According to Dopa, Chovy is the best midlaner in League of Legends at the moment. This is why we can all understand the young star's pain at his current situation -- where every game seems to be a 1v9.
From being a starlet at Team Griffin and DRX, he now plays with Hanwha Life Esports, who aren't doing particularly well in the LCK Summer Split. With his team clearly not up to scratch around him, Chovy's presence at Worlds is in grave danger.
Judging by the statistics, Chovy must have severe back pain at the amount of carrying he's doing.
Chovy, the wasted talent
When it comes to Korean League of Legends, one immediately is drawn to the plethora of legendary midlaners: Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok, Heo "ShowMaker" Su, and Gwak "Bdd" Bo-seong -- and even emigrés such as Song "Rookie" Eui-jin and Kim "Doinb" Tae-sang. But can Chovy be mentioned in the same breath?
The young Hanwha Life Esports midlaner has built a reputation as a mechanical prodigy who commands respect from viewers, commentators and other players alike. But despite Hanwha finishing eighth in the LCK summer regular season and failing to make playoffs, the midlaner has put out some impressive stats that betray the team's finish.
- A KDA of 4.14 (4th in the league among midlaners), which is far superior to that of his peers (who score between 2 and 3). Keep in mind that this statistic tends to drop a lot with defeats, of which HLE has many.
- An excellent farm rate of 9.54 cs/m, that places him first place among LCK midlaners.
- An impressive gold score of 417 gold/m, also ranking him first among midlaners -- ahead of ShowMaker (409) and Fate (408).
- A mind-boggling stat of 11 solo kills this summer. For comparison, ShowMaker has four, as does Faker.
Those who are still not convinced should also check out the pentakill he achieved with Akali this summer. When we say that the Korean was in full 1v9 mode, we're not lying. He really has gone out of his way to to try and lift his team.
Hanwha Life Esports, a difficult road to Worlds
We already know the six participants of the LCK Summer Split playoffs. The battle promises to be fierce between Liiv SANDBOX, NS RedForce, DWG KIA, T1, Gen.G and Afreeca Freecs.
All aspire to the title -- but high finishes also reward them with valuable Championship Points.
The problem for Chovy and Hanwha Life Esports is that they no longer have their destiny in their own hands, with two paths ruled out:
- They can no longer win the Summer Split and automatically qualify.
- They can no longer finish above DWG KIA and Gen.G on Championship points, meaning they cannot finish first in the Points standing.
However, the 50 points they earned in Spring could yet save Chovy's season. Should results go their way, HLE can still finish 3rd-6th in the Points standings to earn a spot at the Regional Qualifier -- where there are two more Worlds places up for grabs.
As things stand, a few things go their way:
- Afreeca Freecs and Liiv SANDBOX have 0 points.
- NS RedForce has 10 points.
- T1 has 30 points.
Chovy must therefore pray that these teams are eliminated earlier in the bracket, and as such earn fewer points than required to overtake HLE.
Original content: MGG FR
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