Every single year.
I almost never get to see a pick that makes me go "Oh! that's interesting, that person really stepped out of his comfort zone!". It really makes me lose respect for all the teams. I get they have to win but give us a show at least?
Wolfeur13 votesHave you even looked at Worlds this year? This year has the most different champions picked in Worlds history. Have you looked at the MSF vs SKT matches??
E102 Gamma Y11 votes[deleted]
JoeMG1 votesOoh what game was Nocturne in?
E102 Gamma Y3 votes[deleted]
KennysDreamGirl1 votesim def watching that then.. picks like noc and urgot in worlds would be fun to watch
Squey1 votesthat was one of my favorite games this worlds. Probably #1 or 2
JoeMG2 votesty Gotta go watch my main in action :)
Abibyama10 votesPeople say this every single worlds
NoxianShrooms4 votesAnd each one it just becomes more and more true, worlds is a boring shit show devoid of skill or personality.
It's just: "Alright guys like we practiced! Stack the OP champs on our team and camp botlane!"
Wet Dryman1 votesExcept that this Season has the best champion variety in years.
Warios6 votesSo what would matches be like if in a 5 game series, if a champ is picked or was banned, it is taken out of the champ pool, regulating each following match to use something different.
SociopathFriend1 votesSoooo put extra rules in place to punish the teams even farther when several regions (NA) already have issues putting competent teams forwards as it is?
PePsiLemoNN6 votesLet's just forget about 
. Lee Sin and Rumble weren't even picked this year btw LUL
OverpoweredSoap6 votesWhy would someone want to step out of their comfort zone in competitive play?
Especially at Worlds?
JESUSSAYSNO4 votesThis year's meta feels worse than previous years. I was fine with s6 and s5, but the 'live and die by botlane' metagame is super toxic to watch. Hell, the most interesting thing about this year was RNG's explosive games against SKT, and then they lost almost exclusively because Tristana exists in her current state.
wyvern0119761 votesUltimately its always been about the ADC. They are the late game insurance and most consistent damage dealers. They may not always have the best KDA but they are there to finish games. Been that way every season.
JESUSSAYSNO1 votesOf course, you wouldn't bring an entire class of champs that's squishy and has weak early with little ability damage if they didn't have lategame relevancy and siege power. But the current metagame puts too much power in the hands of the ADC. 7.18 was and is a bad patch for the world's stage.
KennysDreamGirl1 votestristana has been the same since 7.2 lul but no one complained then
JESUSSAYSNO1 votesThat's factually not true. She was straight outclassed by lethality ADs until the crit item buffs, and then she was outclassed by Cait prior to her nerfs. Champs like Cait countered her, while also being less overbearing on the overall state of the game, so as soon as her counters were nerfed, she exploded.
Her relevance is a compounded problem of too many minor buffs over time, synergy with the ardent support meta, and all of her counters being nerfed out of relevancy. The champ itself hasn't changed much, but that doesnt mean her ability to influence the game hasn't. In a game with as many factors as LoL has, you can't look at a champion's changes alone to determine their value.
SweedishGunner4 votesMisfits were probably the most interesting team to watch for this reason. Too bad they got scripted out by getting matched vs SKT.
You Are Cute XD2 votesMisfits most interesting? Gigabyte Marines would like to have a word with you.
JackMcSnipeyz4 votesWorlds isnt for experimenting, it's to bring your A game. You people need to understand that, when money and fame is on the line no one is gonna take a wacky fun pick just for the lolz, they trained and built strategies this season and they arent gonna just pick some random teemo for your amusement.
Compare this to soccer, you dont see teams risking goals or games to do wacky tricks or cool shots, they play their best at what they do.
TimX24968B2 votesstrategically, not playing the best of the best is putting yourself at a disadvantage. not a risk people want to take when your goal is to win in the most reliable way possible.
JackMcSnipeyz2 votesTrue, the risk is using something surprising so people dont know how to deal with it. For example urgot was picked, aswell as singed, 2 risky picks that worked, but for every pick that works there are 5 that fall flat.
TimX24968B1 votesonly thing is, noone really wants to take a risk like that in worlds, the one place that people actually watch LoL esports teams play.
Taliyah Rocks3 votesOn one hand, i understand that they prefer to pick champions that are statistically better than others.
I also understand that you can only have so many champions that you can master, so a smaller champion pool is easier to maintain.
On the other hand, it's been provrn multitudes of time that off-meta picks can be just as viable. Hence why you can see almost every champs played in Master/Challenger, despite being criticized as ''subpar''
Worlds players are essentially a bunch of challengers... there's little reason that could explain why off-meta wouldn't work for them.
