The Top 10 Champions you can expect at Worlds 2023!

The 2023 World Championships meta has been finalized by Riot Games! The off-season patches are implemented and ready to be played by both pros and casual gamers. Patch 13.19 will be played for the entirety of the World Championships. Before we take a look at the top 10 champions at Worlds, let's take a brief stroll through the off-season patches.

Pre-Worlds Patches

Patch 13.16

Enchanters were slightly buffed in this patch. Namely Milio and Lulu gained decent AP ratio buffs on their shielding and damage. This comes a while after enchanters fell out of the pro play meta and engage supports were picked instead.

Sylas and Wukong were mildly buffed with mana QoL changes. Otherwise, Tristana seemed to be a larger focus as her Magic Resistance was lowered but her Armor was buffed. This is to manipulate her out of mid lane and back into her supposed main role in bot lane. Lots of small lethality tweaks occurred in this patch here and there but not likely to appear in pro play.

Patch 13.17

Aatrox received a major win in the top lane with half of his kit now dealing magic damage. This makes it tougher for enemies to build resistances against the world ender. Elise managed to receive a buff on her Cocoon stun which may turn some pro Jungler's heads.

Gnar gained increased damage in his Mega-Gnar full combo with his Q and W. Kindred received a large nerf on her E damage which will hurt many carry junglers. Orianna and Twisted Fate received a sizeable damage buff on their main spells which may be enough to bring them back into the pro play meta. Tryndamere received an attack range buff which some mid laners might enjoy (Caps especially).

Goredrinker, Spear of Shojin, and Stridebreaker all received amazing buffs to their stats which had solo queue filled with bruiser junglers and top laners. The Goredrinker -> Black Cleaver -> Spear of Shojin build seen in solo queue currently is considered the best build for any champion that can be considered a bruiser

Patch 13.18

Gwen received some love in her Jungling kit as she gained increased damage on her passive. This could potentially make her a flex pick in pro draft between Jungle and Top lane. Rell and Xayah were slightly nerfed as they have had very high presence in recent pro matches. The nerf is not enough to throw them out of the meta but to somewhat decrease incentive to pick them.

On the other hand, Kennen and Senna were buffed in major ways. Kennen received an ultimate cooldown reduction which allows for more plays per game. Senna lost her critical strike damage reduction and is now able to claim stacks with her W. This means that she can scale harder and quicker. Senna might be on the pro table in the bot lane.

Crown of the Shattered Queen received some changes with the passive and Stattik Shiv received a nerf on minion damage. The nerf might be enough to not have every ADC build it by default.

The Worlds 2023 Patch

Patch 13.19

Very small changes were made to champions in this patch. Gangplank and Galio received buffs on their global ultimates. Lissandra, Syndra, and Lee Sin received slight buffs to their main kit. Azir, Renekton, and Zeri received light nerfs as they had gained lots of pick priority in the past pro metas.

The larger part of the changes comes from Randuin's Omen dropping 300 gold in price and Seeker's Armguard gaining further amor value.

This could be Riot's systemic defense against double marksmen in the mid and bot lane. For example in pro play, Tristana in the mid lane was a highly present pick that felt had no systemic counters to. With Randuins becoming more accessible and Seeker's Armguard having higher gold efficiency for mages, this surely is a concern to think about when picking a double marksmen game for your team.

Now that we are all caught up with the patch changes over the off-season, here are your top 10 champions to look out for in Worlds 2023!

10. Xayah + Rakan

Rakan has consistently been one of the top picks in the Support role in all four of the major regions. His kit has excellent engage with high mobility. This allows him to engage and swiftly disengage back to his team to peel. It goes without saying that other support champions could fill this role better but as other supports can be flex picked such as Rell or Nautilus, Rakan remains to be a well-balanced champion for his one and only role.

Xayah has had one of the highest ADC presence in all four regions. Side-by-side with Kai'Sa, she remains to be one of the most prioritized champions in draft. With her lane bullying kit and self peel ultimate, she can truly turn an enemy's surprise engage into her favor. She can be easily countered by long-range artillery champions, namely Xerath, but if she is allowed to play the game she can dominate any team fight with her high damage output and outplay potential.

