Are people actually playing the champions from The Call?

Riot Games’ cinematic trailer for the 2022 season of League of Legends, titled ‘The Call’, featured nine of the game’s champions. However, at the halfway mark of the 2022 season, are people actually playing the champions featured?

The Call featured Orrn, Sejauni, Olaf, Taliyah, Kai’Sa, Rek’Sai, Pantheon, Volibear, and Leona. It’s a diverse mix of champions, but the question remains — are they champions people are actually playing? Fragster resolved to answer this question using math.

This won’t be as boring as it sounds

This article had the potential to be incredibly dry and dull, featuring various lists of numbers that no one really cares about.

So we did some math.

The list below has assigned a singular value to each of the nine champions in The Call. This number was achieved through the following method:

• Find the champion’s presence rate (picks+bans as a percentage of the total games played) for all professional leagues tracked by Game of Legends (gol.gg).
• Find the champions’ pick and ban rates in non-professional ranked play, as tracked by u.gg
• Turn these into singular numbers by ranking them and assigning a value to each ranking (1st = 9 for example)
• Add these three numbers together
• Multiply each of these by their ‘Big Boi Multiplier’ (The average of each champion’s presence rate in the four major regions and Diamond+ ranked play)

The resulting number is referred to the champion’s ‘Litty Score’. Is this even vaguely scientific? No. Is it a whole lot more fun this way? Absolutely. So without further ado, the nine champions featured in The Call, ranked by math.

Pantheon (Litty Score: 16.1)

Pantheon has fallen a long way from the 2019 World Championship, where he had a 100% presence rate (despite only being played once in the entire tournament). Riot’s own-brand Spartan warrior really fell off in popularity in 2021 when the company reworked his kit to move him off the support role and into a viable solo lane flex pick. The problem was that Pantheon didn’t fit the AP mage meta that arose in mid lane, nor was he even close to being the best option in top lane.

Pantheon currently holds a 0.1% presence rate in pro play. According to Game of Legends, there has been a single Pantheon pick during the Summer splits so far and it occurred in the second division of the regional French league.

Sejuani (Litty Score: 48.6)

Sejauni has had a similar fate to Pantheon in 2022, in the fact that there are just simply better options at her viable positions (jungle and top). However, what elevates Sejauni above Pantheon is a much higher pick rate in general ranked play. Sejauni can be a good pick in the right hands, but there just aren’t a lot of Sejauni mains in 2022.

In pro play, she sees a decent amount of action in smaller leagues, but has also been played sparingly in China and Korea during the 2022 Summer split.

Rek’Sai (Litty Score: 79.5)

Rek’Sai fell very much into the middle of the pack on most of the general ranked play metrics used to calculate these scores, which is why we find her here. After some tweaks in 2021, Rek’Sai’s kit hasn’t really been touched and much like Sejauni, there are just better picks for the jungle.

She has been picked twice in the LPL during the Summer split but her overall numbers see here down towards the bottom of this list.

Olaf (Litty Score: 123.6)

Olaf is the first champion who has very little pro presence but a fairly substantial presence in high ranked play. In Diamond+ ranked matches, Olaf has a presence rate of 15.8%, which helps put him around the middle of this list. Once again, Olaf’s pro presence is low simply because there are better options in both top lane and jungle. However, the character remains scary for lower-ranked players, as he recorded the third-highest general ranked ban rate of all the characters on this list.

Ornn (Litty Score: 146.25)

Remember when Ornn was an insanely popular pick? So popular that viewers of Worlds 2020 got a watch reward called “Where’s Ornn?” when he wasn’t picked? Ornn is interesting in that he has a higher professional presence rate than a Diamond+ ranked presence rate. This may largely be due to Ornn being a very team-reliant champion, which isn’t as viable if you’re playing solo or with a small group. But in the major regions in 2022, Ornn has a 12.9% presence rate. This speaks to his enduring viability.

Taliyah (Litty Score: 213)

Are you surprised to see Taliyah this high on the list? That’s due to a very specific reason — the Stoneweaver has an absolutely massive 28.2% presence rate in Diamond+ ranked play. While her presence in the major regions hovers around 7%, it increases to around 12% when all pro leagues are considered. Taliyah was also recently adjusted in patch 12.11, increasingly her viability on the Rift.

Kai’Sa (Litty Score: 324.45)

The numbers are about to start ballooning folks, so buckle up. Kai’Sa has pretty consistent numbers across both pro major regions (13.1%) and Diamond+ ranked play (17.8%). She’s just generally a good option in the bot lane, especially following the durability update that put a much bigger emphasis on late-gaming teamfighting. While Kai’Sa has always been a late-game champion, the new meta has brought her into a whole new world of viability.

Leona (Litty Score: 614.4)

Everyone wants Leona, and if they can’t have her, no one can. Leona has a 44.2% presence rate in the major regions (we won’t talk about her 7% presence rate in Diamond+ ranked play). She also gets banned away in over 10% of all ranked games. Leona has always been a tanky support but the durability update has only elevated that. Expect to keep seeing Leona in your ranked games, and on the pro scene.

Volibear (Litty Score: 781.25)

Topping our list is the big lightning bear himself. Much like Leona, the durability update has made an already tanky champion even tankier. Volibear has appeared in over a quarter of major region pro games this season, and 37.2% of Diamond+ ranked matches. Earlier in this list, we talked about jungle champions who suffered from there being better options at the position. Volibear is that better option.  And that’s why he’s at the top of this list.

Will the list change?

We are still early in the Summer split, with plenty more patches to come. This includes the vaunted “Worlds patch”, which has had a history of completely redefining the meta. We’ll just have to wait and see where the rest of the season takes us.

Header: Riot Games