Riot Games has announced that they will introduce a League of Legends Hall of Fame in Season 14. Plenty of names deserve to be in it, some more worthy than others. So, here is our list of top 20 best players who deserve to be in the League of Legends Hall of Fame.
10 Retired Pro Players Who Deserve the League of Legends Hall of Fame
Smeb
Of all the top laners in the world, both retired and active, Smeb is the only one we’ve included on our list. He is ahead of some of the greatest players the League has ever seen, such as Khan, MaRin, and TheShy. The main reason for that is his consistency and ability to 1v2 or even 1v3 on the island that is the top lane.
However, he never won a World Championship or an MSI title. He had a good chance for that when he had Score, Deft, Mata, and PawN on his team. Yet, they always ended up eliminated by the eventual winners of that season’s worlds.
Still, he is one of the most underrated top laners ever and the one who deserves to be in the League of Legends Hall of Fame the most.
Mata
Before he got on the same team as Smeb, Mata had already made a name for himself. He was a prolific Thresh player who often got compared to MadLife, and so far, he was the only support player ever to be awarded the MVP of a World Championship. This led many to regard him as the best support ever to pick up a mouse.
Moreover, his prowess extended beyond the bot lane. He is known for having multiple accounts in KR Challenger, maining a different role on each one. You probably don’t know this, but he even beat Faker in a 1v1 All-Stars Tournament back in 2016. Not too shabby for a support main, eh?
Ambition
Before swapping to the jungle, Ambition was regarded as the most consistent mid-laner in Korea. He was even selected to represent Korea at All-Star Shanghai 2013 in mid. However, his greatest achievements came after he role-swapped to the jungle.
The champions with whom he was especially dominant were Lee Sin, Jarvan IV, Nidalee, and Zac. Also, he was noted for his aggressive playstyle, invading, tower diving, playmaking, and team fighting. Ultimately, if there is one jungler on this list deserving of the League of Legends Hall of Fame, it’s Ambition.
Bengi
Bengi is the only player besides Faker to win three or more World Championships, achieving that in 2013, 2015, and 2016 with SKT T1. He also popularized champions like Vi and Zac in combination with mid-lane assassins. Enemy teams would often ban either Vi or Ahri to stop him and Faker from executing their obnoxious tower dives.
However, being on a team with Faker shouldn’t diminish his own accomplishments. He won almost every major tournament he competed in as a player and even helped T1 as a coach after retiring. Not that many junglers can compete with that kind of resume.
Bang
One of the first players to reach 1,000 kills in the LCK, Bang is still regarded by many as a prime example of what an ADC should look like. Mechanically gifted, especially on Ezreal and Kalista, Bang was unfortunately often overshadowed by the rest of his T1 squad.
Nevertheless, I still remember that moment during the 2015 Worlds when he had an insane 70+ KDA as they reached the quarterfinals. It really showed how consistent and methodical he was in the bot lane. The only ones who could match him at that time were Uzi and Deft.
Finally, count in a couple of World Championships, MSI, and LCK wins, and you won’t have any doubt that Bang deserves a spot in the League of Legends Hall of Fame.
inSec
Even though he never won a Worlds title, inSec will forever be remembered as the flashiest jungler the pro scene had ever seen. Solely because of him, there are probably more Lee Sin montages on YouTube than for any other champion in the game.
Furthermore, he remains an inspiration for every other jungle player in the game and represents what god-like micro looks like. He was also a prolific Zed and Shaco player, capable of pulling off combos even Faker himself would be jealous of.
Doublelift
Players from Korea and China have dominated the pro scene since the earliest days of LoL. Nevertheless, a few names from the EU and NA deserve mention, the first one being Doublelift.
Doublelift is one of the players who has been around the pro scene since its inception and has always delivered for his team. He also became the first player to achieve 1,500 kills in the LCS. If it wasn’t for his face-checking addiction, he might have been even greater.
Ultimately, even though he had never won a Worlds or an MSI title, Doublelift has been a great ambassador for League of Legends and Esports in general, deserving a spot on our list of Hall of Famers.
xPeke
xPeke is the only Western player on this list to claim the title of a World Champion. He did it with Fnatic in the first season of League’s pro play. Additionally, he is the reason why everyone yells “xPeke!” while backdooring due to his outstanding Kassadin play at IEM Katowice.
Besides Kassadin, his champion pool included Katarina, Fizz, Diana, and Kha’Zix (when he was still a popular mid-pick). He was also one of the first players to run unconventional picks, such as Caitlyn on mid-lane, inspiring many others to do the same afterward.
