The competitive League of Legends support meta is incredibly healthy just three weeks into the 2022 season. So far, 31 different champions have already been selected at the support position in major region games, according to League stats site Games of Legends.
Only two patches have played host to professional games this season: Patch 12.1 and Patch 12.2. Across those brief windows, League’s best support players around the globe have expanded the bounds of what champions are and aren’t “meta.” From enchanters to engagers and frontline tanks, pro League’s support landscape is the most diverse it’s been in quite some time.
At the back-end of last season, the 2021 World Championship saw only 17 support champions picked during that tournament’s main event. In fact, only 37 individual support champions were selected all of last season in major regions—from the beginning of the Spring Split all the way to the final game of the World Championship, according to Games of Legends. Professional League players only need to pick six more unique champions at the support position to catch up to last year’s diversity numbers.
Champions including Zac, Sejuani, and Amumu (among others) were picked by support players at some point in 2021 but not yet in 2022. To compensate, champions that have been picked this year but not during last season at the support position include Zyra, Sona, and Singed.
So far this year, Leona is the most popular support in terms of overall picks. The Radiant Dawn has been selected in 82 major region games in 2022, according to Games of Legends. But Thresh holds an edge over Leona in overall pick/ban presence, appearing in 66 percent of all champion selects in major region games this year compared to Leona’s mark of 43 percent.
Two of the four major regions—the LCK and LPL—have no games scheduled this week. Western leagues will have the opportunity to continue to expand the support meta when professional games resume in the LEC and LCS on Feb. 4 and 5, respectively.
Published: Jan 31, 2022 03:35 pm