Mobility Debate
Just for fun, I decided to do some research on champions getting picked/banned in NA LCS. There's no particular reason I chose NA LCS, but I could easily do the same analysis with other leagues (and indeed I may). While the same size is relatively small (19 games) I think we've got enough to go on.
Note: All information is taken from Leaguepedia
#BANS
Kassadin is sitting at the top with 17 bans out of 19 games (about 90%). Apparently he got picked in 3 of the 2 remaining games. Hmmm... Lissandra: 14/19 bans (74%) Reksai: 12/19 bans (63%) Rumble: 12/19 bans (63%) Sivir: 9/19 (47%) Irelia: 6/19 (32%) Annie: 6/19 (32%) Janna: 5/19 (26%) Jarvan IV: 5/19 (26%) Azir: 4/19 (21%) Gnar: 4/19 (21%) Leblanc: 4/19 (21%) Kalista: 3/19 (16%) Corki: 3/19 (16%) Zed: 3/19 (16%)
I won't go any further than that on bans, but I will continue the stats a bit momentarily. I just want to take this time to point out that of the 15 champions I posted ban rates on, 11/15 (73%) have gapclosers. With 6 bans in a game, chances are that at least 4 champs with powerful gapclosers will banned.
Now let's look at pick rate + ban rate to create what I'm gonna call appearance rate. I'm gonna drop the fractions now and stick to percentages because you get the idea (or I hope you do). #Appearance Rate
Kassadin has made an appearance in 20/19 games, I'm gonna assume that someone either put an extra ban or an extra pick by mistake. In either case, Kassadin has made an appearance in 100% games, pick or ban. Janna: 100% Lissandra: 95% Sivir: 95% Reksai: 90% Gnar: 90% Jarvan IV: 90% Rumble: 74% Annie: 68% Irelia: 63% LeBlanc: 63% Corki: 63% Azir: 47% Lee Sin: 42% Rengar: 42%
In terms of appearance, Kassadin is STILL leading the pack. But this isn't about Kassadin, it's about mobility. Of the 15 champions posted here, 10 (11 if you consider Rengar ult) champions have high mobility. Let's just take an average. 10.5 champs have mobility, or 70%. A game has 10 champs, so chances are 7 of those champs will have mobility. (Even if you go by 10/15, 67% still rounds up to 70% since you can't have .7 mobile. You're either mobile or you're not).
So 7 out of 10 champs have high mobility. The other ones fighting for top spots (Janna, Annie, Sivir, Rumble) are, again, being picked/banned out for their teamfight presence.
#Win Rates Let's look at win rates. For this part, I have listed champs that have been picked in at least 5 games (20% ish of total games) Jarvan IV: 74% Janna: 36% Gnar: 39% Corki: 55% Sivir: 33% Leblanc: 25% Annie: 71% Morgana: 57% Rengar: 14% Irelia: 83% Lee Sin: 33% Lulu: 33% Ahri: 17% Azir: 60% Thresh: 40% Reksai: 20% Sion: 20%
You'll note that Kassadin isn't on this list because he's banned in almost every game. Anyway, let's rearrange this list in order of win rate.
Irelia: 83% Jarvan IV: 74% Annie: 71% Azir: 60% Morgana: 57% Corki: 55% Thresh: 40% Gnar: 39% Janna: 36% Sivir: 33% Lee Sin: 33% Lulu: 33% Leblanc: 25% Reksai: 20% Sion: 20% Ahri: 17% Rengar: 14%
Let's cut this data in half (I wanted to do 10 but that leaves us at the 33% win rate champs and there's 3 of them so I'd have 12 champions Since 1/3 wins isn't terribly impressive to prove a point, I'll stick to the top 8). If you take the top 8 champions in win percentage, what do we get?
Irelia: 83% Jarvan IV: 74% Annie: 71% Azir: 60% Morgana: 57% Corki: 55% Thresh: 40% Gnar: 39%
Of these 8 remaining champs, 6 have gapclosers (the other 2 have AoE stuns, so they were probably picked for teamfight presence). Holy smokes Batman, that's 75%! 75% of the top 8 picked champs (with a win rate of 39%) have gapclosers! I wonder if there's anything there?
And just for fun, let's look at the top 10 win rate champs regardless of how many games they have played. Lissandra: 100% Kalista: 100% Maokai: 100% Cassiopoeia: 100% Jax: 100% Nocturne: 100% Jinx: 100% Irelia: 83% Jarvan IV: 74% Annie: 71%
Count the champs with gapclosers: 7/10, 70%. Wow! It's almost like I'm a friggin prophet, because anywhere between 67% to 70% has been popping up all over the place when it comes to champions with high mobility! And the other champs have... AOE STUNS?!! WHO KNEW?!!
tl;dr: In short, mobility is conquering this game. It's being target banned, it's getting picked the most, of the games it's being picked in, it's winning the most of those games. It's just generally better. Unless an old champ has powerful teamfight potential, it won't be picked. Is this what you want to see? That page said 46 champs made an appearance in those 19 games. Appearance is defined as being picked or banned. Of the 304 champions that made an appearance in these games, only 46 unique champs were chosen. That's 15% of the champion base. To put that in better perspective, there are what, 123 champions in this game? If only 15% are considered "viable" to be seen in competitive play (in NA), then that means that of the 123 champions in the game, only about 18 are considered strong enough to be played. I've often said that there are about 20 viable champions for the competitive scene, hey, looks like the data is backing me up. Remember how I said I was only going to consider the champions with 5 or more played games earlier? That was 17 champions. Out of 46. That means 63% of selected champs were played in 4 or fewer games. These champions demand so much more attention. I feel like I've about ranted enough, Come at me bros.