League of Legends, at its core, is a team-based game. With five different people, acquaintances or not, spread out in the different roles of the meta, they battle all for the main objective of destroying the enemy Nexus. To do this, champions are the players’ main asset in achieving the desired Victory screen.

Hypothetically speaking, every champion can win a game of League of Legends, even at the high levels of play. Realistically, however, there are champions that are better favored and have an easier time garnering more than 50% win rates.

At the highest levels of competitive play, pros will use the best of the best champions to achieve results. Now that most of the Spring Split has concluded at this time, let’s take a look at some of the most used champions across the 2020 LCS, LEC, LCK, and LPL Spring Split.

We’ll examine only champions with more than 100 games played, to have a reliable sample size for the numbers involving win rate, kill/death/assist ratio, and kill percentage.

Top Lane

Aatrox: 330 games played, 48% win rate, 2.6 KDA, 55.2% kill participation

Ornn: 273 games played, 51% win rate, 3.3 KDA, 63.1% kill participation

Sett: 201 games played, 54% win rate, 2.6 KDA, 58.1% kill participation

Renekton: 167 games played, 53% win rate, 2.9 KDA, 56.4% kill participation

Mordekaiser: 122 games played, 43% win rate, 1.9 KDA, 56.0% kill participation

Top lane is an isolated lane with immediate access to Rift Herald. Being the subject of buffs for the couple of patches in Season 10, top laners gained some agency for their games by transitioning their leads. In order to get those leads, champions who are capable of fighting one-on-one and dealing with the occasional jungle ganks find a home in this island.

What’s common between these five champions? They’re all bruisers who are able to hold their ground in the early game, as well as have good teamfighting setups for the later skirmishes. When needed, they can splitpush at a decent level without sacrificing their champion identity and team synergy.

The best teamfighters in this roster are Aatrox, Ornn, and Sett who are able to initiate a teamfight and take several blows for the team, either through sustain, powerful shields, or pure resistances. They also have a pretty good early game due to their kits as well, especially Ornn who can trade like your typical bruiser despite being a tank.

Renekton is the premier lane bully of the top lane, and his job is simple: dominate the early game and delay the scaling of whoever he matches. His raw damage and sustain is suited for this goal with one caveat: he scales horribly into the late game. At elite play, professionals know well not to let games linger for too long; otherwise, they suffer a coin flip between victory and defeat. Renekton therefore thrives in pro play when a team is oriented to win games through early dominance.

Mordekaiser possesses the aforementioned characteristics, yet is an outlier in terms of his winrate. This is because he is no longer as effective compared to his release stats. The value teams can get from Mordekaiser’s Realm of Death (R) is massive, because it can buy time for his team to eliminate picks without the disturbance of one other enemy. This ability alone is unique, and is why he still sees some love at pro play.

Jungle

Jarvan IV: 280 games played, 49% win rate, 3.5 KDA, 83% kill participation

Lee Sin: 263 games played, 45% win rate, 3.1 KDA, 69.6% kill participation

Trundle: 178 games played, 58% win rate, 4.3 KDA, 73.5% kill participation

Gragas: 167 games played, 56% win rate, 3.8 KDA, 68.4% kill participation

Rek’Sai: 153 games played, 52% win rate, 2.8 KDA, 62.7% kill participation

Olaf: 147 games played, 50% win rate, 3.1 KDA, 67.2% kill participation

Sejuani: 145 games played, 47% win rate, 3.7 KDA, 72.9% kill participation

Elise: 138 games played, 46% win rate, 3.0 KDA, 66.3% kill participation

The jungle role sports plenty of champions for the pros, with several overlapping strengths that make them look like the most diverse role in the game with different approaches on the best way.

A professional jungle player never forgets to bring Jarvan IV with him on the stage. He is the quintessential jungler who can do everything a jungler needs to do: clear efficiently, roam and gank, invade the enemy jungle, and take early objectives by himself. He has the damage and resistances to pull off all of the aforementioned, and is not too hard to learn and play.

