Image via Youtube
2016 is almost over, and we here at The Meta are celebrating by paying tribute to the teams, players and vague concepts that made it worthwhile. Our MVP awards will be ongoing throughout the holiday season, so check in now and then to see who and what we decided to shower with praise.
In the best-of-five between the ROX Tigers and SK Telecom, audiences at Worlds 2016 were lucky enough to witness arguably the best League of Legends play in the history of the game. It would have felt entirely reasonable to give our MVP award to any one of the players on either team for that performance alone.
Ultimately, my League of Legends MVP pick for 2016 is Wang-ho “Peanut” Yoon. At the age of 18, in only his second year in the LCS and his first full year as a pro player, Peanut’s jungling helped make the ROX Tigers one of the best teams in the world. It was with Peanut leading the charge that the Tigers beat out KT Rolster and claimed the title of best team in Korea at the end of the Summer Split.
At Worlds, he showed it wasn’t beginner’s luck. Peanut participated in 66% of ROX’s kills—even more impressively considering his aggressive style, he only accounted for only 14% of his team’s deaths, the lowest number out of any jungler at Worlds. In their match against EDward Gaming, the number one seed in China, Peanut dominated the game, going 5/1/5 despite four jungle bans. He may have lost his shot at winning Worlds this year, but by signing with SKT, Peanut will have a hell of an opportunity next fall.
