Riot decided to go with the live patch for the League of Legends LCS Super Week, and for the most part it didn’t have a huge impact on the matches. There were really only two pig effects of this decision. For anyone who missed a match during Super Week, I’ll try not to spoil the endings.
Major Effects:
There are really only two big changes to the matches in response to the live patch competitive play. The first change was the massive decrease in Kassadin bans. Kassadin’s damage nerf at end game changed how teams viewed him as a theat. This enabled Kassadin to finally get some play from Shiphtur, Hai, and Voyboy. These matches revealed just how weak Kassadin is early game, and how much harder you have to work to get him going.
The other major change was the early acquisition of Gold generation items from supports, primarily with the Spellthief’s Edge. Spellthief’s Edge saw its way into starting builds in 13 of the 16 games, many of which in the hands of Morgana support. With the changes to Spellthief’s Edge, the bottom lanes seemed a bit more aggressive.
Minor Changes:
Thanks to the effectiveness of Doran’s Shield being lowered a bit, the top lane opened up some to some different options. Between the Gragas, Ryze, and Jayce picks by top laners, some of the teams saw a few unusual bans come in. In almost every Dignitas game, Soraka received a ban.
Doran’s Shield:
While some players opted to continue with the Doran’s Shield start, there were a few instances of a Cloth Armor start instead. There were still quite a few Doran’s Shields in play though, so not a huge change of pace from what could have been a massive change.
Champions:
Yasuo saw no action this weekend, and no bans as well. Gragas and Kha’Zix weren’t really affected much during picks and bans. Ryze saw the one appearance from Nien after his minor changes, lengthening his Overload’s range and increasing his base health. There wasn’t a Vel’Koz appearance though, new champion that saw no action at all this week in-game or in picks/bans.
Overall, there wasn’t a whole lot out of the ordinary this week. This is quite opposite of what I expected, so the 4.3 patch didn’t change much on the League of Legends pro scene.
