Its Friday, and our series of top players at each position going into the World Championship is sadly coming to a close. After going through top laners to AD carries from Monday to Thursday, we end on the unsung heroes of Summoners Rift: the supports. The crop heading to San Francisco in less than a weeks time is stacked with stars old and new who form the backbone of any team reaching for the Summoners Cup.5. Hu SwordArt Shuo-JieRegion: Taiwan Team: Flash WolvesSwordArt, the third Flash Wolf in the rankings this week, could be the most important of them all in terms of the Taiwanese champions going far at Worlds. While the jungle and mid partnership between Huang Maple Yi-Tang and Hung Karsa Hau-Hsuan is the micro prowess of the team, SwordArt is the man who makes sure the macro ideas are executed proficiently. SwordArts game planning against the Tigers last year and SKT T1 at the Mid-Season Invitational this campaign led to his team sweeping both Korean giants in the group stage of those respective tournaments.The summer season was another successful one for SwordArt. He led all supports when it came to assists, and he died the least of any starting support in Taiwans premier league. The issue for SwordArt and the Flash Wolves, like it was at Worlds last year and MSI this year, will be the AD carry position. Hsiung NL Wen-An was only adequate in his appearances at Worlds last year, and he was out of his depth at the Mid-Season Invitational come the bracket stage. In the series which eliminated FW from MSI against North Americas Counter Logic Gaming, NL had an abysmal scoreline of 3/9/14 in the four games played.With the meta enforcing 2v2 lanes, its going to be up to SwordArt to make sure NL, clearly the shakiest link on the Wolves, doesnt completely crack against the likes of SK Telecom T1s or Clodu9s bottom lane in a competitive Group B.4. Cho Mata Se-hyeongRegion: China Team: Royal Never Give UpThe most troubled support coming into Worlds is also the one who has won the MVP of the tournament before. Matas spring split was fantastic in Royals rebranding renaissance as Royal Never Give Up, going all the way to the finals and winning the championship in the climactic match. RNGs performance at home during MSI in Shanghai was also a treat to watch, and it was through Matas playmaking abilities that Royal appeared to be the tournaments favorite heading into the bracket stage before defending world champion SK Telecom T1 woke up in the semifinal.During the offseason before the summer split, RNG upgraded its bottom lane with two-time Worlds finalist Jian Uzi Zi-Hao coming in to seemingly solidify the star-studded roster. Calling the summer split a disappointment for Royal might be too harsh, but the final month of the season was forgettable for Mata and crew. RNG barely made it out of the semifinals against I May, and then it got shellacked by undefeated Edward Gaming in the domestic summer finals. At his peak, Mata is the best support in the world, but coming into the World Championship hell need to re-earn the title he has held many times throughout his illustrious career.3. Alfonso Mithy Aguirre RodriguezRegion: Europe Team: G2 EsportsThis will be the third World Championship for G2 Esports starting support. Yesterday we highlighted Mithys bottom lane partner, Jesper Zven Svenningsen, in the top five of the AD carries traveling to America this upcoming week; the fact that both are among their respective roles top fives is a testament to how strong they are as a unit. When Zven was transitioning from the world of amateurs to the one of pros, Mithy was the catalyst in helping him blossom into one of the worlds top marksmen.When it comes to European supports, Bora YellOwStaR Kim might be the greatest of all time, but Mithy is closing in fast. He has made four domestic finals (three consecutively) and was finally able to win his first championship alongside Zven after he joined G2 this past May. While the Lemondogs failed to do damage at the 2013 World Championships, a semifinal finish in 2015 was one of the best results any non-Asian team has ever accomplished.Statistically, Mithy had a career summer season: top three in both wards placed and cleared of all starting supports, and top assists at the support position while also having the fewest number of deaths.2. Kang GorillA Beom-hyeonRegion: South Korea Team: ROX TigersThe best support at last years World Championship comes in at second in our rankings heading into this years festivities. In arguably his worst season out of the last two years, GorillA still was an elite-level support that topped the KDA rankings of the supports in League Champions Korea. A lot of the year it was the Song Smeb Kyung-ho and Han Peanut Wang-ho show for the Tigers, but that doesnt take away from GorillAs insane consistency over the past three years. Since making the finals of the spring season of South Koreas domestic league in 2014 with NaJin White Shield, GorillA has competed in no fewer than four of the last six major Korean finals.GorillA has a lot in common with Mithy when it comes to results. Both players needed to make it to their fourth domestic final before finally winning one, and itll be both supports third time coming to the World Championship. The similarities dont end there; GorillA and Mithy both went home early in their first Worlds (Mithy 2013, Gorilla 2014), and the two had incredible runs last year in which Gorilla made the Summoners Cup finals and Mithy made the semifinals. In both cases, it was SK Telecom T1 who eliminated the two superstar supports from the tournament.1. Tian Meiko YeRegion: China Team: Edward GamingWhen Meiko first debuted with EDG last year, I overlooked him as a good player that was propped up by playing with a virtuoso by the name of Kim Deft Hyuk-kyu. By the time EDG upset SKT T1 at the 2015 Mid-Season Invitational final, I started to see Meiko as someone to respect as an individual and not just as Defts support. Now, after a summer season where EDG didnt budge once in the face of an upgraded RNG squad and other challenges, I see Meiko for what he truly is: a support player who can stand on