Perhaps counterintuitively, it's arguable that Doran's Shield's popularity has opened up champion diversity in professional League of Legends. Even after an increased cost on Patch 7.12, Doran's Shield provides an easier laning phase with high sustain for a variety of champions. Across the global League of Legends sphere, spectators have seen more hyper carries and more champions with engage tools and less damage in laning phase.
That makes looming international events all the more interesting. Different regions have dealt with the phenomenon differently, creating perhaps the largest disparity in what we might call the "global meta" in years.
Heading into a Rift Rivals, both tournaments (the League Champions Korea - League of Legends Masters Series - League of Legends Pro League (LCK-LMS-LPL) and North America - Europe (NA-EU)) tournaments will showcase regional flavor. To prepare, it's a good idea for spectators to understand some of the largest differences.
You are null and void
One of the greatest divergences in regional metas comes up when one compares LCK champion pick priority to LPL's on the recent patch. Syndra enjoyed an 89 percent pick or ban rate since the summer split started in the LCK, but fell all the way down to 46 percent in the LPL. In her place, Kassadin has risen with a 77 percent pick or ban rate as the region's most contested (non-Galio) mid laner.
Kassadin scales well into a lot of mid lane matchups (and even counters the likes of Taliyah), but other popular picks will push aggressively into Kassadin, opening up the jungle. Picks like Syndra or Karma (who have risen in popularity as a mid laner uniquely within LCK games this past week) will have an easier time keeping the lane pushed against Kassadin. Mid lane control will give an invading jungler better follow-up when he goes to disrupt the other side of the map or gank a sidelane.
Kassadin enjoys an easier laning phase in the LPL partly because of the lower early pressure jungle pool. The terrifying Renekton-Elise combination that has dominated the LCK most recently has had less-than-convincing results in the LPL. While LCK teams love to get their Renektons and their Rumbles ahead to push out the top side of the map, this strategy has fallen apart in the LPL.
The LPL has a deeply entrenched love for Gragas, Kha'Zix, and Jarvan IV that distinguishes it on Patch 7.12 from the LCK. Jarvan IV was contested in 84 percent of games in the past two week of the LPL alone. One might become surprised to learn the LPL only contested Elise in 78 percent of games in the past two weeks compared to the LCK's 100 percent Elise contest rate. Rek'Sai also hasn't broken into the 50 percent threshold in the LPL the way it has in LCK and LMS.
When an LPL team has put in work to snowball its top laner ahead with an aggressive jungler, the enemy's mid lane Kassadin or Kog'Maw scales up. The enemy jungler brings a long range or area of effect engage tool like Gragas or Jarvan IV's ultimate, and when Renekton or a mid laner goes to catch a side lane wave, the enemy team engages a 5v4 or 5v3 in mid lane.
In LCK, pushing top and mid with massive leads means more freedom for the jungler. SK Telecom T1's Kang "Blank" Sungu will leave his own camps up longer because the enemy jungler cannot invade or deny them for fear of Blank's laners collapsing on him. As a result, Blank can interfere with side lanes or deny enemy buffs much more often and extend SKT's lead.
That doesn't mean LCK teams don't suffer the same problems in midgame when faced with high engage compositions. KT's third game loss against ROX Tigers this past week came from ROX engaging mid with the potent Kalista and Rakan combination while both Viktor and Renekton pressure side lanes for KT. ROX transitioned into a 24 minute Baron after two kills.
LPL's high engage and hyper carry picks might surprise a team like KT at Rift Rivals, especially because KT have a tendency to push too much to get objectives after a victory. Rather than taking a favorable back timing to refresh items and wards, they'll go deep into a lane where a Jarvan IV might pin them down.
Ultimately, however, LCK should be able to make early leads stick with better mid lane flanking wards that let Syndra and Orianna keep mid lane permanently pushed out. They'll bring crowd control of their own in Ashe and Varus to disengage or punish mid lane dives from an enemy jungler before Kassadin can do more than duel and pick off targets at level 16.
Engage in the bottom or top lane
The EU LCS and LPL metas have surprising similarity, but EU teams are much more likely to bring a bottom lane hyper carry pick. In the words of G2 Esports' Jesper "Zven" Svenningsen, "Ashe is a champ where, if her team is behind, you lose because you can't carry by yourself." Zven lamented G2's inability to play "correctly" and make strong laning phase picks with crowd control and utility like Ashe work without making mistakes later on.
Overall, Europe's focus on top lane and bottom lane picks gives it the most distinction from North America. North Americans have tried their hands at Martin "Rekkles" Larsson's famous Kennen, and their pick rates for Ashe and Varus have been higher than in Europe.
While LCK are the true kings of Ashe and Varus bottom lane, using the early laning power and relying on these picks to engage, EU LCS teams have shunned them more than NA. Europe's top three contested AD carries for the split (outside the flexed Kennen and universally favored Caitlyn) are Xayah, Twitch, and Varus. NA favors Varus, Xayah, and Ashe. Jhin and Lucian all have higher pick and ban rates before Twitch enters the picture.
Both Ashe and Varus have about a 10 percent higher pick and ban rate in NA than EU. Jhin has barely been touched in EU, but on Patch 7.12, North Americans picked or banned him in 62 percent of games, making NA the only region that had an over 50 percent Jhin presence on the new patch.
NA also has a much higher Kennen priority overall, and they favor Fiora to EU's Rumble. NA also has higher contest rates for other lane bully top lane picks like Renekton and or duelists like Shen.
A lot of the logic for NA's higher rate of bot lane engage and crowd control picks aligns with that of LCK. They want to win duels in top lane and crush through the game from there. But NA teams are much less likely to execute a 1-3-1 consistently and will enter mid lane brawls more often. EU teams, especially UoL, use mid lane fights as a trap. Baron and mid wave control is the carrot. An ADC hyper carry and top lane engage is the stick.
For this reason, it feels like Europe's hyper carry picks might be more potent at Rift Rivals against NA than LPL's will against LCK. EU LCS teams may choose more engage in the top lane and jungle with Gragas or Rumble, but this will provide a thicker front line for their hyper carries as well, even if they don't get as far ahead. It will be harder for an Ashe to hit a long range engage without putting herself at risk.
Because of the way both regions favor grouped fights, NA and EU Rift Rivals may well come down to which compositions makes for better teamfighting. If Baron control isn't top notch, EU LCS teams can use picks like Twitch to clear a grouped fight, but they may need to be more mindful of NA's longer range engage and painful diving front line.