The 2021 Mid-Season Invitational has come to a close after Royal Never Give Up’s historic victory over defending world champions DWG KIA. With today’s results, the 2021 professional League of Legends season is officially halfway over.
After thousands of games across the world, the 2021 season is on pace to be one of the most diverse seasons of pro League in regards to the game’s meta. Halfway through the 2021 season, just six champions remain unpicked in professional play, according to League stats site Games of Legends.
Excluding the game’s newest champion, Gwen, who has been disabled on all professional servers since her release last month, only five champions on League’s roster have yet to see play time on the Rift this season: Warwick, Brand, Sona, Master Yi, and Vi.
Even Viego, who has been blacklisted from every competitive region this season thanks to countless bugs in his kit, was played on four occasions in Oceania due to a rule disparity. In fact, the LCO is to thank for many of the fringe picks of the season thus far. Out-of-the-box champions like Amumu, Fiddlesticks, and Yorick, for example, have all been played this season by pros from the Oceanic region.
As for the remaining five champions who’ve yet to see the light of day, it’s unlikely—but not impossible—that they’ll be played in professional games this year. Vi, for example, stands out as an incredibly unfavorable champion. The Piltover Enforcer has been largely sidelined for the last six seasons, only posting a global pick/ban rate above one percent just once in 2016, according to Games of Legends.
Others, such as Sona and Master Yi, stick out because they’re simply outclassed by other champions who can play their position better than them. An enchanter support like Sona can be dropped to the wayside in favor of a more meta champion like Seraphine, who posted a global pick/ban rate of 66 percent this season, while a glass-cannon jungler like Master Yi quickly becomes worthless in the shadow of dominant picks like Udyr and the emergent Rumble.
Now, as the multiple regions of the game’s international scene all take a collective breath and begin to prepare for the Summer Split, the diversifying meta is showing no signs of slowing down. The Mid-Season Invitational brought several memorable picks to the forefront of the game once again, notably including Rumble, Morgana, Lee Sin, and others. Beyond those, though, the 2021 season is bringing more champions than ever to center stage, setting up an enticing meta moving into the second half of the year.
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Published: May 23, 2021 01:56 pm