As the fifth season of League of Legends' World Championship takes place around Europe, we have seen each team show great strengths and strategy in choosing which champions to pick and which to ban.
Gangplank (GP) is currently the most banned champion. During the group stages, it got picked four times, and each time, the team with the GP champion always won, reported On Gamers.
During the quarterfinals, the only time it got the chance to experience the rift was during the second game of Edward Gaming vs. Fnatic on Sunday. Unfortunately, a Gragas bug called for a technical issue that resulted in a total reset of the game, including picks and bans, where GP was benched once again, according to LoL Esports.
Gangplank's value in the game is due to his kit, which involves mixed damages. Resistances built against champions with mixed damages is very difficult because you can't counter him with just one item build, making this champion difficult to counter in the early game. GP is also a great snowballing champion, and when he gets the chance to snowball, it also becomes difficult to counter him in the late game.
GP's passive skill, "Trial by Fire," is an on-hit effect that improves his basic attack every few seconds. It deals true damage and scales with his level and attack damage (AD). In addition, his first ability is called "Parrrley," an offensive skill that applies on-hit effects. When this skill kills a target, GP is rewarded with plunder gold and silver serpents. When he is able to farm enough silver serpents, he can upgrade his Skill Shot (SS), "Cannon Barrage," up to three times, for 500 silver serpents each upgrade. When this happens, his SS increases in strength in slowing down enemy teams, a perfect crowd control advantage in team fights.
And as if those damage skills, gold farming advantage and crowd control skills are not enough, GP also has a skill called "Remove Scurvy," which heals GP and removes any CC skills affecting him at the time of activation, according to League of Legends Game Info Guide.
The farming ability, the damage that can be produced, and the lane sustain that gives GP so much advantage, is what makes this champion too much to deal with on the rift, making professional teams decide that it is always the safer way to bench just him.
