In every League patch, professional teams will always look to identify the strongest picks to gain edges during drafts. The mix of all the picks and strategies is usually defined as meta, which is always evolving depending on how teams adapt and adjust.
While they are considered the best, meta picks usually don’t have absurd win rates since those champions are traded back and forth between teams. In the latest LPL Spring Playoffs, however, there is one champion that is standing out from the rest with one of the highest win rates in the entire tournament.
That champion is Kennen, who registered an incredible 87-percent win rate across 15 games, according to stats site Games of Legends. With 26 bans so far, he has the third-highest presence rate at 89 percent, only behind Vi and Zeri (who are both at 93 percent, according to Games of Legends).
Even though he’s currently one of the most contested picks in the game, how does Kennen manage to have such a high win rate? Considering he’s picked by different teams, his win rate is definitely a big outlier. Well, there are a couple of reasons behind it.
The first is that Kennen received some important buffs in Patch 13.5, which have caught top laners’ attention. Many players, especially in the Eastern regions like LCK and LPL, have started playing it more often in solo queue. After some weeks of testing, pros have realized its power.
The latest buffs also happen to have fixed some of the major issues that previously gated him from professional play. Not only does he have higher poke damage thanks to the Q buffs but he also has much better wave clearing with the damage increase on his E. This ultimately allows him to hold side lane pressure a lot more, which has always been a big problem for teams wanting to play him.
The second reason is that Kennen fits well in the meta thanks to his game-changing ultimate. With immobile hypercarries dominating the bot lane meta, Kennen does a great job at shutting them down with his damage and uses his ultimate to deal great AoE damage to the enemy team. As long as he’s able to find the right angle to sneak in, he can single-handedly carry fights on his back.
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But the most important reason is that those who have played Kennen also happen to be the strongest top laners in the LPL. BiliBili Gaming’s top laner Bin, as well as Oh My God’s top shanji are still undefeated on the champion, scoring nine wins combined, according to Games of Legends. Both players proved pivotal in their respective team’s success, as their Kennen games always had a positive influence on the outcomes. In the latest series between BLG and EDward Gaming, Bin managed to find multi-man ultimates in almost every fight.
With BLG heading to the finals against JD Gaming, Kennen is definitely going to be one of the hot picks for both teams. Given that Riot isn’t planning on making changes to Kennen in Patch 13.8, it’s likely that the top lane champion will continue to be a priority pick in the upcoming international tournament, the Mid-Season Invitational.
