The 2022 League of Legends World Championship kicks off soon. Teams from all over the world have gathered to determine who is the best of them all. While the teams fight for eternal glory, there’s something in it for the fans too: loot. The Pick’Em game returns and you can earn a heap of in-game rewards by casting your votes. First up is the Crystal Ball Pick’Em, for which the voting closes on Sept. 29, 10 PM CEST. Unsure who to pick? Here are our picks for the Worlds 2022 Pick’Em Crystal Ball.
Champion Pick’Ems
Kicking off with the champion Pick’Ems, Gnar is a safe bet for the most-picked champion across Worlds 2022. The top lane pool tends to be among he least diverse in any tournament and Worlds will be no different. Gnar has been a staple for many patches and the little yordle will likely keep his relevance during the world championship
Kalista is our pick for the most-banned champion at Worlds. The spear-throwing bot laner has been oppressive for the last patches and has been banned across all regions. She is meta-defining and without hard direct or indirect nerfs, it’s unlikely she’ll survive many ban phases.
Picking a champion that has the highest win rate is difficult. The Pick’Em Crystal Ball is foggy. You might lean towards a champion such as Kalista, who has a high chance of winning in any game she gets picked in. “Neutral” champions, which will be the most-played champions, are a bad pick because every team will win and lose some with them. That’s why we went for a niche pick instead: Bel’Veth. The void jungler is a curveball pick but, when utilized well, she is incredibly dominant.
To answer the question “Who will be played in the most different roles at Worlds?” we need to think out of the box. Which champion can be flexed? Jayce is played in the top lane but appears in the mid lane too every now and then. The same goes for Irelia. Karthus is a good option since he can be played in the jungle, in the mid lane, and in the bot lane. We went with Gwen. While Gwen sees most play in the top lane, she’s also played in the mid lane and jungle when teams want to deceive their opponent in the draft phase. Gwen is also prevalent in the meta, giving her an edge over other champions.
Lastly in the champion Pick’Ems category, we have the champion who will die most. It’s hard to choose between a jungler and a support champion—these are the roles that most often are the engagers—but we landed on Nautilus. Nautilus complements many meta champions right now, meaning he’ll be picked a lot. While tanky, Nautilus also often sacrifices himself for the rest of the team.
Player Pick’Ems
The player Pick’Ems are a different beast entirely, as you now have to predict which individuals will rise to the occasion at Worlds 2022. Who will have the highest KDA? Last year, the highest KDA’s were mostly earned by bot lane players. Wang “Hope” Jie is our pick for this year. The bot laner for JD Gaming has flown under the radar with Western audiences but is a core component of his team’s success. With Lou “Missing” Yun-Feng by his side, Hope dominates his lane and the game.
To choose a player who’ll pick the most different champions, you first need to consider which teams will make it far into the tournament. After all, the more games a team plays, the more opportunities there are to pick different champions. Gen.G is one of the tournament favorites and their mid laner, Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon, loves to style on his mid lane opponent. With the mid lane meta in a diverse state, Chovy can find many different counter picks to assert his dominance.
Pentakills are rare, let alone at world championship events. Still, if we have to pick one, there are a few good options. Kai’Sa is in a decent position as a bot lane champion, which immediately pushes Chen “GALA” Wei to the forefront. Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk is also a safe pick. Ultimately, we chose Markos “Comp” Stamkopoulos. Comp went on a tear with Rogue in the 2022 LEC Summer Split and farmed three pentakills. Rogue works together to get the Greek bot laner his pentakills and if the opportunity arises at Worlds 2022, they’ll grant him the honor again.
First Blood is all about measured aggression. You have to know when your opponent is out of place and you can strike them down. Chovy is widely regarded as one of the best—if not the best—laners in the world precisely because he punishes his opponent so well. The South Korean mid laner loves to be the playmaker and is our pick for this category in Crystal Ball Pick’Ems.
To round out the Crystal Ball Pick’Ems for the player categories, we chose Kim “Deft” Hyuk-kyu. The seasoned bot laner competes in the Worlds 2022 Play-In Stage with his team DRX, meaning he’ll be playing against weaker opponents to start the tournament. While Deft has had better years in his career, his skill floor is so high that he’ll still stand out in the Play-In Stage and rake in the corpses of his enemies.
Team Pick’Ems
Compared to the other categories, the Team Pick’Ems is a relatively easy category. You simply have fewer options to choose from. The big question, “Who wins Worlds?”, has a few viable answers. LPL champion JD Gaming and LCK champion Gen.G are among the favorites to win it all. We went with Top Esports instead. Although they fell in the final series against JDG, Top Esports made it as close as was humanly possible. Jungler Gao “Tian” Tian-Liang is in top shape this year and his signature champion Lee Sin is back in the meta too. The stars are aligning for Top Esports, but they’ll have stiff competition.
The traditional Pick’Em event doesn’t let you bet on many Play-In matches, but the Crystal Ball Pick’Em saves some of that. Group A is the lighter one of the two Play-In groups. Fnatic has to miss support Zdravets “Hylisang” Galabov at the start of the tournament, but we’re still confident that the LEC team will perform well. Group B is much more top-heavy. That said, Royal Never Give Up is still reigning MSI champions, and it’d be foolish to go against a team of that caliber.
“Which team from a region with 2 seeds or less will advance furthest through Worlds?” is an oddly-phrased question. Does it mean which team will progress the furthest from where they started, or do they want to know which team will end the highest of all teams? We went with the second interpretation. GAM Esports has already qualified for the Worlds 2022 Group Stage and has a leg up on most of its competitors. The VCS is traditionally the fifth-best region too, so we expect that they’ll perform best of the non-major region teams.
Gen.G is our pick for the team with the most-played champions. The expectations are that Gen.G will make it far into the tournament, giving them many chances to pick different champions along the way. They also have Chovy as their mid laner, who we predicted will pick the most different champions from all players.
Event Pick’Ems
The final Crystal Ball Pick’Em category concerns Worlds 2022 as an event. The first prediction asks how many reverse sweeps will happen at Worlds. We are playing it safe with our prediction and think that precisely zero reverse sweeps occur. Exciting as they are, reverse sweeps are incredibly rare and only happen when the teams are extremely close in skill level. Furthermore, it requires one team to have incredible mental fortitude. The odds are against any reverse sweeps to happen, sadly enough.
Like reverse sweeps, pentakills don’t happen every day. You need a player to step up on a carry champion at the perfect moment. We think only one pentakill will happen at Worlds, and even that will require fate to be generous to us.
A usual professional game of League of Legends lasts roughly 33 minutes nowadays. But when asked what the longest game at Worlds 2022 will be, the Crystal Ball told us that it will last between 45 and 50 minutes. Hopefully, there won’t be too many games as long as this, but it’s pretty likely that some type of stalemate scenario puts two teams in a marathon match.
Baron steals are much more common than reverse sweeps and pentakills. Sometimes a jungler fumbles their smite, other times the rest of the team isn’t paying attention well… there is plenty that can go wrong. We think about six to eight Barons will be stolen during Worlds 2022. The last Crystal Ball Pick’Em prediction wants you to roll the elemental die. Which dragon will be slain the most during Worlds 2022? We think it’s going to be the Cloud Drake.
Check out our full guide to the Worlds 2022 Pick’Ems. You can find the full schedule of the Play-In Stage here. We also have a guide for the Play-In Stage, Group Stage, and for the Knockout Stage. For a list of all teams competing at Worlds 2022, click here.
