Meet the Meta: The Most Played and Banned Champions at Worlds 2016
Champions are not created equal and this year’s LoL championship certainly proves it
Now that the League of Legends World Championship group stages are finally over, we can observe how the pros pick and ban champions in their games. Let’s get into the heads of some of the best players from all over the world.
RELATED: League of Legends World Championships Group Stages Champion Stats
The Top Lane
Kennen and Rumble have always been sleeper picks in solo queue in all rank divisions for their sheer play-making potential. The amount of crowd control and base damage these two champions provide with their ultimates and Hextech-Protobelt’s active is game-changing as seen in a few skirmishes like SSG CuVee’s amazing turn-around ults in his matches with Cloud9.
Gnar on the other hand has been a staple pick in competitive play ever since his release but hasn’t seen much success in the group stages (with his 36.4% win-rate); probably because of how the meta of the top lane has changed from tanky bruisers (that Gnar dominates in lane) to a very CC and damage-oriented champion meta.
Mid Lane
Syndra’s capability to just completely destroy an enemy carry even before a team fight starts is what makes her such a sought-after pick, as showcased by SKT Faker’s two solo kills versus C9’s Jensen.
Now when Syndra is banned (which is 72% of the time), we see other midlaners such as Ryze and Cassiopeia get some play time. Their consistent DPS and initiating tools even after their initial burst combos provides players with the ability to to keep their cool while pumping out as much damage as they can during chaotic team fights.
Jungle
You know something’s broken when it gets a 100% pick and ban-rate. Nidalee has been terrorizing solo queue and competitive play with her overwhelming early game pressure this whole season. Taking lanes out of the game is Nidalee’s specialty and in their game against H2K, EDG Clearlove’s ganks in the botlane caused H2K FORG1VEN’s Ezreal to reach his mid-game power spike too late.
Elise and Olaf have been the go-to junglers for Worlds because they do fairly well against junglers that aren’t Nidalee. While the two have different playstyles, both of them have immense early and mid-game pressure because of their high base damage and short skill cooldowns/rotations.
Attack Damage Carry (ADC)
Even though Ezreal’s win-rate hasn’t been the best this first week in world, he’s still expected to be a highly contested pick by most teams in the knock-out stages. Why? It’s because he can dish out damage from a safe distance but can quickly go on the aggressive at a flick of a switch—which can be deadly in the right hands as seen in RNG Uzi’s highly mechanical quadra kill against SPLYCE.
This year’s changes in gold and buff rewards have caused pro-players to somewhat prefer utility ADR’s compared to high-damage ones in this Championship series. Sivir’s attack speed steroid and Caitlyn’s long range auto-attacks and traps are essential in taking objectives quickly and safely.
Support
Alistar has been one of the most underestimated playmaking champions this championship series with a 42% pick-rate but only a 10% ban-rate. It’ll come as a surprise to many if he doesn’t get at least some attention even after seeing how RNG heavily focused their engages on the cooldown of Mata’s Flash-Pulverize combo as seen in how they demolished TSM in the late game even though NA’s pride had the advantage in the early game.
Karma and Tahm Kench’s ability to keep their team safe is their edge over other supports ever since the heal bot duo (Sona and Soraka) got nerfed right before the championship series started.
