and mid game.
6. Dardoch — Dignitas (XDG Xmithie)
In my opinion, Dardoch is one of the biggest disappointments that the LCS has ever seen. As the theScore esports put it, he was given 7 second chances and failed to capitalize on any of them. Another thing: Dardoch has failed to remain as the starting Jungler for a team for more than 2 consecutive splits since he was on Team Liquid in 2016. Ever since Breaking Point, Dardoch has jumped from TL, to Immortals, to CLG, back to Liquid, to Echo Fox, to Optic, to Optic Academy, back to Immortals, to Immortals Academy, to TSM, to Dignitas, Dignitas Academy, and back to Dignitas. Team after team has taken a risk on Dardoch, and over and over it has not really paid off. What I find Dardoch struggles with most is shown here — knowing when his team can effectively follow up on his aggressive moves:
That being said, Dardoch is not bad. He just isn’t anywhere close to what his potential was as a Jungler. Instead, Dardoch finds himself as an off brand Blaber: An aggressive Jungler that will sometimes solo kill your Jungler, and sometimes int. I think his stats from his 13 games in Summer really do paint the picture of his gameplay nicely.
- 2nd lowest KDA of returning Junglers (3.2)
- 2nd in Damage % (18.8)
- 1st in Solo Kills (4)
- 3rd in First Blood % (46.2)
Thanks to this type of playstyle, he is one of the few LCS Junglers to pick up wins on aggressive picks such as the Nidalee…
Overall I think that Dardoch is without a doubt good enough to be on an LCS team, but I anticipate some issues this year given how weak the Dignitas lineup looks overall. If Dignitas is going to have a good year, it’s going to be through Dardochs aggressive jungle play, and his ability to keep his cool when things go wrong.
7. Broxah — CLG (Immortals Xmithie)
Broxah is pretty much the anti Dardoch. He is not going to make high-risk, high-reward aggressive plays, but rather do his best to be in the right place at the right time to support teamfights around objectives (Also, unlike Dardoch, he is probably one of the best personalities to have in a teammate). Realistically, Broxah is neither going to win you the game, nor lose it. He touts the highest KDA in the league (7.8), but had the lowest damage share out of any Jungler in the league (10.8%). It isn’t as if he is playing nothing but tanks in the jungle either: his top two picks from Summer were Lee Sin and Hecarim.
Broxah generally looks pretty good on the champions he plays often (Lee Sin, Graves), and those champs enable him to make the occasional big play…
However, his champ pool is clearly an issue that was exposed in both Summer 2020 as well as at the world championship. I think that CLG is a really good opportunity for Broxah to prove himself. Although the team actually has some good players, there isn’t a real ‘carry’ threat on the team. If Broxah can channel his inner Fnatic self, there is a world where he can start taking lead on the team and present himself as the primary carry threat. However, he has not shown us that ability in NA yet.
C Tier — Small Town Hero
8. Josedeodo — FlyQuest
Easily the most difficult player to place on this list, and for good reason. Josedeodo is a massive fish in a the small pond of the LLA. Anecdotally this guy is praised as “The best player in the LLA” by his R7 teammate Shadow. Based on the hype around this player and his reputation at home, I was really tempted to place him higher in the list.
Josedeodo is clearly a mechanical beast, but my main concern comes from him ability to play the map rather than rely on mechanical outplays to win the game. Even in his best games at Worlds, Josedeodo carried the map through aggressive, mechanical play, not through map movement and being in the right place at the right time.
I won’t pretend that I watched the LLA regular season at all, but I did go back and watch the finals between Rainbow7 and AK. The story is much the same. On his most famous pick in game 1, Lee Sin, Josedeodo wasn’t able to a find a path to a single kill participation until a teamfight was initiated by AK at 15 minutes. Josedeodo plays well during the entire series, but based on his solo queue style of play, I have trouble believing that he can confidently organize an entirely fresh roster in FlyQuest around his decision making in the jungle.
As a side note, the AK/R7 LLA finals is a banger of a series, and if you have 4 hours to spare and want to brush up on your Spanish, I highly recommend watching it. Since everyone can easily watch his worlds games, here’s a highlight from that series:
For now, Josedeodo needs to prove himself before I feel comfortable moving him up in the list among the more established players of the LCS.
D Tier — A lot to prove
9. Svenskeren — Evil Geniuses*
As an avid Cloud9 fan, Svenskeren’s fall from grace has been really sad to see. In 2020, he was a more successful marketing agent for EG than he was a Jungler #LiveEvil. He holds the worst KDA (by far) out of the returning LCS Junglers at an abysmal 1.9, and only edges out Broxah and Spica in Damage share %, only bests Spica in CS/Minute, and had the worst Kill Participation % out of all the Junglers in 2020 Summer. If you aren’t farming well, aren’t doing damage, aren’t helping to get kills, and you’re dying at the highest rate of all Junglers last split… what are you doing well?
Nothing. There is no metric in which Svenskeren performed well in Summer, or Spring for that matter. The only reason that he didn’t finish 10th in this rankings is that we have seen his ceiling back on Cloud9, and it is high. I think this EG roster actually has the potential to finish in the upper half of the league, and Svenskeren has a large impact on that chance. If he can find a way to come even close to his MVP performance in 2019 Summer, that would be a successful year for Svenskeren.
10. Iconic — Golden Guardians
There isn’t much to say about Iconic. He played with Niles as the Jungler for Maryville University, the best collegiate Esports team there is, though he was not close to the star at that level that Niles was. He has potential to be a great player, but he has to prove it. He currently sits in the top 100 on the North American ladder, playing a wide arrange of Junglers, as well as other roles.
During his time at MU, he played mostly farm based carry Junglers such as Graves, Kindred, and Nidalee, but had some tanks in his rotation as well. Comparing his stats from collegiate to those of LCS or Academy seems like a waste of time, so I will leave it to Iconic to prove to everyone that he does indeed deserve his spot on the LCS stage.
In closing:
Jungle power rankings are always difficult, and there are several places that I can see arguments for changes in this one. If you are interested in hearing a more in depth explanation of these rankings, and others, please tune in to my stream (https://www.twitch.tv/lowsmith) on Saturday the 12th at 8 pm EST, where De Medicii and I will be power ranking all of the roles in the LCS, and the teams overall. We will be taking questions and opinions from the chat, so it would be a great place to make your voice heard!
*Not officially announced as of 11/30
