Compared to the other positions, where we’ve seen a near record number picks, the jungle role at the League of Legends World Championship mostly features a few key staples. And after a ruling today, junglers will be even more restricted as Gragas is now disabled for the remainder of the tournament.
The Rabble Rouser’s removal comes after an investigation into an in-game bug during yesterday’s match between Europe’s Fnatic and China’s EDward Gaming. The bug prevented Gragas’ Q ability, Barrel Roll, from functioning. It caused no damage to the dragon after being used by Fnatic’s Kim “Reignover” Ui-jin, a test replicated by Riot referees. Originally Riot Games decided the bug wasn’t easily reproducable and left the champion open for play, picked in every game of today’s bout between KOO Tigers and KT Rolster, but after further review its occurrence is apparently more common than they believed.
As such, Gragas, Lux, and Ziggs, who also suffer from the same bug, will be disabled through the tournament.
Gragas is not the first to be removed from competitive play after bugs have been identified. Powerful mid laner Viktor but he may be one of the most important given his priority in the current meta. He’s appeared in more than half of the games in the event as part of the jungle trinity of Elise, Rek’sai, and Gragas.
With one of those three junglers removed and bans likely to hit Elise and now maybe even Rek’sai, it’s uncertain what the four junglers left in the tournament—Reignover, Maurice “Amazing” Stückenschneider, Bae “bengi” Seong-ung, and Lee “hojin” Ho-Jin—will now play. Possible picks could include Lee Sin, Nidalee, or even Olaf, meaning each jungler’s own pocket picks may become important going forward.
Action in the World Championship continues on Saturday Oct. 24 as Europe’s Origen takes on tournament favorite, Korean giant SK Telecom T1 in the semifinals.
Image via Riot Games | Remix by Jacob Wolf