Likewise to Jarvan IV, Lee Sin is a staple of the best junglers across the world. With unlimited potential for outplay given his unique mobility options, you will always see Lee Sin doing something for his team. Besides performing jungle fundamentals pretty well, Lee Sin has the mechanics (if practiced well) to make picks for his team with the infamous “inSec” kick, named after the famous Lee Sin player who combined the mobility and his Dragon’s Rage (R) to kick an enemy into his team.

Trundle and Gragas are another pair of jungle picks that do well without requiring too much micromanagement. Their chase and lockdown potential is great, with good numbers to boot. Gragas can disrupt team formations while pushing an enemy towards his team with his ultimate. Trundle is a great counterpick against tanky bruisers, which is coincidentally the current meta for top laners.

Rek’Sai and Olaf are powerful early game champions who want to help a team snowball quickly. Rek’Sai’s unique gank patterns due to her tunnels are what makes her a favored pick, while Olaf’s simple yet unrelenting assault during the early game makes him a menace to deal with. They both fall short in the late game, however.

Elise and Sejuani are honorable mentions in this list. Elise can also do what Rek’Sai and Olaf do, and Sejuani’s powerful crowd control sets up teams for wombo combos. They are certainly viable, but they merely fall short due to junglers having better choices with more visible impact like the aforementioned.

Mid Lane                                                    

Azir: 209 games played, 51% win rate, 3.8 KDA, 68.5% kill participation

Zoe: 206 games played, 49% win rate, 5.0 KDA, 72.1% kill participation

LeBlanc: 162 games played, 49% win rate, 4.6 KDA, 69.2% kill participation

Syndra: 131 games played, 55% win rate, 3.6 KDA, 66.2% kill participation

Rumble: 107 games played, 43% win rate, 3.9 KDA, 72.1% kill participation

The mid lane list has little diversity compared to the jungle list, and for good reason. In professional play where roaming assassins fall short to team communication and supreme map awareness, mid laners need champions who can gain lane priority and can opt to stay in the lane without much consequence for their team.

Azir is the most played mid laner this split because of his sheer DPS and outplay potential with Emperor’s Divide. His tower passive also helps teams hold their ground when sieging or defending a lane. Being infamous for the plethora of bugs that Azir had in his history, it’s surprising to see that pro players manage to play him consistently and effectively, given his results.

Zoe is another mid lane pick favored during this split. In Season 10 where making picks can easily translate to a tower or dragon takedown, Zoe’s long-range sniping abilities are great for exerting kill pressure at a huge distance. Her versatility with Spell Thief allows her to outplay enemies with ways that traditional mages could only dream of.

LeBlanc is a champion who has seen massive ups and downs throughout the lifespan of League, being the only few to take a champion revert. Out of everyone in this list, I find her the hardest to learn, but with the best returns on investment through the myriad of outplays she can do. In addition to that, her Ethereal Chains are the best lane gank setup a mid-jungle duo can ask for. If you also consider her Mimic: Ethereal Chains, you can snare an enemy for a collective 3 seconds which is plenty for junglers and midlaners to dish out their damage.

Syndra is a champion with a decent skill floor and a high skill ceiling. Given with the tools to be a lane bully, she’s one of the best mages to learn for any professional looking to easily burst down any target with her Unleashed Power. She is a straightforward champion, but has room for skill expression and is effective at doing her job.

Rumble nowadays is a shadow of his former self. Initially being a mid pocket pick, professionals slowly capitalized on his strong laning and teamfighting to provide his team a deadly engage/disengage tool. Earlier this year, he became popular enough to merit nerfs on his Scrap Shield, reducing his effectiveness as a mid pick. He is still enjoyed by those who want him for his Equalizer ultimate.

Bot Carry

Miss Fortune: 408 games played, 48% win rate, 4.4 KDA, 72% kill participation

Aphelios: 327 games played, 55% win rate, 4.4 KDA, 67.3% kill participation

Varus: 258 games played, 51% win rate, 4.0 KDA, 69.1% kill participation

Kalista: 156 games played, 53% win rate, 4.6 KDA, 71.1% kill participation

Senna: 146 games played, 58% win rate, 5.9 KDA, 79.9% kill participation

Ezreal: 130 games played, 46% win rate, 3.8 KDA, 67.1 kill participation

The bot lane pro meta revolves around Miss Fortune, Aphelios, Varus, and Kalista; four champions who have either strong burst damage or their own crowd control and sustained damage to complement each other. Senna and Ezreal are honorable mentions but require more effort to produce equivalent results.

