Worlds 2020: Three Thoughts About the Worlds Play-Ins

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Photo by Zhang Lintao/Riot Games. /

Here are the three biggest surprises, disappointments, and takeaways from the Worlds 2020 play-ins.

Thought#3 – What is the meta?

In the past years, there seemed to have always been must pick/bans at Worlds. At times it was Darius or Aatrox every game, and Akali and Ryze mid, with Kai’sa and Xayah bot.

This year, there is still a meta obviously, but none of the champs seem broken enough to be must-picks or must-bans, and the meta seems a bit more open to interpretation and creativity. Now this will be greatly challenged and will be proven, or disproven once we get to the group stage. Champs like the aforementioned Akali and those like Lucian and Vayne may be more highly contested once the, for lack of a better word, better teams, and more mechanically skilled players are on stage.

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So far, in the top lane, Shen, along with his insanely useful global ultimate, and Ornn have been top picks. Shen has a presence of 55% and a win rate of 67% while Ornn’s ability to play safely and scale with his passive has him sitting at an 87% presence and an insane 91% win rate in 11 games. Camille and Sett are two other picks that are both seeing some love and Sett, especially because of his ability to be flexed in other roles, should continue being picked and or banned.

Nidalee and Graves both boast a presence of 89% and 76% respectively and should continue to be exchanged as either picks or bans as teams look to handshake. Lilia is an interesting case to look at as she has a presence of 87% but she has only 5 wins in 16 games. Her damage output can be insane and her mobility and ultimate make her tricky to play against so expect to see some of the top teams continue to pick her up with the occasional Hecarim and Evelynn popping up.

Orianna has dominated the mid lane during play-ins where she, like Ornn boasts an 87% presence and 91% win rate. She is the only non-flex mid laner with a presence under 50% so it will be interesting to see what the best teams and players in the world lean towards as the tournament goes on.

So far, we have seen Twisted Fate, Syndra, Lucian, Sett, Azir, Galio, Corki, Akali, Zoe, Sylas, Kassadin, and Cassiopeia. Along with the aforementioned Lucian and Akali picks, expect Sylas, Zoe, and Twisted Fate to see more play this weekend.

Bot lane has been an interesting lane because it has been a lot more open than the other lanes. Senna, Ezreal, Jhin, and Ashe are the most common picks but none besides Senna, none of them have a presence of 50% but not many bans in part to teams not really focusing bans on ADS at the moment. Jhin is an interesting pick as he offers hard CC with his W, and can outrange some of the hyper carries. With recent buffs, Vayne and Sivir may be picked up by some of the top ADCs, but for now, the metta seems to favor Ezreal, for his safety, Ashe, for her playmaking, and Senna for the range and utility.

Next. Ranking and Rating All the Mid Laners at Worlds. dark

Leona and Nautilus have the highest presence for supports at 66% and 58% but neither have a win rate over 50%. Alistar has also been a pretty common pick. Besides them, Braum, Thresh, and Tahm Kench should get more looks as the tournament goes on and more teams that look to play around their ADC appear.

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