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Worlds 2015 champion diversity

Riot·11/5/2015, 6:25:07 PM·1 votes·58,969 views

It's been an active League of Legends season, rife with frequent patching and champion reworks.

Prior to the 2015 League of Legends World Championship, it was anyone's guess as to what meta -- or metas -- would develop as representatives from multiple regions worldwide clashed in Europe. Now that the dust has settled and SKTelecom T1 has emerged victorious, eyes have already shifted towards 2016 with both eagerness and trepidation -- depending on how ready you are to tackle the 2016 changes.

Before moving on into the uncharted waters of the Season 6 Preseason, it's worth noting that the 2015 World Championship had the largest amount of unique champion picks of any League of Legends World Championship, at 74. With, coincidentally, 73 games played in total, that's an oddly tidy average of just over one unique champion per game.

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Meeting All My Standards

Naturally, there are caveats to this. The primary of which is the fact that two champions -- Mordekaiser and Gangplank -- had a 93.2% and 94.5% ban rate, respectively. Gangplank was 100% picked or banned across all games, and while Mordekaiser did drop completely through a few drafts, he had a similarly hefty 98.6% pick/ban rate. Both of these champions were chosen four times each and won every game played.

Their seemingly ubiquitous Worlds existence skews the overall idea of champion diversity, as their mere presence necessitates bans, or initial picks if an opponent dares allow them through. No other champions provided a similar amount of pressure in Champion Select. For comparison, the next most-picked champion was Lulu; however, the drop-off in banning is significant. Mordekaiser and Gangplank were both in the low 90s, where Lulu was banned 58.9% of the time and picked 35.7% of the time when one combines her time spent mid and top.

You Flex, They Flex Twice As Hard

Flexible picks in Champion Select have drawn acclaim since the start of the 2015 season. Hardly a new concept, flexing champions between lanes and positions increased exponentially this year across all major regions. Versatile players with deep champion pools became highly prized commodities, as they leant themselves to teams out-flexing opponents in the draft. It's no surprise that flex picks continued to be fairly common at the 2015 World Championship.

Ten total champions were flexed in two lanes: Gangplank, Hecarim, Irelia, Jarvan IV, Lissandra, Lulu, Morgana, Shen, Varus, and Yasuo. Of these, mid and top shared the most common champions with Lulu, Gangplank, Lissandra, Irelia, and Yasuo played in both lanes. Hecarim and Jarvan IV were split between top lane and jungle, while Morgana was taken mid and support and Shen played top and support. Lastly, Varus was flexed between the AD carry and mid roles.

Of all positions on the Rift, mid laners are seemingly required to be the most accommodating, with the vast majority of flex picks flexed into or out of their lane.

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I Can Almost Taste My Future Popularity!

Additionally, three champions were flexed across three different lanes at the 2015 World Championship: Ekko, Kennen, and Olaf.

Olaf is a bit of an outlier. Sang-hyeok "Faker" Lee took the crazed Viking against the Southeast Asian representative, Bangkok Titans, in a game where saying that SKTelecom T1 was heavily favored would be a significant understatement. Mismatches in overall team skill allowed for these experiments, and one could argue that Faker's mid lane Irelia and Master Yi -- even if they did also make sense in that context or matchup -- were born from similar series back in Korea. To bring things full circle, the one mid lane Irelia pick at the World Championship was from Bangkok Titans' Nuttapong "G4" Menkasikan against Faker's Olaf.

Ekko had previously seen play in mid, top, and jungle, so his presence in all three roles isn't much of a surprise; however, Fnatic's AD carry Kennen for Martin "Rekkles" Larsson certainly was. Kennen had been used as a support and in the top lane, but Fnatic took his zone potential and self-peel to the bottom lane as another utility carry for Rekkles. This worked so well that another team who relied on their AD carry for utility more than damage -- the KOO Tigers and Jong-in "PraY" Kim -- picked up the champion in their second game against SKTelecom T1 in the World Championship Final.

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You Can't Improve on Perfection

While mid lane saw a myriad of champions both played and flexed elsewhere, the jungle was stalked by far fewer picks. The most picked champion at the 2015 World Championship was Elise, with a 53.4% pick rate. Jungle counterpart Rek'Sai wasn't too far behind with 50.7%, and even following his forced absence from the Semifinals and Finals (due to a bug), Gragas was also among the top 10 most-played champions at Worlds, picked 39.7% of the time.

I'll Never Forget That You Remembered

Lastly, with such a wide variety of champions picked, other odd statistics to throw out (to win the most obscure of bar trivia competitions or annoy one's friends) are those of the champions who were picked only once. Vladimir, Karthus, Draven, and Graves, among others, all have 100% win ratios thanks to the fact that they were only selected once. Meanwhile, recalling the 0% win rate of Brand or Blitzcrank may bring back bad memories, especially if one remembers the games where they were played.

71 Comments

MasterVidallis11/5/2015, 8:49:05 PM70 votes

Mordekaiser defined worlds not because of big cool plays or doing anything interesting to the meta. He defined worlds as a poorly thought out rework that came out an unbalanced mess that warped the few matches it got through ban phase.

