Top Esports: The Chinese Power Squad
Top Esports is a name that we often hear nowadays. The two words carry the pride of the Chinese esports organization that is on its way to take over the entirety of League of Legends.
The World Championship 2024 is a clash of age-old skill and brand new talent, each striving for perfection and dominance. Thus far, every game has been exciting, thrilling, and engaging – something that we can’t say for every Worlds.
This tournament has one of the highest numbers in champions either picked or banned, and half the time, we can’t even tell which pick is going in which role. Additionally, the meta focuses on the early game and securing the neutral objectives, that even a slight misstep around the dragon can mean a defeat. To find your way in such a punishing style of gameplay is challenging. Yet, Top Esports have managed to succeed in it and thrive without submitting to the game’s rules.
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And moreover, Top Esports is a team known to win games in its own fashion. Their drafts and team comps scream both confidence and arrogance, and one look at their players will assure you that that’s the case. Top Esports are really the top elite in the whole of League of Legends, and right now, they look like they’re going to stay that way for a long time.
But how did they come to this level? How did a struggling esports organization come to seize the opportunity to win the League of Legends World Championship? Let’s take a sip of history!
History
Top Esports was formed on 21 December 2017 under the name of Topsports Gaming. The organization would compete for the first time professionally the following year, although with not a great success. Their records state a low score of 3-16 in the season 8 LPL Spring Split tournament, and a somewhat improved one of 10-9 in the Summer Split.
With Karsa as a starting jungler, Top Esports will start to improve and develop their own style. Always in the top half of the ladder, but never reaching that first spot – they would struggle to make a name for themselves internationally. But in May 2024, the World Champion ADC JackeyLove would play the first game for his new team, and Top will awaken from their slumber!
JackeyLove didn’t only bring his talent, skill, and experience to the team. He also brought his fiery character, his unrelenting lust to fight and win, and his desire to never let another marksman touch the Summoner’s Cup. With such an ADC, Top Esports would stomp the season 10 LPL Summer split with a record of 27-10 and qualify for Worlds 2024 as China’s best team.
Power Squad on fire!
Playstyle
Top Esports play a very aggressive style of League of Legends. And while that can be said for almost every LPL team, TES is by far the most successful in it. Here is why!
However, before season 9 and 2019, Topsports Gaming would completely revamp their LoL roster and bring over names like “Knight”, “369”, and “Loken” to their ranks. The team would perform well in the 2019 Spring Split, but after a fair share of drama, the organization would rebrand itself in Top Esports. And that’s also the time when the legendary jungler Karsa would put on the TES colours, and the pieces would start falling in place.
Individually strong players
It’s no secret that Top’s laners are all considered one of the best in their roles. At Worlds 2024, Knight’s performance has been nothing but impressive. He has stomped so many matchups and has yet to play a bad game at the tournament. 369 is a fantastic top laner who never misses the chance to 1v1 or take an advantage alone, without any help from Karsa. And JackeyLove has already won a World Championship. You can see how confident and eager he is to fight, even when he is down in kills or without any Summoner’s Spells to defend himself. He has one of the highest damage per minute and is often the primary source of Top’s damage output.
Determination
The style of Top Esports has been described as “chaotic”, “frantic”, but also “decisive”. They engage in fights regardless if there are objectives for the taking or not. And why do they do this? To seize as much control over the map as possible. If one of their lanes is winning, TES wants to give them an open Summoner’s Rift to further increase the advantage and ultimately win the game. The most fascinating thing about it is that all five players are always on the same page with that plan. There is no questioning and no second-guessing! The mission is always the same – get ahead early on and push to break the nexus!
And the link that connects this all and makes it work is Karsa. His way of playing the role is very unique and fits perfectly into Top’s playstyle. Rather than worrying about objectives, Karsa focuses on getting his laners ahead. He follows his instincts and often surprises his enemies with his ganks. Their duo with Knight is scary and a source of many leads for TES!
But let’s take a closer look at each player of Top Esports!
Top Esports Roster Players
Top: 369
Bai “369” Jia-Hao is a 19-year top laner from China who has started playing League of Legends professionally during season 8. Top Esports is his second team, and he has stayed with the squad for two years. He is one of the cornerstones for the organization’s success.
369’s style in the top lane is very flamboyant and aggressive. He is known to force opponents to either fight him or run away, and those who can’t match his energy fall pretty much behind. During the regular Summer season of LPL, 369 has been in almost every game with more XP, CS, and overall gold t than the enemy laner. His most played champions include Renekton with a 75% win rate out of 7 games, Mordekaiser with a 100% win rate out of 4 games, and Wukong with a 66.7% win rate out of 3 games.
369 is a carry-style top laner who isn’t afraid to flex his mechanics. If he is put on a power pick, TES can comfortably play through his ability to take over games!
Favorite Champions:
- Renekton
- Jax
- Wukong
Pro Gear:
- Mouse: Logitech G903
- Keyboard: Logitech G610 Orion
- Monitor: Alienware AW2521HFL
- Chair: Secretlab OMEGA
Jungle: Karsa
Hung “Karsa” Hao-Hsuan is a veteran jungler player from Taiwan. His name was first heard in 2014 when he signed for the team “Machi 17” but would first echo internationally on the squad of Flash Wolves. In 2018, however, Karsa was in the main roster of “Royal Never Give Up” and fought side by side with “Uzi” to secure the first seed in both the Spring and the Summer split of the LPL. Bot in Top Esports, he is finally at his peak!