9. K'Sante

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8. Jax

After Jax's mini-rework, he has risen to become one of the most prominent Top Lane picks in pro play. He has seen over 60% presence in some regions. LCK and LPL specifically had him with over 80% in their respective Regional Finals tournament! With the duality of being an amazing split pusher and 1v1 potential, he will definitely be picked up by players who can navigate his early game well and unleash a late game monster.

7. Xerath

Xerath has come to light over the past few months after his major buff to his ultimate. In a heavy self-peel meta, Xerath has punished champions such as Azir and Xayah who were dominating in the pro scene. Picking Xerath only serves the team as a counter pick to these types of champions. If a team isn't cautious around Xerath and picks either Xayah or Azir, they are in for a brutal match where they won't be able to play the game.

6. Azir

Azir comes just shy of top 5 as he has one of the most mechanically difficult yet extremely rewarding and unique gameplay in League of Legends. With his flashy Shurima Shuffle, he is able to swiftly end a team fight before it begins. Be wary of this pick however, as he has been in the meta for quite a while and many teams are comfortable to play around his playmaking. While he is a strong pick by himself, shutting Azir down in the early game and in later team fights will be crucial if the opposing team wants to win.

5. Aatrox

Aatrox in recent patches has received a lot of love from Riot's developers. He now has mixed damage with his passive and W now dealing magic damage. Goredrinker was also buffed which will give Aatrox extra health to work around. Aatrox has the ability to sometimes 1v3 and even 1v4 but will almost always be limited by the player's skill level. Top tier top laners will surely look to squeeze this Darkin out in draft if the conditions are right.

4. Maokai

Maokai has consistently been a priority pick for most teams as he can be played as a tank or a tanky mage. Recently, however, teams have slowly moved on from him to play other strong Junglers such as Rell, Ivern, and Taliyah. Needless to say that Maokai can and will still dominate in Worlds and have high pick presence in his role.

3. Jayce

Jayce is one of the strongest laners in the game and with his draft flexibility, he can pick and choose any of his matchups. With long range projectiles and melee range bursts, a highly skilled player can easily tear through any early game with Jayce's high skill ceiling and play making potential.

2. Rell

Since Rell's jungle changes were implemented, Rell has seen her highest pick/ban presence in all four regions. She can be easily flexed with jungle and support and serves very well as a first/blind pick. No matter what role she fills, if she is able to hit a multi-member combo with her CC heavy kit, she has fulfilled her role and most likely won her team the game.

1. Kai'Sa

Seeing that Kai'Sa received zero changes except for the Stattik Shiv nerfs, Kai'Sa will likely be one of the highest pick priority in Worlds. She has dominated each region with her quick Void Seeker and Killer Instinct combo to one shot an enemy carry. Her flexibility to build situationally each game alongside great mobility and damage allows her to become the most annoying and brutal ADC to play against. Unless you are playing against her artillery variant then you have little to no way of dealing with her as your team succumbs to her Void Seekers.

Honorable Mentions

Tristana

Tristana has been one of the highest picked mid laners in most regions. However, in recent patches, it is clear that Riot wants to move her away from the mid lane domination as there are buffs to many armor items. While it is still possible that Tristana will be picked, the games will likely not look as favored for Tristana's team as used to before.

Jarvan IV

Jarvan IV has seen very little pro presence this year. He is in the honorable mentions due to the major buffs that Spear of Shojin and Stridebreaker/Goredrinker received in recent patches. These items perform very strong on Jarvan as it gives damage, durability, and lots of ability haste for his E Q combo. Whether it is enough for him to be picked up again by veteran pro players or if they will resort back to the Summer split jungle meta will be seen this coming October!

 

Worlds 2023 kicks off on October 9th, 2023, with BDS vs. Golden Guardians!

Follow all the matches, results and news on the 2023 World Championship here!

Featured Image Source: Riot Games