This edition of "Stats Corner" will be special. In the anticipation of IEM World Championship and all its glory, we take a trip back. Far back, in fact, all the way to the first IEM League of Legends premier tournament during Season VI Cologne. We follow the pick/ban/win trends to remember what we used to play two years ago but also consult various media representatives on how the World Championship will turn out statistically. There are few important notes to make before we venture further. This "Stats Corner" obviously will not depict the current state of the meta as it spans over two seasons of IEM competition. Its purposes are to deliver the first pieces of hype before the event, to spot trends that persist throughout the years and finally, FINALLY, have a graphics that doesn't have Ezreal on top, followed by Olaf and his thousand bruiser brothers.
There! One of my desires have been completed and Ezreal is only third in most picked. Still an impressive feat, however, considering how he only became a hot pick after IEM Guangzhou (before that, it was Caitlyn, Ashe and Kog'Maw that held the top spots) but nonetheless - he is not number one, dethroned by the support duo Sona/Janna and that makes this author draw a sigh of relief Of all the bruisers in League of Legends, we see Lee Sin and Irelia doing the finest. This is mostly because of them being a League old timers and ones that kept his level of viability for prolonged periods of time (even today they're among the most contested champions). The only thing out of the ordinary in the graph to the left compared to current-day meta is the presence of Udyr, who for a long time played same role as, say, Olaf - an ambiguous pick that can be played both on top and in the jungle. The right graph also brings few surprises. Shen is the only champion that breaks the double-digit barrier (mostly due to his abrupt rise to fame after his buff), followed by pro-game staples and the hottest support of Season 6 - Janna. Did you know that... • In the first IEM LoL tournament at Cologne, 
and 
were the most played ADs, 
held the highest ban rate and 
enjoyed a 100% win rate • 
became popular during and after IEM Guangzhou, becoming the most popular AD carry since • Usually a champion that never sees play, 
was actually quite popular during IEM VI World Championship. He did terribly. • 
was the most picked champion of Season 6 (picked 67 times), followed by 
(picked 45 times). They were also the most contested (picked or banned) picks of Season 6 with scores of 78 and 65, respectively • 
was the most banned champion of Season 6 (banned 40 times), followed by 
(banned 35 times) Most banned and most contested
Lee Sin and Shen are champions whose high ban rates are considered considered normal even nowadays but same cannot be said for others in that rankings. Cassiopeia lands on number four in the "Most banned" graph mostly because here power level during Season 6 and she's tied with Nidalee (here, we blame HotShotGG, of course). Not entirely coincidentally, Gangplank and Udyr are also among the top ten most hated, partly because they come from the so called "six junglers in total, one of which can't gank before level 6" era. Old players like yours truly without a doubt still remember the pain they've suffered (or delivered) from those two champions, who stomped pub and pro games alike. Win rates (for champions picked > 15 times)
The news flash in this section comes as a statement that Ryze and Xin Zhao are good champions capable of winning a lot. So much, in fact, that they are the only ones to go past the 70%. Who would've guessed... In the same graph we have Ashe, who enjoyed a long period of popularity and dominance before the rise of Ezreal, Corki and Graves and Kog'Maw, who actually was the most winningest champion for January 2013, easily proving that he has the undying habit of doing well at premier events. Well, done, Kog'Maw, well done! On the other hand, Anivia has the lowest win percentages I've ever seen, brightly indicating what high skill cap this champion has. Amumu and Cassiopeia follow the cryofenix in an odd "why do you hate it when you can't play it" fashion. What say the media? Enough history and reminiscing about days long gone, let's not forget why this article came to be in the first place: to get us excited for IEM World Championship. To keep this strictly entwined with statistics, we gathered the GosuCrew for League of Legends and our dear friend and supervisor of the LCS Media Poll Justin Cady of ESFI World and asked them this: Who do you think will be the most picked, banned and first picked champions at IEM World Championship? Depending on the order, each champion got respective number of points and the aggregate results are displayed in the graphs below.
Apparently, the men of the quill have deep respect of Xin Zhao and the Senechal of Demacia is everywhere, making it top leadership position of the "Most Banned" and "Most Contested Graphs and I can't say I am in disagreement. Xin Zhao's popularity within the LCS has been spectacular and no reason comes to mind why IEM WC will be any different. He's closely followed by Shen in both those categories and, again, how can one disagree? As visible from all the graphs below, Shen's popularity has persisted throughout the entire IEM history and is still heavily contested in current meta because of his split pushing prowess. Having dodged crippling buffs for a long time, expect Shen to be ever-present in the WC games. Continuing on, a lot of ADs have made their way to the "Most picked" graph. What this shows is that in viewers' eyes the bot lane microcosmos finally approaches some sort of balance. If so far the separation line has usually been between Ezreal and everybody else, media's expectations suggest that a redistribution of popularity may occur. Have we been wrong? Do you think the picture will be entirely different? Tell us then! The big picture
