What you missed from LEC Summer Week Two – League of Legends

Another week of League of Legends EMEA Championship Summer games are in the books, and with that in mind, here are some of the biggest thoughts we gleaned from the match-ups.

The terrible trio was even worse this week

The trifecta of Milio, Yuumi and K’Sante, torment metas worldwide and were even stronger this week, with all three champions having a 100% pick/ban percentage. Interestingly, many teams seemed happy enough to let K’Sante go through the draft after preparing counterpicks with varying degrees of success. Renekton remained a handshake pick with mixed results, and Gwen emerged as a counter with a combined KDA of 8/4/8 vs. K’Sante over two games (1W1L).

For the most part, the game’s most powerful wizards went hand-in-hand in pick/ban, with draft trades with support or ADC-focused ban patterns. If one was passed on, both would be, and usually so were bans. When he was free, Milio was the first choice, but this often resulted in a matchup of Yuumi / Aphelios or Zeri in the weaker-ADC stronger-support combination of Milio / Jinx.

This is not to say that Jinx is weak in this meta, because when combined with Milio, the champion can fire missiles from an absurd range and do enough splash damage to steal a Baron (as shown by Carzzy D3G2).

Backup supports picks tend to engage tanks

With Milio and Yuumi being banned frequently, the LEC seems to only really appreciate Lulu as another wizard choice in the meta, with engage supports like Rakan, Leona and Nautilus being drafted frequently this week.

With a heavy emphasis still on the ADC role, champions capable of peeling for your player and making successful picks on the enemy are seeing a resurgence, despite polishing enchanter items. Excel’s Limit in particular had success with these types of support picks this week.

G2 are back to cooking, and it smells good

Following a reliance on a Lucian Nami duo that was quietly absent from this week’s pick/ban, G2 showed off a new and dangerous bot lane duo this weekend. Picking the scalable, long-range DPS machine that is Kog’Maw with a Braum to protect it, G2 often fell behind in the early game this week, but always came out on top in the late game.

As with many champions who benefit from Guinsoo’s Rageblade, Kog’Maw lacks mobility, but when left unchecked, he has almost unmatched attack speed, which pairs excellently with Braum’s passing. Able to find engages from range, get loose with his ultimate and protect Kog’Maw outright from damage, Heart of the Freljord is the perfect combination for this DPS monster in both the early and late game. Hans Sama finished the week with a KDA of 9/1/5 over two games on the counter.

Mid laners everywhere rejoice as they can play mages again

Following the mixed success – but constant threat – that Neeko delivered in week one, teams experimented with mid lane picks during week two, with Syndra and Azir emerging as the go-to champions.

Syndra provides phenomenal burst damage and widespread crowd control with her abilities, as well as being able to break through presidential-style team compositions with well-timed use of her high damage, point and click ultimate ability.

Azir, on the other hand, has a weaker laning phase, but significantly stronger scaling. Azir is capable of independently peeling off and laying down as much damage as any ADC in late-game teamfights, and works well as a secondary magic damage point in the bot lane centric meta.

Neeko is also still present in the meta, and had two particularly good showings this week. Despite not being able to find a win, Nisqy put on a masterclass as Neeko in D2G5, notably using Yuumi to find a phenomenal disguised roam bot at 6:35. Video’s Neeko was impressive in D3G1, with a score line of 4/0/5 and a gold lead of over 4000 by the end of the match. Excellent for providing crowd control and fear to the enemy team, Neeko is an interesting choice let down by his poor scaling in the late game.

Larssen takes the ADC-centric meta and runs with it

Larssen decided that one ADC wasn’t good enough and pulled out his pocket pick of Tristana not once, but twice this week. With a combined KDA of 12/1/8 over two games, it’s safe to say Larssen looked menacing on the Yordle Gunner. Despite only being able to pick up one win, I wouldn’t be surprised if this gets pulled back and possibly develops into a flex pick for Comp.

When a Maokai falls in the jungle….

The jungle meta continued to evolve this week, marking a departure from some of the diversity shown at MSI 2023, with crowd control tank/bruiser picks such as Maokai, Sejuani and Wukong extremely prevalent.

Able to effectively get into the front lines, find engages and disengages and bully lanes into ganks, it is likely that we will see more of these exceptionally useful picks as the split progresses. With some like Sejuani and Amumu even able to take advantage of buffed support items, expect more big ults, big engages and big teamfights in the LEC and worldwide.

Iron Ambassador disables dash-heavy compositions

Poppy, the heavily armored Yordle with the oversized hammer, was an outlier in the LEC this week. Many teams in the league picked up on the stifling power of this pick, both in the game and in the draft. Although it can be difficult to counter (such as G2’s Trundle pick vs. VIT D1G4), Poppy found a significant amount of success in week two, with irritatingly powerful front lining options and the ability to shut down any dashes.

When drafted early, Poppy forces the opposition to rethink their composition and avoid getting too heavy – this eliminates some of the strongest picks in the meta (think K’Sante, Ahri, Wukong, Sejuani) who all depend on dashes. A perfect protect-the-president tool, we will no doubt see a lot more of it in the LEC.

Fnatic’s advance continues

Far removed from their form in the previous two splits, Fnatic swept away a 3-0 weekend to place emphatically in the group stage. Noah and Razork remain the standouts on the roster, but the entire team seems to understand the meta and their roles within the compositions laid out to perfection. In favor of utility mages in the mid lane, their reading is slightly different from other teams, but no less successful.

Noah went deathless in week two, with a combined KDA of 15/0/23 over three games, and Razork was everywhere his team needed him, with Trymbi’s presence clearly easing the burden of shooting and allowing him to focus on his gameplay. A crucial playmaker, Razork hit 500 LEC kills this week and had a combined KDA of 15/6/28, putting out a surprising Mumu pick (D3G5) that looked excellent.

Excel finds their style and reverses their split

After an 0-3 first week, the pressure was heavy for Excel, who bombed out of the previous two splits. Their revamped roster, with Abbedagge and new pickup Peach, seemed to be headed in the same direction, but things took a dramatic turn. Just in time for Odoamne’s 500th LEC match, Excel eliminated frontrunners Team Heretics, split favorites BDS and reigning champion MAD Lions to secure a 3-0 tie.

Taking to heart the “protect the president” play style in the meta, Excel drafted frontline choices for the top lane, jungle and supporting roles in all three of their games. With a huge amount of health to burn and crowd control to put down, Patrik and Abbedagge were able to step up and carry their team to victory with mixed physical and magical damage carriers, respectively.

Patrik found success at Xayah with a combined KDA of 11/3/16 over two games, as well as a standout Draven game where he achieved a KDA of 11/3/4. Abbedagge looked monstrous on Azir with a combined KDA of 14/6/23 over three games.

Standings: