DWG KIA ShowMaker tops LoL player ranking ahead of MSI 2021

The first international tournament of the year is right around the corner, where the best team from each region will clash for the 2021 Mid-Season Invitational trophy. It’s an event like this likely means big changes to the LoL player and team rankings. With all regional playoffs over, there has been a lot of changes in the rankings since the last update. Only the absolute best players in the world have been able to compete recently and that shows.

The ranking is heavily dominated by the defending world champions DWG KIA, but with players from other regions looking to break into the top three during MSI.   

• Here’s how the WIN.gg rankings work

DWG KIA still topping LoL player rankings

It’s no surprise that DWG KIA players are still dominating the ranking, with mid laner Heo “ShowMaker” Su at the top. After dominating the 2021 LCK Spring Split, the defending world champions have crawled further up the player rankings to a point where the top-three players are all from DWG KIA.  

ShowMaker has been fighting for the top spot all year, but now bot laner Jang “Ghost” Yong-jun and jungler Kim “Canyon” Geon-bu have taken the second and third spots, respectively. The DWG KIA players will be looking to defend these spots at MSI, where the team as a whole is also predicted as the big favorite to win. 

By the current state of the player rankings, it doesn’t look like many players will be able to challenge for the top three spots. The closest is Cloud9 mid laner Luka “Perkz” Perković, who is currently ranked at number four. Perkz will be in the same group as DWG KIA at the event, so there might be a chance for him to knock down the kings of the player rankings.  

Five players from top 10 won’t attend MSI 2021

With only the regional champions participating at MSI, there will likely be big changes to the player rankings during the upcoming weeks. As of right now, a total of five players in the top 10 won’t participate at MSI, giving room for other players to climb the rankings. 

Besides the top four, only DWG KIA support Cho “BeryL” Geon-hee will be participating at MSI from the top 10. This leaves players like FunPlus Phoenix’s Jang “Nuguri” Ha-gwon, Gen.G’s Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk, and other big names out in the cold and unable to gather points for the rankings until the summer split kicks off. 

This will open up opportunities for players that aren’t currently in the top 10. Most notably, there is no player from Royal Never Give Up at the top of the player rankings currently, but MSI could change that. The closest is top laner Li “Xiaohu” Yuan-Hao, who is currently ranked at number 11. After his first split as a top laner, Xiaohu took RNG all the way to the LPL trophy and is looking like a player to keep an eye on at MSI. 

The rest of the RNG squad is placed quite a bit lower on the ranking currently, but as a dangerous contender to the MSI trophy, it’s expected that these players will start to climb should they find success at MSI.