If he stands for anything is that Riot needs to A: Test reworks of that scope better and B: Learn to revert them when the community is overwhelmingly saying it was not the rework they wanted and that it made the champion less, not more balanced.

The fact the made it into worlds in that state was embarrassing for a game on it's 5th season, Riot should have known better. I know, this is harsh but, as someone who loved to play morde pre-work and watched this mess in my own matches and then how it played out into worlds... that's the nicest way I can put it.

Lightshade11/5/2015, 9:43:39 PM20 votes

These Undertale references though. "Meeting All My Standards" "You Flex, They Flex Twice As Hard" "I Can Almost Taste My Future Popularity!"

SoryInAdvance11/6/2015, 12:23:03 AM12 votes

It kind of defeats the purpose of banning when the same 6 champs are banned every game..it should be pretty apparent that when even the pros ban the same champs every game, that those champs are extremely unbalanced.

Mat7itan11/5/2015, 10:47:25 PM9 votes

Morekaiser and Gangplank had the biggest affect on worlds. They never got played because they were perma banned which really helped diversify the pick ban because only 4 unique champs were banned, the champion picks were super diverse there were pretty much 3 jungle picks only, 3 top laners, 3 supports (if I see alistar in competative play one more time i'm going to cry), the sMe adcs were picked over and over.... really the only lane that had any unique picks was mid and those got stale after a while. Depending on your point of view worlds was either super diverse or from my viewpoint had the diversity of individual grains of sand.... it was so boring to watch.

Azcenso11/5/2015, 11:03:30 PM9 votes

Draven 100% Rate. Perfection... I got that.

Siachi11/6/2015, 3:49:01 AM7 votes

I feel like the author of this article has been playing a particular game recently.

Picking up on these references... it fills me with determination.

(I'm sorry I had to) D'=

staticX2611/6/2015, 4:28:10 PM5 votes

Diversity? Patch 5.18 was created to break the meta and it did. However, champions who broke the meta are just completely broken.

Rew71111/5/2015, 9:38:26 PM4 votes

FLEXIBLE PICKS!?

What am I reading? A flexible pick is using a Kayle top. Using Kennen mid. Nunu sup. Or even (and not trolling) a Teemo as a APC or ADC. From what I've heard, and from the picks and bans I've seen, this is not about being flexible.

You gave Fiora one of the most horrible passives I have ever had to learn to avoid. I can't even hide under a turret anymore. You can't even give Evelynn a buff, see her look viable, and like it. In fact, you nerfed Ryze to a sad champion instead of just giving him back his other kit or continuing on him.

I scoff at reading "flexible picks". Not while Jinx's Q passive still procs on turrets and inhibitors. That's some hard push you've given her.

OHminus11/6/2015, 5:51:19 AM3 votes

To everyone complaining about OP reworked champions here (or are just crying OP in general)...

  1. Morde got nerfed a couple patches back. Morde-Zilean is still hell in the bot lane though 2 . Fiora is pretty cool everywhere except for her ult. 20 percent health true damage on each vital auto seems quite ridiculous.
  2. Darius and Garen are strong, yes, but can still be kited hard. They both also have their fair share of counters (Renekton, Fiora, Lulu)
  3. Elise, Gragas, and Rek'sai were all picked in the jungle because teams needed tanks in the jungle (top laners were shifting over to bruisers like Fiora, Riven, Darius, and Renekton)
  4. I was once like you guys. I screamed OP. However, everything is beatable. The next OP champions are usually the ones that counter the current ones. Have fun in the THE RUINS (sorry. I too have played Undertale)
Ruloh11/6/2015, 10:50:09 AM3 votes

If by diversity you mean deciding how a match will likely lean in favor towards simply based on pick and ban phase, then sure. But I'm calling total BS here. Sure we saw flex picks, but the majority of them were champions who already had a lot going for them before or during the patches leading up to world's. And there are glaringly obvious reasons for that. When was the last time we saw a Brand in world's? Long ass time ago. Know why? Because he's not viable compared to the normal mid laners we're used to seeing currently. Like Yasuo. And top lane? Please. Fiora and Darius are the champions that immediately come to mind when I hear someone mention that island. I mean that's all we ever got to see if they weren't banned instead. Mordekaiser's just plain stupid right now. Even with the nerfs, you get a dragon, you get a free turret. Falling behind level wise is impossible, too. Me and a buddy lost our lane miserably, but the moment he got a kill he snowballed the rest of the game. CS didn't matter. Items didn't matter. Levels didn't matter. Mord can't be stopped unless you end the game early. It's so ridiculous. And I'm glad Gragas became unavailable thanks to whatever glitch. Before that happened, he was always picked for jungle. This season was a joke for the ADCs, too. Jinx, Tristana, and Corki. But mostly Tristana because of her stupid tower destroying potential and reset jumps for plays. Lucian got left behind the moment Tristana's kit was changed. And all other ADCs have pretty much remained untouched since season 3. Diversity doesn't exist right now because the competitive scene is always going to favor what is more likely the easiest way to achieve victory. If you can sum that up with less than half of the champions available to the community, then it's all a lie. If it's not the juggernauts, it's the devourer users. If it's not the devourer users, it's the split pushers. Where's the teamwork in just choosing a champion?

linkmastr00111/5/2015, 10:59:39 PM3 votes

For those curious for a detailed breakdown, summoner Garlyle Wilds kept a running tally of champion usage here: http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/esports/V0WsriPU-champs-seen-at-worlds-a-list

Noam Braumsky11/6/2015, 12:23:33 AM3 votes

Oh no! You're meeting all my standards!

