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Meet the champions that dominated at this year’s Mid-Season Invitational
These four champions changed the game at this year’s Mid-Season Invitational – but just how exactly did they dominate?
The Mid-Season Invitational sees the best League of Legends teams from all around the world go head-to-head in intense competition between the Spring and Summer Splits. This year’s tournament saw history made with European organisation G2 Esports crowned the winners after a dominating 3-0 victory over North America’s Team Liquid.
In the run-up to the finals, we saw the emergence of new regions, the rise and fall of the current World Champions and western teams coming to the forefront. The games provided us with crazy upsets, heartbreaking loses, base races and even pentakills. Of course, it’s not just the pros who made that happen – it was the champions that the pros picked that truly made the magic happen on-stage. So who were the champs that dominated the state of play, and what made them so strong? We dive in to the game-changing picks that made this year’s event one to remember.
Sylas
Sylas was, indeed, unshackled at MSI
© Riot Games
In the months leading up to MSI, the state of Sylas was unclear, the champion had received a global disable due to multiple game breaking bugs. Most notably was that Sylas’ W spell had been gifting players advanced health regen on the final blow. However, as one of the most contested picks at the tournament, with an incredible 100 percent pick and ban ratio during the main event, Sylas was unshackled just in time.
So what makes Sylas such a sought-after pick? Well, look no further than ‘Hijack’, Sylas’ ultimate ability. The spell allows Sylas to literally hijack a targeted enemy ultimate, allowing him to then cast their ability just as they would.
SK Telecom T1’s Lee ‘Faker’ Sang-hyeok showcased Sylas’ ult in all its glory during the semi-finals against G2 Esports. During a 5v5 team fight in the mid lane, Faker took full advantage of G2’s grouped position and used Gnar’s ult which he had hijacked seconds earlier. The ultimate was a game-changing play which saw SKT instantly pick up four kills.
Continually throughout the tournament, including the grand final, Sylas’ strength was shown. Rasmus ‘Caps’ Winther opted to take Sylas in game two against Team Liquid’s Nicolaj ‘Jensen’ Jensen who was on Akali. His assault started out slow, however, against a team with Ashe, Kennen and Braum, it was only a matter of time before he started hijacking their ults. Caps, who was named MVP of the series, ended the game with an impressive 10/1/6 KDA and a fully stacked Mejai's Soulstealer. With such a versatile ultimate, there’s no doubt we’ll see Sylas’ popularity in competitive play continue to rise, and we can’t wait to see how teams play him in the upcoming Summer Split.
Neeko
The Curious Chameleon was a shifty pick at MSI
© Riot Games
Despite the Curious Chameleon only being introduced to Summoner’s Rift last December, Neeko has been an increasingly important competitive pick. Much like her shapesplitter ability, Neeko can be taken in two different directions – and that she was at MSI.
First up, with on-hit Neeko, this sees the player opt for an Attack Damage build complete with the Press the Attack rune. Usual item build includes a Blade of the Ruined King, Guinsoo’s Rageblade and Guardian Angel for ultimate survival on pressing ult. The core advantage lies within her shapesplitter passive which deals extra magic damage with every third auto-attack. Stacking attack speed with items like Guinsoo’s Rageblade allows for deadly auto-attack damage and takes advantage of her mixed damage output.
On the other side, there’s Attack Power Neeko, which is seen as the more traditional build and includes players opting for the Glacial Augment rune. Complete with Hextech GLP-800 and Twin Shadows, it's nearly impossible for enemies to negate the endless slows she dishes out.
Overall, both builds are incredibly viable and allow versatility as you can rotate Neeko between the mid lane, top lane and even the bot lane. This pick is definitely not going away anytime soon.
Showcasing AP Neeko, G2’s Martin ‘Wunder’ Hansen landed a perfectly timed Tangle-Barbs during a siege fight which saw Team Liquid immobilised – G2 then took full advantage. While up to this point, Wunder had a 1/1/1 KDA, it's important to note how one play can start a game-ending fight.
Elsewhere, Invictus Gaming’s Kang ‘TheShy’ Seung-lok showed Neeko’s strength in the lane when he dominated Team Liquid’s Jung ‘Impact’ Eon-yeong who was playing Kennen. TheShy had a consistent twenty minion advantage over Impact leaving him retreating behind his tower. You definitely shouldn’t underestimate Neeko.
Pyke
The Bloodharbor Ripper lived up to his nickname at MSI
© Riot Games
Hailed as G2’s pocket pick, Pyke became integral to the newly crowned Mid-Season Invitational champions throughout the tournament. First picked during the group stage against SKT, G2’s Wunder performance turned heads. Why had no-one picked this champion before?
Due to Pyke’s abilities, he’s seen a risky pick, however, Wunder seemly prove that with high risk comes high reward. During a back-and-forth team fight, his team enabled him to secure three kills and he was instantly back in the game, going from 0/2/2 to 3/2/2 in a matter of minutes. Additionally, Pyke’s ultimate, Death from Below, not only grants the champion a kill but also gifts an assisting ally kill gold. Not only was Wunder now ahead of his enemy top laner, but his whole team was reaping the rewards. All of SKT’s early-game work was now undone.
G2 continued to utilise Pyke in both the Semi-Finals and Grand Final where both games gained a victory for the team. G2 showcased their ability to take risks, which could ultimately be seen as the deciding factor for their success at the MSI.
Rakan
Rakan made waves at MSI
© Riot Games
Known as The Charmer, Rakan was first introduced as part of The Lovers Botlane complete with Xayah back in 2017. Since then, both champions have been played at every single competitive event – and usually together.
While optimally picked together due to their unique interactions, Rakan’s abilities also offer strength paired with any other ADC. During MSI’s main event, Rakan was noted to have a 47.6 percent pick/ban rate where Xayah only had 28.6 percent. We saw teams opting for champions like Varus and Kai’Sa to pair with Rakan instead.
However, it was G2’s botlane duo, Perkz and Mikyx who showed why The Lovers are the ultimate pairing. During the Grand Final, they showed dominance by securing first blood in both games the champions were picked together.
On an interesting side note, iG’s Wang ‘Baolan’ Liu-Yi who selected Rakan as his World Championship skin after their victory in 2018, achieved a 100 percent champion win rate throughout MSI. Despite losing to Team Liquid in the semi-finals, the one game iG managed to retain included Baolan on Rakan, showcasing that he really can help turn the tide of battle.
