How Good Was Huni Really?

unbelievable this is the story of the greatest Imports of an era a player who made every team he was on an instant contender and also a fan favorite today we asked the question how good was huni really it's crazy to imagine that huni's career began as a practice partner he worked with the Samsung organization as an unofficial substitute helping the team prepare for their onstage matches it wasn't until 2015 that he got his first real shot and exploded onto the scene in a way no one thought possible this Champion form I think I think he's next two the shot catches them both Barrett evils down fanatic look for Hillary off the back of incredible carry performances from booting our Champions like this and a signature Rumble nearby it looks like a dive is about to come out Freddy is trying to bait it Rain Over flashes in Dominus comes out spinster and cataclysm where is it he's going to get it down under the tower but Freddie is gonna get dropped equalizer comes up from hunie once again not the greatest and rated stands meaning but he gets himself too rain over re-engages with the rest of fnatic behind him that's a triple kill the honey pot is delicious and fnatic take this first Tower the team rocketed to a 13-5 record during the Spring split it was clear that they had moved on to something and someone special for the spring split uni LED all top laners in both co-participation at 73 percent and damage percentage at almost 27 percent there was no question that huni was the best top player in the league already and had the potential to shake the very way the region views top laners in general off the back of their impressive regular season the team faced off against h2k in the semi-finals it was another coming out party for the Top Lane sensation and the rest of the revamped fanatic Squad all that was left in their way was the unicorns of love in the finals five games of Warfare on the summoner's rift an entertaining series full of back and forth but the New Kids on the Block that Don The Familiar black and orange prevailed in the end rather unexpectedly considering the major roster reconstruction fnatic was back on top of the EU LCS and it was in large part thanks to their fun-loving monster of a carry in the top the question now became was who needs just a big fish in a small pond or could he hang with the big boys on the international stage so came MSI 2015 the first of its kind a mid-season tournament inviting the number one team from every region to battle it out on the rift from n a TSM from China evg and from Korea SK telecon T1 despite their impressive domestic win fnatic was considered quite the underdog to most of their matchups but thanks to some unique Champion picks those pre-tournament expectations changed radically presence on broadcast and they might be looking to take some power on a dyrus baby right onto dyrus that's first blood and fnatic are on the board and that team ended the group stage with the two and three record just barely squeaking into the playoffs and the reward for making it this far was getting slaughtered by the team every other team had feared up to that point SKT or so we all thought he's visiting huni you talked about SKT playing around who it's Korean on Korean battle in a 2V1 [Applause] historically Korea had always honed the elite carry top layers but for once the West had a carry top laner that could contend with the best Rudy made big play after big play boarding off ganks and impressing in team fights although the final game of the series was rather anticlimactic the team and huny's performance on their first International stage left many excited for what was to come and what was to come was the most dominant run by a team in any domestic League up until that point it's perfect 18-0 fanatic the addition of Reckless helps stabilize any previous weaknesses the squad had what can be said they were simply unbeatable here they turned their attention voted is gonna be the one young buck as well to follow stop that's going to interrupt the net Reckless is looking for the kill as Rawls gets head butter towards the wall the mother Banda is not going to be able to save Mr owl's life this is the engagement he's looking for more he gets cars underneath is a rocket gonna kill but they will lose their Nexus fnatic remake undefeated in the finals fnatic faced off against the remnants of the legendary past in Xbox a and origin and huni faced off against the man he replaced the legendary soas this was not smooth sailing for the Ricky sensation huni struggled at many points during the series overextending and dying in lane or getting killed in team fights but is playmaking on three different carry top laners including Fizz was undeniable it was clear he was a high risk High reward type of player it came with the territory of having him on your teeth and after a grueling final game fanatic for the ones that marched towards the Nexus [Applause] worlds 2015. this wasn't any world for a western organization fnatic was dare we say a dark horse Contender for the title they had taken SKT to five games during the previous International Tournament and followed that up by upgrading their roster going 18-0 and winning the EU LCS who was going to stop this team it surely wasn't going to be EDG the MSI Champions matched up against fnatic in the first round of the playoff stage and quite frankly European hope embarrassed them the EU LCS Champions took a 3-0 Victory sending them into a collision course with another Korean Powerhouse and pre-tournament Contender the coup tigers now this was a particularly interesting and difficult matchup for fnatic Not only was this one of the best teams from Korea which automatically made them the likely favorite but they also had this guy in the Top Lane named who was only arguably the best top laner in the world if fnatic we're going to make this a series and really have a chance of winning it all it would be up to hooning to stand up to the actual best in the world and put simply we found out he just wasn't on that level all right Rooney gonna pick a fight once in Grand Challenge throws Down Smith flashes away from the third prop of the broken wings Smith took only to test although there were glimmers of Hope in the first game game two and three was a complete Annihilation looking to upset the Hometown Heroes who will get will get themselves the base and we'll earn themselves a shot at the Summoners Cup in Berlin against SK Telecom the hopes of the West came to a crashing 3-0 end the year was still a huge success despite the unfortunate ending the following year for fnatic was an opportunity to build on those successes but they never got the opportunity huni and his partner in crime ran over leave to join North America's Immortals the question was could the duo and kakuni dominate outside of the fnatic environment and while those questions were answered rather quickly but not even gin can kill Immortals it's gonna be the game right now only rush and high left alive he's at the top of the league and practically every significant category scoring a 5.1 KDA leading all toss-ups six solo kills a 27 damage percentage and to top it all off not one but two Penta