The Most Hated

So what made Udyr the most hated champion at IPL 4? Why was he banned in 68% of the total games played? Team Dignitas in particular made it a point to eliminate him from play, banning him from every single one of their games.

First, Udyr’s lane presence is tremendous, and so is his jungle. He has extremely fast clear times, is capable of some intense burst, and has tremendous damage mitigation to boot.

Udyr is a safe and solid pick for top lane, as he can handle a majority of other bruisers, has a decent escape between his speed boost and stun, and can always regenerate health with Turtle Stance. Players are rewarded for building sustain items on him, including Randiun’s Omen and Wit’s End. Wriggles Lantern on Udyr also makes him particularly strong against enemy AD Carries. His Tiger and Bear Stances also make for a strong gap closer making him very, very difficult to escape from.




So what makes him such a feared champion when others like Lee Sin can arguably take jungle or top just as effectively? Udyr has inherently less risk in his play style than Lee Sin, making him an ideal candidate for these high stress tournaments where any mistake could turn into an opponents' advantage.

Top Bans

Shen followed behind Udyr as a close second for number of times banned. This is no surprise given his long range mobility and map presence upon reaching level 6 and his ultimate, Stand United. Teams had no desire to see their hard work and cooldowns wasted on a target only to be saved by an incoming Shen, or see 2v2’s suddenly turn into 2v3’s. Teams that did not ban learned the error of their ways by watching him split push, deep into top lane, with the ability to jump in a fight at any given time.

Shen is also another champion that uniquely packs non stop utility with in every one of his abilities, especially after his not so recent rework. Landing a taunt for example on numerous enemies as opposed to one will return a larger amount of energy, giving him more fuel for the fight. His Vorpal Blade also gives allies a considerable amount of lifesteal from the marked target – not to mention a hefty amount of damage for a tank.

The majority of the champions banned behind Udyr and Shen were casters - AP mid champions: like Karthus, Cassiopeia, and Ryze especially.

Ryze is particularly unique because he is rewarded damage for building mana. Therefore, you see him commonly built with defensive items like Banshee’s Veil and Frozen Heart. Not only then is he adding defensive stats for himself, but items like Frozen Heart debuff an enemy team by slowing their attack speed. This is particularly important when many teams were expecting to see the most damage from their AD carries.

Ryze has solid, sustained damage, can be built with a lot of HP and other defensive stats, making him strong not only in team fights, but hard to move out of lane as well. Consequently, he was among the most popular bans (as well as picks for mid).

Cassiopeia has can cast her abilities economically thanks to her passive, and also at an increased rate if she can first land a poison with Maisma, and then proceed to spam Twin Fang. A couple of kills, some farm, and three Doran’s Rings later, she can really start to snowball.

Karthus has been commonly played as a suicide caster in these kinds of tournaments. Players build an all out offensive build on him, enter a team fight, usually die and thanks to his passive, continue to cast, saving Requiem for that final moment. Requiem also forces pressure to all lanes when Karthus reaches 6 because any open target will die to his global, effectively forcing players to back more often than they would have to otherwise.

The last champion I make note of to be banned a considerable amount of times was Olaf, and that is because he was in direct opposition to the composition a majority of teams were playing at IPL 4.

Olaf brings to the table true damage on a low cooldown, and his ultimate, Ragnarok, grants him immunity to crowd control effects. So not only can he help the AD carry cut down high health champions, he can also charge in like a boss, cutting through the opponents position and head straight for the enemy carry while Ragnarok is still raging.




The Most Wanted

IPL 4’s most popular pick was Janna, and not just because her character art is drawn with big jumblies. Her kit grants her a tremendous amount of inherent utility with each of her abilities. Moscow Five really expounded on the benefits of her passive with exceptional demonstration of how effective early game mobility can be in coordinating ganks and jungle invasion during Extreme Masters Hannover.

