Why was Gragas seeing 0 picks at Worlds?

BeatzBoyFTW·Oct 2, 2016·1 votes·881 views

When I made my statement in the Patch Rundown thread about how the Jungle video isn't enticing to watch since it'll always be Gragas, Elise & Reksai being the only one seeing plays at Worlds, I got Zirene's response as this:

http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/esports/AEe4AMI1-patch-rundown-worlds-2016?comment=00050000

{quoted}

Not at worlds. Elise will be near the top, but there won't be any Gragas, and Rek'Sai will be much lower priority. Graves, Nidalee, Skarner, Zac, Olaf and many others will be played in their stead.

I still don't get it. He was one of the big guys back at LCS, there was no nerfs on him in the Patch 6.18 notes, what got him pushed back into the unpopularity tier of Worlds?

10 Comments

Shifue DravenOct 2, 20161 votes

he had been nerfed since then i think you may have missed that patch but he kinda got booted hard. http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/game-updates/patch/patch-617-notes

hotarseOct 2, 20161 votes

I think its the way they added a minimum travel time on his ult, so now people can react to it even if it is shot out point blank after being knocked up. Before, it was unavoidable.

MunchCrunchLunchOct 2, 20161 votes

the ult nerf.

Earl EulrichOct 2, 20161 votes

apparently because you can flash his ult every now and then now...but i still think he´s the strongest tank-option and teams really should start using him again (especially as kennen gets fairly popular and he´s great to stop the little rascal).

YambrinZOct 2, 20161 votes

You think he is the strongest tank option? Wtf? Have you not been seeing the Hec's and Olaf's running around wrecking shit?

Guyy FieriOct 2, 20161 votes

There's actually so many options for disengage against champs like Kennen or Gnar right now. Syndra, Malzahar, Hecarim, Skarner, Jayce, Nami, shoot even Trundle and Poppy can disengage those fights. Basically, if the reason to play Gragas is the disengage, there are plenty of other champs that can disengage or just cc that champ and get the kill that also do other things better.

Part of the problem is Gragas's slow clear speed. He just isn't as fast as the likes of Lee Sin, Elise, Nidalee, etc. so Gragas loses out of jungle pressure and thus far the jungle meta at worlds has been all about having the most early pressure around the map and Gragas just loses on that too hard.

infinyxOct 2, 20161 votes

Riot decided it would be a good idea to nerf a champion based on clunkiness. While Body slam cooldown nerf was necessary and impactful the nerf to his ult gutted any chance he would ever see play in the league tournament scene again. High level players can easily avoid it so there is no need to pick him over say a rek'sai.

Guyy FieriOct 2, 20161 votes

His nerfs were before 6.18 I believe. His body slam cool down I believe was increased quite a bit and his ult was changed to a fixed projectile travel time regardless of how far you throw it so it made it much tougher to body slam on the ADC and get the ult to push their ADC into your team.

EhlekarOct 3, 20161 votes

Exactly this. Before the nerfs, you could Bodyslam+Ult and perma CC the enemy. Once they changed it to fixed projectile time, it means even if you got Bodyslammed, you can just flash away