State of the pro meta: The Kench has been unbenched

Each week, Gamesoflegends.com tallies which champions were picked the previous week in competitive League, 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 was the first week with competitive games played on Patch 6.15, and the pool of teams was slightly different, too. With the regular season over in multiple regions, LCS matches this week were best-of-fives between lower-tier LCS teams and top-tier Challenger teams. That skews the champion selection a little bit towards the preferences of those specific teams.

The pool in the top lane reduced significantly, from 23 champions down to 16. Ekko and Gangplank continue to gain more priority, but Gnar and Shen remain the top-tier picks. In the jungle, the pool was also reduced, and still heavily favors Gragas, Rek’Sai and Hecarim (with a lot of Nidalee bans).

At mid lane, there was actually an increase in champions played. Malzahar and Vladimir dominated the week, but pocket picks like Anivia, Pantheon and Lux made appearances.

At AD Carry, Jhin, Sivir and Ashe remain the top three picks, but there was a big increase in priority on Twitch, especially as a Sivir counter. Supports continue to trend towards tanks, and Tahm Kench saw a meteoric rise to the top of the support leaderboard for the week.

The recent buffs to Tahm Kench made his ultimate ability a more reliable tool of roaming, and teams around the world have been using it as an engage tool. Couple that with his ability to save a certainly dead ally by just plopping them in his stomach, and it’s easy to see why he’s become such a popular pick.

Here’s this week’s numbers, over 79 total games:

Top lane:

Total unique champions: 16 (down seven from last week)

S-tier: Gnar (32 games), Shen (27), Ekko (26), Gangplank (23)

And then: Rumble (12), Maokai (8), Trundle (7)

New: Swain (1)

Gone: Lissandra, Yasuo, Vladimir, Akali, Teemo, Hecarim, Sion, Jarvan IV

Jungle:

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

S-tier: Gragas (47 games), Rek’Sai (45), Hecarim (27, 27 bans), Nidalee (5, 31 bans)

And then: Elise (13), Graves (9), Lee Sin (7)

New: Malzahar (1)

Gone: Rumble, Sejuani, Kindred, Rengar, Mordekaiser

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Mid lane:

Total unique champions: 28 (up eight from last week)

S-tier: Vladimir (23 games, 44 bans), Malzahar (18 games, 53 bans)

And then: Viktor (17 games), Karma (14 games), Lissandra (12 games)

New: Anivia (3), Ahri (3), Corki (1), Morgana (1), Ziggs (1), Pantheon (1), Diana (1), Orianna (1), Sona (1), Lux (1)

Gone: Vel’Koz, Kayle

AD Carry:

Total unique champions: 9 (down two from last week)

S-tier: Jhin (41 games), Sivir (36)

And then: Ashe (29), Lucian (23)

New: Urgot (1)

Gone: Kalista, Caitlyn, Vayne

Riot Games

Support:

Total unique champions: 13 (down three from last week)

S-tier: Tahm Kench (25), Trundle (25), Alistar (22), Braum (21), Karma (17)

And then: Taric (12), Thresh (10), Bard (9), Soraka (8)

New: Annie (1)

Gone: Sona, Lulu, Leona, Sion