Coaches often don’t get enough credit for their role in the success of a competitive League of Legends team. There are some coaches in history that have made a heavy impact on the esports scene so it’s difficult not to give them some spotlight. Let’s take a look at some of the greatest LoL esports coaches that have graced the history of the game and created some of the most successful teams that ever existed.
The Top 5 Greatest LoL Esports Coaches
It’s difficult to notice how LoL esports coaches impact the game since the players really do all of the heavy lifting. However, it is an undeniable fact that even the best players in the world can create a superteam together and still fail since the organizational structure collapses with coaches and management not being able to handle how to talk to five skilled players who have already proven themselves in the league.
LoL esports coaches are important in developing the five individual players and creating a cohesive team that will work together to cover their strengths and weaknesses. Coaches have a lot of responsibilities in the team aside from just drafting and banning champions at the start of the game. Here are some examples of coaches that have clearly made their identity known by helping some of the best teams in League of Legends esports history.
5. Reapered
Repeared is probably the greatest coach in North America and has been the person who has led some of the greatest iterations of Cloud9 that dominated the League of Legends scene at the height of the world’s competitive race. We’re not going to look at each of the coaches history as players because that’s irrelevant to their achievements as a coach but let’s just say Repeared being part of the greatest League of Legends team in history has translated well into his outlook at coaching.
Cloud9 has always been one of the top 3 teams in North America and despite all of the roster changes the organization had to go through, Repeared managed to lead all of them to a top place finish. He even managed to lead Cloud9 to Worlds Top 8 finishes. It’s very difficult to be part of an LCS team because of how the world looks down upon them in the esports scene but his style has helped the teams he’s coached break away from the usual NA style that is usually made fun of.
4. NoFe
NoFe is probably a name forgotten by many fans in the modern League of Legends esports scene but there are still a good number of people who remembers how this person dominated the competitive scene as the head of some great teams. The team he was most remembered by are KOO Tigers and ROX Tigers who both had such great presence domestically in the LCK, which was the strongest region in the world, and even internationally.
Even though NoFe didn’t have a championship title under his belt, he still rallied his team towards becoming a top competitor every time they stepped foot at the international stage. Even after his time at the Tigers, he remained a relevant figure in the Korean League of Legends scene by heralding some of the top teams that have ever entered the region. His insight in the game was rewarded by Riot Games when they recruited him multiple times to be part of the broadcast talent.
3. GrabbZ
GrabbZ is probably the coach that most League of Legends esports fans, especially in Europe, know the best. He is often seen as a mere figurehead in G2 Esports and the constant memes have placed this misconception that he does nothing for the team and is often blamed for bad drafts due to his interaction with the community. While it’s great that he admits his mistakes and can laugh about it with the fans, we must not forget that this is the coach that helped develop the greatest team in European history.
There have been multiple superteams in the LEC but a lot of them underperformed and some even failed miserably. However, when we look at the most ambitious superteam in the world where TWO of Europe’s greatest Mid Laners were forced to be on the same team with the other one role-swapping to bot lane, it’s difficult as a coach to help these players find a formula that will allow them to succeed not only domestically, but also win an MSI title against the best team in history.
2. Coach Kim
Coach Kim is the most recent example of a success story that dominated the League of Legends esports scene from the shadows. Coach Kim’s biggest success came upon when he led Invictus Gaming into the LPL’s first World Championship. Despite the language barrier between him and the players, he managed to coordinate excellent strategies that helped an overshadowed iG overcome their own weaknesses and eventually defeat the LCK.
Coach Kim’s success isn’t only tied with iG’s world championship finish. Even before his time at Invictus Gaming, he led an extremely dominant LongZhu Gaming to overthrow the traditional LCK style by helping talented individuals grow their identity and unique playstyles. He even coached some of the greatest teams in history in T1, Damwon Gaming, and DRX who have all been world champions in their own time.
1. kkOma
The most prominent LoL esports coach in history is none other than kkOma. He is the gold-standard of League of Legends coaching since he is only one of three individuals who managed to win THREE world champions with two of them being achieved back-to-back. Everyone knows that Faker alone didn’t achieve his success since Bengi and kkOma have been part of the trio that allowed the team to become so dominant that it won so many trophies.
KkOma has an unquestionable reputation as the greatest LoL esports coach in history. No one can argue that he contributed to the success of SKT and T1. Even though he has moved on from his time with the team, he has always led other teams to become better versions of themselves despite all of the struggles that they faced in previous years.
