After four weeks of the LCS, I want to look back and see what has changed throughout the split and compare it to the spring split!  I’ve always found it interesting who was strong during the seasons, who rises and who falls.  The biggest one people think of when they talk about old gods falling to obscurity is Olaf, who also won’t make an appearance in this post (besides this intro).

There are some interesting ones that stuck out to me when I was getting the information for the post.  First we are going to look at the summer split week one and compare it to week four, then compare week four of the summer split to week four of the summer split.

Keep in mind when reading though: Week one of the summer split and week four of the spring split were both super weeks, with 20 games played each and normal weeks have 8 games played each.  Since the super weeks have more games played, they will have more picks, bans and wins as well, so if you were looking to compare them from week to week, you should look at the percentages (as I did).  They are more accurate, seeing how they are relative to the amount of games played.

Out with the Old…

At the start of the summer split, we started on the patch 3.7, right before the Nunu buffs and the Kha’Zix nerfs.  These balance changes are noticeable in these two champions in particular, but in other cases, there are no real documented changes, but they just seem to drop off in recent weeks.

Kha’Zix

Summer Week One – 15 bans (75%), 5 picks (25%), 5 wins (100%), picked or banned in 100% of games!

Summer Week Four – No bans, No picks

This is a massive drop off.  On patch 3.8, Kha’Zix had a change in how his W – “Void Spikes” works.  It no longer applies his passive “Unseen Threat”.  This means it no longer applies bonus magic damage and a 25% aoe slow.  To compensate, Riot gave his W at flat 20% slow that doesn’t consume the passive (so the slow was reduced by 5%) and his Q – “Taste Their Fear” was buffed to give 45% isolation bonus and 8% missing health damage when evolved.  These changes make top and jungle Kha’Zix amazingly strong, the overpowered mid assassin with poke is now gone.

Kennen

Summer Week One – 10 bans (50%), 9 picks (45%), 4 wins (44.4%), 95% Pick/Ban

Summer Week Four – 2 bans (25%), 1 pick (12.5%), 0 wins (0%), 37.5% Pick/Ban

Ryze

Summer Week One – 11 bans (55%), 7 picks (35%), 5 wins (71.4%), 90% Pick/Ban

Summer Week Four – 0 bans (0%), 3 picks (35%), 2 wins (66.7%), 37.5% Pick/Ban

These two… I don’t know where they went.  Maybe it’s the “omg Koreans use them!” thoughts that worn off on the profession teams in North America, but there were no balance changes to these champions.  Ryze, at least, still has a similar win rate to week one, but both champions are not highly picked or banned anymore.

… and In with the New.

Draven

Summer Week Four – 2 bans (25%), 6 picks (75%), 4 wins (66.7%), 100% Pick/Ban!

Summer Week One – 2 bans (10%), 8 picks (40%), 5 wins (62.5%), 50% Pick/Ban

Draven has a nice showing on week one day one with a 100% win rate but it didn’t last for very long.  Now though… 100% picked or banned for an ADC with a 66.7% win rate is pretty crazy.  He still isn’t used in Europe very much, where Varus is dominant, but I think Draven will dominate North America until he gets nerfed.  I mean, even Doublelift used him, so all other carries are trash.

Nunu

Summer Week Four – 8 bans (100%)

Summer Week One – 1 ban (5%), 1 pick (5%), 0 wins (0%), 10% Pick/Ban

I wish I could give some more stats from Nunu. 100% banned speaks for itself but I want to see someone use him and destroy people.  In the Korean OGN, Nunu wasn’t highly sought after.  They went for a lot of Lee Sin and Elise over Nunu.

Some gods fall…

Please note that Week 4 of the Spring Split was a super week, while only 8 matches were played in the most recent Week 4 in the Summer Split.

Kayle

Spring Week Four – 16 bans (80%), 4 picks (20%), 100% Pick/Ban

Summer Week Four – 2 bans (25%), 0 picks (0%), 25% Pick/Ban

Shortly after spring week four, Kayle was heavily balanced.  Her magic resistance per level was removed, her Q – “Reckoning” no longer gave her damage amplification and the slow duration was reduced by one second.  Later down the line, her E – “Divine Blessing” and her ultimate “Intervention” had their cast ranges reduced to 900 from 1000 and 1200 range respectively.  You use to be able to cast her ultimate from off screen to save someone.

Xin Zhao

Spring Week Four – 6 bans (30%), 12 picks (60%), 7 wins (58.3%), 90% Pick/Ban

Summer Week Four – 0 bans (0%), 2 picks (25%), 0 wins (0%), 25% Pick/Ban

Jarvan IV

Spring Week Four – 2 bans (10%), 15 picks (75%), 8 wins (53.3%), 85% Pick/Ban

Summer Week Four – 0 bans (0%), 3 picks (37.5%), 2 wins (66.7%), 37.5% Pick/Ban

Both Xin and Jarvan had their damage reduced.  Jarvan also had his armor aura from his flag removed.  Even though this didn’t destroy either of them, it did pave way for Lee Sin, Nunu, Elise, Sejuani and Nautilus.  Jarvan is still used a lot in the jungle, being picked in 3 of the 8 games for summer week 4, but either way, they still aren’t at their peaks.  The start of season 3 was nice for the both of them, but they have fallen off since then.

Nidalee

Spring Week Four – 9 bans (45%), 7 picks (35%), 3 wins (42.9%), 80% Pick/Ban

Summer Week Four – 1 ban (12.5%), 0 picks (0%), 12.5% Pick/Ban

Nidalee’s biggest change was the armor and magic resistance removal from her ultimate “Cougar Form”.  Really nothing else changed in her.  The biggest thing that kicked Nidalee out of professional play (speaking of today’s pro scene) is Jayce.  Jayce does everything Nidalee did back in the day.  The difference is that Jayce is AD verses Nidalee’s AP.  Just like Nidalee, Jayce can poke and all in, and the icing on the cake is that Jayce’s ultimate, just like Nidalee’s ultimate, gives him armor and magic resistance in hammer form!  Riot pls, I want my Nidalee back!

… and Others live on.

Twisted Fate

Spring Week Four – 13 bans (65%), 4 picks (20%), 3 wins (75%), 85% Pick/Ban!

Summer Week Four – 4 bans (50%), 4 picks (50%%), 1 win (25%), 100% Pick/Ban!

Elise

Spring Week Four – 3 bans (15%), 9 picks (45%), 6 wins (66.7%), 60% Pick/Ban

Summer Week Four – 2 bans (12.5%), 6 picks (75%), 3 wins (50%), 100% Pick/Ban

As I mentioned before, Elise is very strong in Korea.  A lot of teams have picked Elise up as a top laner or in the jungle to replace their Xin or Jarvan picks.  TheOddOne, the only one I can remember off the top of my head, loves to run her in the jungle this split.  Cloud9 also like running her with the triple penetration into tanky build.  Twisted Fate is still a champion that North America still hasn’t picked up Twisted Fate, and if they have, it’s no where near the level of Europe or Korea or China.  They both were recently toned down, both getting ultimate nerfs, but they are still prevalent in all regions!