his own legs alongside any AD carry in the world.Deft is the best teamfighting AD carry in the history of League of Legends, but hed never been much of an early game player before developing synergy with Meiko. The best supports can make an average AD carry great, and in the case of EDGs bottom lane, Meiko has turned an elite AD carry into the undisputed worlds best at his position. In a lot of cases, having an AD carry and support with differing styles can kill a team; if one swerves right and the other left, it means death for both. Yet, due to trust in one another and immense talent shared between Deft and Meiko, you have an aggressive, playmaking support bringing the best out of a player that has always been considered a counter-puncher instead of a knockout artist in the laning phase.If youre picking one support to lead your team into battle for a do-or-die best-of-five series for the Summoners Cup, you still might pick Mata or Gorilla. But with the momentum he and his team are carrying into San Francisco, no support right now is playing as well as Edward Gamings fifth man. Chris Silva Jersey ., and Rudi Swiegers of Kipling, Sask., took sixth spot on Saturday in pairs at the NHK Trophy ISU Grand Prix figure skating competition. Bimbo Coles Jersey . 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William Carrier opened the scoring for Cape Breton (6-4-2), but Andrew Ryan tied the game and Brent Andrews put the Mooseheads (8-6-0) in front for good with a short-handed goal at 13:49 of the second period. RIO DE JANEIRO -- Sajedeh Norouzi jumped to her feet, both arms reached high into the air, beaming as she waved a small Iranian flag from side to side. Again and again.She waved at every chance. She waved for every woman back home who couldnt be there alongside her at Maracanazinho arena cheering for the mens volleyball team in its Olympic debut -- her first time in a sports stadium because in Iran women arent allowed to attend all-male sports events.The 27-year-old Norouzi, wearing a beautiful navy blue headscarf decorated with flowers of pink, yellow, orange and turquoise, insists she represented all of the other Iranian women Sunday night who are fighting to one day cheer their teams from the stands and not the TV. She had a purpose, and a passion, that she could release at long last sitting beside men who have been able to attend the games all along.We want to go to the stadium because the government doesnt allow us to. I want to cheer my team! Norouzi said, sitting alongside husband Saeed Javdaniyan in a lower section of seats across the court from the team benches of Iran and Argentina.She was overwhelmed by the special moment, one she couldnt have envisioned even a year ago. Iran lost in straight sets.Very, very much, Norouzi said. Ive never been in the stadium.She and her husband have been in Brazil for four months to study, living in Copacabana. Norouzi called the opportunity for her to be in the arena really, really big and an important one to show support from afar for those Iranian women who wanted nothing more than to attend the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.I think so, she said, every woman wants to see the games.One of those female sports fans? A 32-year-old Iranian woman working with a group called Open Stadiums to push for access. The groups Twitter handle has become an underground voice of advocacy for women pushing to end discrimination.I really wish I could watch it in stadium. Its been very long time that I couldnt watch their matches live, she wrote to The Associated Press on Sunday, declining to be identified publicly out of concern for retaliation.From a world away, she watched the match over a very early breakfast with her mother and two sisters after only four hours of sleep. They had tea and ate cheese with freshly baked bread, butter and jam.The match Sunday in Rio started shortly after 6 a.m. in Tehrann, thus the early start to the day.dddddddddddd The trip also is a challenging one for many Iranians: a 23-hour flight costing approximately $2,500.In 2012, the longtime ban on women from soccer matches in Iran was extended to volleyball. Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last year called the ban ridiculous and said that nations that are part of international bodies should respect womens rights.Women have been fighting for months and years to change a long-standing tradition of women being barred from attending male-only sporting events in Iran -- efforts by authorities to enforce strict interpretations of Islamic norms.Its an issue that came up yet again as the 10th-ranked Iranians prepared for their first appearance in volleyball at an Olympics.For last months World League tournament at the Azadi Sport Complex in Tehran, some Iranian women unsuccessfully attempted to purchase tickets. A group trying make events more open said the tickets werent available despite multiple efforts to buy them online. From the moment tickets became available, the website for sales said the female allotment had been filled, according to several women who say they tried to purchase tickets.The International Federation of Volleyball, Switzerland-based FIVB, made a statement at the time that the Iranian federation said the first-day matches sold out within five minutes, and that 466 of the 5,000 tickets were allotted for a section set aside for women. Women were shown in the stands via livestream, but the section appeared smaller than 466 and it was unclear if the women were members of the general public or invited guests and VIPs. A female announcer handled substitutions during Irans match.Human Rights Watch and other organizations have closely tracked the situation, and the chairwoman of USA Volleyball has even been outspoken in support of the women. USA Volleyball chair Lori Okimura even brought her Let Iranian Women Enter Their Stadiums T-shirt along to Brazil.The women in Iran stay hopeful. They remain spirited about their sports teams.And, for now, those who cant actually be in Brazil are here in spirit. We say in Persian, `my soul fly for that photo of stadium! the woman behind Open Stadiums wrote. ' ' '
