With the League of Legends Worlds coming soon, teams from different regions will fight for the second time this year in a Riot Games major event. As every region has its cultures and habits regarding strong picks, the meta at Worlds will shape itself around a blend of ideas. With seven regions fighting for the Championship, and two of them - Korea and China - usually inspiring the others, but also two patches from the playoffs to Worlds, we will try to outline the main differences and resemblances of regional metas, and how they will impact the picks at Worlds, while also considering the impact of the patches.
The midlane at the heart of the meta
In these last months, recent midlane picks have shaped the meta around them. Seeing a lot of AD picks gave the room for AP picks elsewhere, while the lack of set up and early burst made these two elements necessary for other roles. All 7 regions have seen Corki as their most prominent midlane pick throughout their playoffs phase, with Smolder and Zeri usually following him in the pickrate. Smaller regions as well as the LPL have also implemented a lot of Lucian. In addition, Yone and Tristana saw more and more presence as playoffs advanced. The LPL stands as the most unique region on the Smolder pick, with him being the 6th most picked midlaner behind 5 other AD champions.
The nerfs Riot have made for the ad picks in midlane have mostly touched Zeri, Tristana, Corki and Smolder. Althouh it is tough to know the impact of such nerfs, Corki and Zeri have looked very weakened by them while Smolder has kept his monster scaling even though he's much more punishable in the early game now. This is where the Chinese league may have a lead as they have seen Lucian being prioritized (he was banned 40 games) a lot, a meta read that they share with the LLA and the PCS, but no other major region as Lucian is absent in LCK and barely present in LCS/LEC.
The last two patches have notably seen Riot make changes to AP items, allowing burst mages for much better options. In LPL, the most picked AP pick in mid was Aurora (yes, despite her being permabanned due to a bug with the chronobreak) with only four picks. In LCS, LEC and LCK, Azir was already picked a lot, we could see a shift of build for the emperor of Shurima with Hail of Blades + luden/shadowflame/stormsurge being a strong possibility on him. Taliyah, Orianna and Leblanc did appear in smaller regions (Taliyah was the 2nd highest midlane pick in the CBLOL). While an Azir meta could see artillery mage such as Hwei make a return for the range, a burst meta would see Syndra make her return and allow for battle mages (Ryze, Cassiopeia, Anivia) to be stronger, since their hp pool would directly counter mages with less DPS.
We're at Worlds, Azir is meta, all part of the plan to make Faker win his 5th trophy
With a lot of elements covered, let's recap:
- Ad picks shouldn't be as meta-defining as before with Corki and Zeri taking huge hits, although Lucian, Yone and even Smolder could remain as strong picks
- Azir was the only standout mage pick across all playoffs
- Burst mages have been highly buffed, making room for Orianna, Syndra, Leblanc and therefore opening the room to battle mages counterpicks
With many options seeming pretty strong in the midlane, it is likely that the personnal preference will play a huge role - as it always does in Worlds - in what picks the team will choose. The midlane role has for long been at the centre of the meta, which mean that one will shape his other roles regarding their midlane priorities. It is also important to note that burst mages, AD hypercarries and battle mages can coexist in a meta as long as the other roles are able to be flexible enough: which, as we will see now, they are
A very flexible topside across all regions
In a long talk with LS regarding the state of the meta and the notion of balance, League's gameplay lead designer Riot
Phroxzon said that he was overall happy with the fact that many champions were currently playable in every role. The nature of playoffs has always reduced the amount of different picks due to the consistency required to go through double eliminations bracket, on the other hand, Worlds' Swiss stage should see more pick being tested.
The toplane and the jungle have been very flexible in the playoffs, with each region (and inside each region, each team), having their preferences. The jungle meta has mostly been divided in two orientations: AP carries (Zyra, Lilia...) and set up tanks (Maokai, Sejuani). Maokai clearly was the jungle pick of the playoffs, but the rest differed from one region to another. The LPL notably has only revolved around AP picks while the LEC and the LCK saw Sejuani and Vi as strong options aswell. The LCS is the region that differs the most as Lilia was its most picked champion and Ivern was its most present jungler (ban+pick).
