If you watch League of Legends, then you know how important an AD Carry can be. They provide the firepower and means of winning a skirmish or team fight in nine out of ten cases. However, at the same time, they have some of the highest risk in the game.
One mess up can mean the end of the match and thus, the end of the team’s career and the burden that can put on someone can be very tough to hold up. But if you can take on that burden and succeed at what you do, it’s very likely you’ll be noticed.
The best of the best when it comes to AD Carries become superstars. They are known for their talents on the field and their mechanics on the keyboard. Without these players, there would be no League of Legends like today’s and that’s something that many people find very hard to adjust to.
These players come from all regions and all areas. They’re players who have the experience and explosiveness to ensure that the current League of Legends scene won’t fade away. Here are the five AD Carries of 2018
Two years ago, you could’ve said the name Kramer and fans would be confused as to who you were talking about. Now, if you say the name Kramer, highlight reels and an insane carry-like playstyle pops into most Korean fans’ heads.
Don’t get me wrong. He’s definitely the definition of a carry. He doesn’t back down from anything and single-handedly took Afreeca Freecs and put them on his back, carrying them to a better standing than they’ve ever been at.
It’s not the fact that Kramer is good. It’s the fact that’s he’s freakishly good on champions that are out of meta. He can play a strong Swain in the bot lane or go for Vladimir when he’s feeling like it. Despite being mages, he makes them work and he makes them work really well.
However, if he isn’t playing a champion such as Swain or Vladimir, he’ll pull out his iconic Varus and shred through enemies as if they were butter. His use of Varus helped Afreeca Freecs take down Kingzone Dragonx without much opposition as it was a 3-1 victory and his skill alone helped keep Afreeca Freecs in the game versus Griffin, the current best team in the entire LCK.
Whenever he’s playing champions such as Kai’sa, Varus, and Xayah, you know you’re in for a show and to this day, he hasn’t disappointed once. Keep a watch out for him because his debut has only just started and if he keeps it up, who knows what will go down.
For a very long time, North American AD Carries have failed to live up to the standards that Chinese and Korean AD Carries have brought to the table and to this day, they still fail to reach that potential. However, it’s Doublelift who hasn’t backed away from such pressure and he’s proven a formidable foe time and time again.
Doublelift’s arsenal is huge and when I mean his arsenal is huge, I mean it’s huge. He doesn’t main three AD Carries like most players. He mains the entire cast. At one point, he was an expert on Lucian. Another time, he was considered the best Caitlyn in the world and now, his Xayah and Kai’sa are almost unmatched in the NA LCS.
His versatility may seem to be a problem as playing so many different champions could mean that you aren’t playing to the level that you could play of one player mastering one champion. However, Doublelift has shown that he doesn’t have this problem.
He can easily play Xayah to the level of someone such as Kramer who has literally been playing Xayah since her release. This makes him such a huge piece to any team and his history has proven it. When he was part of Counter-Logic Gaming, he helped take them to the World Championships.
If you look at old film, you’ll see that it was Doublelift’s playmaking and positioning that helped them take down then powerhouse TSM without much hardship. Doublelift’s Jinx literally carried them to the Summer Split finals and there, they showed Team SoloMid that they weren’t there to play.
Then, during his time on TSM, he helped them go nearly undefeated the entire season while also making another consecutive World Championship appearance for Team SoloMid. It was here that Doublelift almost helped take TSM to another playoff showing but they barely missed out by one game.
Now, his time on Team Liquid has proven more than fertile. He’s already taken them to the Mid-Season Invitational and they’ve punched a ticket to the 2018 World Championships after breezing through both the Regular Season and Playoffs.
It seems as if every team that Doublelift joins, they have a miraculous season but it’s no miracle. It’s Doublelift being Doublelift. He can propel any team he plays with to a new level of success. Take his 2016-2017 season for example.
At one point, Team Liquid was in the gutter and was about to go into relegations. To try to stay in the NA LCS, Team Liquid reached out to TSM, asking to borrow Doublelift for a match. TSM agreed and Doublelift helped bring them back for another season.
Now, Team Liquid is dominating the NA LCS and it’s all thanks to this one AD Carry. You should have good reason to fear him if your team is facing Team Liquid. He isn’t afraid of anyone and is one of the only foreign AD Carries that Koreans fear, making him a worthy adversary the entire way.
This Chinese superstar has made a name for himself ever since his debut on the stage. Now, he’s looking to make this year his year. Four years ago, Uzi was considered by many to be the best in the world. Not even people such as Bang and Deft could beat him and this was when they were in their prime.
He took down Korean AD Carries like they were nothing and any other region that brought AD Carries to the table were afraid of his presence alone. However, due to several injuries and ill-fated occurrences, Uzi has taken a step down from his throne.
However, he’s looking to reclaim his crown and it looks like he will be getting the chance to do so in the coming weeks. In the 2017 World Championship, Uzi put on a show that no one will forget. He helped bring Royal Never Give Up to a Mid-Season Invitational final as well as a 3-1 victory over Fnatic.
