League of Legends’ season 14 makeover has shaken the game to its roots, but the pros are finally beginning to settle on a subset of go-to champs. To no surprise, K’Sante reigns supreme again in the top lane—but a challenger has arisen for the crown.
The reworked version of Udyr has emerged from the darkness early this year and only just trails K’Sante for pick rate across the four major League regions. So far, it was recorded 47 picks this season, according to pro play stats page Games of Legends. Given Udyr went entirely uncontested across season 13’s major regions, it’s a remarkable resurgence for the Spirit Walker—but interestingly, the champ received no adjustments recently.
His last direct ability update came in September 2023 with Patch 13.18, which itself was just a bug fix for his E, Blazing Stampede, so where has this sudden surge in popularity come from given the champ went unpicked and unbanned for the last six months? The answer: his versatility and safety in the early game for top laners.
Between his various stances, easy access to crowd control immunity, and regen in the form of life steal and damage-mitigating shields, Udyr is incredibly resilient in lane early and can’t easily be ganked. The above also makes him a tough nut to crack when it comes to attempting ganks and contesting for League objectives, which is now occurring a lot earlier thanks to the introduction of season 14’s Void Grubs, a new top-side neutral target.
In the midgame, pros usually opt for more health with Frozen Heart and Iceborn Gauntlet, which turns Udyr into an incredibly mobile tank with plenty of auras to slow and damage enemies. While he becomes less reliable late on, Udyr is a jack-of-all-trades that can be slightly customized for items and stances to serve multiple roles.
He’s also proven to be stronger statistically against the next-best top lane picks of Rumble, Aatrox, and Jax, but with the majority banned across the major leagues, he lines up head-to-head with one of his only strong counters in K’Sante, who remains the pick of the bunch after a controversial year. Riot devs nerfed and adjusted K’Sante constantly across 2023 but despite the myriad of changes, the Pride of Nazumah just won’t go away from both ranked and pro play.
All eyes will be on whether Udyr can maintain his form, particularly in the LCS where he boasts an impressive 85 percent win rate. The season has only just begun though and with the NA league playing out on the live League patch, any adjustments will play havoc with the pro meta.