MadLife
Ming, Missing, and Mata are all great supports, but no one yells their name when throwing a Thresh Q in League. The reason for that is MadLife. He is the OG support player even the most casual LoL fans know about.
His most famous trait was predicting enemy flashes and hitting hooks perfectly. These montages are some of the most watched of any pro player in League history. However, he never won a top-tier tournament, with his team hurting his legacy quite a bit.
Another thing he is known for is pioneering full AP support champions and promoting strong micro-skills as something that a good support player must possess. But even without all that, he is still one of the GOATs of League of Legends and deserving of a place in the Hall of Fame.
Dopa
Dopa is the most controversial pick on our list and my personal favorite. His pro career was very short-lived, but he got to play on the Rebels Anarchy, which was eventually rebranded and is now known as Kwangdong Freecs (he is still good friends with the KF coach cvMax and was just a couple of months away from playing on the same team as TheShy).
Nonetheless, he impacted the League’s community so much that many consider him a better mid-laner than Faker. His greatest achievements are hitting rank 1 with multiple accounts almost every season that he has played on both the Korean and Chinese servers.
His signature picks are Orianna, Twisted Fate, and Viktor. Most of the tactics and concepts used when playing these champions were invented or popularized by him. Currently, he is doing his mandatory military service, and it’s questionable whether we will ever see him streaming League again.
10 Active Pro Players Who Deserve the League of Legends Hall of Fame
Faker
Just like S1mple is the GOAT of CS:GO, N0tail of Dota 2, and Flash of StarCraft, Faker is the undisputed GOAT of League of Legends. Dubbed The Unkillable Demon King by OMG Cool, he is the personification of the ultimate League of Legends pro player. His achievements speak for themselves:
- The only player to win four World Championships.
- Two MSI wins.
- Numerous MVP and Finals MVP titles.
- Ten LCK split wins, most of any other player.
- Player who has competed at the highest level for the longest time out of all pro players.
And the list just keeps going. Whatever you say about Faker wouldn’t do him justice. His legacy and fame are so great in the gaming community that almost any gamer in the world would recognize his name. Ultimately, if there is a single player from this list who will get his name immortalized in the League of Legends Hall of Fame, it’s Faker.
Uzi
Ask any ADC main who their idols are, and Uzi is sure to pop up among those names. Regarded by many as the strongest player ever mechanically, Uzi paved the way for all other great ADCs from China, most notably GALA and JackeyLove.
Even though he never won the League of Legends World Championship, his individual accolades are more than enough to make him a Hall of Famer:
- First ever player to reach 2,000 kills in pro play and the first to get 500/1,000/1,500/2,000/2,500 kills in the LPL.
- He has the most CS/M in every LPL season he has played in since 2015.
- An MSI title and several LPL split titles.
- Three pentas on Vayne alone, the most memorable one being against Invictus Gaming in 2014.
Unfortunately, injuries plagued his later career, and many fans still wonder what more he could’ve achieved. Hopefully, his great solo queue form indicates a return to a competitive squad in the near future, where he can show us why even Ruler considered winning lane against him an unsolvable puzzle.
Rookie
Rookie is an LPL legend and probably the second-best mid-laner ever. In 2018, he broke a streak of six consecutive Korean World Championship victories and took it away with Invictus Gaming. This was also the first Worlds win by an LPL team.
Unfortunately, we didn’t see him and Faker face each other off more throughout the years, partly due to the lack of international tournaments and partly because the League’s tournament formats almost never had them in the same group or bracket.
However, they did end up in the same group during MSI 2019 when IG beat SKT in under 16 minutes and set the record for the fastest MSI game ever. If you count all the other records he has set in the LPL and the international scene throughout the years, there is no doubt that Rookie will one day end up being a League of Legends Hall of Famer.
Ruler
Even though he is one of the youngest players on our list, Ruler has an esports resume that few can compare to. He won the World Championship, MSI, LCK, LPL, Worlds MVP, LCK MVP, an Asian Games Gold Medal, and multiple All-Pro team appearances.
Ruler is also regarded as the best ADC in the world for years now, and he is probably still early in his prime. Attesting to this is the fact that he has won or reached the semi-finals/finals of all major tournaments but one in the last four years.
Finally, we can all hope that this is just the start of Ruler’s dynasty, with many more fruitful years to come. Even now, though, his legacy as a micro god and penta-kill machine worthy of a Hall of Fame status is undisputed.
