Worlds 2020 Peek — LCS Champion Check:

The LCS is the cradle of competitive League of Legends. Despite being the home to Riot Games, the NA region has yet to win either of the big international tournaments: MSI and the Worlds Championship. Despite their lack of an international trophy, the LCS has come close with 2 runner-up finishes at MSI, with Counter Logic Gaming in 2016 and more recently, Team Liquid in 2019. The LCS also regularly manages to get at least (and sometimes only) 1 team out of the Group Stages of Worlds. Much like the LEC, the LCS marches to it’s own tune when it comes to their particular regional meta, and the LCS has had a huge variety of picks, with 77 unique champions selected over a longer 48 Games in their Summer Play-Offs. Rather than having a strong consensus within their own region, the LCS tends to have certain teams prioritize particular champions for comfort rather than for overall strength. As such, while I mostly look at over 50% P/B rate champions, there will be some that dip a little below that threshold due to team variance and higher game counts.

TL;DR
Top: Shen, Gangplank, Ornn
Jungle: Sett, Graves, Olaf, Lee Sin
Mid: LeBlanc, Azir, Twisted Fate, Orianna
Bot: Caitlyn, Ashe, Senna, Kalista
Support: Thresh, Bard, Tahm Kench, Morgana

Top: Shen, Gangplank, Ornn

The LCS and the LEC share a pretty similar top lane pool, with Shen and Gangplank reversing their positions. The Eye of Twilight has an incredibly high P/B rate, almost reaching Renekton in the LCK/LPL levels, and has even made his way out of the top lane. TSM has debuted a re-branded River Shen, sending the chunky ninja into the jungle with a 100% win rate (over 2 games). In the top lane, while Shen has been highly prioritized, he has constantly been blind-picked, so his win rate is affected by the frequency of him being counter-picked.

While tanks in the top lane have slipped in international popularity, every region still has at least one. In the LCS, where top side win condition is still a rarity, why stop at 1, when you can have 2! While the East (LCK, LPL and PCS) still stick with Ornn, LCS seems to prefer global pressure from their top lane more than their mid lanes. With built-in tankiness and a global taunt, Shen ticks all the tank boxes. It’s the Stand United which really makes Shen shine, and the sheer utility of his ultimate just makes him worth picking even if you have to flex him into the jungle.

I do feel like the East is sleeping a little bit on this pick, and if Spica and Jankos are actually right about his strength in the jungle, we might start seeing this pick go global during Worlds 2020.

Going from the highest P/B top laner in Shen (93.8%) to the 2nd highest P/B laner of Gangplank (54.2%) has a very steep drop off. One thing to note about the LCS is that their champion diversity can be pretty wide depending on their teams. As such, it’s not surprising to see the steep drop off in presence. Again, the win rate is fairly low for the Saltwater Scourge as not only is he blind-picked fairly often, but that a lot of the LCS teams don’t look as strong when trying to play a squishier weak-side champion compared to when they play tanks defensively in lane.

I’ve gone over Gangplank’s kit in the LEC Champion Check already, but the LCS really does seem to favour big team-fight top laners and Gangplank’s barrels and Cannon Barrage can be incredible for fights. Additionally, as previously mentioned, the LCS doesn’t play quite as much Twisted Fate, but do like global spells. As such, they often have to look at their top lane to provide that global presence, and if Shen is not available, why not Gangplank instead?

The issue with Gangplank is that while he is considered fairly safe for a weak-side carry, that safety is relative. Compared to Ornn, Shen or tankier options, Gangplank is still easier to kill for the duellists which are currently flavour of the month. So as much as I personally like seeing barrels and cannons exploding, I doubt that Gangplank will be going viral anytime soon.

So remembered when I said that the LCS has a very diverse champion pool? Well, that tends to result in a lower P/B rate once you get past the over-powered picks. What I’m trying to get at is that Ornn doesn’t have a 50% P/B rate, but he actually has a very strong top lane presence in the LCS, especially considering that his ban rate is fairly low. With Shen seeing a 58.3% ban rate, top lane tank players still often have to default to Ornn instead.

Considering that Ornn is literally in every major region, you can check out the previous LPL, PCS or LEC articles for a quick run down. The summary is that Ornn is strong, and you’ll see him at Worlds.

