Day 2 of the 2019 World Championship Play-In Stage saw some similarly confusing champion priority as Day 1. Instead of the 0-4 Ekko, however, this time it was the 1-3 crocodile, Renekton. When combined with Day 1, the champion is 1-5, and has only ever been a team’s first pick, which means it has an awful lot of priority considering it’s only won in the hands of Korean mid laner, Heo “Showmaker” Su. Following up on our Day 1 “MVC”, Tristana saw two more picks in Day 2, going 1-1 for the day bringing her record to 4-1. She even got picked in the first draft phase once as well. Continue to keep eyes on the yordle as we go into Group A’s second round robin as each team has already played her once. 

One pick that also had unfortunate priority in Day 1 was Kai’Sa, who ended her first day at Worlds with a 0-3 record. That was immediately reversed in the first few games of Day 2, however, as DWG and HKA evened out her record at 3-3. She did end up losing later to have an overall 3-4 record for the tournament, but with more Xayah bans coming through, Kai’Sa seems to have remained priority for teams hoping to utilize a standard ADC. 

There are a lot of interesting things developing in this Worlds meta so far. Due to champion priority shifts, Syndra has seen more playtime and less ban time, taking a bit of the bot lane spotlight. And despite Xayah having a mere 50% win rate, she was deemed the strongest current ADC, and is now being hit repeatedly by the ban hammer. With that, Rakan dropped off a bit in priority with all the hook champs (other than “The Hook,” Blitzcrank) taking his place. Other than the first game of the day, at least one of Thresh, Nautilus, and Pyke were in every game, if not one for each team. Leona was the only other support that made its way on stage.

And what goes well with long range CC supports? Kai’Sa! All four of those supports have multiple CC abilities, both long and short range and provide Kai’Sa what she needs to excel in all parts of the game. From providing ult targets to peel, Kai’Sa is a heavy CC support’s best friend. The other thing Kai’Sa loves is long games. With all these Play-In teams clashing heads, one key ability many of them lack is closing out games. This ensures Kai’Sa always has a chance to become relevant, and dominant, even if she is put behind early. Lastly, with Ekko jungle failing, and the prevalence of AD mids (Renekton, Pantheon, Qiyana…), Kai’Sa is the best option for a high DPS champ that still provides AP threat. 

Though it looked like she may be a bit on the weaker side Day 1, Kai’Sa made a bounce back in Day 2 and showed why she is still an important pick for teams to have in their arsenal this Worlds. The main question will be can she survive in the early game when Syndra falls in the hands of players like Luka "Perkz" Perković, and when the enemy team knows how to close out a game faster than Kai’Sa can scale.