The 2022 League of Legends World Championship has featured over 100 unique champions and counting. This increase in champions has made the competition even more spectacular. After eight days of the Worlds 2022 group stage, here are the best champions in each role.
Top Lane: Aatrox
Image: Riot Games
No other champion has stolen the show at Worlds 2022 like Aatrox. The top lane bruiser currently holds the title for the most picked champion at the event with 38 games played in total. Although Aatrox was banned more in the group stage, he still finished with a 65% win rate in 14 games played. One of the things that make Aatrox a top pick at Worlds 2022 is the ease of blind picking him as well as itemization options.
Players at the tournament have gone for the Eclipse which provides Aatrox additional movement speed and shield. The champion’s ability to be a huge side lane threat and a source of pyhsical damage has become much valued at Worlds. DRX’s Hwang “Kingen” Seong-hoon played the most games with Aatrox in the group stage and retained a 100% win rate. He also had his best performance on the champion a 4/0/10 KDA in the game against GAM Esports.
Jungle: Graves
Graves, the Outlaw. Image Credit: Riot Games
While Maokai and Sejuani dominated the jungle during Worlds play-ins, Graves took over during the main group stage. The Marksman offers an option for carry junglers to shine and he is a good pick against heavy attack damage enemies.
Graves recorded a 50% win rate in 18 game played with 61 kills in total. He also had the best early game for junglers as he dominated the first blood and 10 minutes statistics.
Viego is also another jungle champion that performed well in the group stage. He finished the group stage with a 61.5% win rate in 13 games played. He was also poular amongst LPL and LCK teams as they picked the champion more times than any other region.
Midlane: Azir
Azir, the Emperor of the Sands. Image Credit: Riot Games
Heading into Worlds 2022, Azir was tipped to dominate and the champion has done so. No champion was picked as many times (21) as Azir in the main group stage. With an 86.3% presence at Worlds, Azir offers good lane matchup in the early game and team fight damage later on.
The champion’s main strength resides in his sand soldiers and ultimate, Emperor’s Divide. All this makes him a scary champion to play against on the back foot as he can easily decide teamfights with a perfect scoop up of the enemy team.
Furthermore, Worlds 2022 has featured lots of exceptional Azir players with the likes of Chovy, ShowMaker and Humanoid.
Asides, Azir, Sylas deserves a notable mention for his role in the Worlds 2022 group stage. Sylas recorded a 79% win rate in 19 games played and could easily take Azir’s spot as most played mid lane champion soon. Moreover, the champion has a high pick rate among LCK mid laners with Zeka and Chovy winning all games played on it.
Bot lane: Lucian
Lucian, the Purifier. Image Credit: Riot Games
After buffs to Caitlyn and Miss Fortune, Lucian and Aphelios were still the go-to picks in the Worlds 2022 group stage. Despite nerfs to Nami’s E abilitly, players still opted to pick the Lucian-Nami bot lane. Rogue’s bot lane applied this combination in their first round game against DRX and dominated them with it.
Lucian has a 68.8% win rate in 16 games played and 97 kills, the highest for an ADC champion. Asides Lucian, a worthy mention and competitor here is Aphelios. The bot lane champion has several support options even though it works very well with Lulu. Compared to play-ins, Aphelios has seen a significant rise in priority during the group stage. The champion was picked 19 times and finished with a 57.9% win rate. He is also favored amongst LPL and LCK teams. Gen.G’s Ruler won all three games played with the champion in the group stage.
Support: Yuumi
Yuumi, the Magical Cat
The best support champion is none other than Yuumi, the cat everyone either loves or really hate. Despite just playing 6 games in the group stage, it is really had to not to give Yuumi the title. There is even a petition to ban the champion from the game.
Yuumi finished with a 100% win rate in the group stage and has some of the best kill participation statistics despite playing fewer games. Teams like Fnatic who did not ban her suffered dearly for it as she made it impossible for T1 to lose team fights. Moroever, Yuumi would have been played more if she was not banned 41 times, the highest for any champion in the group stage.
Another honorable mention here is Nami. The support was not expected to be in the Worlds 2022 meta but she has found a way to stay. Nami finished the group stage with a 68.8% win rate in 16 games played.
Statistics for this piece were taken from Gol.gg and Oracle’s Elixir.
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