i mean hes doing pretty well on solo queue. he still does everything he did last worlds. maybe not as easily done. his barrels are less. less ult damage and less gold from Q and higher cooldowns. but he is still the high burst ad batle mage skrmisher that has good laning phase and scales well into mid and late game.
He isn't a terrible choice per say, but meta just doesn't really favor him currently.
Since the advent of first blood gold on towers, so much of this game is now about early game pressure (levels 1-5) since a first blood can translate into first blood onto a tower and a dragon, this typically leads to 1k gold lead and whatever buff dragon gives which allows for the team to snowball.
GP, while safe, has an awful early game in terms of pressure he can exert compared to say rumble or gnar.
Kennen. You talk about his barrels but a kennen or rumble ult is much more impacting. They are easier and safer in lane.
NERF NERF NERF NERF
He's so abusable early game now
If by priority you mean early, then it means the pros have found something that consistently dumps on him early that fits into meta team comps. If you mean picked at all then likely the former is still true and it led to pro top laners not putting in the time to be comfortable playing him at a Worlds quality level.
How safe a champion is as a blind pick has a huge impact on how much pro play a champion will see.
sh, don't mention him or Riot will nerf him again you don't want him to be gutted like Shen do you?
He isn't as good against meta picks right now, and I wouldn't be super surprised to see him show up at some point this week, but he really just gets pushed around too easily by someone like gnar or rumble.
Also, bans have been more focused on jungle and mid so far, if a top laner gets banned out its usually one towards a rumble or gnar, so the pool of champions for top by the time they are picking isn't squeezed enough to force a gp pick.
