S15 Pro Meta & Key Picks Analysis (Part 1) : PrioScore Top 1–10 Champions
October 2, 2025
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The international tournaments in Season 15 have included FST, MSI, and EWC, and now each region is running its playoffs in the lead-up to the World Championship.
In this article, we examine the most important champion picks seen from early 2025 through September, analyzing the constantly shifting meta, identifying the key factors driving it, and breaking down the strengths, weaknesses, and usage reasons for each pick.
For champion selection, we use gol.gg’s PrioScore Top 30 champions as the baseline, accounting even for those that may not frequently appear in games due to bans.
The list of champions is as follows:
Why does the meta change every year? It’s not just champion balance patches—item changes often dictate the overall direction. Even when nerfs and buffs eventually balance out champions, the rise or fall of certain picks is almost always tied to itemization.
For example, during the Mythic Item era:
In this way, item changes consistently serve as the core axis shaping the direction of the meta.
Divine Sunderer highlighted champions like Fiora, Camille, and Jax. Goredrinker made frontline bruisers such as Vi, Xin Zhao, and Jarvan dominant. Galeforce brought immobile ADCs to prominence and even enabled new combos for champions like Xayah. Everfrost added new utility to mages with CC such as Ahri, Ryze, and Twisted Fate.
In Season 15, Sundered Sky and Redemption have emerged as the defining core items of the meta.
In short, item changes are the most critical keyword for explaining the core of the Season 15 meta.
Pantheon stands out for his direct synergy with Sundered Sky. After bursting with a W Q combo, he can use his E to redirect aggro and reset cooldowns, while the sustain from Sundered Sky extends this cycle even further.
At the pro level, another strength is his efficiency in side-lane operations. Because junglers do not rely on lane farm, Pantheon can freely join skirmishes at any time, making team-wide coordination smoother.
Many still perceive Pantheon as a champion who falls off late-game, but in reality his power curve actually trends upward as the game progresses.
Azir may be one of the most frequently picked champions in tournament history. As a mage, he brings two core strengths, long range and sustained damage, both of which directly scale into strong late-game value.
Unlike traditional control mages such as Orianna and Syndra, who lack mobility and are therefore vulnerable when side-laning, Azir has a reliable S-tier mobility tool, enabling safe side-lane farming.
He can also contribute both through poke damage and by initiating fights with his ultimate, making him versatile on offense and defense.
That said, Azir’s teamfighting is noticeably weak around his first-item spike, which is his main drawback. Unless Riot implements patches that specifically weaken him around that 1-core timing, Azir is expected to remain a consistent pro-play staple.
Trundle’s core strengths lie in his role as an anti-tank and his ability to target immobile carries with his E. His recent surge in pro play is not simply the result of balance patches but is deeply tied to broader shifts in the meta.
One major factor is the itemization patterns of AP mid laners. To manage early mana needs, they are forced into items like Lost Chapter or Tear of the Goddess. However, to properly deal with tanks, they also need percentage magic penetration items, which cannot realistically be built as a first core. This leaves Liandry’s Anguish as the only real option, but without mana, it delays their ability to pressure tanks in the early game.
This environment has strengthened top lane tanks, and Trundle has re-emerged as the jungle pick best suited to counter them.
That said, Trundle is a champion with very distinct strengths and weaknesses. He excels as a counterpick in the right meta context, but picking him blindly just because “the meta is good for him” is risky.
In short, Trundle shines as a strategic pick when drafted with careful consideration of the meta, team composition, and the enemy’s champions.
Wukong is a staple jungle champion who is used more consistently in professional play than in solo queue. Thanks to his AoE ultimate and guaranteed CC, he can reliably fulfill a core role in team compositions even if his stats are nerfed. His W enables surprise engages that are difficult to predict, and his late-game scaling is among the best of all jungle champions. His main drawback is that his skirmishing power before level 6 is somewhat weak.
Once Wukong completes his first core item, typically Sundered Sky or Trinity Force, he gains skirmish priority over most jungle champions. For this reason, teams facing Wukong must secure advantages in the early game before he completes his first item.
Wukong is also one of the rare champions who provides both strong initiation and high late-game value. This makes him a common choice in dive compositions, where Kai’Sa is often drafted as the primary ADC.
