It's been just over 100 days since No "Arrow" Dong-hyeon arrived in the United States, and he quickly became the de facto best AD carry in the North American League Championship Series. Additionally, Arrow took a previously ninth-place Phoenix1 team all the way to third, and most recently, won the NA LCS Most Valuable Player award.
Shortly after being named MVP -- taking 13 out of a total 38 valid first-place votes -- Arrow was quickly met with backlash on social media, to which he later responded.
Much of this backlash was from fans of his closest opponent in the race Kevin "Hauntzer" Yarnell, who took 12 first-place votes in one of the closest ballots in North American LCS MVP history. It's hard to deny that the Team SoloMid top laner had his best season since his 2015 series debut. My colleague, Tyler "Fionn" Erzberger, even voted for Hauntzer first on ESPN's behalf.
But instead of civil discourse around the race, fans of Hauntzer and Team SoloMid discredited Arrow's win; they claimed he was "undeserving" and that Hauntzer was "robbed" among many other comments. To disparage Arrow's win and his fantastic season discounts what he achieved to earn the award and why he defeated Hauntzer in the first place.
A look at the stats
It's difficult to compare a top laner and an AD carry. AD carries, certainly true in the case of Arrow, are purposely given resources during the majority of their team's games. Top laners, like Hauntzer, only receive this luxury infrequently. To compare the two players to one another is unfair and nearly impossible due to the differences between the roles.
To analyze both, you have to look at them among others in their field and assess their usefulness.
Arrow is undisputedly the best AD carry in the region and his statistics affirm this statement. Among other AD carries, he's the highest in damage per minute at 589 damage points, while also the highest in damage percentage among his team at 27 percent.
Where these numbers matter is in his gold percentage compared to his team and his creep score per minute. Out of all AD carries, Arrow rakes in 23.7 percent of his team's gold, behind the likes of Counter Logic Gaming's Trevor "Stixxay" Hayes and Yiliang "Doublelift" Peng, with the latter only playing 15 games. As for creep score per minute, Arrow averages 8.4, sixth among AD carries in North America.
Arrow's fellow carry player and teammate Yoo "Ryu" Sang-ook averages the same gold percentage but 2 percent less than Arrow. Combined, they make up nearly half of Phoenix1's gold resources and over half of the team's damage.
Hauntzer averages the highest KDA among North American top laners, while also taking the highest kill participation and damage percentage and among the few lowest death participation. Like Arrow, Hauntzer is the best in his role through this split, competitive with the duo of Cloud9 in the top lane and Phoenix1's Derek "zig" Shao.
However, top lane is not a highlight or flashy role. Hauntzer, while a very valuable member of Team SoloMid statistically, will not have as many flashy plays as a damage-oriented role, such as mid lane or AD carry.
Why Arrow won
From looking at the statistics, it's easy to discern the point of view that most Team SoloMid fans have: Hauntzer was robbed, Arrow is undeserving, and Hauntzer should be, undoubtedly, the MVP of the North American LCS.
But the reason Arrow won the MVP this split is due to what these votes are: opinion.
Based off the ballot alone, excluding the player of the game award which factors in, Arrow received a total of 75 points. Hauntzer, for his part, received 52 total points.
Arrow had the highest number of first-place and second-place votes, which are weighed heavier, and gave him a distinct advantage based solely off on the opinion of Riot employees, fellow players and coaches, and a few members of the media.
These numbers are added to the number of player of the game awards, which each are worth three points. Arrow received seven of these throughout the season, while Hauntzer earned 11. If player of the game was the only statistic used to calculate end-of-season MVP, Hauntzer would win.
However, Arrow won the opinion vote by a landslide, and thus MVP.
Conclusion
Both players are deserving based off statistics alone.
Arrow took a ninth-place team (for a myriad of reasons) to the top three, something that some -- including our power rankings panel, predicted for Phoenix1.
Hauntzer, for the first time in his playing career, gained the opinion of many as the strongest player on Team SoloMid this split -- supplanting the stalwart Søren "Bjergsen" Bjerg. But he was still on the best team in North America, with more veterans and stars than Arrow's aforementioned Phoenix1.