Cub

these are the ugliest fucking ranks icons in any game ever.

these are the ugliest fucking ranks icons in any game ever.

these are the ugliest fucking ranks icons in any game ever.

these are the ugliest fucking ranks icons in any game ever.

I want to say something about Kiin, because I want to be direct with our fanbase about how I feel. They published the selection criteria. Read them for yourself, because they matter. After the achievement-based shortlist, the final roster came down to what they themselves called "detailed individual metrics." If you understand the game, look at that list and ask one question: what does a top laner do to make most of those numbers go up? He gets the favorable matchup. He gets the comfort pick. He gets resources funneled into his lane. Solo kills, DPM, DPG, gold diff at 14, CS diff at 14, every one of those climbs when the draft is built around you, and sinks when you give the lane up so a teammate can have theirs. Now ask what Kiin does. Kiin is the top laner who says "draft around everyone else and give me the leftover pick, I'll make it work." He takes the counterpick so a teammate gets comfort. He eats the hard matchup so the map opens elsewhere. Every one of those choices is a teammate's DPM going up instead of his. He trades his stat line for his team's win condition, every single game. There's no column on that list for that. The closest it comes to team value, gold share, damage share, still rewards the player who gets the resources, not the one who gives them up. And champion pool size is right there on the list: a metric that should favor exactly the kind of flexible player Kiin is. He plays one of the widest, most selfless pools in the role and still didn't make it. And before anyone runs with this: this is not about Zeus. Zeus is world-class and earned his spot. The players aren't the problem. The measuring stick is. We need to more rigorously test the statistics we cite, especially when it becomes a measuring stick that can impact decisions like these. If your criteria are built mostly from individual mechanical stats without proper statistical context, you haven't found the best players, you've found the players whose teams were built to make them look best. Kiin plays the game the right way. If these metrics say otherwise, the metrics are the problem, not Kiin, and not the players who were picked. To Kiin's fans: you already know this. You watched him do it. Please show him more support than ever.