Competitive League of Legends around the world will look to start again very soon. The Summer split for LCS starts on June 5, LPL on June 7, LCK on June 9, and LEC on June 11; every other region will start sometime in between or after. All regions will play on patch 11.11, and with it, there will be elements of the competitive meta that will look different from that of MSI. Here are some changes that you can expect at the start of the Summer split around the world.

Divine Sunderer - Currently the best Mythic item in the game?

This item was already strong, especially against a team composition that’s beefy. However, with the buffs that it received from patch 11.11, the empowered spellblade damage was buffed from 10% to 12%, and the healing was buffed from 50% for melee/30% for ranged to 65% for melee/40% for ranged.

So which champions benefit the most from these changes? While a lot of the AD melee champions come to mind, based on the solo queue stats, Wukong seems to be benefiting the most. The increase in his win rate is also partly due to the buffs that the item, Black Cleaver, received in the same patch. 

For ranged (marksman) champions, Ezreal is on the top of that list. The nerfs to Hail of Blades, where the cooldown was changed from 8 seconds to 12, indirectly nerfed a lot of bot lane champions that were dominant in the competitive meta, such as Kai’Sa and Tristana. Furthermore, with the buffs to Frozen Heart and Serpent’s Fang on patch 11.11, there’s a lot more variety to Ezreal’s itemization options.

Moonstaff - The return of the enchanters?

Moonstone Renewer and Staff of Flowing Water were nerfed in patch 11.8. To compensate, both items received buffs; Moonstone’s healing and shield power was buffed from 4%, up to 20% to 6%, up to 30%, and SoFW’s shared AP buff went from 20-40 AP to 25-45 AP. These buffs will provide champions like Lulu and Karma, more value in certain team compositions in competitive; especially in draft, due to how they can be flexed into multiple roles.

The same can be applied to Seraphine, especially because she received buffs to the shields that provides. Furthermore, a niche bot lane that’s being experimented is Seraphine-Lux, due to Lux’s buffs to her damage on E, Ludent Singularity, in patch 10.10. While non-marksman botlanes haven’t been seen in competitive play for quite a while, these buffs to both Seraphine and Lux may potentially shake up the competitive meta.

Nautilus - No longer just a support champion

While Nautilus was primarily picked as a support champion due to his ability to engage, he was never picked as a jungler. While I personally don’t believe that the changes that enabled him to clear jungle camps faster isn’t enough to solidify him in the jungle, I think that the option for him to be flexed in the draft phases can now provide more options for teams.

Finally, Viego and Gwen, the champion that remained disabled for so many patches due to the vast number of bugs that he had, and the latest champion to join the cast, will be enabled in competitive play. How will two of the newest champions to the game shake up the competitive meta? Viego still has a lot of known bugs in the game, so will he get disabled again?