League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational Sees Vi as the Top Jungler
Out of the 14 jungle champions that were played at the League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational Play-In Stage from May 2 to May 7, one champion stood out among the rest: the Piltover Enforcer, Vi.
Vi was one of the most contested champions across major regions, appearing in over 90% of draft picks or bans in playoff matches in the LPL, LCS, LEC, and LCK, as reported by pro play stats page Leaguepedia.
This trend continued into the Play-Ins, where Vi had an impressive 92% pick-ban rate. This rate was not only the highest in the jungle category but also the highest among all 71 champions contested during the opening week in London.
Out of the eight games Vi played, she had a positive win rate of 5-3. This win rate placed her as the third highest among junglers, trailing Nidalee and Maokai who had a win rate of 75% in four games played. Despite her bans totaling 15, Vi was not able to dominate the most picked charts, with Viego and Wukong surpassing her bans at 10 and 9, respectively.
Unlike Wukong, who received nerfs in League Patch 13.7, Vi seems to have remained relatively unaffected. Performance at MSI showed that Wukong has fallen from grace since late 2022, only securing a single win in the nine matches where he appeared, according to Games of Legends.
Vi underwent specific changes in the 13.7 patch, which adjusted the scaling of her Q, Vault Breaker, and her E, Relentless Force. These changes reduced her base damage per level while scaling later into the game, aiming to decrease her outgoing damage while maintaining her tankiness.
This change has resulted in Vi dealing less damage compared to other junglers during the first week of MSI. She has taken a more supporting role in terms of damage output.
Other than these changes, Vi’s build has remained the same. The commonly used item build in both solo queue and professional play includes Divine Sunderer as the Mythic item, followed by Black Cleaver and Guardian Angel. Situational items like Maw of Malmortius are chosen to counter specific opponents, as reported by Pro Build Stats.
Both Golden Guardians’ River and Bilibili’s XUN achieved two wins each while piloting Vi at MSI. However, XUN suffered a loss against River’s AP Gragas.
As the junglers at MSI adapt to patch 13.8 and the constantly changing meta, Vi seems to be a reliable choice. We will see if her performance holds up when MSI resumes on May 9.