State of the pro meta: Malzahar has arrived, melee supports are back

Each week, Gamesoflegends.com tallies which champions were picked the previous week in competitive League of Legends, spanning domestic leagues in South Korea, China, North America and Europe. It’s a fantastic resource that helps give a clearer picture of where the pro meta stands as a whole.

This week was the second of pro play Patch 6.13, and while the meta continues to evolve we saw mostly the same group of champions as last week. There was one major shift, however: Teemo was played twice in Korea after accidentally being locked in.

In the top lane, the top four of Trundle, Shen, Irelia and Gnar remained constant, but Gnar saw the biggest gains (up to 40 games from 29 last week). Gangplank, Tahm Kench and Illaoi also saw more play, while AP top laners Lissandra, Taliyah and Swain dropped in favor of Rumble.

In the jungle, Gragas, Rek’Sai, Elise and Nidalee remain the top priority picks, but we saw more Olaf this week and a lot less of Kindred. Hecarim and Graves were picked pretty often, too, and you can split up the jungle pool into three categories: tanks (Gragas/Rek’Sai), AP carries (Elise/Nidalee) and AD carries (Hecarim/Olaf/Graves).

Malzahar finally made his way into the group of S-tier mid laners, moving up from just two games played at the position last week to 22 this week. He was particularly popular in China and Korea, but has started to se more play in North America and Europe as well.

Utility AD Carries still rule in the bottom lane, but Lucian is rising in priority once again. Meanwhile, the support pool was exactly the same as last week, but the meta is starting to shift back to melee supports: there was much more Alistar played (up to 26 from 15 games played) and considerably more Trundle and Taric.

Here’s this week’s numbers, over 86 total games:

Gamesoflegends.com

Top lane:

Total unique champions: 22 (up two from last week)

S-tier: Gnar (40 games), Shen (22), Irelia, (21), Trundle (21)

And then: Gangplank (13), Rumble (10), Maokai (9), Jax (8)

New: Illaoi (4), Teemo (2), Kennen (1), Malzahar (1), Poppy (1), Jarvan IV (1)

Gone: Renekton, Swain, Taliyah, Riven

Jungle:

Total unique champions: 10 (down one from last week)

S-tier: Gragas (47 games), Rek’Sai (44), Elise (30), Nidalee (15, 32 bans)

And then: Hecarim (12), Olaf (11), Graves (9)

New: Nocturne (1)

Gone: Kha’Zix, Nunu

Riot Games

Mid lane:

Total unique champions: 18 (down four from last week)

S-tier: Viktor (31 games), Azir (28), Malzahar (22), Vladimir (21), Ryze (16, 23 bans)

And then: Karma (11), Cassiopeia (9), LeBlanc (6), Varus (6), Taliyah (5), Kassadin (5), Twisted Fate (4)

New: Ekko (1), Gangplank (1)

Gone: Zed, Swain, Lulu, Fizz, Ahri, Yasuo

AD Carry:

Total unique champions: 10 (down one from last week)

S-tier: Sivir (55 games), Ashe (33), Lucian (32)

And then: Jhin (23), Ezreal (15)

New: None

Gone: Jinx

Riot Games

Support:

Total unique champions: 13 (same as last week)

S-tier: Braum (55 games), Karma (30), Alistar (26)

And then: Bard (16), Trundle (12), Thresh (10), Taric (8)

New: None

Gone: None