The League of Legends Demacia Cup 2019 in the LPL region ended recently and with it comes some pretty interesting statistics. There were 77 champs used across 72 games, which is already interesting. Even more so, 6 of those champions had an 85% or higher pick rate! Their season starts next week, but this should give us a pretty good idea of what champions are going to be used in the Chinese region.

Will these numbers also extend into the Korean region or other parts of the world? That remains to be seen. But today, we’re looking at the LPL. Some of these champs will make sense and some might be a little shocking. So, here’s what we’ve seen!

Nerf Akali Please!

Akali’s strong. I don’t care what you say. Don’t believe me? In the League of Legends Demacia Cup, Akali had a 100% pick/ban rate. She’s the only champion in League of Legends to boast this number. She got banned in all but seven games, and only had one loss to her name. Is that not enough for you? She had an 11 KDA across her played games.

Though Akali did receive a slight nerf in 9.24, the Demacia Cup for League of Legends was played on 9.23. I don’t know that that nerf really did too much to weaken Akali either way. She’s going to see more and more use across the LPL and beyond. That nerf isn’t going to be enough, trust me. Akali’s been good for about if I can remember; admittedly, I’m not a pro, but I stand by it.

Akali’s not the only big name though. Qiyana, Olafk, Ryze, Nautilus and Renekton were major picks. They scale from 87.5% down to 70% presence in matches, in that order. Qiyana and Renekton apparently performed well, but the others (Olaf, Ryze, Nautilus) had negative win rates, and less than 3 KDAs each.

So, what does that tell us? That either these teams aren’t adapting to changes in champions, or they’re sticking to comfort picks for now. These are some of the best League of Legends players in the world, so I’m not banking on it being sheer arrogance. Perhaps these teams are not playing their real new picks.

Another line of thought could be that stronger teams are not banning out those champions, because they’re not afraid of them. Ryze has a better win percentage among the stronger teams, as an example. Playoff teams had a 67% win rate on Ryze, and non-playoff teams had a 0% win rate, so it’s interesting to read that. It’s also important to note that Ryze went 0-6, which is horrific. Qiyana, Renekton and Ryze will probably still see some use, but less so for Olaf and Nautilus. So glad to see Support Nautilus appearing less if I can be honest.

New Champs in the Spotlight

The above list was League of Legends Worlds favorites, but what about new faces? Miss Fortune’s a good example of that. She had the second-highest presence during the League of Legends Demacia Cup, at 96% pick/ban. It’s been several seasons since Miss Fortune was relevant, despite seeing her in so many of my ranked games.

She apparently paired often with Nautilus and Leona, due to their overwhelming ability to peel and tank for the squishy gun-wielder. Combine that with her E (Make it Rain), it’s easier to land skill shots, and set up kills with their massive amount of CC. In the off-season, stacking Doran’s Blades has apparently been the play with her, and has been very successful.

I have a feeling Miss Fortune’s going to be played in very aggressive lanes. But what about newer champions? Let’s talk about Senna, who has yet to see pro play before this. Senna had an 86% pick and ban percentage, split evenly between picks and bans.

Her favored partner was more helpful supports like Tahm Kench. She was an ADC in all her matches but one. Thankfully, Riot has nerfed her soul drop rate on minion kills, but she’s still pretty darn good. We’ll have to see how she functions post-Soul drop nerf. If she’s not any good after that, she’ll fall off. Otherwise, she’s going to retain this amount of pick and ban percent, until she’s buffed again.

One other champion highlighted was Elise. Elise has been low on the must-picks for several years herself, despite being a lot of fun to play. She only had a 55% presence in games as of Worlds, which isn’t very high compared to some other champions. The League of Legends Demacia Cup had her at nearly 75% presence in games, which is a pretty huge change.

The jungle changes could be just what Elise needed to bring her back into relevancy. We should also point out that she had a negative win rate, but that will change once players put more time into her to see exactly what she can do this year. I think the Spider Queen’s going to be back and will really surprise people.

One of the great things about major season changes are the champions that come back out of nowhere and become seriously relevant. It can also make champions become less relevant. That includes Kai’sa, Xayah, and Syndra. There have been some pretty big changes since worlds, such as the Diana update, Yuumi’s changes, dragon nerfs, and the arrival of Aphelios.

It’s going to be very interesting to see what happens in the coming year, once pros start playing on the more recent patches. But for now, I hope people keep being smart and banning Akali out in their games. I don’t care if you’re Gold, Silver, Bronze, whatever. Akali is a monster and needs to be stopped.