In that match versus Fnatic, Uzi showed exceptional display of skill and confidence playing like his former 2014 World Championship self and taking down Fnatic left and right with only a few simple clicks of his mouse and the tapping of a keyboard.
But this year could be Uzi’s year by far. During both the Regular Season and playoffs, Uzi has shown remarkable talent on the field. He absolutely destroyed Invictus Gaming with his wide range of picks from Kai’sa to Caitlyn and versus Rogue Warriors, he showed an iconic Vayne that has never failed to disappoint.
It’s very rare to ever see Uzi die in a match and if he does, it’s so his teammates can win the fight. I can guarantee you that you’re going to be seeing more of this Chinese superstar in the near future and when you do, you’re not going to be disappointed.
If there’s one foreign player who has really solidified his spot as the League of Legends AD Carry, it’s Rekkles. He’s gone against Korean AD Carries and won, dominating the LCK solo queue ladder during his time in Korea.
His presence alone on Fnatic has made them a threat from 2014-2018 and it doesn’t look like anything will be stopping. At a point in time for Fnatic, the entire team was struggling. There were several rookies on the team and the only real player who had the experience was Fnatic’s Rekkles.
Yet despite this, Rekkles put up a show that no one would ever forget. He not only brought Fnatic to the World Championships, he helped bring them to the playoff rounds, something that not even Team SoloMid could do despite their stacked roster at the time.
Currently, Rekkles has the highest KDA among all the carries in the EU LCS while also having one of the highest CS counts per minute. Therefore, Rekkles could easily play alongside the Koreans if he’s given the chance.
He’s acquired one of the biggest highlight reels in all of League of Legends history and during his matches against Schalke 04, Rekkles went off. His Kai’sa was absolutely nuts, obliterating through the enemy without hesitation.
During the matches in which he played Kai’sa, he only died once while acquiring thirteen kills and eight assists. But it isn’t just the stats and the history of this player that make him such a viable piece to be played.
It’s the player himself. There are very few players who play like Rekkles. Rekkles plays aggressive but on a whole new level. He can play aggressive but he plays it extremely calculated. He plays it as if he knows exactly what’s going to happen and most of the time, it seems like he does.
He isn’t afraid to rocket jump into an enemy team of five players with Tristana because if he knows he can take them on, he’ll take them on. This type of playstyle has made him someone that very few players can contend to, especially the big names such as Kramer and Uzi.
Fnatic’s Rekkles is one that any League of Legends player needs to watch. He possesses and uncanny skill to play a type of League of Legends like no other and it’s one of the most beautiful things to watch. The passion and precision he has for this game is unmatched and to bring it to a standstill, he’s the only EU LCS AD Carry that can take on the world and win.
Griffin alone has had one of the best miracle runs in the history of the LCK and of League of Legends. However, it also has to do with the fact that Griffin’s Viper and Tarzan have shown exceptional skill on the Rift but Viper has been the main focus.
The team Griffin came from the Challenger tour of League of Legends, a bottom tier class that usually hosts teams that can’t compete on the level of the LCK but Griffin has been the exception. From the very moment they came onto the rift, they began to dominate.
They easily took down South Korea Telecom in their matches as well as Afreeca Freecs but this was thanks to Viper’s mechanical presence. There’s something different about Viper which makes him such a big threat to LCK teams and the entire world in general.
He has a cool and collected precision which can make him hard to beat. Like Rekkles, he knows when to go in but he also knows what to do right afterwards. It almost seems like he can make something out of nothing and the strict rules he follows have never been broken.
Throughout the eight games Viper has played on Vladimir, he’s only lost once and on the nine games that he’s played on Kai’sa, he’s only experienced defeat on the champion twice. Furthermore, through the six game played on Ezreal, he’s accumulated a 22.0 KDA ratio.
If those stats don’t show you anything, then go look at the highlight reel he’s accumulated in the short span of one season. I can guarantee you that there are several impressive moments on there which would take most AD Carries years to complete.
Griffin’s Viper has produced a different vibe around League of Legends. Before, the AD Carry role was all about making sure things happened and that all the damage was dealt in a fight to give the team their best chance at winning but Viper’s clear-cut precision has made it a game of consistency and precise accuracy.
He’s turned the game over its head and created a new system of League of Legends, one which could define the next ten years of the game and if he’s successful, we could see a game where only the very best—the ones who average 11 CS a minute and a double digit KDA ratio—survive.
There’s only so much an AD Carry can do in most instances but these AD Carries have proven that anything’s possible, especially when you have the mechanics and skill that they possess. Each of these players have pulled off some feat to make them a piece of LOL history.
For Doublelift, it’s his legacy of bringing teams to the World Championships. For Rekkles, it’s his ability to single-handedly carry a team through any hardship and for Viper, it’s the new revolution which he’s brought upon the world of AD Carry.
These players have exciting futures waiting for them. Some will continue their journey on to the World Championships while others will be resting in the off-season, waiting to redeem themselves in the coming Spring Split. Either way, these are all players you should be watching out for.
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