Karsa is a visionary in the jungle. Where others look to force things to happen, he waits for the perfect moment to react. Karsa rarely prioritizes dragons over ganks, and he would rather babysit his laners than farm jungle camps. He falls short in gold, in XP, and in CS, but his record win rate speaks of his genius jungle playstyle!
In the current “jungle-carry” meta of League of Legends, he has been shining. We may not see him dominate on a champion like Lilia, but give him Lee Sin or Nidalee, and you will see an incredible show!
Favorite Champions:
- Lee Sin
- Kindred
- Kha’Zix
Pro Gear:
- Mouse: Zowie S1 Divina
- Keyboard: Zowie CELERITAS II
- Monitor: Alienware AW2521HFL
- Mousepad: Zowie G-SR-SE (RED)
- Chair: Secretlab OMEGA
Mid: Knight
Zhuo “Knight” Ding has also been a vital part of Top’s success in the past two years. He joined the roster in May 2019, and his performances have helped the organization to grow. Knight is frequently overlooked as one of the best mid laners globally, but his stats say quite differently.
Only in the LPL Summer season 2024, he achieved tremendous average differences between him and any other Chinese mid laner. At the 15-minute mark, he was usually 12.9 CS ahead, 587 gold, and 447 XP ahead, no matter in which matchup! His KDA in the split sits at freaking 7.2 while having 77% kill participation!
Knight’s best champions are the control mages like Orianna and Syndra, with Zoe being one of his signature champions. He is one of the main carries on Top Esports and is usually the backbone the team falls onto when they’re in dire times!
Favorite Champions:
- Zoe
- Ryze
- Qiyana
Pro Gear:
- Mouse: Logitech G903
- Keyboard: Varmilo VA108M Sakura
- Monitor: Alienware AW2521HFL
- Chair: Secretlab OMEGA
Bot: JackeyLove
Only a few LoL fans haven’t heard of Yu “JackeyLove” Wen-Bo, the celebrated Chinese ADC. He is best known for being a member of the legendary “Invictus Gaming” squad, the team that won the 2018 World Championship. Since April 2024, however, he has been a faithful bot laner for Top Esports, and he has vowed to make them World Champions as well!
The stats on JackeyLove’s most played champions professionally are quite remarkable.
- Kai’sa: 57 Games – 70.2% Win Rate – 5.1 KDA
- Varus: 49 Games – 75.5% Win Rate – 4.0 KDA
- Ezreal: 39 Games – 66.7% Win Rate – 4.1 KDA
- Xayah: 33 Games – 78,8% Win Rate – 4.3 KDA
JackeyLoves plays every game to win it. He sacrifices waves of gold and XP just to set up ganks with his support if that means getting an advantage that he can snowball. Mechanically, he is one of the most gifted in his role, and he shows it in every team fight!
Favorite Champions:
- Draven
- Kaisa
- Ezreal
Pro Gear:
- Mouse: Logitech G502
- Keyboard: Logitech G610 Orion
- Monitor: Alienware AW2521HFL
- Mousepad: Logitech G640
- Chair: Secretlab OMEGA
Support: Yuyanjia
Despite most people not knowing about him, Liang “Yuyanjia” Jia-Yuan is one of the oldest supports on the pro scene. He started his career back in 2015 for “Team WE Future”, but he is a TES member since 2019. As a part of the main roster, he has achieved much success in 2024.
Yuyanjia’s playstyle heavily revolves around creating ways for his carries to excel. This means following Karsa as he roams in the enemy jungle or ganking the solo lanes with him. His most played champions are all melee, hard CC picks that can lock the target and get the job done. In 2024, he has played Nautilus in 17 games and won 11, Thresh in 17 games, won 12, Braum in 13 games, won 11, and Leona in 11 games and won 7!
As a bot lane duo, Yuyanjia and JackeyLove can be pretty terrible to face off. Not only they’re not afraid to answer a fight, but they’re also always looking to start one!
Favorite Champions:
- Thresh
- Alistar
- Tahm Kench
Pro Gear:
- Monitor: Alienware AW2521HFL
- Chair: Secretlab OMEGA
Top Esports as Winners of Worlds 2024
It is no secret that Top Esports has been one of the most dominating teams at Worlds 2024. Their only shaky appearance was the BO5 against Fnatic, where they dropped the first two games. But being able to rever sweep and come back from such a negative only speaks of Top’s discipline and desire to win the tournament. Their biggest strength lies in their jungle Karsa, who is the key that can unlock the whole team.
As the weakest link of TES, people point Yuyanjia out. True, he has the lowest international experience under his name, but his ADC JackeyLove has it all! Both players are no strangers to “Best of 5” and they can both perform incredibly well. And if TES is allowed to play their own style, where they control the lanes perfectly and force hectic skirmishes in the jungle, no team on the horizon can stop them!