LoL Worlds 2023’s ADC meta has been defined by 2 champions—but one is the clear queen

Over the last week, multiple games for both the play-in stage and the Swiss stage so far at the 2023 League of Legends World Championship have been decided through the bottom lane. Two powerful AD champions have taken over the meta for marksmen, but only one has risen up as the premier pick in the role.

Xayah and Kai’Sa have been the most-played ADC champions of the event so far, with the former having been played 29 times and the latter 34 times from the start of Worlds until now. Between the two, however, Kai’Sa has been the more available champion for players since she has only been banned five times compared to Xayah’s 16 bans.

Even still, the Rebel has outdone the Daughter of the Void on Summoner’s Rift multiple times over, including six recent matches where they met during the Swiss stage. Overall, Xayah has a whopping 72.1 percent win rate across Worlds through the last 10 days, while Kai’Sa has a lowly 44.1 percent win rate in comparison, according to Liquipedia.

Both champions bring plenty of firepower for multiple different team compositions, and Kai’Sa does bring a unique form of mobility that allows her to engage the enemy backline or chase down fleeing targets if her team begins to sweep through a teamfight. She can become a mid-to-late game menace with her passive damage and can shred through foes with ease—but she lacks a few major components to her kit.

Xayah might not have her own form of engage or chase-down potential, but she has multiple different parts to her kit that are incredibly useful for ADCs who are trying to stay alive as long as possible. She features her own form of crowd control with Bladecaller’s root and can survive any kind of engage with her ultimate ability, Featherstorm.

By providing her own form of peel, Xayah is a perfect champion for professionals who are much more self-sufficient and can take over a teamfight with their pure mechanical skill. Granted, pro League is much more reliant on team play, but it is always good to have a backup plan in case you are surrounded and forced to fend for yourself.