Her shield, while no longer granting a boost to attack damage, is still a superb asset in lane and in team fights for the obvious damage mitigation. She also has a slow with a decent amount of built in damage.

Janna’s real power comes in from Howling Gale, her short cooldown knock up that can be tailored to any situation by allowing the spell to hold and maximize or by releasing it whenever necessary for escapes, chases, and interrupts. That ability alone gives her the unparalleled ability to cover a carry by constantly blocking incoming attacks, like Lee Sin’s Resonating Strike, or Alistar’s Headbutt, or simply keep enemies away by throwing out knock ups that can really be decimating to an enemy’s offense or chase.

Her ultimate, Monsoon, has the power to reposition enemies if a fight starts and the team is caught out of position, or pin enemies to terrain, securing kills.

Janna’s utility is top class, and because of this we saw her not only as the most popular champion, but also the most contested. It wouldn’t be a bad move to add her to your arsenal.

Top Picks

The extent of Janna’s badassery was without question as she was the number one pick of the tournament, but what about the remainder of champions?

Among the top ten champions picked, the role least represented is solo top, meaning this was the greatest source of variation for team comp. Vladimir was the number one choice in particular here, thanks to his heavy amount of regen, AOE ultimate, and ability to pool away from incoming ganks without taking damage. Running Vladimir in particular also gives your team a damage multiplier through his ultimate, granting allies’ bonus damage to targeted enemies. Dyrus in particular ran him a number of times.

Two junglers make the top 10, predominantly thanks to Brian 'TheOddOne' Willey on Dr. Mundo, and Brandon 'Saintvicious' DiMarco running Shyvana, respectively. What both of these champions have in common is that they can take a hit. Dr. Mundo has superb jungle camp clear times and can stay in jungle thanks to his rapid regen. He is also one of the few junglers that is not mana dependent, and can give blue away early. Shyvana, likewise is not mana dependent and can pass on blue as well. Both champions gain even more sustain with their ultimates, allowing them to remain at the front lines in team fights: Dr. Mundo regenerates up to 70% of his health at level 3, which also stacks with his passive Adrenaline Rush, while Shyvana gains armor and magic resist as well as bonus damage using Dragon’s Descent.

Both characters made for excellent front line defense. We saw this as a common theme: stacking high sustainability and high health champions in the front, protecting the main damage source by blocking access and incoming damage, all while the ranged carry did his work from afar.

Ryze was the number one caster pick for AP mid. Not surprising because he fits the mold of heavy HP and sustainability in team fights because he builds defensive stats with mana in order to gain ability power.

Corki and Kog’Maw were the two most common picks for bot lane carries, and again, this is no coincidence. Corki has a spammable ultimate, on a tiny cooldown that does decent AOE damage, with every 4th missile doing bonus damage. The range is comparable with Kog’Maw’s ultimate at 1225.

Valkyrie works as a great escape as well as gap closer because it can be used over terrain like trees, making for a hard chase. Gattling Gun not only does superb damage, but also shreds armor per second, which can be devastating to front line tanks. Finally, his passive grants part of his auto attack damage to be true damage, bypassing defenses. Hands down, Corki has some of the strongest AOE damage in the game considering his primary damage dealing abilities, including the splash from his ultimate.

Like Corki, Kog’Maw has the inherent ability to shred through even the largest opponents thanks to Bio-Arcane Barrage dealing damage equal to a percent of the target’s total maximum health. His ultimate has also one of the longest ranges in the game, at 1200. Stacking attack speed and protecting him until late game will ensure his ability to melt through any enemies in team fights. Time, and time again we see him single handedly devastate enemy teams. His abilities also grant him some of the strongest poke in the game thanks to their range. And in using that range and poke, he can push down towers from afar without fear of retaliation if the attacking team has the advantage.

Supports like Soraka and Taric gave added sustainability to fights with their heals. Soraka in particular is gaining notoriety thanks to her global heal and of course her ability to miraculously return champions from near death to full health.