This month, we're right on time. Just a few days after the end of July, we take a look at more than 160 games taken from LCS America, LCS Europe, LPL, OGN, GPL and IEM Shanghai to determine how the pick/ban/win meta changed compared to June.
?A few minor things must be mentioned when comparing the June and July stats. If June's numbers showed a much more fluent distribution in pick rates, here we see a strong polarization between Thresh - who's gone up to almost 85% pick rate up from 55% from June - and everyone else. 50 increments below him is Nami - another support champion and also one that saw a rapid increase in popularity, to 50% up from 20%.
While Thresh's numbers are certainly to nobody's surprise, Nami's ones are, at least compared to previous months. Although Nami was last improved in 3.07 (mid May), only now do support players seem to discover her full potential, and the forgoing of the maxed Ebb and Flow at the expense of more powerful Tidal Blessing has really upped the popularity of the Tidecaller and she's edged out previous go-to supports like Sona.
The same gap between #1 and everyone else can be seen in the top 15 most first picked. If last month we saw Jayce leading the charts, we now have him falled down to fourth place, a somewhat expected decline in desirability considering the nerf to his poking potential that he took with 3.09 in the first weeks of July. As a result, the ambiguity of Elise has helped her climb on top of the hill, leading almost double the runner-ups in Twisted Fate and Threhsh.
Most banned and most contested
Hey, look, Twisted Fate is the most hated champion of the month. This has definitely not happened four times in a row now... (This author plans to copy this opening sentence every time until the situation changes. Let's see how high the counter goes)
Apart from that, the most significant change in the most banned section is the disappearance of Kha'Zix. The alterations to his skill (and more particularly the power adjustment of Void Spikes) in Patch 3.08 removed the big hate target from bug's back, making him much more risky a champion, rather than assassin with foolproof poke. What's even more shocking is how unpopular the champion has become, his contested rate being down to just 3%, down from 44% in June. Since Kayle's fall from grace earlier this year, this is likely the second largest drop in Stats Corner's history in 2013.
In July, we also welcome Lissandra to the top 15 most banned. Extremely popular in the two LCS circuits as well as the GPL, the CC kit of the frost mage has made her scary enough to just barely jump the border and have her featured in this edition of Stats Corner.
Win rates (for champion picked > 15 times)
Lissandra is not only featured in the top 15 most banned, but she's also the highest winning champion for July with 69%. Although her pick rate is significantly lower than those of Elise or Jayce (who take second and third spot with 65% and 63%, respectively) her being picked in 32 matches and winning 22 of them is certainly a factor to be considered.
This is where we point out how the Top 10 graphs in July has almost nothing in common with the June one. Putting the graphs back to back we see that Lissandra and Nunu are the only two champions able to keep a stable win rate and everyone else has seen a more or less dramatic change in win percentages.
The few notable drops in performances are that of Xin Zhao in Evelynn. On first sight, the decrease in win percentages is enormous: Evelynn has gone to 22% down from 60% and Xin Zhao to 33% down from 73%. However, here's the grain of salt with which we must take those numbers. Both champions were picked very few times both in June and July, beating the picked quota requirement by just a few increments. This additionally means that every difference in winnings between June and July will be felt drastically in terms of percentage, but is not something that is necessarily indicative of change in champion's potency.
Where was it played? The games with the rare picks
BKT vs KLH - GPL Summer
CJ Frost vs KT Rolster Bullets - OGN Summer
MVP Ozone vs JAG Falcons - OGN Summer
Curse vs CLG - LCS America
Najin Shield vs SKT T1 - OGN Summer
Coast vs Curse - LCS America
Gambit Gaming vs Fnatic - LCS Europe
Gambit Gaming vs Alternate - LCS Europe
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