One jungle champ has now been played in more LCS games in the past 2 days than the last 2 years

After spending two seasons completely on the bench, Elise has grabbed the attention of professional junglers to kick off the 2023 League of Legends season. In the LCS, she was picked for the second time in as many days, eclipsing her entire total from the previous two seasons. 

With TSM jungler Bugi picking the champion yesterday and EG’s Inspired piloting her today, Elise has more selections by LCS players in the last two days than she did throughout the entirety of the 2021 and 2022 seasons. While Bugi was able to find a win with the champion, Inspired and EG were dealt an unfortunate loss after a marathon game.

In major regions (LCS, LEC, LCK, LPL), Elise holds a presence rate of 27 percent with a win-loss record of 8-3 so far this year, according to League stats site Games of Legends. 

Related: Schedule, scores, and standings for the 2023 LCS Spring Split

Across major regions worldwide, Elise had only been picked four times between 2021 and 2022. The only LCS player to play the Spider Queen was Broxah, who won a 2021 Summer Split game with her during his tenure with CLG. This season, Elise has already had 11 picks throughout the major regions. The champion has not been truly relevant in the meta since 2020 when she was a staple in approximately a quarter of all professional drafts. Should Elise keep up her current pick/ban rate throughout the season, she’d be on par to have her most relevant season in three years. 

While Elise and her strong AP damage are certainly valuable in a team comp, beefy, tankier junglers are reigning supreme to kick off the season. The top three champions in terms of pick/ban rate at the jungle position this season are Maokai, Vi, and Sejuani (in that order), according to Games of Legends. 

In almost all of the games that Elise has been picked in so far, teams have compensated by placing a tank in a solo lane, with K’Sante being a popular option for pro squads. When T1 picked Elise in a recent win over Kwangdong Freecs, the team put its tank in the mid lane by placing Faker on Sett.