BERLIN -- The League of Legends World Championship has seen some great one-day performances.
Last year, Cloud9 escaped the "group of death" by reeling off three straight victories in what can still be considered the best day ever for North America at the world championship. But Friday brought us what could be considered the greatest one-day performance by any team in the history of worlds, as South Korea's Griffin shook off an up-and-down first week of play to go 4-0, blowing out their opponents en route to capturing the No. 1 seed in Group A over reigning Mid-Season Invitational champion G2 Esports of Europe.
Amid all the action, Griffin's jungler, Lee "Tarzan" Seung-yong, made a statement that he truly is the king of the jungle.
Here are my ratings for the players in Group A (1-10; 10 = best).
Cloud9
Eric "Licorice" Ritchie, 5: The best-performing member of C9 through its difficult world championship run, Licorice was one of the few positives to come out of the tournament. From his hard carry on Renekton to split-pushing on Jax, he was a major factor in almost everything good that went well for C9. However, it's going to take a long winter to forget his Fiora teleport in C9's first game against Griffin, which could have shifted the balance of the group entirely.
Robert "Blaber" Huang, 5: Along with Licorice, Blaber was another bright spot for C9. It's true that Blaber's tendency to always go all-in and think of the consequences later is something he needs to refine, but the technical ability is there. As long as Blaber continues growing as a player, he has a chance to be something really special come the 2020 world championship in China.
Dennis "Svenskeren" Johnsen, 4: It wasn't a good tournament for the player who was recently awarded the MVP of the North American region. To be fair to Svenskeren, it doesn't help that he played a game in which C9 won, sat on the bench for two games in which C9 lost and then walked into the buzz saw known as Griffin in a must-win game.
Yasin "Nisqy" Dinçer, 3: This wasn't the worlds debut the Belgian mid laner was hoping for. Things started out great, with Nisqy picking up first blood against Hong Kong Attitude, and then everything seemed to fall apart for him. At least he went out on a somewhat positive performance on Yasuo to sweep HKA in the group stage.
Zachary "Sneaky" Scuderi, 4: Like Svenskeren, this was an awkward worlds for Sneaky. He played his first three games on mages in the bottom lane before getting back to more traditional picks in the second half of the group stage. It turned out to be too little, too late, however, as the rest of the map folded in on itself before Sneaky could do anything of note. Hey, he at least looked good on the Caitlyn.
Matthew "Deftly" Chen, 5: He played a single game and won. Deftly officially ends the 2019 League of Legends World Championship with a 100% win rate.
Tristan "Zeyzal" Stidam, 4: Zeyzal might not have had the tournament of his dreams, but we can comfortably say that his hooks on Thresh were far superior to G2's hooks with Blitzcrank. That's the real Summoner's Cup right there.
Hong Kong Attitude
Chen "3z" Han, 3: For some reason, I felt compelled to get 3z this score. His score would have been lower, but that double kill he got on Griffin in the top lane on Gangplank was worthy of a bump up on his rating.
Lee "Crash" Dong-woo, 2: It was not a fun worlds for Crash. He came in as the most hyped player from HKA with his mechanics, and none of that was really on display in any of their group stage games. In fairness, he was facing the European MVP, North American MVP, the "King of the Jungle" in Tarzan and Blaber. Don't forget about Blaber.
Chen "M1ssion" Hsiao-Hsien, 3: His mission next year will be to not have the most deaths on his team. Overall, he held his own at times, but as with the rest of the winless HKA, it's difficult to give anyone a truly glowing review.
Wong "Unified" Chun Kit, 4: Here's a fun factoid -- out of all the players on HKA, Unified is the only player to have a positive creep score differential at 10 minutes with plus-6.7. That's pretty good! Good job, Unified.
Ling "Kaiwing" Kai Wing, 3: Kaiwing played four different support champions in HKA's six group stage games. He didn't win any of them, but it's the variety that counts.
G2 Esports
Martin "Wunder" Nordahl Hansen, 6: The World of Warcraft aficionado didn't perform at the level you'd expect from a player vying for the title of best top laner in the world. I'm guessing the coaching staff will be barring any Warcraft from Wunder's computer until he brings back the Summoner's Cup.
Marcin "Jankos" Jankowski, 6: It was not the strongest outing for the jungler whom ESPN named the No. 1 player coming into worlds. In a matchup between what could be the two best junglers in the world between Jankos and Tarzan, the victor by the end was never in doubt. G2 will need the European MVP in top form if they want to make it back to another international final and a possible rematch with Griffin.
Rasmus "Caps" Borregaard Winther, 8: Outside of a few misplays against Griffin's Jeong "Chovy" Ji-hoon, Caps was the superstar-caliber player G2 needed to pick up the necessary victories to get out of the group. Though it wasn't the perfect group stage he was hoping for, Caps can be proud of the performances he put up in Group A.
Luka "Perkz" Perković, 8: Going into their final group stage with Griffin, G2's captain, Perkz, was flirting with a 9 or even a perfect 10 rating if he capped off the perfect 6-0 group stage. Unfortunately, G2 stumbled against the South Korean squad and Perkz will have to settle for a mere 8 heading into the quarterfinals. The man nicknamed "Uma Jan" will be shooting for an even higher score come Madrid.
Mihael "Mikyx" Mehle, 6: Like Wunder and Jankos, Mikyx was hit-or-miss in the group stage. Caps and Perkz were good enough to take five wins out of seven in groups, but the entire team will need to be sharper in Spain. If not, the MSI champions could be back on a plane home before they even have a chance to explore Madrid.
Griffin
Choi "Sword" Sung-won, 7: Often the scapegoat of Griffin, the least technically talented player had his good and bad moments in the group stage. However, when Griffin needed him the most, putting him on Akali in the most important match of the day versus Cloud9, Sword had his best game of the tournament, which began the consecutive stompings Griffin would deliver to the entirety of Group A.
Lee "Tarzan" Seung-yong, 9: If I was rating solely on what happened Friday, Tarzan would have been a perfect 10. He was marvelous, monstrous and merciless all at the same time, and every trick G2 tried to pull in their two consecutive matches, Tarzan was already seven steps ahead. I can't express how impressive Tarzan was in his quartet of games on the day. If you haven't watched them, please do -- you'll see some of the finest League of Legends play you'll ever see.
Jeong "Chovy" Ji-hoon, 8: Chovy, like the rest of Griffin, were fantastic on Friday. There will be some questions leading into the best-of-fives, such as whether the teenage phenom can keep his nerves from getting the best of him like in previous South Korea domestic finals, and he'll need to answer them. The scariest thing about Chovy? We haven't seen the best of him just yet. He still has another gear that he didn't reach in groups.
Park "Viper" Do-hyeon, 8: Like Chovy, Viper has yet to show his full strength at worlds. His KDA (17.5) is utterly ridiculous, but I guess that's what happens when half of your games are piloting the spinning top that never dies known as Garen. His 9/0/6 on Xayah in the No. 1-seed tiebreaker over G2 Esports is the type of play that could make Viper the scariest carry on a loaded Griffin squad.
Son "Lehends" Si-woo, 8: Lehends was nothing short of masterful in Friday's games, ending things with a runaway laugher versus G2 Esports in which his Rakan, paired with Tarzan's Lee Sin, dissected the European champions. For a majority of the year, Lehends has been inconsistent, riding a fine line between flashy and feeding. Friday, though? He was flashy, dying only twice over the course of four games.