With Worlds 2020 Groups Stage ending, we look back at how the meta shaped up and how we expect it to develop as quarterfinals rolls in from Thursday.
League of Legends Worlds has had a defining meta every year and Worlds 2020 is no different. There have been some very key champions that have been more prevalent than others. We breakdown how impactful certain champion picks have been and if there are some champions that we expect to bump up in presence.
Read More: Worlds 2020 Quarterfinals match schedule
We will breakdown how the meta has played out in different positions and what kind of compositions teams have been picking and what has gained success. We will also discuss the future developments that can happen with the meta.
Top Lane:
Ornn has been the most banned champion in the group stages while Camille has been the most picked. For most of the games, Ornn, Camille and Renekton have been the top priorities for either picks or bans at the top lane. Shen and Sett have also been banned a considerable amount however Sett was likely banned due to the nature of him being a flex pick. Volibear as well has racked up a lot of games in the group stage.
Even though Ornn has been the most present in picks and bans, his win rate is only at 53%. Whereas Volibear with his presence of 47% in picks and bans has a win rate of 62%. The most eye-catching champion in the top lane is Renekton with his high presence in drafts but a very low win rate at 38%. Renekton has been a staple for many LPL teams and it will be very interesting to see whether they still rely on that pick or just abandon it in this meta. Volibear has been mostly picked as a weak side top laner and has found considerable success on it.
Ornn should still be a high priority in either picks or bans going forward. Furthermore, we can expect to see Camille and Volibear maintain their current presence in drafts to offset each other. Whether Renekton will remain as a priority pick remains a question that will be answered in the quarterfinals and forward. Other notable picks will lower presence have been Jax, Sylas, and Malphite in the top lane but those picks are mostly situational.
It will be very intriguing to see how many more different picks come up in drafts in the top lane.
Jungle:
Jungle is more straightforward because it has been the Nidalee and Graves show. However, Nidalee has been banned 30 times in the group stage out of 45 games. The absence of Nidalee in drafts has propelled Graves to be picked 36 times. Lilia, Volibear, and Kindred are the other three jungle picks that have been picked with Nidalee being banned most of the time.
One glaring development has been the absence of Evelynn in drafts since she was picked plenty of times during the play-ins. The question remains is whether she is still a pick worth taking or not. Sylas, Hecarim, and Lee Sin jungle has shown up a few times but they are picks considered to roundoff a team comp rather than the centerpiece in the jungle like Nidalee and Graves have been.
Success-wise, Graves only has a 44% win rate while Nidalee has a 60% win rate which has resulted in an almost must ban status from week 2 of the group stage. Lilia has had a good amount of success with a 53% win rate. The picks will a smaller sample size has had success with Gragas and Sylas at a 100% win rate.
Gragas is an interesting case as he might rise in priority with Lucian being a top pick in mid lane. Graves should continue to be the top pick with Nidalee still having a high enough ban rate until a counter is found out. Lilia and Kindred should maintain their spot while Volibear remains a flex pick with top and jungle.
Mid Lane:
Pick rate wise, the mid lane has been either Orianna or Syndra. Lucian has been banned a grand total of 36 times showing how strong that pick is. Additionally, Twisted Fate is not far behind with 34 bans. Thus with Lucian and Twisted Fate being taken out of the champion pick pool, Syndra and Orianna have risen higher in priority with Syndra being picked in almost every game. Galio, Azir, and Ekko have also been picked several times in response to the Orianna and Syndra rise in priority.
Sett still remains that flex pick ban but he was picked 3 times with a 100% win rate in the mid lane. Despite Syndra being picked 23 times out of 45 games, her win rate is only 39% which goes to show that teams are willing to let her be in the pick phase and picking counters against her like an Ekko. Galio and Ekko have mostly been picked against Syndra and have found reasonable success against her. However, Galio has struggled with other mid lane champions. Lucian and Twisted Fate both have a 67% win rate but they were picked 9 times and 6 times respectively. Also, Orianna maintains a 50% win rate and has been picked more as Syndra’s priority rises.
Akali, Zoe, and Sylas have come up in drafts that have had good success. Whether these picks will rise in priority with Lucian and TF being banned is a question. Expect some shifts to happen to counter Syndra’s and Orianna’s presence to have success against them.
Bot Lane (ADC):
Six champions in the bot lane have at least 45% presence in drafts. Out of those six, four of them have more than 50% win rate while Ashe remains at 48%. However, Ashe has been picked 23 times so the win rate is reasonable. Miss Fortune has shown up in 3 draft phases and has a 100% win rate. Also, Aphelios has been picked 3 times as well with a 67% win rate.
Yet, presence in drafts does not tell the whole story as Ashe and Senna have been picked 23 times each with Jhin being at 16 times. Caitlyn and Ezreal have been the most banned bot laners so far in the group stage.
Ashe and Senna are clearly the top 2 bot laners but the question to which other bot laners rise up in priority still persists. Twitch has not seen much action despite 12 bans been thrown at him and 2 picks. Draven has also been picked twice and has a 50% win rate. With aggressive bot lanes finding good success, Draven may rise in priority. It will be fun to see how the bot lane priority shifts with so many of the champions being viable in the current meta.
Support:
This is by far the evenest position in terms of champion picks out of the five roles. There are three champions with 10+ picks in Bard, Nautilus, and Pantheon. Additionally, this has kept other picks like Leona, Tahm Kench, Rakan, Thresh, etc remain relevant in drafts. In terms of presence, Leona and Pantheon are leading with a good number of bans going both of them. Supports have been picked mostly to round off compositions. Pantheon has been picked in more aggressive lanes while Leona and Bard have been taken to make some long-range engages or plays.
Expect the consistency of variety to remain as it is. We should see more picks such as Alistar, Thresh, and Rakan along with Bard, Pantheon, and Leona in the games to come.
Team Compositions:
So far, drafts with more engaging options have won their games. Pantheon has had a huge hand in that with a lot of global play with snowballing to win the games. Most games have either been snowballed by an early game composition or decided on a team fight with the team with better engage tools. Global ultimates or abilities have played a major factor with TF, Pantheon, Galio, Senna, Shen, etc have been a priority in many games. Leona and Ornn as the primary engage have been used in many team compositions as well.
To further cement that snowballing has been very key this time at Worlds as the official twitter of LoLEsports stats put it. Most games have been won by teams with a lead at 15 minutes this year. Furthermore, it is much higher than previous Worlds tournaments which prove that snowballing has been a key focus. Snowballing from the jungle has been the biggest key in most games.
Conclusion
Based on how things have gone, there is not much addition expected unless a counter is found to Nidalee in the jungle. Other than the jungle, most of the lanes are fairly balanced in terms of champion picks. For the jungle, however, it’s been Graves and Nidalee and it does not feel like it will change.
Worlds continues from Thursday with the Quarterfinals 1 of DamWon Gaming vs DRX.
