Every time a new split comes around, there always seems to be that one champion that no League of Legends pro player wants to face. With the way the opening weekends of the LEC and LCS panned out, that champion appears to be, for now at least, Akali.
According to stats from Gamepedia and GoL.gg, in every single game that has been played so far in the LEC and LCS, assassin Akali has been banned. That’s a 100% ban rate. While the LCS technically has two more fixtures left to play tonight, January 27 (in what will be the first ever Monday Night League broadcast), it’s likely that the trend will remain the same.
It’s not just the pros in Europe and NA that are terrified of Akali’s power in the Rift. Over in the LPL, Chinese teams are also giving Akali a massive cold shoulder. There, she has a 97% ban rate, meaning she only escaped a ban in just one match out of the 35 that have already been played at the time of writing, which was when Dominus Esports managed to secure her as its first pick in its defeat against Invictus Gaming.
Akali’s strength was becoming increasingly apparent towards the tail end of the 2019 season. She was the third most banned champion at Worlds 2019 with a ban rate of 59.7%.
This was only topped by Qiyana and the record-breaking Pantheon, who was banned in all but one of the 120 games throughout Worlds in both the play-ins and the main event.
How long Akali can keep up her 100% ban streak from LEC and LCS teams remains to be seen, but she appears to be on course to be one of the most banned champions of the 2020 Spring Split.
