It might not be shown as much since Adrian is more into team fights but there has been a growing disbelief that he is the strongest player. The rankers especially the ones that has a focus on single target damage often told themselves they could defeat Equinox when it is one on one. They often answer this when interviewed as they thought that they can actually defeat him when in a battle with only them.
Adrian's feats that were captured via video recording are often fights against numerous numbers of enemies. They viewed him as a player that is capable of destroying battlefields when it comes to army battles. They thought that he is just like other summoners that cannot do well when it comes to one-on-one battles. These are the sentiments of rankers that were actually quite new and only arrived when there was a patch for summoners to only be able to use three summoned beasts at a time in exchange for having buffs from soulbounds.