Miss Fortune has been in the pro spotlight since the start of Season 10 because of her strong AoE damage and waveclear with Make it Rain and Bullet Time, coupled with her passive movement speed and ease of play. She is loved by all teams for these qualities alone, because no other marksman has as much damage and AoE in a single champion.

Aphelios, the newly-release infamous marksman, has been the target of repeated nerfs this season. Despite that, pros still are able to gain results because of the vast utility his kit can provide. He can melt down towers, duel, deal AoE damage, attack from a long range, sustain, and even crowd control by himself. Paired with a good support, Aphelios simply requires to snowball before the party starts for him.

Varus has been a tournament staple for recent seasons primarily because of his long-range poke and crowd control engage. A single-target snare than can spread to four other enemies is great for pro teams that want to engage hard and wipe the enemy team for massive tempo. He can also hold his ground pretty well with proper kiting, and only requires an intermediate level of skill to maximize his potential.

Kalista has had a rough history in the competitive scene. She has suffered nerf after nerf to the point of becoming unviable in both solo queue and competitive play. Recently, however, she gained steady buffs to her raw numbers, and Invictus Gaming’s theShy popularized a Kalista top. This pick provided an extremely technical but powerful alternative to other ranged toplaners like Vayne and Quinn. Eventually she made her way back to the bot lane meta, garnering bans and picks just like the days of old, known for melting objectives and champions alike with her Rend procs.

Support

Nautilus: 329 games played, 47% win rate, 2.3 KDA, 61.8% kill participation

Braum: 224 games played, 50% win rate, 3.5 KDA, 72.3% kill participation

Thresh: 191 games played, 54% win rate, 3.6 KDA, 72.7% kill participation

Tahm Kench: 187 games played, 51% win rate, 2.9 KDA, 62.3 kill participation

Taric: 139 games played, 50% win rate, 3.7 KDA, 77.8% kill participation

Leona: 137 games played, 46% win rate, 2.3 KDA, 61.7% kill participation

Rakan: 126 games played, 56% win rate, 3.9 KDA, 73.1% kill participation

Supports in this meta have primarily focused on protecting their teammates and having the tankiness to peel for them. This is evidenced by picks such as Nautilus, Braum, and Tahm Kench, who all commonly have strong crowd control to pin down any aggressor while enabling his team to fight with confidence.

Thresh has always been a support stable, capable of setting up picks while peeling for his team. Some teams have won their games simply because their Thresh support made such an amazing hook and engage, which brought JD Gaming to match point during Game 4 of their Finals series.

Taric has become in favor of professional teams this Season 10, where more explosive fights have started to rise. Granting two and a half seconds of invulnerability for an entire team can render even the most powerful engages useless. He also does a decent job of protecting his bot carry during the early stages, and he has a more fluid playstyle due to his identity as an enchanter and a tanky support.

Leona is a simple champion with an effective gameplan to hard engage and peel. She soared along with Miss Fortune to the spotlight during Season 10 as a complement to combo team compositions. However, she falls hard against teams who are on the lookout for her Solar Flare. Should she miss it, her engage potential is reduced by a significant margin.

Rakan is a powerful but risky pick. He has the numbers of an enchanter, but has powerful mobility and engage through his Grand Entrance and The Quickness. He lacks the tankiness to continue locking down the enemy team, and therefore requires follow-up from his team to maximize his values. He works best with team compositions that look to wombo-combo, but otherwise, there are better supports for more general scenarios.

Data utilized in this piece originates from Oracle’s Elixir, and spans the four most watched regional tournaments which are North America (LCS), Europe (LEC), South Korea (LCK), and China (LPL). Numbers utilized were last updated May 2, 2020.