A closer look at the shallow ADC pool: 4 champs with combined 100% play rate

JMoormann·12/21/2016, 10:56:23 PM·7 votes·1,624 views
Champion.gg - League of Legends Stats by Champion Role for the Current Patch

We can keep talking about how shallow the jungle pool is, or how it's only Courage tanks top, but looking at the stats ADC is actually the role that is being dominated by a very small amount of champs.

Look at those stats

Caitlyn: 52.53% win rate and 30.07% play rate Vayne: 50.68% win rate and 24.6% play rate Ezreal: 49.97% win rate and 22.77% play rate Jhin: 51.17% win rate 21.08% play rate

Those 4 combine for a 98.52% play rate, which means that on average you will see 1 of these champs in almost every game. We can add the next 2, Jinx (51.65% win rate + 15.87% play rate) and Twitch (53.05% win rate (the highest) + 13.15% play rate) and we get over 125% play rate with 6 champs who all have a more than decent win rate, only Ez being very slightly below 50%.

Let's look at the other lanes: how many champs does it take to get a combined 100% play rate and what is the win rate of those champs?

Top: Riven Darius Yasuo Poppy Nasus Irelia Garen Fiora Renekton Maokai Jayce Gangplank Teemo combine for 99.43%, that's 13 champs with none being over 52% win rate

Jungle: LeeSin Vi Hecarim Shyvana Khazix Zac Shaco Rengar (8 champs) have 99.71% together. Though their win rates have much higher differences (Shaco and Vi over 54%), largely because of the large jungle changes (it will get better over time), it's still twice as many as for the ADC role.

Middle. Lux Orianna Ahri Yasuo Katarina Syndra Viktor Zed Leblanc Fizz make 99.04%. From those 10 only the first 3 have 50%+ win rates: 51.86%, 50.13%, and 53.57% in that order.

Finally support, where Thresh Janna Morgana Blitzcrank Nami Leona Braum combine for 98.54%. Even though 6/7 are over 50% win rate (with Janna having a whopping 53.65%), it's still nowhere nearly as bad as the ADCs.


Let's try to explain why ADC is so dominated by so few champs. Look at those other roles and notice how each of them have a variety of different classes in the top. Look at top lane for example: the top 4 consists of a juggernaut (Darius), 2 skirmishers (RIven and Yasuo) and a tank (Poppy). You can do the same for the other roles.

Then look at bot lane (the carry role, not the supports). It shouldn't be a surprise that there is exactly 1 class of champs being played there. What does this mean?

Let's go back to top lane. When Juggernauts happen to be too strong, they will never have such dominant play rates, simply because the enemy could counter with something like a Gnar.

Then look at bot lane. When a couple of ADCs are too strong, there is simply no reason not to pick them. Yes, there are champs who counter ADCs, but there is no alternative, so it's better to just go with the strongest ADC. Yes, Tristana might be slightly better than Jhin at escaping assassins, but that difference is too small to compensate for Jhin just being stronger overall.

TLDR: It takes only 4 ADCs to reach a combined 100% play rate, compared to 13/8/10/7 for the other roles, with those 4 all having more than decent win rates. The reason for this is because (unlike other lanes where there are different classes with their own weaknesses) there is no alternative for an ADC bot, and when you need to pick one anyway, why not go with the strongest one?

13 Comments

PhDs Nuts12/22/2016, 12:53:04 AM4 votes

Your analysis of winrates is pretty biased, tbh.

Supports: Even though 6/7 are over 50% win rate (with Janna having a whopping 53.65%), it's still nowhere nearly as bad as the ADCs

lol? That seems pretty significant.

Two of the highest playrate junglers have over 54% win rates, but "shrug they aren't ADCs"?

Rebonack12/21/2016, 11:26:51 PM4 votes

Marksmen also account for one of the smallest champion pools.

How many Mages are there? How many Tanks? How many Fighters? How many Slayers?

A small champ pool combined with a largely homogenized role (in spite of what Riot tried to do with the Marksmen update) means you've got small number of champs who all do the same thing, so why not just pick the best ones?

Zero Skill Tank12/21/2016, 11:40:07 PM3 votes

Despite what board members in "melee vs ranged" and "assassins got so hurt" jerking circles keep posting, most marksman are in very bad shape in current patch. If you don't pick one of those broken, like Vayne or Twitch, your impact on the game is virtually zero until you complete 5 items - which doesn't even happen most of the time.

AMYS GRAVE12/21/2016, 11:47:26 PM2 votes

Also take into account that because there are 2 adcs per game (assuming you have an adc bot lane) this means that if there really were ONLY 4 adcs being played at all they would have a combined 200% playrate.

Rivuo12/21/2016, 11:15:54 PM1 votes

Have you tried to play ashe sivir MF varus in the recent meta? They do ok in lane but you get absolutely fucked now.

Adcs without dashes / blinks are becoming less common because the meta right now has seen such a mobility creep it's disgusting.

Look at camille, it's easier to deal with camille as ezreal or cait rather than ashe or miss fortune.. It's easier to deal with ekko with Ezreal

Thats just how it goes, Caitlyn is a perfect example.. Shes so safe that she negates the mobility creep in the game by her playstyle and net.

Incarceration12/22/2016, 12:01:39 AM1 votes

I made a similar post to this, describing how Twitch, Vayne, Caitlyn, and Jhin are dominating the meta while the bot lane itself has the least diversity in terms of supports, classes, adcs, and maybe item diversity.

GinoSoldier12/21/2016, 11:36:07 PM1 votes

Smallest champ pool belongs to Support i believe? Not certain, but pretty sure.