Gaming
Gaming
Welcome to the Jungle of Worlds 2017
These junglers defined the play-in stage of Worlds.
Now that the play-in stages of Worlds is complete, we’re heading into the real meat of the tournament: the group stages. We’ve already talked about which supports we expect to steal the show, but there’s a second role that has a big impact: the junglers. Junglers have historically played a big role at Worlds, controlling the map and setting up objectives. We’ve also usually seen a "holy trinity" of picks emerge, where three junglers remain hotly contested through picks and bans while the rest fall to the wayside. This Worlds, thanks to the new picks and bans system (and an interesting meta game), we’ve seen 15 picks emerge so far. That’s quite the change, so let’s take a look at which junglers are going to roar onto the group stages and which ones are risky picks that will be avoided as teams battle to make their region proud.
The superstars
Despite the wide variety of picks, we absolutely have seen some champions get priority over others. These are the champions that saw the most play during pick ins.
Sejuani: 14 games
Sejuani’s recent rework cut down the strength of her ult and allowed her to shut down teamfights via her passive and chunk key targets. While she doesn’t have that incredibly satisfying, incredibly easy lockdown anymore, she’s more than just an R bot. More importantly, she’s tanky enough to survive a hectic team fight and get all the way to the back lines, where she can survive while building up stacks of frost on key targets. Sejuani is so powerful because her ability to eliminate targets is tied to her kit, not her stats, so she can build as tanky as she pleases without giving up her ability to do her job. With picks and bans, she’s showing up in 100 percent of drafts. That’s pretty impressive!
Gragas: 17 games
There’s no denying that Gragas is king of the jungle right now, and part of that is because he’s avoiding the bans that are forcibly removing Sejuani from the Rift. The big man has a bit of everything: he can disrupt a teamfight with his body slam and ult, and when he’s in the thick of things he can soak up tons of damage. He rocks a pretty decent gank as well, since his basic kit allows him to dish out barrels and access his mobility even before he unlocks his ultimate at 6. Gragas is the jack of all trades, master of none and that means he can evade the ban and show up as an early pick.
Sejuani and Gragas are both champions with very key strengths that have a strong ability to paper over their weaknesses. They’re versatile and able to answer the enemy team through their own build, and a lot of their power lies in their kit. They also enable their teammates to clean up, either by carrying an Orianna ball or starting a fight that their marksman can finish off. These all rounders are likely going to remain priority picks throughout Worlds.
The ol’ reliables
These heroes aren’t as prevalent as Sejuani and Gragas, but they’re characters we can expect to see pop up again and again in the group stages. They have their own inherent strengths that mean they jive with certain team compositions, even if they’re balanced with weaknesses that make them a little less safe.
Jarvan IV's flexibility makes him a key ban
© Riot Games
Jarvan IV: 7 games
Jarvan IV is an interesting flex pick who we’ve seen come out in top lane, but he’s also capable of rolling in the jungle. His Majesty has a few tricks up his sleeve that allow him to gank efficiency and eliminate carries — specifically, his ultimate and his flag and drag combo. Granted, once he’s in the thick of things, he can sometimes run out of things to do, but that’s where the rest of his team can follow him up. Jarvan is like a more offensive Leona, and the fact that he can flex around counters makes him a valuable early pick. Of course, he’s going to have to survive the ban phase, where he’s getting reliably hit and removed from play.
Rek’sai: 6 games
There’s another member of royalty on this list, and it’s the void burrower. Rek’sai’s recent ultimate rework gives her a long range execute and mark on a target, and most people are going to look at that ... but she also has an AOE knock up on her burrow now, and her vision game remains unparalleled. This makes Rek’sai an alternative to Sejuani: AOE disruption, and single target elimination. She has these tools a little less reliably than Sejuani, but her ability to track the enemy team makes up for that.
The dark horses
We’ve seen these heroes pop up in play-ins, and we’ll likely see them in Groups, but they’re a little less safe and have more weaknesses built in. These junglers tend to be a little more damage heavy and a little less tanky, which means that they can get blown up... or built tank and then sacrifice their potential damage. This choice makes them a little less safe, but they tend to have more early game potential. There’s one exception on this list, and he’s one of League’s latest heroes: Kayn.
Lee Sin: 3 games
Is it even a Worlds if you don’t have Lee Sin in the jungle? Lee has always been a strong pick, and we all remember the amazing Insec kicks and flashy plays that have cleaned up on the Worlds stage before. So far, Lee hasn’t had a chance to shine — he’s only won one of the three games he was picked in. It remains to be seen whether someone will be able to claim him in Groups and recapture the big plays he’s known for.
Nidalee: 4 games
Nidalee has a 50 percent win rate so far across her four games, and her play pattern is as deadly as ever. Land a spear, jump in, and burst for lots of damage. Of course, if the other team has a tanky front line or the ability to blow Nidalee up, this becomes a much more dangerous proposition. Nidalee is always going to be powerful, and her two forms means that her kit is jam packed with ways to be useful, including that heal of hers. However, when teams can coordinate and juke, she can fall behind, especially if there’s a heavy hitting tank like Sejuani or Rek’sai that can eat a spear to the face, smile, and then turn around and return fire just as hard.
Elise: 3 games
Poor Elise! She’s been the alpha jungler a few times since her release, but now she has a 0 percent win rate at Worlds. The appeal to Elise is obvious: she has her cocoon, lots of damage tools, and she can be very slippery with her rappel. Unfortunately, she often has a hard time getting stuff done. Her ability to solo carry off early ganks has been minimized through both balance and meta shifts, and she doesn’t bring utility to a team. She’s a very feast or famine champion, and it remains to be seen whether someone can make her feast on the hopes of Worlds teams in the Group Stages.
Hey, what are you doing here?
© Riot Games
Ezreal: 3 games
If you told someone two years ago that Ezreal would be a more successful jungler than Elise on the Worlds stage, they probably would have slowly nodded and began to look for escape routes. Yet, here we are, in the wild world of 2017. Ezreal first came to prominence in pro play when locked in by Team WE’s Condi, and the pick helped take WE to Worlds. It’s a weird choice, but the recent Mystic Shot buffs make it viable, and Ezreal can now tear through a jungle and then serve as a secondary marksman. Move over, Kindred, there’s another AD carry doing work in the jungle.
Kayn: 1 game
With an accumulated pick and ban rate of just above 12 percent, Kayn is poised to make his mark on the Worlds Championship. He may have a transformation mechanic like Nidalee and Elise, but he has the advantage of getting to choose which one he wants to use. Kayn is an interesting champion, and the community is still figuring him out. Rhaast is often considered a better pick, and Kayn’s kit treads a lot of new ground. There’s a lot of room for the pros to surprise us (and the opposing team) with Kayn. If he gets locked in during Group Stages, it’ll be a very interesting match.
Other jungle travelers
We’ve also seen Graves, Jax, Kha’zix and Maokai picked during the course of Worlds. The play-in stages are complete, the groups are locked in, and teams will begin to compete for the chance to move onto the next round of Worlds. Every role is going to be crucial for a team’s success, but the jungle is especially known to make or break a game. How will picks and bans shift during the next stage of Worlds, and what surprise picks can we expect?
While a few things are dead certain (expect to see Sejuani be a hotly contested pick), there’s still room for teams to surprise us by bringing back an old classic or breaking out a new pick.
