Over the years, countless teams have competed at the annual League of Legends World Championships, each desperate to claim the Summoner’s Cup and be crowned the best in the world. Some players on those teams have stood out in particular to fans and analysts alike, pushing their teams forward with creative plays, strategic thinking, and sheer will to win. On the Riot Games broadcast, those players have been awarded not only the honor and glory of victory, but a title in some ways greater than the championship itself — the Worlds MVP award, recognizing their singular roles in bringing their teams the ultimate victory.

The Best of the Best

Though Worlds has been held at the end of every year since 2011, the official Worlds MVP was first honored three years later, in 2014. Then, Samsung Galaxy White took home the championship for the LCK, and their support, Cho “Mata” Se-hyeong, was awarded the very first Worlds MVP. Mata’s standout performance over the whole tournament drew lots of attention, as his botlane duo with Gu "Imp" Seung-bin — as well as the rest of their legendary team — lost only a stunningly low two games the entire tournament, winning every other match with perfect execution. To this day, Mata is the only support ever to win Worlds MVP, remaining still as a contender for the GOAT of support.

In 2015, the famed SKT T1 was back on top, and their toplaner Jang “MaRin” Gyeong-hwan was to thank. With a different roster, the team had taken the championship two years prior and were now looking to repeat that success. MaRin was there to achieve that, thriving on the carry top lane meta with his style and champion picks, especially his deadly Rumble, a signature pick he used in all three games of the Grand Finals to rain destruction on KOO. Somehow, SKT topped the previous year’s impossible record by dropping just one game the whole tournament, otherwise sweeping the entire tournament with MaRin's supreme carry play.

The SKT dynasty continued the next year, and this time, their star player, the unkillable demon king himself, was honored with the Worlds MVP award. Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok, the GOAT of League of Legends, won his third Worlds tournament, already cementing his unmatchable legacy that would only grow more impressive in the future to come. Battling through climactic and close 3-2 best-of-fives with teams like the ROX Tigers and Samsung Galaxy, SKT finished first, with Faker reclaiming his rightful throne yet again.

2017 saw a change to how the Riot Games broadcast awarded MVPs at Worlds. Instead of the “Worlds MVP” title they had been giving out, they began to focus on the performance during each final series, changing the moniker to “World Finals MVP.” The first player to receive this title was Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk, Samsung Galaxy's botlaner. In a fitting end to the World Finals series, Ruler made the decisive play with a Varus Flash-Ultimate combo onto last year’s MVP, Faker. Like taking the crown, Ruler’s precise finisher onto the previous MVP allowed him to take the title for himself.

In 2018, the LPL sought a chance to rise. After five straight years of Korean Worlds victory, China’s Invictus Gaming battled to prove themselves and their region as worthy of that coveted title: best team in the world. And it was their jungler, Chinese player Gao “Ning” Zhen-Ning, who made that dream a reality. His standout finals performance was on picks like Gragas and Camille, where his unstoppable flurry of ganks prevented Fnatic from ever getting to fight back, closing out his team’s 3-0 finish. It was that aggression that defined IG’s style and made Ning the clear 2018 Finals MVP.

Now that IG had paved the way, the LPL’s rise continued in 2019. This year, it was FunPlus Phoenix that won the World Championship title, and their jungler Gao “Tian” Tian-Lang, was awarded the Finals MVP. Defeating Europe’s G2 Esports in a 3-0 series, Tian was instrumental in FPX’s victory, picking his potent Lee Sin jungle in all three games. Tian’s Lee Sin seemed to be everywhere, with perfect kicks in teamfights, and he would go on to choose it as his representative skin honoring his victory, as FPX Lee Sin.

2020 saw yet another jungler carve his name into Finals MVP history. Damwon Gaming’s superstar carry jungler Kim “Canyon” Geon-bu was awarded that MVP honor. Picking carry champions like Graves, Evelynn, and Kindred, the Korean jungler was an unstoppable force in the tournament’s final series, going 7/0/6 in its last match. Canyon’s username had forever become synonymous with jungle gaps.

In 2021, Edward Gaming’s Lee “Scout” Ye-chan and his team achieved a shocking upset, defeating the defending champions in Damwon KIA to take the Summoner’s Cup for themselves. Scout’s Zoe was crucial to achieving this in the finals, landing myriad skill shots with pinpoint accuracy to one-shot every enemy in his path. With this, he and his team won the glory of the championship, and Scout was granted the title of Finals MVP.

2022 saw one of LoL’s most unbelievable miracle runs ever. DRX, a team that finished sixth in the LCK regular season, and barely made it to Worlds with a fourth finish in playoffs, completed upset win after upset win at the World Championships. Seemingly animated by the unstoppable power of friendship, the team that nobody expected to punch so high found themselves in the finals, facing down T1 and Faker. Ever still the underdog, it was Hwang “Kingen” Seong-hoon who made the difference in completing that final upset, with a devastating Aatrox performance that included fearless solo kills and 1v3s. That performance earned the underestimated toplaner a well-deserved Finals MVP award. This year, Riot introduced a new in-game bonus skin only for Finals MVPs, allowing Kingen a second version of his chosen Aatrox skin, under the exclusive Prestige branding.

But T1 were not down for the count. Far from it, the squad of five, led by the now veteran Faker and his four young teammates, fought to make it to the highest stage in LoL yet again. Now having qualified in 2023 for a repeat World Finals, the team had another chance to renew Faker’s indomitable legacy and begin writing their own. That chance was seized upon by Choi “Zeus” Woo-je, T1’s 19-year-old toplaner, who proved to be key in the team’s 3-0 victory against Weibo Gaming. Facing Kang “TheShy” Seung-lok, himself a world champion and revered top lane carry player, Zeus confidently picked carries like Yone, Gwen, and Aatrox, and destroyed the competition.

A new dynasty was born - one that looked just like the old. In 2024, over a decade after their first triumph as SKT T1, T1 secured back-to-back World Championships. And at the heart of it all, just as he was all those years ago, stood Lee “Faker” Seong-hyeok. Once a prodigy known for his unmatched mechanics, now the experienced leader and strategic core of the team, Faker claimed yet another World Finals MVP title.

T1 defied all odds to make it so far, after a year of mixed successes and struggles in the LCK, they defied all expectations to reach the grand finals, where they faced a formidable BLG led by Chen “Bin” Ze-bin. But Faker was, as always, inevitable. His Galio was omnipresent in the all-or-nothing game five, bringing the demon king his staggering fifth Worlds win, and second MVP, making him the only player to be granted this award more than once. Truly, Faker is the MVP of MVPs.