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Top 10 Champs to Expect at MSI 2024: MSI Meta Preview
As we prepare to head into the League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational (MSI), each competing region brings their own regional flavor to the grand international stage. However, across all the major regions of competition, several Champions have stood out as clear powerhouses as we enter the first international League of Legends tournament for 2024.
Addressing the MSI Patch
Biggest change off the bat – Rell Jungle is gone. In Patch 14.8 (known ubiquitously as the MSI 2024 patch), Rell will no longer deal bonus damage to monsters, meaning her role as a jungler and ability to threaten with flex is now completely negated.
Moreover, Riot is aiming to open up the path for more AP champions, mainly the melee ones. In 14.7, Galio had his nerfs from the previous patch walked back. Sylas is also a high-target priority for Riot to bring back into the jungle, allowing for Sylas flex (Mid/Jungle) to come back. His monster damage has been increased from 70% to 100%, allowing for far faster clear.
Olaf jungle is also making a return with increased monster damage, meaning that in totality, the reign of tank junglers is very likely over for MSI.
Most importantly, the two roles most likely to impact games at MSI based on the current priority champions, is Mid Lane and AD Carry. How teams play around these lanes, and work around the current and new, buffed champions, will likely be crucial in determining the end result for this tournament.
10. Zeri, the Spark of Zaun
Flashy, powerful, scaling. Zeri checks many of the similar boxes as our top lister. Highly mobile, Zeri scales incredibly well into the late game, and with a safe frontline, is capable of delivering blisteringly powerful teamfight performances, shining in areas where her Lightning Crash can effectively chain.
9. Rumble, the Mechanized Menace
Coming in at number 9, the Mechanized Menace stands as a tall deterrent for many top lane melee matchups. Serving not only as a powerful lane bully, Rumble also provides a powerful team-fighting presence and has made appearances in the Support role as well, opening up the avenue for a flex pick angle.
8. Rakan, the Charmer
The pro scene’s favorite feathered ally, Rakan is a true staple of League, serving not only as a powerful engage Support, but also a speedy champion that is capable of crossing great distances, following up, as well as dipping in and around fights as he wishes.
In the current meta of high-scaling champions, his ability to find picks is second to few, making him a crucial pick this coming MSI.
7. Sion, the Undead Juggernaut
Leading up to MSI, one of the most prevalent metas in the LPL and later in the LEC, was the re-adoption of lane-swap – a tactic utilized by teams in order to avoid unfavorable matchups for their bot lane carry.
Sion, with his Glory in Death Passive ability, becomes the perfect foil for this tactic, as not only is he allowed to continuing clearing the wave after death, but he also scales with Soul Furnace, making sure he is never truly out of the game.
6. Nautilus, the Titan of the Depths
Solid, dependable, on-demand Crowd-Control, Nautilus is truly flourishing in this current meta as the best Support pick thanks to his innate tank-iness (allowing teams to build a sturdy frontline composition).
Nautilus also pairs well with the current slew of AD Carries, including short-ranged champions like Kai’Sa and Kalista, both of whom require a little bit of babysitting thanks to their T-Rex arm-range, not to mention Varus and Zeri, both of whom are currently dominating the charts but require follow up Crowd-Control to truly find impact in teamfights.
5. Taliyah, the Stoneweaver
Taliyah has been growing in massive popularity across the major regions. With a certain mid laner dominating the front page, Taliyah has become the popular answer in the mid lane. With assertive range, a global ult for engage and zoning, and powerful scaling, she will undoubtedly play a crucial role at MSI.
4. K’Sante, the Pride of Nazumah
God, what can’t this champion do. A highly mobile tank with true damage and Crowd-Control. A year and a half on from his release, K’Sante continues to dominate lanes and team fights with obnoxious and relentless persistence.
Heading into an MSI patch with more carry junglers (less tanks), K’Sante will undoubtedly shine as one of the beefier members for any team’s composition, challenging the sidelanes against far less durable champions.
3. Varus, the Arrow of Retribution
Varus clocks in near the top of the list for his sheer dominance thus far this year. Paired with strong frontline such as K’Sante, Nautilus, and Rek’Sai, Varus has been allowed to truly flourish as one of the most potent AD Carry champions.
2. Kalista, the Spear of Vengeance
Much like Varus, a strong frontline presence in recent metas has allowed Kalista to creep back in as one of the strongest AD Carries. Moreover, Kalista’s Rend allows teams to secure objectives incredibly efficiently, in the same vein that Xayah’s Clean Cuts or Rell’s Shattering Strike made for incredibly safe objective secures.
1. Azir, The Emperor of the Sands
Incredibly overpowered. Absolutely broken. Azir’s current place in the meta and coming into MSI is without a doubt, at the top of the list. His power scaling matches Zeri, all the while offering a great deal of safety, mobility, escape, and teamfight potential with the Shuriman Shuffle ultimate.
In the early game, Azir is safe. In the mid to late game, Azir will become a one-man army, capable of dissuading any fights in chokepoints, melting engages, all the while keeping at relative safety.
There are some pocket picks such as Twisted Fate (Top), Zac (Top), and Rek'Sai (Top) which have not made the list. While popular within the regions, based on the statistics of play, they were not ubiquitously considered power picks and frequently because they had 'easy' counters to them. Moreover, the jungle as a whole has not been touched on this list. Vi is undoubtedly the strongest Jungle Champion during this period, moreso for her early aggression and setup potential later in games, however, as a whole, there are far too many dueling junglers to adequately and fairly list for this MSI patch.
Anticipated Answers
Not only are we predicting the top ten champions you are most likely to see at MSI 2024, here are some of the popular regional answers into those champions, just so we can have a glimpse not only into the regional differences but also the wider breadth of tactics that teams will be bringing to the table.
In the LCS, Azir was most often met by Taliyah or Orianna. While Taliyah has become a staple pick against Azir, Orianna is a more unconventional one that speaks more to the Winter Split era than Spring's. She can still be extremely powerful and can match Azir's power in the later game, however, there are more interesting answers.
The LEC also ofts into Taliyah as an answer, however, they have edged in Aurelion Sol as a powerful answer as well, something that can be seen from teams such as Gen.G as well. In the LPL and LCK alike, Taliyah was the most common answer. However, with the buffs on certain melee mages, do not be too surprised to see an Akali or Sylas slipping their way in. Sylas is a traditional lane opponent to Azir, with his high mobility, CC, and Hijack ultimate.
Across the Asian regions, Zeri has been the highest picked AD Carry. The answers into her have been mostly more aggressive, longer-ranged ADCs that can contest for the earlier game. This includes Varus/Lucian. However, the LEC prefers the more straightforward reply of Jinx into Zeri, matching hypercarry for hypercarry.
Into Varus, the answer is typically in the form of short-ranged aggressive AD Carries, that can dive the immobile marksman. This would be Kai'Sa or Kalista across the board, sometimes Senna.
All data taken from Oracle's Elixir, and compounded into analysis for your convenience.
Credit: LoL
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