In the midst of a boring Azir-Corki meta and a stale selection of solo queue top laners, one surprising champion rose up out of nowhere to offer a unique take on how solo lanes should be played. Today, we take a look at the reasons behind Tristana’s sudden spike in popularity.
No rework, no buffs, no new items, yet Tristana has somehow transformed from a barely acknowledged scaling marksman to one of the highest priority solo laners in the present meta. Just halfway through Patch 9.15 and the Yordle Gunner already features amongst the most picked top and mid lane champions in solo queue (2.1% and 2.5%), showing her face in every major region’s competitive leagues over the last two weeks.
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Although Tristana saw some small buffs to AD growth, and W – Rocket Jump damage in the Patch 9.13 notes, it wasn’t until mid-way through 9.14 when she started showing her face throughout solo queue and pro play. Hauntzer, V1PER, Froggen, Jiizuke, and Caps have all tried their hand at this flavour of the month pick with varying degrees of success, inspiring casual players to pick up the champion in the solo lanes during the last few weeks.
So what makes solo lane Tristana so appealing to competitive teams? Why is the priority on this unique pick so high? To find out, we’ve investigated the origins and reasoning behind Trist’s rise to mid lane dominance in the current meta.
Faker: “I believe they were inspired by my footage”
Despite claims that the kid genius, prodigy, and former pro player Joedat “Voyboy” Esfahani was the trigger for the rise in Tristana’s pro play presence for his repeated use of the Yordle in the mid lane, the best League of Legends player of all time believes otherwise. In a recent interview with Ashley Kang for Korizon, Lee “Faker” Sang-hyuk revealed that his Tristana escapades in solo queue could have been the inspiration for the global priority on the unique solo lane pick.
Although Faker may have been joking, it would come as no surprise if this interesting, new strategy originated from the Korean server, as players across the world look towards the historically best region for guidance and to gain an edge in the developing meta. In terms of professional play, solo lane Tristana was first picked by the LEC’s Daniele “Jiizuke” di Mauro for Team Vitality in their victory over Rogue, shortly before 2019 Mid-Season Invitational MVP Rasmus “Caps” Winther utilised her in another crazy G2 Esports draft.
Obviously marksman are no strangers to mid lane action, with the likes of Corki, Ezreal, and Varus all making the transition over to the centre of the map at one point or another, but how has a short-range, scaling AD Carry found herself in the midst of an early game focused mid lane meta?