Caps
We might have seen more LEC talents here if the competition wasn’t so tight. In the end, the one that deserves the status of a League of Legends Hall of Famer the most is Caps.
Even though fans call him Craps sometimes, he has won an MSI, LEC splits ten times, Rift Rivals, innumerable MVP and All-Pro rewards, and made multiple Worlds finals appearances. This all makes him by far the most accomplished LEC player ever.
Moreover, he is the only Western mid-laner besides Perkz capable of matching Chinese and Korean players. He even scored a penta against SKT T1 with Akali in the semi-finals of the 2019 MSI. Only he, Rain, OnFleek, and Ruler managed to do that.
Doinb
You might consider that too many mid-laners are already on this list, but we couldn’t leave out Doinb. Very few LPL pros can come close to his record in terms of accomplishments, both as a pro and as a solo queue player.
He possesses a deep champion pool and concept knowledge similar to Faker. Furthermore, he pioneered many of the off-meta picks now played on mid, such as Nautilus, Pantheon, and Kled, successfully using them in pro play.
What he’s most famous for is his farming and lane dominance, especially with Ryze and Viktor. He managed to even get 400 cs in 24 minutes in a solo queue game. However, not playing Azir, Akali, and other meta picks as much as the others lowered his chances of getting more titles considerably.
Meiko
Meiko is the player with the most played games in the LPL and one of the most loyal ones at that. He was the main support of EDG for nine years and 26 days before joining Top Esports.
Furthermore, he is the first LPL player to win every major tournament he participated in (Worlds, Demacia Cup, LPL, MSI, Rift Rivals, Asian Games). All these titles make him the most internationally accomplished support besides T1 Wolf.
However, his regional achievements shouldn’t be disregarded either. He achieved and still holds almost every win, games played, and assist record in the LPL. Not bad for someone who is only 25 years old right now and still in his prime.
Scout
Besides Meiko, Scout is the youngest on our list of players deserving to be in the League of Legends Hall of Fame. At only 25 years of age, his accolades are already comparable to those of his veteran LPL rivals, such as Rookie and Doinb. Here are a few:
- World Champion and Finals MVP 2021.
- Three LPL titles and two LPL MVPs.
- He made the LPL All-Pro team in almost every season he has played in.
- Two Demacia Cups victories.
- Two Rift Rivals titles.
Ultimately, he still has his best career years ahead of him, and whether or not he will win another World Championship and further facilitate his legacy as one of the best mid-laners ever is uncertain.
Deft
China has Uzi, and Korea has Deft. Arguably, he is the only bot-laner who could match Uzi in his prime in terms of mechanics and ADC knowledge. However, SKT dominated the scene at the time of his prime, limiting his international success.
All that changed in 2022. After ten years of play and eight World Championship appearances with six different teams, he finally won it in an upset five-game victory over T1. There were even speculations that he would retire if he didn’t win it, but thankfully, they never came true.
His most noteworthy titles besides Worlds are:
- MSI Champion.
- Two-time LCK split winner.
- Two-time LPL split winner.
- Four Demacia Cup titles.
Ultimately, even if he were to retire tomorrow, Deft would undeniably be Korea’s most influential player besides Faker and worthy of being immortalized in the League of Legends Hall of Fame.
CoreJJ
We had to include at least one LCS legend, and that is none other than CoreJJ. Even though he never won an international title with an LCS team (he won it with SSG in 2017), he still remains at the top of the support food chain after ten years of professional play.
Furthermore, he has raked up numerous MVPs, All-Pro Team appearances, and LCS titles throughout the years. But even without all that, his love of the game, sportsmanship, and being one of the best ambassadors of League of Legends would earn him a spot on our list.
What Is the League of Legends Hall of Fame?
In Season 14, League of Legends will induct the first generation of players into the Hall of Legends (very creative naming). They announced this, along with many other things, in a blog post explaining their plans for the future.
A panel of industry veterans and experts from every region will vote on who the inductees will be. Riot hasn’t revealed how many players will be inducted into the Hall of Fame or when, as a matter of fact. Still, we will update this post once there is more information.
That concludes our list of 20 players who deserve to be in the League of Legends Hall of Fame. If you want to read more League of Legends stories and guides, see the links we included below. There is even one on player distribution, which might be useful, especially if you play a lot of ranked.
Published: Feb 4, 2024 11:15 am