NA AC/AM 2021 Spring MVP

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I have already revealed my choices for the strongest possible team that could be built out of Academy and amateur players, and now it’s time to narrow things down even further by crowning the unofficial 2021 Spring AC/AM MVP.

Criteria
My definition of an Academy/amateur MVP is: the player whose performance across the entirety of the split was both of the highest quality and most important to the success of their team.

Spring MVP

My choice for 2021 Spring MVP is…

Omran “V1per” Shoura

V1per was the focal point of No Org throughout the entire split, whether he was serving as the primary carry on off-colour picks like Vayne or Tristana, bullying his lane on Jayce, or blind-picking aggressive bruisers like Gnar and Renekton. Across 85 games in the frenetic amateur circuit, V1per played 20 different champion with a variety of different profiles. He even played a tank in the Proving Grounds-winning game—well, it was Sett, so sort of a bruisery tank, but he did play one game of Ornn (that he lost)!

Lack of tank play aside, V1per played a certain way and destroyed the entire circuit. In Proving Grounds, when he came up against a stronger set of Top lane opponents, he stuck to his guns and maintained his momentum.

A confident V1per is a scary V1per, always has been. His time in the LCS was rife with low-confidence play and a lot of time on tanks (which should be expected of an LCS Top laner and was the meta, but still). It seems pretty clear that the last four months of playing inside his comfort zone has done wonders for V1per’s mental game.

I’ve said it elsewhere, but I believe V1per could be an upgrade for most Academy teams and a few LCS teams, presuming that they are willing to play a style that makes the best use of him. It’ll be a real shame if he doesn’t get another shot to prove himself at the LCS level.

Honourable Mentions

V1per wasn’t the only candidate for this award. Some other reasonable selections could include:

Andy “AnDa” Hoang, Jungle, No Org
AnDa provided a huge part of the foundation that V1per stood on to reach such lofty heights. Some might even call AnDa the more important part of the No Org top/jungle duo, though I personally give more credit to V1per. There’s a lot to love about how well AnDa recognizes where he needs to be on the map, and how much he enables his team’s win conditions.

Calvin “K1ng” Truong
I’ve had so many good things to say about K1ng for such a long time that I can’t help but feel that I’m constantly repeating myself, so let’s just acknowledge that K1ng is an LCS-quality Bot laner who was the main carry of C9 Academy all year long, and let’s hope together that we get to see him ascend into the LCS at some point, whether it’s with Cloud9 or another org.