HLE superstar only joins the top teams but one thing has never been done
In the match between HLE and T1 recently, if the T1 side is 5 players with the most perfect performance, then HLE is a completely opposite face. The “orange house” players are or personal mistakes, or a collective mistake. In particular, all 5 HLE players are the stars that are considered to have a stable performance that is no different from amateur. And among these, a name is making many people realize that it is not outstanding as expected, which is Viper.
Viper possesses a “unforgettable” achievement in his career until now.
However, a recent statistic also shows a “harsh” truth: Viper is the only player of the current HLE and the whole career until now plays for the top team teams of the two LPL – LCK areas but has never been to MSI – the international tournament is only for Top 1 teams (later the top 1 and 2) of each region.
Specifically, in his career, Viper played for Griffins, EDG and HLE – 3 teams were the top 1 and 2 of his period. EDG even won the World Championship with Viper in the squad, but Viper himself has never attended any MSI. If considering broadly, in the old GRF squad, except for Sword and Viper, all the remaining 4 members attended MSI. Of these, Chovy and Lehends won the championship last year.
Except for Sword and Viper, all 4 remaining GRF members have come to MSI at least once.
The irony of HLE superstar
Over the years, especially since EDG won the 2021 World Championship and then still has a stable form, then joined the HLE and has good achievements, Viper has always been considered one of the best players in League of Legends. Even, as a gunner, many HLE's fans also call him “No. 1”.
But in fact, Viper is a good player and many times the team but the No. 1 position is too far away from him. The number of Viper “carrying the team” is yes but not many of them bring the victory for HLE. More precisely, at that time, Viper was the player showing the most effort.
Viper is considered by many to be No. 1 but he himself has not fully experienced Riot's highest level tournaments.
No one will rely entirely on the number of trophies or individual titles to evaluate a player, but if it is number 1, at least Viper needs to attend all Riot's highest tournament. If not, the number 1 position for HLE's superstar will probably always be forced and controversial.