kills Immortals dominated the LCS like no team had since the OG Cloud9 roster and it was in large part thanks to Cooney completely demolishing every top laner in his path but despite their impressive regular season finish their playoff performance left a lot to be desired Immortals faced off against the lower seated TSM in the semi-finals team Solomid had struggled mightily all throughout the regular season trying to work around the various Superstar caliber players on the team in the playoffs they're riding a high after last series but against Immortals they were the overwhelming underdogs however the action on the rift would have had you believing otherwise TSM were the ones broadly the favorite Immortals and it was huni again getting exposed his champion pool issues or stubbornness was immortal's undoing as he failed to prioritize key tank champions of the meta instead opting for subpar carry champions he was easily outperformed by his counterpart on the opposing team in hauntzer and left a sour taste in amounts of many perhaps huni was a more flawed player than we previously realized [Music] their shortcomings in the spring didn't impact analysts expectations for summer though keeping the same roster together they finished the regular season with a 16-2 record in best-3 series and went into the playoffs as the second best team in the league only behind TSM they found themselves in the semi-finals with an opportunity to rewrite the previous splits failures but again they fell to Cloud9 in a back and forth five-game series once again they found themselves fighting in the third place match rather than the finals where many believed they belonged at this point huni's stock as a player had dropped significantly he was no longer uncontestable in North America and his flaws were just as evident as his strengths he had regressed so one could imagine how surprising it was when SKT decided to sign huni as their top laner for the 2017 season although fans grimaced at the idea of assigning a player that was struggling to succeed in the least competitive major region the SKT system was undeniable the past two years the team sported two different top laners in Marin and Duke and both went on to win the World Championship perhaps they could win with anybody for the first half of the Season it seemed that way the team went 16-2 in the regular season and thrashed KT 3-0 in the lck finals at MSI they were just as dominant as ever taking down flash was 3-0 in the semi-final and then three warning G2 in the grand finals the tournament he led all top laners in CS per minute damage per minute and gold difference at 50. SKT had seemingly camouflaged any problems huni had and allowed him to flourish into one of the best top laners in the world once again but his breakthrough of sorts was short-lived he spent large portions of the split sitting on the bench to account for his poor performances in the split finals huni only managed to play two games of the four where SKT eventually fell to launch you still worlds is What mattered most the team finished first in their group despite some shaky matches but the real problem started to surface in the quarterfinals SKT faced off against Europe's Misfits and it was far more competitive than anyone could have imagined knowing the history of these two teams the legendary SKT which pushed to the brink in five games and just barely squeaked by things only got worse in the semi-finals RNG and Uzi even managed to take a 2-1 lead in the series leaving the SKT players and shambles they bounced back to take the series Against All Odds but clearly this team was far more flawed than the SKT of previous years and it was only a matter of time until someone could punish them [Applause] Galaxy you're 2017 world champions finally SKT was dethroned at Worlds the first series that they had ever lost at a world championship and to lose 3-0 in the finals at that it was devastating For huni You could argue he was actually the second best player on the team throughout the tournament after Faker which was certainly a step up from his domestic performance but in the end he failed to make much of an impact in the final series when it mattered most huni was back in North America the following year still remaining a relatively hot commodity despite some of his struggles the previous year he joined Echo Fox and formed another strong top jungle Duo alongside the notorious dardoch and perhaps huny's greatest achievement was becoming one of dardoch's most trusted teammates I think by the time we we make it to playoffs who will be in even better form but for right now yeah he is smurfing Echo fox went from a consistent bottom dweller in the LCS to finishing second of the regular season and losing a competitive Series in the playoffs clearly huni still had the X Factor ability to lift the losing team to new heights but his impact was becoming shorter and shorter lived by summer the team had regressed and were eliminated by TSM twice both in the playoffs and in the regional qualifiers huni swap teams again moving to Clutch Gaming at this point hunu was a shell of the dominant top laner he once was but he was still a key player in getting the team to Worlds it's What followed that made the end of huny's career infamous he signed a two-year reportedly 2.3 million dollar contract with the team which now rebranded to dignitas making him one of the highest paid players in the history of the LCS and probably most of League's history up to that point and he really really didn't live up to that contract next year it was EG and finally TSM his last stint on a semi-competitive team huni was a middle of the pack top laner at best later into the 2021 season who only finally announced his retirement from professional League of Legends for many who had watched the last few years of huni's career this was a long time coming his legacy with fnatic Immortals and SKT was becoming marred by writing it out for too long on these mediocre n a teams as he chased it back but it seemed to not bother only one bit if you think about it nothing really did huni came into the league world as a fun-loving guy that played and lived to the beat of his own drama you are the best starting player for me yes you understand MV but this one is Champion series dude this is this is oh my God oh my God it helped voice trophies in Europe Korea and on the international stage he had his flaws as a player no question and we saw a ceiling he was never the best Top Lane in the world and he was only the best in the West for a short period of time but when you look at his whole career his impact on the game can never be understated he gave European fans hope with a fanatic he built a foundation of new fans at Immortals and won an MSI and made it all the way to the World Finals on SKT huni was a great player and great Entertainer and any League fan that followed Tony's career will tell you we miss him

Channel: CinematicEsports

Views: 38,766

Keywords: League of legends, Fnatic, FNC, Immortals, Huni, Reignover, Team Liquid, LCS, LEC, LCK, LPL, Top lane, Carry, T1, Faker, Kkoma, SKT

Id: 6OBxRhK5Ens

Length: 18min 23sec (1103 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 13 2023