META WATCH – League of Legends Worlds Play-In Stage

Worlds 2020 has officially begun and we already saw some new faces, major upsets and a whole new meta. Since it has been a long time that there was any international competition, there was a lot of doubt how these teams would stack up against each other.

Every year we see different strategies from all the different regions and eventually a new meta is developed. What is good? What is bad? What is new? Let us take a closer look at the Worlds 2020 meta thus far.

Different regions, different priorities

We saw most of the major regions going for a more aggressive approach in champion picks. In Europe we saw ability power assassins and fighters take over in the playoffs and we learned that the game starts at level one in China. In North America we saw much slower paced gameplay and Korea was using a lot of experimental strategies revolving around strong sololaners and junglers. In this case we are looking at gameplay and champion picks. Be careful: a spoiler alert is in place if you have not watched the first three days of play-ins.

Biggest contenders?

Coming into the tournament, all analysts and on-screen talent was convinced that the meta revolved around a strong 2v2. This means a good synergy between the mid and jungle duo. Usually having a strong champion match-up against the opponent’s duo but also amassing an almost perfect synergy was the most effective way to victory. Therefore teams with a strong midlaner or jungler were immediately seen as big contenders for this year’s Worlds. 

Look at teams such as Damwon Gaming, Top Esports, JD Gaming and G2 Esports. They all have a good duo synergy between the mid lane and the jungle in common. Although we have not seen these teams and players in action yet, we have seen teams play in the play-ins. This is where the action started and the meta has already shown itself.

The AP junglers

Worlds 2020 play-ins opened with MAD Lions vs INTZ. This is where our first AP jungler was played and it was not the last one. We saw Lilia banned and Evelyn was picked for MAD Lions alongside a Gragas jungle for INTZ. Since powerfarming in the jungle has become the most valid strategy for a jungler, AP junglers found a way back in the meta. To give you some more specific numbers on that, we already saw a pick/ban rate (a ratio that shows how many times the champion was picked or banned in the tournament) of 94,4% on Lilia and 88,9% on Nidalee. These two are also the most pick/banned champions over the course of three days of playing. Showing that there is a lot of priority on these champions. 

Although Lilia only rocks a win rate of 33,3% , we see Nidalee jumping high on a 66,7% win rate. Lilia’s win rate is so low since she has only seen three games and two of them were on the underperforming “Peanut” from LGD. The win was from “Kongyue” who is an absolute beast as a substitute player for PSG Talon. 

As Evelynn is in a more questionable state in the meta right now, we also saw a lot of success from Ekko jungle. He’s especially good with a strong early game midlaner to set up some early plays around the midlane. As an answer to these AP jungle picks, we mostly see Graves, Hecarim and Lee sin. Graves brings the fights to the AP junglers in a dueling style whilst invading, whereas Hecarim mostly charges in to force a good fight with his movement speed and ability to start a favourable fight. Lee Sin on the other hand has a more early-game focused playstyle sometimes ignoring these powerfarming AP junglers and going straight for ganks as we saw Team Liquid’s “Broxah” try to do.

Sololane dominance

Even though jungle is the most facilitating role in the early game, it is best combined with a strong sololaner to have a positive effect on the map and game plan. That is why we see a lot of strong sololaners being picked and banned. Toplaners like Volibear (38,9% pick/ban rate), Camille (66,7% pick/ban rate) and Renekton (83,3% pick/ban rate) are mostly favoured by teams who play with a carry toplaner. Ornn and Shen prove to be the safer go-to picks when teams want to play for teamfights.

Lastly, we have to talk about the botlane. We see the rise of Twitch once more after his ultimate ability got buffed. He can be seen as an answer to mobile, strong junglers and sololaners, since he can be very safe whilst in his ‘Ambush’ ability, which makes him invisible. While some rise, some must fall. Nautilus has been the most picked support in competitive in 2020 and he’s been mostly banned in the matches in the tournament so far. This opened up a spot for Rakan to come back into play. With his ability to start fights over a large distance while also giving a safe laning phase to his bottomlaner, it feels like teams shifted their favour more to him.

Conclusion

With all that being said, the meta is still evolving and a lot of stuff is being tested. Priority on jungle and sololanes remains the biggest trend as of now. As we saw UOL do with an Orianna in the bottomlane, I’m sure we will also see more new stuff as we come closer to the BO5 matches. 

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Image source: Champion images through Riot Games
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