Jungle: Sett, Graves, Olaf, Lee Sin

Sett making it as one of the higher P/B rate champions in any major region is pretty much expected at this point. The thing worth looking at is where the Boss shows up in region. In the LCS Summer Play-Offs, Sett tends to show up most frequently in the jungle, but has been flexed top (5 games) and mid (2 games). No support Sett in this region, which is a little surprising considering the depth of supports (16 unique support picks, highest of the major regions) which the LCS has seen.

Obligatory “see previous article” comment here. I am worried for regions which rely so heavily on Sett given Patch 10.18 changes. With an 87.5% P/B rate, I would normally be concerned for the LCS, but thankfully, with the champion pool diversity in NA, I actually think they’ll be better off than certain other regions in regards to Sett’s changes.

Graves has quite a high P/B rate in the LCS, with an 81.3% P/B rate and a decent 56.5% win rate. With 23 played games (the highest of any jungle pick in the LCS), Graves has become the standard jungler of the LCS. Leading LCS jungle picks with the highest gold/m and CS/m stats despite having 23 games under his belt, showing off how good his clear speed and safety is.

We’ve discussed Graves’ kit before, and how he can clear the jungle and gank effectively. What is interesting to NA is that Graves is normally considered an early game ganker who can snowball games to quick victories. Yet the LCS has one of the longest average game times at just above 35 minutes average game time. So despite Graves’ multiple strengths, it feels like the LCS capitalizes more on his farming ability than his snowballing strength.

Every major region has Graves, but he’s definitely enjoying more popularity in the LCS, LPL and PCS. With Lillia picking up steam, Nidalee showing up in the East (LCK, LPL and PCS), and potential pocket picks like Hecarim showing up at Worlds, I think Graves will continue to be a staple, but will likely not have as much presence as he does in domestic regions.

Now this was unexpected! The Berserker has always been a threat in most metas, but this looks to be a regional specialty, with almost every other major region moving away from Olaf due to his make-or-break nature. The most shocking part isn’t even the 75% P/B rate, but the 66.7% ban rate, which makes him the most banned champion in the LCS in a time when champions like Caitlyn or Twisted Fate are almost globally considered broken.

Olaf’s strength comes from his strength in the early game as well as his ultimate: Ragnarok giving him the ability to ignore all forms of CC. With his passive Berserker’s Rage, Olaf can clear the jungle very quickly when low, and can do deceptive amounts of damage in fights. Undertow looks more like sustained damage than burst if you can chain it right, and Reckless Swings punishes squishies. This allows Olaf to out-fight and out-farm most junglers early, and come the mid-game, the Berserker is literally unstoppable as he hunts down his targets. Olaf does fall off a little bit late as Ragnarok can’t stop the crowd control of a grey screen, while his damage also doesn’t scale up amazingly well. His ganks are rather linear as well, and while you can’t stop Olaf, you can certainly run away from him.

Internationally, Olaf has fallen off in favour. With champions like Graves, Nidalee or Lillia who can out-damage and kite around the Berserker, alongside champions like Hecarim who can access the back-line easier while being able to force ganks more effectively, it would be just as unexpected, if not more, to see Olaf pick up steam at Worlds 2020.

Somewhat similarly to Olaf, the neighbourhood-friendly Blind Monk has seen less love in most major regions. Lee Sin has not been nerfed recently, and with his early game strength, it might seem logical to see him more frequently in the current meta. However, there are just champions who seem to do anything Lee Sin wants to do better than him. In spite of this, having been a must-know jungler for pretty much any professional, the LCS seems to fall back on this comfort pick quite frequently.

Lee Sin has always been known for his mobility and strong 1v1 abilities, that hasn’t changed. In the same vein, his weaknesses haven’t changed either, with notoriously poor scaling, Lee Sin effectively becomes an Insec bot in the late game. The fact that the LCS seems to play him so regularly raises a concern that NA junglers might be a little thin on the early game champion pool.

I’m not saying that Lee Sin has no place in the current meta, it’s just that there are higher priority junglers. If there are certain specific game plans calling for the Blind Monk, maybe we see him there. If not, I think that we are unlikely to catch much of Lee Sin at Worlds 2020.

