Fans and analysts like to get hyped about players. That’s why Faker is the benchmark for perfection in League of Legends. Even in games where he underperforms, hardly anyone ever discredits him. Similarly, when the hype is building for a certain player, everyone runs wild with it. During MSI in particular, there was a lot of talk about Uzi, the ADC for Royal Never Give Up. There is no question that he is one of the best in the world – that’s what international tournaments are about – but the question is if he as good as the hypes says.

Talk at MSI revolved around Uzi becoming the new pinnacle for all pro players. After RNG wiped the floor with nearly everyone – taking only three loses the whole tournament – this seemed like an obvious conclusion. But numbers are often the measure of a team, not a player. There is no doubt that RNG was the best team at MSI, but translating that into individual player skill is a harder thing to do.

Take Doublelift, for instance. Doublelift managed to do the largest share of damage of any single player at worlds with 40.1%. That means that more often than not, carrying was exactly what he was doing. In the Group Stage, he managed to come in second in Most Kills and third in Kill Participation. Doublelift managed to pull those numbers while being the fifth place team, while managing to lose seven games and win just four.

Sure, Uzi still beat Doublelift in KDA and Kills, but both of those are expected numbers from the team in first place. Obviously Uzi will die less if his team is winning, and obviously his kill count will get pumped as he snowballs in every game. It is worth looking at all the factors in a game though.

Take Team Liquid’s final game against RNG, one that went RNG’s way basically from the start and which Liquid only managed to get 4 kills to RNG’s 15. At the five minute mark, the bot lane was not a wash for Liquid. In fact, in an exchange, Doublelift out-traded Uzi and Ming. RNG then sent Mlxg down for a gank. Despite having no vision or knowledge that Mlxg was there, Doublelift moved and dropped a ward that may have saved them from a dive, showing great map awareness. Even when Uzi did get a kill onto Doublelift a few minutes later, it was more because Olleh was out of position than because Doublelift was.

The argument is not that Doublelift is better than Uzi – RNG won, so there’s no point in such a debate. The argument is that the measure of a team is not the measure of a player. Olleh played poorly almost all of MSI, even stepping out of a few games to calm his nerves. Team Liquid also never played as a solid team. RNG, on the other hand, played nearly perfect the whole tournament. Team fights were beautifully synced, every member was playing their role properly, and no one on the team seemed rattled from pressure. Given the caliber of teammates and cohesion on the two teams, Uzi would obviously appear much better.

It’s the unfortunate way of things that the victor determines history, because the moment that RNG and King-zone were the teams leading the pack, everyone seemed to forget about other players. Caps, for instance, played out of his mind. In the beginning of the tournament, everyone was talking about him getting MVP for the tournament. Every game out of him was perfection, and he was constantly making plays for his team and leading them to victory. But once Fnatic fell, all attention fell from Caps as well.

League of Legends needs to do a better job in highlighting individual skill, and not just because it is the right thing to do. The value of a player can directly be tied to the image of that player, and when those controlling the narrative determine not to talk about certain players because their team is doing bad, it reflects poorly on the whole organization. We saw this with Clutch Gaming as well.

Sneaky and Meteos admitted in an interview that Hakuho was an extremely undervalued support. It was only after these two players drew attention to his degree of skill that it became a part of the narrative. After that, comments begin to surface of his stellar Morgana plays.

We’ll definitely be keeping our eye on Uzi, especially as we lead up to Worlds, but it’s only fair to keep that eye on other ADCs as well, even if they aren’t in the spotlight.