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as the world championship is getting closer, many foreign media have recently started their routine pre-match activities: rankings!

this is very interesting. in the early years, only riot games gave these players a pre-match predicted ranking, but later this ranking gradually became a rhythm, so that the official stopped releasing the ranking directly, and then some third-party media began to flock to the ranking, so before the annual world championship, you will always see various rankings, and what i want to share today is a ranking list from foreign media sheepesports.

the ranking list of sheepesports is top30 in total, and recently they only released the 19th to 30th places.

from 19th to 30th place, they are showmaker, 369, gumayusi, tarzan, scout, light, aiming, zeus, razork, oner, inspired and creme. many people may wonder why the players we think are pretty good are ranked so low in this list? for example, the players of t1, the champion of last year's world championship, especially zeus, who was the fmvp of s13. isn't this a bit too low? so we looked at their ranking comments. for zeus, the reason they gave was:

"zeus has endured a challenging summer season as the defending champion. despite the odds he often faced, he has shown remarkable resilience and adaptability. however, the flashy tactics and mechanics he displayed are no longer as impressive as they once were.

in reality, he hasn't been as dominant in the game as he was last year. however, since his summer split debut, zeus has used 20 different heroes, showing extraordinary versatility. his unpredictability in draft and selection makes him a strong threat heading into worlds."

obviously, the results of the summer season have become a very important indicator for them to judge the players, so from this comment we can roughly understand why some players are in the current ranking. in addition, before this ranking, foreign media did not know that scout could not participate in the world championship, and based on scout's performance in the summer season, 23rd place is not surprising.

below we have also picked out some of the more popular players' reviews, let's take a look

#21-gumayusi

the summer split was tough for t1, a season in which gumayusi and company failed to finish in the top two of the lck and were forced to compete for a spot in the world championship through the qualifiers. amid an extremely inconsistent t1, gumayusi was forced to win games through teamfights, and he was one of the four-time world champions' most reliable players, especially in key fights. against top competition, the player struggled to adapt to the current meta while also having trouble using ziggs and ezreal. he also died more than usual and felt like he needed to step up for his team, which led to him overplaying on multiple occasions. towards the end of the season, gumayusi played well in clutch moments against dk and kt, but his summer split issues haven't gone away.

#22-tarzan

after falling well below expectations in the spring split, wbg brought in tarzan, who excelled on iconic nidalee, brand, and maokai in the ap jungle-centric meta of the lpl. after a semi-slow start where tarzan’s identity and hero pool had yet to be fully established, he regained consistency and early-game pressure. at the center of wbg’s early skirmishes, he peaked in the playoffs against tes, showcasing extensive jungle pathing and anti-camping abilities, and was one of the main reasons wbg performed so well in best-of-fives. despite this, he also failed to consistently become one of the strongest junglers in the lpl, and was later found to be very easy to crack against blg and lng.

#30-creme

at just 20 years old, creme made his worlds debut this year, and after taking over for rookie, he remains one of the top mid laners in the lpl despite a challenging time at msi. this year, he showed his prowess by competing fiercely with established players like knight and scout. he had an excellent record in the adc mid lane meta going into worlds—he never lost a game on lucian. but with the shift to the ap mage meta in patch 14.18, the player has been lowered in our rankings, and he should be ready to show his talents as a player.

this ranking is currently being constantly updated. if new player rankings are released later, we will share them. so do you think this current ranking is reasonable?