League of Legends: which champions might we see more (or less) of at Worlds?

Mid lane

The mid lane meta had a lot of overlap with the top lane (Irelia, Aatrox, Sylas, Akali, Neeko, Jayce), but also included two champions who fell out of the meta very late into the season (Azir and Corki). Other champions with high pick/ban rations included Qiyana, Twisted Fate, Ryze, Yasuo, and Leblanc, but after that, the meta really opened up.

There really hasn’t been a ton of massive changes to the meta after 9.19 went into effect. Irelia, Akali, Yasuo, and Sylas all remain the most popular champions. Champs like TF and Qiyana also get a fair bit of play. The only champions that seem to be getting a bit more play are Syndra, Camille, and Galio.

I would guess the meta will be more towards melee mids like the Irelia, Camille, Qiyana, and Yasuo. We’ll probably see some Akali and maybe some Ryze and Syndra coming out to match, but in general, I think the mid meta is going to be very scrappy.

Bot lane

The bot lane was largely dominated by Xayah, Ezreal, and Kai’Sa. Champs like Lucian, Sivir, Sona, and Yasuo all made various appearances too, but those three were the biggest priority champions in the role. And throughout boot camp…well that hasn’t really changed.

Despite repeated nerfs, that big three remains the dominant presence in bot lane. I have seen a few games of Lucian pop in here and there. Ashe has gotten a bit more love and there are a few ADs that are also putting some time into Caitlyn. Yasuo also seems to always be lurking around the bottom lane. Otherwise, it’s mainly those three.

Now, there has been a lot of discussion about ADCs spamming games on mages bot lane, mainly Syndra. While I have seen some players putting in more games on Syndra, I think this is likely to be a pocket pick more than a massive meta shift at the moment. My prediction is that Xayah, Ezreal, and Kai’Sa will still be the primary ADCs teams try to take, with Lucian, Cait, and Ashe being the next three up.

Support

Finally, we have support, aka the lane that Yuumi ruined. Along with the Magical Cat, supports like Nautilus, Tahm Kench, Rakan, Braum, Morgana, and Thresh dominated the lane. There were also the less-meta picks like Lux, Pyke, Alistar, Galio, Volibear, and Leona.

Those three most-popular champs – Yuumi, Nautilus, and Tahm Kench – seem to have disappeared from support solo queue accounts. Before we get our hopes up, though, I fear that Nautilus and Tahm are just too powerful in a lot of the team comps that pros like to run to be off the map entirely. However, it is possible that Yuumi could have been knocked out by the nerf hammer.

I have seen a slight rise in the number of supports playing Bard and Blitzcrank. Potentially, those two could end up being niche picks (probably in the Volibear/Leona/Pyke range of pick/ban worthiness), but the rest of the meta probably stays the same.

The League of Legends World Championship kicks off Wednesday, October 2 at 7:00 EST / 13:00 CEST.