My First Analysis (Please Give Feedback!)

Hi friends. I'm a Gold V player and am currently trying to teach four bronze friends in my college how to play. I created a small guide based on a thorough analysis of the Spring Split of the four popular competitive regions. I'd really appreciate some feedback before I ship it to them. Thanks!

Team Picks: These are champions with high and consistent picks/bans in the LCS (NA and EU), LPL, and LCK series. Some champions are not bad picks, but are situational and/or require extensive experience on the champion. Reasoning behind these champion picks can be found below.

Top: Gangplank, Graves, Poppy, Lulu, Nautilus, Trundle, Rammus, Ryze, Fiora, Ekko, Maokai, Quinn, Dr. Mundo, Kayle, Yasuo, Malphite, Shen, Gnar, Rumble, Olaf, Hecarim

: This champion has not been tested in competitive play since the 6.7 nerfs. She has fallen 27 places in champion.gg’s top lane statistics and therefore should be taken with caution. While she is not necessarily bad, she’s no longer the jack-of-all-trades that made her so dominant in lane. Now she has a kit that offers wide, but mediocre damage and utility that doesn’t necessarily make her a super dominant pick. : This champion can be difficult to play into juggernauts, but he excels due to the massive armor penetration on his Ultimate when played properly into tanks. Due to his high reliance on individual skill and outplay potential, it is advised that only experienced Yasuo players take him in the top lane. Yasuo is only a great team champion when the team is drafted around him for knockups and engages. : Rumble struggles against many of the current meta picks such as juggernauts and hard-to-peel tanks. His damage output and strong teamfight mechanics make him a viable wildcard into some off-meta picks. : Olaf has struggled to keep up with champions who provide utility and damage to the team. He provides plenty of damage and is an unpeelable, unstoppable force with his ultimate. His weak point, however, is in his inability to out-trade some of the other difficult-to-peel champions such as Fiora, Trundle, and Rammus and his less-than-impressive utility brought to teamfights. : Hecarim is by no means a weak pick. He is only red here because he has flown under the radar for the 2016 Spring Split. He still made the list because of his rare appearances in the LCK and LPL and high regards by streamers to make a popular comeback in the near future.

Jungle: Elise, Rek’sai, Lee Sin, Nidalee, Gragas, Kindred, Graves, Rengar, Rumble, Nunu, Udyr, Zac, Nocturne, Dr. Mundo

: Rumble in the jungle has seen competitive play in every region, but has only been successful in a few games. He puts out a lot of damage, has easy clear, and brings one hell of a punch in teamfights. His weaknesses lie in his vulnerability to be counter-jungled and reliance on landing short, narrow skillshots or having his Ultimate for ganks. : This champion has seen popular play in the EU LCS with rare appearances in other regions. While he is not a bad choice due to decent sustain and creative ganks, he does not necessarily play well into the current item meta of tank items and many carries taking items that assist in avoiding his long-cooldown crowd control abilities. : This champion is difficult to judge. He provides a lot of early game damage but often relies on getting fed to be relevant in the late game. He provides great utility and easy ganks with his ultimate but requires skill and the sense to build a tanky assassin to do well due to his inability to easily escape a fight after going all-in.

Mid: Lulu, Gangplank, Corki, Lissandra, Twisted Fate, Leblanc, Ryze, Anivia, Orianna, Syndra, Lux, Zed, Ahri, Viktor, Karma, Zilean, Azir, Varus, Morgana, Kassadin, Vel’koz, Cassiopeia

: Morgana has great utility and AP scaling that makes her a great mid-to-late game champion. What makes her a difficult pick are her very weak autos and necessity to scale up her W to farm well making her susceptible to early-game ganks especially against AP champions who can pop her early spellshield with one high-damage spell. : This champion often has difficulty farming early game. It’s almost mandatory to fall behind in CS to stay safe and scale well into the late game. What puts him on this list is his ability to completely dominate a late game with his extreme split push and teamfight prowess when taking Teleport. : Cassiopeia is a strong teamfight champion whose kit is limited to landing, and continuing to land, her skillshots throughout the teamfight in order to continually pump out damage with her E, Twin Fangs. Two things put her on the red list. The first is the flaw with her current kit. Her damage is so mediocre late game that it is difficult to stay relevant and almost impossible if you cannot find the opportunity to continually land her skillshots. The second issue is her oncoming rework that puts us in a difficult position to judge how viable she will be in the near future.

Bottom/Marksman: Ezreal, Lucian, Kalista, Corki, Sivir, Jhin, Tristana, Caitlyn, Ashe, Kog’maw, Miss Fortune, Vayne

: Like top-lane Yasuo, Kog’maw is too reliant on a team drafted around him to not be mentioned on the red list. He has little mobility and does not build armor penetration until very late game. His w also scales up his attack speed but makes it difficult to kite without losing the DPS that put him so high on the ladder in the first place. : Miss Fortune has not seen competitive play since her E nerfs in any region other than LCK. She is now required to scale up her low-damage slow in order to survive any early game ganks and typically cannot position well enough to consistently damage her lane opponent. She also has an extremely weak 1v1 that all other top-tier marksmen excel in due to her necessity to apply her passive to continually pump out damage. : Vayne has been neglected since the marksman reworks but always has an extraordinary ability to kite and apply true damage with her passive that will quickly dispose of any tank without the ability to recover. She should be taken with caution due to her reliance on making it to late game and her inability to kite some of the more popular tanks such as Trundle. Vayne also requires a decent amount of experience on the champion and a good judgement of when to pull in and out of teamfights with her autos that are much shorter than most of the more popular marksman picks.

Support: Thresh, Braum, Trundle, Alistar, Soraka, Janna, Bard, Poppy, Morgana, Taric : Due to the nerfs, it is unlikely that Poppy will see any other lane other than Top. (see top lane for more notes on Poppy.) : Currently, Taric is extremely situational. He supplies armor shred and tons of armor for his team. This works great if your team or the enemy team has little to no magic damage. However, Taric is a one trick pony of stun, soak damage, stun, soak, etc. With Alistar being such a strong and preferable pick that scales well whether he builds armor or magic resist, it’s difficult to ever want to take Taric over Alistar. However, his rework coming out in 6.8 puts him on this list as a potentially viable pick for the near future. (See “Functional and Stylish” on Taric’s Insight page http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/champions-skins/champion-preview/champion-insights-taric-shield-valoran)