Ezeal was initially seen as the champion's strongest counter, but many teams have recently opted for the Kalista matchup. Kalista currently has a 5-3 record against Aphelios in Europe, and many talented AD carries such as Luka "Perkz" Perković and Martin "Rekkles" Larsson have lost to Kalista while on Aphel

In the same matchup against Rouge, Mad Lions purposely let through Varus, who has essentially been a global perma-ban in League of Legends as of late. Mad Lions then immediately locked in Senna and Wukong as their bot lane. They smashed the Varus-led Rouge, with Matyáš "Carrzy" Orság going 2/1/7 on Senna and Norman "Kaiser" Kaiser going 3/0/6 on Wuk

Consistency is important in a game, and while these changes are small enough not to notice, it could be problematic for Pokémon Unite to have characters rebalanced or reworked way too fast early on. If the game wants to change its poorer qualities, it needs to start on a good foot so that major reworks aren't urg

After the offseason, the CLG bot laner feels as though his team has gone through a fundamental reset. Now, with the team off to a 3-1 start, Stixxay feels confident in his teammates to perform better than they did last sp

With a ~20% ban rate on OP.GG, pro-players have inspired many amateurs to start experimenting with the characters they take through the jungle. Fans have seen jungle Karthus in the most recent Summer Split, as well as casuals bombing as Twitch going 0

Mad Lions' innovation in their drafts and their well balanced team fights have made them one of the premier organizations in Europe, and a model franchise that teams around the globe (mainly North America) should look up

From within the depths of the Shadow Isles, there is a great tragedy; the tragedy of the Hapless Aristocrat. This story is far less wholesome or inspiring than that of Cithria’s. It all begins with the card "Arachnoid Sentry," with a gentleman caller approaching a house with a smug grin and four roses. From the card’s flavor text it’s revealed that he’s expecting dinner with some woman he’s fallen hopelessly in love with. But instead of being greeted by a beautiful woman at the door, he’s face to face with a giant spider and everything begins to unravel from th

Ahead of the 2020 Spring Split, Counter Logic Gaming acquired former world champion Lee "Crown" Min-ho. After a 1-7 start, Crown was benched for veteran Eugene "Pobelter" Park. "When [Pobelter] first joined, the team was kinda off the rails in a way," Stixxay said while laughing. "We forgot about a lot of the fundamentals and basics of the Fighting Game Roster cause we’d just been losing so mu

Getting banned between 15% and 28% of the time, Leona certainly stands out from the previous two by being all about the stuns. She might not be able to kill champions herself, but with an explosive stunning ultimate with a long-range, she can be a menace in team fig

Another item from the wild balancing days of season 3 & 4 is the Sword of the Divine . Giving the user 45% attack speed, one of the highest base attack speed stats on an item. Along with the stat, its active would grant the users next 3 auto's to be 100% attack speed and Crit. The active gives reliable burst windows every 60 seconds, and champion kills refund half of its cooldown. Marksmen and assassin champions can kill a squishy opponent in a matter of seconds with this i

Pokémon Unite has another challenge in the form of its platforms, being the Nintendo Switch and mobile devices. With fast-paced multiplayer action games, these platforms can struggle with too many confusing and conflicting mechanics, so it's important to ensure characters and their moves are easy to cont

A classic alternative to your standard ability-power focused champion in the mid lane, Zed has consistently been a thorn in everyone's side since his release all the way back in 2012. With better team fight capabilities than an Akali and superior scaling to even some AP champs, Zed has an impressive ban rate of about ~

While she can be somewhat of a niche pick due to her lack of damage, it’s undoubtedly a type of power that’s welcome in a lot of games. If you think you’ll struggle against constant interruptions, it’s probably best to just keep her out of your opponents’ pi

As individual players, Misfits fields strong talent on their roster. But as a team, the lineup just hasn't gelled together how fans believe they could. Their macro play has been a point of inconsistency, with their players often on different pa

Another recent removal from Season 9 is the Spear of Shojin . Its original concept was much different before it removing the item and giving the item a full rework. Most players remember the item by its second redesign, and the reason it was quickly taken out. After casting your ultimate, your first auto would cause your autos for six seconds to lower your basic abilities cooldown by 20% per auto-attack. Stacking attack speed with this allows champions to spam their other abilities making them a rolling death machine. It is no longer in the game; for this reason, interacting with champion abilities, this much has little counterplay. However, items like this one can be found now only in Nexus Blitz m