We’re only a few weeks away from the start of the 2023 League of Legends World Championship, but attending pro players might have already shown a bit of their hand in their recent games of solo queue in South Korea.
Fans and analysts have noticed a rising trend of players who have started to play LeBlanc in both the mid lane and top lane, featuring a new build that has many people predicting that the Deceiver will be a prime pick on Summoner’s Rift when teams finally collide at Worlds.
As mentioned by popular streamer and caster Caedrel, a new strategy that has supposedly cropped up during scrims and is currently being experimented with in solo queue is a LeBlanc item path that features Trinity Force, Hullbreaker, Stormrazor, and Statikk Shiv with tank items to round out the build.
Many fans have seen LeBlanc build Statikk Shiv in professional play, but the addition of Trinity Force and Hullbreaker make her a different type of menace that could become a choice champion for top laners and mid laners alike. Her innate ability to poke out enemies in the early game is combined with the quick wave-clearing potential of Statikk Shiv, making her a great choice for players who enjoy pushing in minions and roaming to help their teammates.
The addition of Hullbreaker and Trinity Force, however, makes her an annoying splitpush threat that must be dealt with since she can easily shove in waves in the late game and deal a ton of damage to structures with enough items and levels. She can also escape from any oncoming reinforcements with ease and is tanky enough to withstand some punishment from enemy carries with the right items and runes.
Over the last week, mid lane stars like T1’s Faker, MAD Lions’ Nisqy, and G2 Esports’ Caps have tried out the build in solo queue, while top laners like KT Rolster’s Kiin, G2’s BrokenBlade, and Dplus KIA’s Canna are also breaking out the pick, according to Pros.lol.
Worlds 2023 will kick off on Tuesday, Oct. 10, when we may finally get a chance to witness some of these new strategies in action among the best teams in the world.