Maokai's ultimate has been the main reason for his presence, being arguably the best ultimate spell in the game
Maokai suffered a nerf in the patch 14.18, reducing his E damage and CD, thus removing a bit of his utility (since his E will procure less vision). His ultimate and targeted CC remain untouched, so it's likely that some teams will keep playing him. The AP junglers' presence is tough to predict, since their prominence was linked to the AD picks in mid, although double AP mid-jungle can exist, it's a really weak option for burst mages who don't want MR to have a big value in the game. The jungle meta has overall been very open this year, with any champion being able to fullclear before 3.30 being completely playable.
With that being said, burst mages mid would attract more skirmishers, a class of champion that struggles mostly against AP zoners like Zyra or Brand. Vi was already a prioritized pick due to her ultimate, but she could be followed by the likes of Xin Zhao or even Lee Sin. Also, Graves and Kindred have received major buffs in the 14.18 patchnote, and they could also be strong options to have carry junglers that don't need an AD midlaner.
Once again, let's have a recap for the jungle role:
- Maokai was the strongest pick of the playoffs all regions considered, but his small nerf could reduce his prevalence
- AP junglers are still strong but could drop due to the meta surrounding them not fitting their place, Lilia still seems to be the best ap pick with a big presence in LCS notably
- Tank junglers are untouched, Sejuani, Amumu or even Skarner could shine in teams that rely around set up in the jungle
- Alongside Vi who is already a staple of the meta, AD skirmishers could fit very well a meta with burst on the midlane and less AP junglers
As for the toplane, the most isolated lane has also been the biggest room for creativity. Adc toplane are now part of the meta with picks like Vayne or Twisted Fate, but some regions have had their share of unorthodox picks, in LPL, Ryze was seen a couple of times to secure a strong AP carry, Mordekaiser even filled the role 4 times in the playoffs while in Europe we saw Adam using Cassiopeia toplane. LEC also had its master cooker of Myrwn who brought Nidalee and Zeri to the toplane. Overall, K'sante has been the main meta pick with him and Ornn being the only tanks seen on the topside, Renekton followed him as a standard blindpick. Rumble was also a priority, but not everywhere, since the LEC hasn't seen him as a super strong pick above the rest, lastly, Kennen has risen in LPL and LEC, but has failed to conquer other regions.
Botlane, a king has been crowned
Slowly but surely, a truth has been revealed to league players, a harsh truth: the best botlane pick is no one else but Ziggs.
Ziggs, the master turret destroyer, able to fit in laneswaps and with no bad matchups, has dominated the LPL and the LCK
At first, only the top LPL teams, APA and GEN G were playing him efficiently, and then, he ended up as the most picked botlaner in LCK and frequently banned in the last rounds of LPL playoffs, only LEC hasn't put their hands on him yet. Although he has received a nerf, his ability to nullify the laning phase, grab plates around the map and get an enourmos gold lead early on are still as deadly as before. Ziggs could work really well even with a burst mage meta in mid, since junglers or toplaners can take the AD carry role anyway, he's been proven to be flexible and consistently draftable, while being immune to a lot of counterplay - especially laneswaps - since he has a lot of range and doesn't have a lower DPS than many champions.
Outside of Ziggs, only Seraphine has really seen play as an AP bot, the rest of the champion pool revolved around set up adcs like Ashe (most present adc in the LPL) or Jhin, or polyvalent picks such as MF or Ezreal. Hypercarries have been in the shadow of midlane picks, but with the AD midlane picks being less strong, they could come back on the botlane, add to this a Jinx buff and a BT nerf that impacts MF a lot, and you could start seeing Jinx as a priority pick and thus turning the botlane into a teamfighting DPS machine, sending set up picks in the topside.
As for Support, they have been the kingdom of tank supports that can either bring set up or consequent defensive options (Braum). Rell, Leona and Alistar have been the main trio with Nautilus and Rakan being close runner-ups. As Leona has received a small nerf to her armor, she could be ejected from the trio, thus leaving more room for Nautilus to shine. All regions also saw some specific counterpicks being chosen such as Poppy or Renata Glasc. Outside of that, the support meta shouldn't change a lot since the support tank items are still the strongest one and they also represent the best form of set ups any lane has to offer. Still, with the Lulu buff and Janna's resurgence in SoloQ, if adc tend to go towards hypercarries, enchanters could see more play, although no region outside of NA - with 10 Senna picks - (if we consider Senna as an enchanter) has really picked up any peeling support.