Special Mentions:

The Bestial Huntress did not see quite as much focus in the LCS, primarily played by 100Thieves and TSM. Even so, the strength of Nidalee can be seen in both her win rate (57.1%) and subsequently her ban rate (33.3%) especially towards the latter half of the Summer Play-Offs. Most frequently paired with Renekton, teams were banning Nidalee in order to break the Renekton/Nidalee combo, and without Nidalee, LCS teams loss confidence in Renekton top.

Despite the focus on Nidalee/Renekton as a duo, I personally feel like Nidalee brings a lot to the table solo as well. In the hands of confident carry junglers such as Spica and Contractz, Nidalee can look amazing, but she also had some not-so-great games where she had little to no impact early and just kind of fell off.

Considering the P/B rate in the East (LCK, LPL and PCS), I think the LCS picking up Nidalee will really help give them more options on the World stage. Given the lack of NA junglers who played Nidalee though, as well as the lack of Nidalee in the LEC, the East might be getting a comfort jungler with little to no contest.

Mid: LeBlanc, Azir, Twisted Fate, Orianna

Looking at the top of the LCS mid-lane pool, it’s fairly similar to the LEC. As such, I probably won’t bother writing to much here, please do look at the LEC Champion Check article for thoughts on these picks.

LeBlanc had a slightly higher P/B rate in the LCS than the LEC, but it’s almost exclusively in the ban rate. While the general public might think that NA mids are weaker than EU mids, LeBlanc serves the exact same purpose in both regions. Part of her increased P/B rate is also due to the LCS’ lower priority on Akali, who seems to be the other preferential mid-lane assassin in certain major regions.

Azir sees a slightly higher P/B rate in the LCS, prioritized over Orianna, which is a difference from most of the other major regions (barring the LCK). Perhaps it speaks to the lack of confidence in the team, but Azir has a bit more agency than Orianna while also providing huge sustained team-fight damage. His win rate of 44.4% is nothing to write home about, but when you contrast that to the 22.2% of the LEC and the 0% of the LEC (as of the semi-finals in their Regional Finals), LCS Azir suddenly looks a lot better.

A 75% win rate over 16 games is an impressive win rate, which then begs the question: why doesn’t the LCS ban Twisted Fate more? In the East (LCK, LPL and PCS), the Card Master is of utmost importance, seeing near 100% P/B rates. The LEC pretty much ignores him, but in the LCS where he has a respectable 60.4% P/B rate, it’s a wonder that he is picked more than he is banned.

With the strength he is showing in every major region that he’s played in, not banning him seems to be more than slightly suicidal, so I hope for NA’s sake that they ban Twisted Fate at Worlds, or make sure they have a counter planned out against him.

Where would we be if Orianna doesn’t show up as one of the highest presence mid-laners. Sitting at exactly 50%, the Lady of Clockwork is playing second fiddle to Azir in the LCS, but she continues to show up like, well… clockwork.

Bot Carry: Caitlyn, Ashe, Senna, Kalista

Similarly to the Mid lane champion pool, there’s going to be a lot of repeats here, so please do refer to the LPL and PCS articles for a more in-depth dive.

While Caitlyn being here isn’t a surprise, her ban and pick rates certainly are. A 60.4% ban rate is the lowest of any region, allowing her to find her way into 18 games of the LCS Play-Offs. Despite being considered over-powered in the current meta, it appears that LCS ADCs are struggling to find as much success with her as might have been anticipated.

The Frost Archer might be the most played marksman in the major regions right now, but she is struggling to make as big a splash in the LCS as she does elsewhere. A 42.9% win rate is not exactly a reassuring rate, suggesting that either the LCS knows how to deal with her, or that the LCS doesn’t know how to play her. Hopefully it’s more of the former and not the latter.

Senna has been really picking up in the LCS, seeing more success than either of the higher priority picks: Caitlyn or Ashe. This is an encouraging sign as Senna has been seeing an increase in play all around the world, especially against Ashe, since Caitlyn has been pretty much perma-banned.

Finally! A fresh face among ADCs… or is it? This will be the first time in this series of articles that Kalista shows up (but maybe not the last), but the Spear of Vengeance has actually been low key present in pretty much all of the regions. Starting with her short love affair with the top lane, Kalista has also been seen in the bot lane, especially before Caitlyn ascended to the ban throne. Now, Kalista is not quite as prevalent on Summoner’s Rift, though she does find a decent spot on the ban list (45.8%) against quite a few ADCs of the LCS.

