Popular champions in soloQ vs professional play

ciel915·10/9/2015, 6:16:34 PM·1 votes·937 views

I've always been curious why there are are champions that are overly played in solo Q (at least at lower levels where i'm at) but rarely or never played in tournaments, such as:

Master Yi Yasuo Zed Ahri Kat Garen Nasus Blitzcrank

Similarly, champions that are overly played in tournaments but rarely in solo Q:

Rek'sai Azir Viktor Gnar Maokai Rumble Corki Nautilus

My impression playing with and against these champions is that the first set are just better, but there has to be a reason why they're not played in tournaments. Any thoughts?

4 Comments

Garlyle Wilds10/9/2015, 6:21:54 PM1 votes

The short form is that champions have different strengths and weaknesses, and some of these strengths or weaknesses become really apparent the more organized the team is. Master Yi or Katarina, for instance, can be really good at capitalizing on one person's mistake and the ensuing chaos. In an environment with organized teams, though, it's super unlikely they'll see a chance before an organized CC chain just locks them in place while they're bursted to death.

There's also expertise as a matter. Champions like Rumble or Gnar are really strong - but those strengths take a lot of practice and skill at both the game in general and with the champion in order to really show, and people are less likely to grind through the learning phase of those champions compared to how easy it is to pick up and learn Garen.

alasarcher10/9/2015, 6:35:15 PM1 votes

Well Ahri,Zed and Yasuo are played. As for others.

Garen- Weak and easy to kite, against good players only way to get kill is flash ulti, and thats it. Cant contribute at all. Master Yi- Squishy crap champion,easy to stop, easy to CC, cant contribute anything, No jungle pressure at all. Blitzcrank- Well beside his hook he doesnt really provide anything else. If you are skilled enough to hook, then Naut or Thresh would be better. And hooking wrong target just means free initiation for enemy. Katarina- Cmon, she can only work in bronze and low silver,noone with IQ higher than their age will lose against katarina. And Katarina needs kills to snowball and you see how few kills there are up to 25+ min of game. Nasus- send ADC and support or jungle vs him and he will have less stacks than there are minutes already played. Also only form of CC is his W which can be removed easily with Cleanse/ Mikael.

As for 2nd part:

Azir is highly played in soloQ Gnar- Very popular in soloQ also on higher ELO Rek'sai- Its played alot also Viktor- Very popular pick Naut- Picked often as support, rarely as jungler

About Rumble, Corki and Maokai i guess because of current meta.

xJLx MCHammer10/9/2015, 8:11:31 PM1 votes

**Viktor **was a popoular pick. But as a main, I can tell you this, the nerfs removed all the fotm players. The nerfs to mana and slight nerf to his AP early and mid game make it hard for non-dedicated player to play him. Because of this Ban rate and pick rate dropped significantly. His pick rate at the height was 15% and ban rate was 45%. Now it's 1.7% and 2%.

Same with** Azir**, riot already said it. Solo Q can't play him good enough but they are inspired to try by pro play.

**Rek Sai **is good in pro play because the nerfs didn't remove what he is good at, his passive and constant knock up with strong defenses.

Champions like Yi are easy for lower levels to abuse. This is why AP Yi was reworked. he was unhealthy for low level plays. Noobs just don't know how to punish him so his entire kit is unhealthy when plays are just starting. This applies to champions like Kat, Bliz, Nasus, and Yasou.

yet you have champions like Gnar and Rumble who are good in pro play but a lot of players struggle in solo q to use him because team coordination is no where near that level.