But yeah, i stopped watching worlds because i was sick of seeing the same champs over and over and over again. I'll be back in the finals.
HaIlMonitor1 votesThey probably have a lot more info then you would think. They play a patch or 2 behind and find broken combo and champs all the time. I would assume they do more Min/maxing then we would think.
Dr Poro3 votesEvery year blitzcrank and Fervor Leona... Always Kayn and Nocturne jungle BOOOOOORING. I want to see some more orianna mid and tanks toplane.
(s/ incase it wasn't obvious enough)
On a serious note, apart from these odd picks many people mentioned here, OP is right. Every year in Worlds, most teams follow the same play pattern with the same champions. I can't really blame them for it, if you know something works, you'll stick to that. It's usually up to the underdog teams to make changes in the meta. Some of the blame is with Riot, though. They intentionally keep the meta stable around worlds so teams don't have to adjust too much. I'm not sure if this is the right way to go, since it means the meta will always be sort of figured out (nothing new for viewers). Another thing is that Riot always seems to keep certain champions competitively like Orianna and Syndra. Why do they have to show up every single year? Let midlaners explore more variety.
SociopathFriend1 votesNote that those are two of the shorter-ranged mages? A year where artillery mages like Xerath and Ziggs are meta is a year where a champion pokes from half a screen away and is supremely boring to watch.
Meanwhile, Syndra and Ori are very close to the action.
CannonLordFreed2 votesWorlds is never going to see feast or famine assassins with no utility with the exception of maybe zed or if they're really, really broken.
Jaspers2 votesI'm waiting on Yorick. Dudes great but can't play off meta one bit else you know, a team will lose... like GAM and Misfits did.. when they won games. Er...
Kloqdq2 votesThe real issue this year is for sure around Ardent Censor warping a lot of the same, boring picks and not allowing as many other interesting picks to shine. We have seen those picks work but they are a risky trade-off. Do you go the safe and reliable or put your money where your month is and go for the balls to the wall pick. It's a trade-off and when teams are aiming for world champions, you'll see more safe than risky. Though risky leads to much more interesting matches.
Nymzo2 votes
AFilthyCaitMain1 votes
Nhifu1 votesI still don't know why Riot doesn't retire a series of champions from worlds and even ranked play.
It's ridiculous seeing off meta picks in solo queue.
i cant move wtf1 votesHas Lee Sin or Nidalee even been picked? Have you watched World's at all?
The Deckowner3 votesYes
i cant move wtf1 votes[{quoted}](name=The Deckowner,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=5lqAlzJ0,comment-id=00050000,timestamp=2017-10-25T05:07:57.082+0000)
Yes
What games? I watched most of them and haven't seen those two once.
Jaspers1 votesNid: RNG vs Fenebahce
Lee Sin: RNG vs SSG, Immortals VS Fnatic
BeatzBoyFTW3 voteshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjKFgaEdaYE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkbzL99qUc4
Those were their last play about a week ago or two. So technically, Deckowner & OP are like 10% partially correct.
i cant move wtf2 votesThose were their last play about a week ago or two. So technically, Deckowner & OP are like 10% partially correct.
So we're looking at 2 games out of, what, 45? That would be about 5% of games. I can see why the OP is bored now.
Mianta1 votesWell we still do see off meta picks every now and then and they can come out successful. Look at the recent singed or leona picks. The thing is, riots requirement to make every champ unique means one adc isnt going to be as good as another adc at fulfilling a specific strategy, and professional/competitive play calls for using the most dominant strategy in meta. Riot already has enough on their plate trying to maintain a fun game for millions of people, keeping a shit ton of champs balanced across the board, updating them, etc. Dont start asking for Worlds to be changed too. Its preseason soon, theres gonna a lot of changes. You can deal, cant you?
Fishlord1 votesAll the other champions in this game don't fit the teamcomp of the strategy. That's just what it is. And plus, most other champions are trash. You think they're going to pick a champion with a lesser winrate than the other? It's all about winning.
Stars Shaper1 votesMin-Maxers will always struggle to keep tracking the best of the best, thus reducing the most possible the variables in the game in their advantage.
That said, this year was a lot more diverse than previous ones if not for the really latest matches.
Linna Excel1 votesIt'd be interesting to see what happens if riot heavily nerfed champs that showed up in past worlds on the world patch.
Valeckserai1 votesApparently you didn't watch any gigabyte marines games. Or SKT vs MSF.
Darius Strada1 votesLast Worlds had a lot of picks. 70+ were picked
LeStaad1 votesYea Worlds and almost all big games they playing with same and same champs.