Banana Girl11/5/2015, 7:56:27 PM2 votes

But didn't skt use Irellia vs Koo, and Yi vs CJ....?

MaatLife11/5/2015, 10:03:01 PM2 votes

Once every champion starts to get reworked, we will have a newly defined League of Legends to play. I am willing to put up with changes like these, because in the long run, this game will become more diverse. I appreciate what Riot is doing, so instead of complaining about every Overpowered or Broken champion, look at it as a step forward. This game will only get better, and its not the communities decision of how this game turns out, its Riots decision. Be thankful they have created such a great game, and that it keeps getting better.

YambrinZ11/6/2015, 9:41:38 AM2 votes

Garen is trash. Darius ult was nerfed for a reason. And in worlds we seen that reason.

FlashNeko11/7/2015, 12:56:08 AM2 votes

I feel it deserves mentioning that the only reason both Morde and 'Plank have perfect records is because the one game where they were set against each other was retconned out of existance.

Lugg11/7/2015, 2:00:53 AM2 votes

Here it is 3 patches after the Worlds patch and the vast majority of the pick/ban champions haven't been nerfed. The fact alone that GP hasn't been touched is embarrassing to Riot. He needs a MAJOR nerf to be anywhere near balanced. Morde needs to be completely reworked, again. Elise needs more nerfs, her kit is so overloaded and with her high amount of counterplay, she actually needs to be on the underpowered side. Lulu needs some kind of nerf, she is way too strong top right now. Rek'sai has been pick/ban pretty much since release. Rek is a perfect example that Riot doesn't nerf the actual problems in a champion's kit. Kalista is an abomination. She needs to be completely reworked. Darius was hit pretty hard last patch and is still very strong. That shows you how bad Riot has been at balancing the last 4 months. Azir needs some sort of rework. Underpowered if you haven't mastered him. OP if you have. (Same with Ryze by the way) Thresh has had no significant weakness, ever. Tahm. Jesus, don't even get started at how OP this guys is right now. Jinx is pretty much unbeatable with certain supports. Fiora. Strongest top now that Darius got nerfed. Shen had an 85% win rate and Riot doesn't plan on touching him until sometime next year.

All of these champs needed nerfed before preseason. It's just sad.

QuasiStickfigure11/9/2015, 3:41:59 AM2 votes

ALL OF YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT HOW THE ACTUAL ARTIVLE BUT NONE OF YOU EVEN BOTHERED TO MENTION THE UNDERTALE SUBHEADERS

MattBlastor11/6/2015, 9:34:48 PM1 votes

Graves Can have a 100% win rate but no cigar? item 3070

echolark11/7/2015, 2:56:14 PM1 votes

Vlad got picked, yes

XxBTExX11/7/2015, 1:03:17 AM1 votes

Wouldn't call "diversity" when every game had GP or Morde banned and Darius was picked a bunch of times. ADC's seem to be also somewhat stale where only a handful of them were picked, the rest completely neglected.

The Swedish Chef11/10/2015, 7:25:34 AM1 votes

So where's the mention of Anivia actually showing up in the World's again? People underestimate what a great Anivia on a team can do, regardless of her faults.

2saint11/6/2015, 6:23:57 PM1 votes

Bard +Kindred +Karthus

Quantum Fizzix11/6/2015, 6:32:35 PM1 votes

But there was no Sextroxx ;( Aatrox

Sugabearto11/6/2015, 7:13:29 PM1 votes

we have talked about OP this and OP that. Lets for a second look at how this affected Red side. You can call OP or Not OP on GP and Mord all you want to. Some will be sympathetic and some will not be. Fact is the OVERWHELMING majority of champions banned on red side were Mord and GP. That is a FACT. Not arguable. Why? Even the casters and obviously the players thought that the other team, because they have 1st pick would pick up GP or Mord, would pick them. Why again? Because their power spikes and versatility are GAME CHANGINGLY POWERFUL. Er-Go you want to pick them to win. That has effectively given blue side an advantage over red side and red is now forced to ban champions and then pick up others to keep the other team "honest" so to speak. That being said, this happened. I don't want to hear about hypotheticals. What RIOT has said is that they want to make this game Diverse and Unique. Remember this is their goal. If worlds was ANY Indication of that goal. They have falled well short of the intention and failed miserably. That is a FACT and i guarantee they are not happy about how that played out. They will in time either buff the other champions to deal with these "juggernauts" or they will change kits/nerf to make competitive play better. Lets face it, Challenger and Master teir really do not matter....they do not play for the money. They play to practice and eventually hope to get picked up and make the money. LCS is where teams make the real money. You do not change the rules of football for the 1v1 backyard game, or for practice....you change the rules for the playoffs and super bowl boys...get real.