Champions With the Highest Pick & Ban at MSI 2022
The Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) is held between the first and second splits of the regular League of Legends competitive season, with the number one teams of each regional league competing for the title and a share of the prize money. MSI 2022 was a comfortable win for China's Royal Never Give Up (RNG), which took down T1 in an electrifying best-of-five final series. RNG is now the first team to claim its third MSI title and the second consecutive title at that.
With such high stakes at play, teams pulled off incredible plays, thanks to the unique champions and playstyles they have been opting for. MSI 2022 brought about some spicy champion picks that are rather unique to League of Legends pro play including a wild Kalista mid-lane, Ziggs, Karthus APC, Evelynn jungle, and Rumble support.
However, there are also a handful of comfort picks and stable champions that were omnipresent at MSI 2022. These champions defined the meta and forced teams to either ban them or pick them up.
Let us look at some of the staple picks of the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) 2022 and their stats on the Summoner’s Rift. All of the data has been sourced from Game of Legends.
LeBlanc
LeBlanc is a snowball-heavy champion who can solo-carry the game with a few early kills. She hits her power spike at level two with her Q - Sigil of Malice and W - Distortion combo. If played properly, she can chunk down the enemy’s HP in the blink of an eye and create advantages for the team like a true assassin. Pro players highly prioritize this pick since it is highly valuable in the lane and one needs to be mechanically sound to pull off good plays.
Pros like Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok and Rasmus "caPs" Borregaard Winther have been stellar on LeBlanc in this tournament.
After the completion of the MSI 2022 Final, the following are LeBlanc stats:
Presence: 83%
Picks: 15
Bans: 49
Win Rate: 67%
KDA ratio: 3.2
Gwen
Gwen is a top-lane champion who scales very well late into the game. Naturally, she has a weak early game and comes online during the mid-late game phase. Pro players have been picking Gwen into champions like Gangplank at the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) 2022.
Gangplank (GP) gets countered by Gwen because of her W - Hallowed Mist which counters GP’s barrels, Q -Parrrley, and his R - Cannon Barrage. If Gwen plays the lane properly and times her abilities, GP will have a hard time.
T1’s top-laner Choi "Zeus" Woo-je has played both sides of the match-up and has shown prowess against both the champions at MSI 2022. He took down Evil Geniuses’ Jeong "Impact" Eon-young while playing Gwen into GP and GP into Gwen during the Rumble Stage.
Presence: 87%
Picks: 42
Bans: 25
Win Rate: 67%
KDA ratio: 3.3
Wukong
When Riot Games stated that it wanted to bring forth changes to the meta before MSI 2022, it introduced a plethora of changes to Wukong’s kit to make him a prominent jungler. In LoL Patch 12.7, Riot gave his kit buffs in the form of cooldown reduction for his Q - Crushing Blow, and his W - Warrior Trickster. Additionally, Wukong can now go over walls while he is invisible. His E - Nimbus Strike, will now deal an additional 30% damage to monsters and jungle camps, and the ability’s AP ratio is also getting a 20% increase. Riot Games’ intention of making the Monkey King a jungler worked very effectively at MSI since he has an insane clear speed and also has the ability to make or break team fights.
Junglers at MSI including G2 Esports Marcin "Jankos" Jankowski and DetonatioN FocusMe Mun "Steal" Geon-yeong showed the true potential of this champion. In fact, Steal picked up 16 kills on Wukong against Saigon Buffalo in the Group Stage of the tournament, which also happens to be the bloodiest game at MSI 2022 with a total of 62 kills.
Presence: 96%
Picks: 26
Bans: 48
Win Rate: 65%
KDA ratio: 4.5
Lucian
Lucian received significant power spikes in LoL Patch 12.4 and LoL Patch 12.5 in League of Legends which have made him a crucial pick in the bottom lane. Ever since the nerfs to hyper carrier Jinx and Aphelios, players have been opting for other champions including Kalista, Xayah, sometimes Caitlyn, Kai’Sa, and Tristana. The interesting fact about Lucian is that he has been banned the most at MSI 2022. Notably, all the games he was picked resulted in a victory, meaning that he has a 100% win rate.
The following are Lucian stats from MSI 2022:
Presence: 100%
Picks: 3
Bans: 74
Win Rate: 100%
KDA ratio: 4.1
Ahri
Ahri was a priority pick at MSI 2022 since the nine-tailed fox has a 100% presence alongside Lucian at the tournament. She is highly valued because of her roam potential and her ability to take on her lane opponents as well. Once Ahri snowballs in the lane, it becomes really hard to stop her. Pros like Faker, caPs, Li "Xiaohu" Yuan-Hao and upcoming talent like Bùi Hải "Froggy" Minh have shown prowess on Ahri. She is also very strong against mages like Vex in the mid-lane.
Presence: 100%
Picks: 30
Bans: 47
Win Rate: 50%
KDA ratio: 4.6