Preface: Kanavi, once a legendary star player in the LPL, was repeatedly named "Best Jungler" and "Jungler of the Year" by the LPL. However, after his disappointing performance at last year's World Championship, many LPL viewers began to doubt his strength. Especially after HLE finished last in the first stage of the LCK Cup, many people belittled Kanavi, claiming he could only dominate in the LPL and would be crushed in the LCK. Surprisingly, after continuously meshing with his HLE teammates, Kanavi managed to create a new history in his first year back in the LCK, even being jokingly called the "Godfather of the LCK Jungle" by some LCK fans.

Recently, the LCK officially released the best team lineup for the third split, with jungler Kanavi and top laner Zeus successfully making the regular season first team. This is also the first time in HLE's history that a player has been selected for the first team. Moreover, jungler Kanavi made history by becoming the first player in recent years to directly earn a spot on the best first team after returning from the LPL. Many viewers marveled at Kanavi's immense talent, saying that neither the LPL nor the LCK can stop him from claiming first-team honors.

According to some viewers' statistics, Kanavi has been selected as the best first-team jungler eight times since his debut. Apart from this year's first-team honor in the LCK, the other seven were all earned in the LPL: he achieved the first team in both spring and summer of 2020, spring of 2022, summer of 2023, spring of 2024, and twice in 2025. Anyone who has seen Kanavi's performance statistics can see that his numbers are truly overwhelming compared to other junglers.

After seeing Kanavi's record of achievements, many viewers also marveled at how consistently he has maintained his performance. After all, being able to earn eight first-team selections as a jungler is already a unique feat among LoL junglers. Some even consider Kanavi to be the player with the highest ceiling in LoL, since his playstyle is to lead the team to victory single-handedly. Once Kanavi gains an advantage, it is very difficult for the opponent to turn the game around.

Of course, many viewers also believe that while Kanavi has a high ceiling, his floor is terrifyingly low. For example, in the first stage of the LCK, because Kanavi often invaded the enemy jungle and gave away kills, HLE ended up in 10th place in the regular season. Moreover, Kanavi's performance in major tournaments has always been lackluster. In this year's MSI finals, Kanavi posted an astonishing record of 1-17 across two games.(However, this at least proves that Kanavi didn't "serve the country" last year while at TES—he also likes to give away kills in the LCK.)

Of course, after the LCK regular season first team list was released, many LCK fans also questioned the value of this list. After all, in the regular season standings, GEN was first in points, but only their mid laner Chovy made the list. In contrast, HLE (ranked second) and T1 (ranked third) each had two players selected. Many viewers felt that this first team list was unfair to GEN's players. Do you think the LCK first team list is reasonable?

Conclusion

Kanavi is truly a remarkable player. Other players might change their playstyle due to outside criticism, but Kanavi has been criticized since his debut for "giving away kills while invading the jungle," yet he has never changed his style. Instead, through constant jungle invasions, he has earned so many regular season first-team honors. Do you think Kanavi can lead HLE to win the World Championship this year?