Rumble was once a champion whose power curve dropped sharply after level 11. However, patch 13.5 added % magic resist reduction to his E, and later patches granted his Q max-health scaling damage, significantly improving his mid-to-late-game damage profile.
He commands near-universal lane priority in the early game and provides guaranteed long-range initiation with his ultimate, which are hallmark strengths of the champion. With his mid-to-late-game damage now reinforced, his late-game value has also risen dramatically.
His explosive impact in the first Rift Herald fight is especially threatening. As a result, teams facing Rumble must either avoid that initial objective skirmish before his first core item, or secure early priority decisively starting from the draft phase.
Alistar is considered one of the premier tank supports in the current meta. With the addition of new objectives like the Larva and Atakan increasing the frequency of skirmishes, proactive engage and tank supports have become more favored than purely defensive utility options.
A major strength of Alistar is that, in this tank-support-heavy environment, he does not fall significantly behind other tank supports during the laning phase. Even if the enemy engages first, he can use his W to knock enemy carries away and disrupt their follow-up.
However, Alistar is vulnerable to ranged utility and poke supports. When those champions are banned out, Alistar rises as a tank support who also provides strong late-game value.
His notable counters are Sylas and Braum. Sylas poses a particular threat because stealing and using Alistar’s ultimate can be devastating, while Braum consistently outperforms most tank supports in skirmishes, with the exception of Rakan.
Yunara’s kit is designed with strong late-game scaling in mind. Typically, when a champion is built this way, their base stats play a major role in determining viability in the meta. At the professional level, Yunara remains a common pick because her current numbers—both ability damage and base stats—are solid.
She has received nerfs in recent patches, but it remains uncertain whether further adjustments will follow. Even so, Yunara has shown she can hold her own in melee trades, except against more extreme lane bullies like Kalista and Draven.
To counter Yunara, teams need to apply heavy ranged pressure from the early game or draft champions who can match or exceed her scaling value in late-game teamfights. Caitlyn, Twitch, and Smolder are among the champions most often considered effective counterpicks.
Poppy is a champion who sees consistent use in both jungle and support roles. While she was long regarded as a nearly unlosable pick in early top lane phases, she has recently demonstrated even greater value as a jungler and support.
As a jungler, Poppy’s clear speed is somewhat slow, but her early gank pressure and skirmishing power are very strong, allowing her to secure lane priority. Even against enemy junglers with strong early dueling, Poppy can use her W to block dashes and her E to pin opponents into walls, either avoiding danger or turning fights around.
As a support, Poppy is more vulnerable against ranged poke supports such as Xerath, Neeko, and Karma, as well as Maokai. In particular, Maokai’s W is not classified as a dash, so Poppy’s W cannot interrupt it, and his ultimate exerts tremendous influence in mid-to-late teamfights—making it difficult for Poppy’s R to fully disrupt engagements.
Orianna remains a consistently reliable mage pick in professional play. While assassins and bruisers are often dominant in solo queue, the pro environment favors mages who have relatively even lane matchups and strong late-game value—and Orianna fulfills both conditions.
Thanks to the synergy between her E and ultimate, she pairs exceptionally well with various AD junglers, most notably Jarvan IV and Nocturne.
As with most mages, Orianna’s combat power is somewhat weak during the 1–2 core item window. Because of this, teams facing Orianna generally take one of two approaches:
On the flip side, teams that pick Orianna typically pair her with junglers like Xin Zhao, who can boost early skirmishing power to compensate for this weakness.
Vi is a jungler whose value rises significantly at the professional level. As overall gameplay becomes more precise, the importance of skills that can reliably lock down targets increases—and this directly defines Vi’s core strength. She is a prime example of a champion whose fundamental kit naturally aligns with the meta.
From an item perspective, she has powerful synergy with Sundered Sky. Its sustain and extended skirmish potential make her a natural centerpiece in both dive comps and pick comps. In such setups, Vi’s ultimate provides the guaranteed initiation needed to eliminate enemy backline carries.
She also pairs exceptionally well with most AP mid champions in ultimate combos, as long as they are not pure poke types like Xerath or Zoe.
Although patch 13.17 nerfed her passive as well as her W, E, and R, these changes did not significantly impact her jungle clear speed. As such, her viability in pro play is expected to remain stable for the foreseeable future.
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