With incredible team-fighting prowess, additional vision and objective control that surpasses even a level 18 smite, Kalista sounds great on paper. The issues that have seen her pushed to the side revolve around her weak up-front burst (not to be confused with her ridiculous stacked rends), and her lack of range in comparison to meta choices like Caitlyn, Ashe and Senna. Given the current propensity for teams to focus on damage rather than tankiness, Kalista can often rely on her teammates to provide the up-front burst, allowing her to stack rends. But this lack of tankiness also somewhat hurts Kalista as she excels in kiting tanks, while Caitlyn, Senna and Jhin all provide better burst against squishies.

Kalista hovers just under the 50% mark averaged across the other major regions, so she won’t be a surprise pick by any means, but Kalista does change the team dynamic and might create a bit of a side-meta of her own when picked by teams.

Support: Thresh, Bard, Tahm Kench, Morgana

So among the listed supports, only Thresh had an above 50% P/B rate, but it was once again due to the way the spread worked, Bard, Tahm Kench and Morgana were all extremely close to hitting that 50% benchmark, so I’m going to just touch on them here as they really were the LCS preferred supports.

Similar to any other region, Thresh just does so much that he sneaks his way into any composition or duo. I swear I’m not being lazy, there’s just literally nothing more to add that hasn’t already been said, see previous articles.

Now Bard has been mentioned before, but other than the PCS, hasn’t really seen an above 50% P/B rate and the LCS is not so different either. That said, Bard did have the 2nd highest P/B rate (tied with Tahm Kench) among LCS supports, and saw more play than bans.

It was mentioned before, but the Wandering Caretaker has huge roam and play-making potential. His play-making potential comes with risks as it can be double-edged sword, with poorly placed Magical Journeys baiting teammates into sketchy situations and Tempered Fate sometimes trolling allies with inopportune stasis. While not necessarily the most important thing, he is also ranged which seems to be a bit of a LCS preference for their supports.

I’ve said it before, I think Bard is one of the best play-making supports and that teams would benefit from picking him up. I’m not sure that Bard is a high enough priority that he would replace the likes of Thresh or Nautilus, but I’ve got my fingers crossed.

Oddly enough, aside from the LPL, the LCS is the only other region to really make use of Tahm Kench. While the River King did receive some nerfs many patches ago which weakened both his tankiness and utility, he can still massively come in clutch when it comes to saving his ADC. In the LCS, it appears that the name of Tahm Kench still commands respect as his ban rate exceeds his pick rate and he enjoyed a greater than 50% win rate.

Tahm Kench is most famed for the ability to Devour his allies to protect them (or blow themselves out — see Vulcan) or for his semi-global Abyssal Voyage which can quickly bring himself and an ally to/away from a fight. This sort of protection and additional mobility can often prove invaluable to immobile ADCs which seem to be coming into style recently.

In other major regions, Tahm Kench has a bit of a mixed response, seeing slight play in the LCK, LEC and PCS, and more play in the LPL. While Thresh enjoys significant play rate the world over, without the same initiation options, the River King is unlikely to be the go-to option when Thresh is banned or taken. Rather, we might just see more engage as that seems to be the trend.

A bit of a LCS preference, Morgana saw a somewhat surprising ban rate of 33.3% through the Summer Play-Offs. I’m not sure if it’s the potential synergy with Olaf and Caitlyn who was also highly valued in NA, or just the general safety of her Black Shield, but Morgana showed off a great 80% win rate when she wasn’t banned.

As a support, Morgana is great defensively with her iconic Black Shield, while also bringing one of the most painful pick options in her Dark Binding, which feels like it lasts for an eternity. A sometimes over-looked part of her kit is also the pushing/lane control potential of her Tormented Soil. While in the hands of the unskilled, Tormented Soil can screw up last hitting, it can also be used to break freezes, poke and get lane priority to control the lane.

Despite her strength in the LCS, I think it unlikely Morgana will be more than a niche pick in specific match-ups come Worlds. Perhaps part of her strength also just comes from the reluctance of NA ADCs to pick the Cleans Summoner Spell which is more commonly seen in other regions. When considered alongside the penchant for longer ranged/safer ADCs like Caitlyn, Ashe, Senna or Jhin, Morgana’s utility loses quite a bit of value.