Honest question here, so far Ryze is 6-14 at worlds so I'm just wondering why he keeps getting played. Obviously the champion isn't solo losing the game but does he offer something incredible I'm overlooking?
Teams are thinking they can effectively use his ult for a big play.
At this point, maybe they should just be instalocking soloqueue hero midlaners. I'm shocked Malz isn't getting contested.
Ryze has the potential to be a monster but his play is so binary that it's easily countered / played around.
I'd honestly rather see Karthus than Ryze, he's actually a better champion.
The only time I've seen Ryze really utilized this worlds in a way other champions can't match was when G2 used it to sneak a baron (pretty unreliable but whatever) and when C9 was using it to quickly dump a nautilus behind enemy lines. Besides that it's been mostly worthless and I would have preferred if the strong laners would have picked something else.
I hate seeing a ryze on my team. He's basically trash right now made terrible by his rework. He is a great example of flashy mechanics not paying off. Personally - I'd like to see Velkoz or Karthus take over the mid lane. Then again...seeing karthus in every game might actually be such a tilting experience that riot would nerf him as a result.
When the meta is not well defined or teams do not know what to play, they rely on generalist champions (a champ that you can always fall back on) or the ones that can likely have global presence After Syndra (lane bully/kill potential) and Ryze, the next champs played in midlane were Corki (good laning/global package), Galio (ult), Orianna/Cassiopeia (generalist), and Taliyah (ult)...the first "meta" champs are LeBlanc/Kassadin ( assassins) and Lucian that have likely being banned
Ryze is a generalist champ (that can assassinate fast if can snowball, even if it is unlikely actually) WITH a global presence (ult), that's why he is so high on teams list right now
It will be interesting to see in knockout stage what is the actual mid lane meta
