LCS 2021: Evaluating the Champion Pool of LCS Players
By Josh Tyler
Let’s take a deep dive into the champion pool of the LCS players entering the 2021 season.
Mid Lane
Mid is, unsurprisingly, the most diverse role in the LCS in terms of average champion pool size (148 grade). Ironically, we see that the consensus top three mid laners – Jensen, PowerofEvil, and Perkz – are in the second third of LCS players by champion pool size. Again, this is indicative that having a larger champion pool is not the ultimate determining factor of champion skill, but merely a useful tool in evaluating players (and, for clarity, Perkz’s counts are from only the Spring Split where he was the mid laner for G2).
One name who is going to stand out immediately to LCS fans is the recently-retired Bjergsen. Despite having the second-most unique champions picked among all mid laners evaluated, his champion pool was rated towards the bottom of the pack. Even though his four “comfort” champions was in line with the mid lane average, he only had one “core” champion in 2020 that he could be considered as “outperforming” the average mid laner on. Ironically, it was neither his comfort Syndra nor Zilean, but instead it was his unheralded Twisted Fate.
Speaking of Twisted Fate, the Card Master was easily the most common core mid laner in 2020, making an appearance in five mid laner’s core pools. After Twisted Fate, we had four unique champions with three appearances as core mid lane picks: Syndra (Damonte, PoE, Palafox), Azir (Ablazeolive, Perkz, PoE), Zoe (Palafox, Jensen, Nisqy), and Orianna (Palafox, PoE, Froggen).
Once again, a player’s champion pool strength is largely belied by their ability to develop a robust core champion pool. The exception, though, is PowerofEvil, who had among the top “core” champion pools but had literally no other comfort champions outside of his core three of Orianna, Azir, and Syndra.
AD Carry
Unsurprisingly, ADC is the least diverse role in terms of champion pool by every imaginable measure. It has the least unique picks (average of 12 per player), and the smallest overall champion pool (average score of 53).
This is also evident in the number of unique champions within the core pools. Only four champions are featured at all – Ezreal, Aphelios, Senna, and Xayah. Ezreal leads the way with four appearances, while Aphelios is right behind at three.
Curiously, though, the average width of champion pool, aka the comfort champions, is in line with most other roles. In fact, it’s larger than the mid lane and top lanes. This is very likely a reflection of that small overall champion pool for the role, as players don’t often venture out of the strongest top four picks in the ADC role.
Raes is, curiously, the biggest outlier on this list along with Bang, but Bang is very interesting because he is the only ADC with a core champion no one else had in 2020 (Xayah). Another interesting player on here is FBI, who I consider a top-three ADC but had the smallest champion pool of any player by unique champions picked.
Support
Among the supports, we again have two major outliers at the top in Vulcan and the recently-departed Treatz. The still unsigned Zeyzal (I again ask how and why?) has the third-largest champion pool of all those evaluated.
Another notable player in terms of his champion size is reigning MVP CoreJJ, who has one of the smallest champion pools overall. While he has played a lot of unique champions, his core and comfort pools are both below average. He truly seems to be a bit of a jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none player, which is both a good thing (high flexibility, unable to be banned out) and a bad (he doesn’t really excel on any champion or playstyle).
The average champion pool size is an 83, which is in line with the top and jungle roles. Though the average number of unique picks (13) is lower than both roles, supports seem to have a larger comfort pool. It seems that supports have a slightly better balance between finding those comfort picks but also having a larger available pool.
Finally, as far as the core champion pools go, there’s a lot of different champions and no one dominant champion. Braum, Tahm Kench, Nautilus, Rakan, and Yuumi are each featured in the core champ pools of two LCS players.