March 17, 2023 The story has been updated with exclusive quotes from lookinup3
After a decade of Dignitas baron throws, Fnatic pauses, and T1 domination, League of Legends has accrued its fair share of legendary players and moments. Now, one fan has transformed some of the biggest names to grace the Rift – both past and present – into LoL FIFA Ultimate Team cards.
From LoL Worlds winners to cult favourites, Redditor ‘lookinup3’ has poured over the stats, and perused the VODs to conjure up a semi-objective, for fun LoL ranks system based on six core stats: Mechanics, Aggression, Vision, Mental, Positioning, and Versatility. You can read more about what goes into each one in the original post.
Regardless of if you agree with the numbers themselves, the effort is nonetheless impressive, and celebrates some of the game’s most iconic moments. Each year from 2015 has a set of cards with a set theme.
For example, Kim ‘Pray’ Jong-in’s famous Ashe arrow earned him a spot in the ‘Worlds 2016 Memories’ collection, while Ryu ‘Keria’ Min-seok – who lookinup3 says he “tried to nerf” due to his ridiculous form – leads the lineup of ‘2023 Stars and Players to Watch’. Even legends of the game like Enrique ‘xPeke’ Cedeño Martínez, Marcus ‘Dyrus’ Hill, and current T1 head coach Bae ‘Bengi’ Seong-woong have been immortalised as Icon cards.
Speaking to The Loadout about the project, lookinup3 says that it took ‘five or six days total’ to pull this batch of cards together. Initially, they intended only to make the Legends and Icons cards, but when they came out well everything spiralled into the mass display we now see.
Of course, some players were easier to rate than others. “Most of the people who watched Worlds 2015 know that Faker was a beast,” they say. “So I quickly calculated Lee ‘Faker’ Sang-hyeok’s 2015 ratings after checking SKT T1’s VODs.”
Conversely, some of League’s top players who had bright spots during a season but ultimately fizzled out – for example Gwak ‘BDD’ Bo-seong in 2018 – required a much deeper dive. “It took me even more time to check replays and figure out his strengths and weaknesses so I could be well-informed when rating him.”
Enthused by the positive feedback from the community, lookinup3 now says that they plan to make cards for MSI 2023 after it concludes, and even a Worlds 2023 set if the MSI batch proves popular.
“If I do it, I’ll try to improve the numbers, protocols, and whatnot. But my main goal is to have fun and have people enjoy discussing the esports scene.”
Be sure to check out the original post, even if you aren’t a FIFA fan. If anything, it’s only made us hungrier for the LoL Esports Manager game to arrive in the west – if it’ll ever arrive, that is.
