Tyler ‘Tyler1’ Steinkamp set off on a challenge back in January to climb to Challenger in League playing jungle only to prove a point. After four months, and 1,800 games, the former ADC main has done it.
On January 27, Tyler1 made a statement: “Jungle is the best role in the game played by the worst players.”
He set out on a challenge to prove that “good players” can play jungle, and beat players who have mastered the role for years. Four months, and 1,800 long and arduous games on Summoner’s Rift later, Tyler1’s challenge is finally complete: the former bot lane main officially broke into Challenger on May 27.
JUNGLE IS THE BEST ROLE IN THE GAME PLAYED BY THE WORST PLAYERS ! NONE OF THEM ARE GOOD AT LEAGUE !
— loltyler1 (@loltyler1) January 27, 2020
Tyler undertook most of the challenge on stream, starting from unranked, before placing into Gold and blitzing his way to Diamond. After there though, things got tricky. He enlisted the services of ranked superstar Tarzaned to help him breakthrough, and it helped.
He took a break from streaming in April to focus full time on climbing up the ranked ladder. With him basically off-the-grid on his grind, the only way people could check in with Tyler was through other streamers facing off against him, or fan accounts following him around.
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After finally breaking into Grandmaster at the end of April, it took Tyler a few weeks to crest the final mountain — Challenger. He did it in an MVP performance too, according to League stats site OP.GG, with a 6/1/19 Ivern game, smashing pro players like Evil Geniuses’ Kumo and 100 Thieves’ Ssumday.
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In-game, he typed he was “the GOAT, period.” However, when talking to Tarzaned on stream, he was a bit more reserved. “I don’t even feel excited. It’s just like ‘ok, about f**king time’,” he said.
However, once he learned he was live on-stream, the usual Tyler1 came out. “Yo, I did it,” the streamer screamed. “What’s up yo — I’m the greatest of all time!”
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Tyler1 hit Challenger with a 52% win rate after 1,811 games (947-864) at 434 LP. On his five most played champions — Olaf, Ivern, Karthus, Jarvan IV, and Lee Sin — he maintained a winrate between 52% and 57%.
He hasn’t technically hit Challenger yet. Once the ranked ladder updates at the end of the day, it will finally reflect his true rank — and he should slot in at around rank 300, right on the cusp.
There’s still a long road ahead if he wants to try and challenge for the number one spot though. Currently, it’s held by Cloud9 star Jesper ‘Zven’ Svenningsen. He’s sitting pretty on 1,632 LP, a thousand points more than Tyler1.
However, Tyler1 has proven that anyone can hit Challenger playing jungle. It only took him four months of hard work to prove his doubters wrong, and now it’s just a game of trying to maintain his position on the ladder.