Gragas has been disabled following the emergence of a bug with his Q. This threatens to radically shift the meta less than a week before Worlds’ semifinals.
As we rapidly approach the concluding days of Worlds, Riot has posted a new announcement that will define the coming week. A bug with Gragas’ Barrel Roll (Q) caused a remake of game 2 of the Fnatic vs Edward Gaming series. Following further investigations into the bug, which makes casting the Q impossible, Gragas has been disabled for the remainder of the tournament.
“...We now know the bug is more likely to recur than previously thought,” said Hunter “Riot Hebble” Leigh, “We don’t want to endanger the integrity of the rest of the tournament."
This bug can also occur with Lux and Ziggs, meaning that they have also been disabled for next week’s games. The key difference, of course, is that Gragas has been widely picked throughout worlds, whereas Lux and Ziggs have yet to be selected.
Gragas is a popular pick amongst junglers for his versatile kit, strong ganks, and late-game scaling potential. His ult can be used to disengage or to make a quick pick, his Q and E offer powerful forms of crowd control, and he offers decent damage, even while itemizing for tankiness. He, Rek’sai, and Elise form a trio of junglers that have been seen in nearly every game at Worlds this year. Gragas has been picked or banned in 33 out of 63 games so far this tournament, which gives him a 52.3% pick/ban rate.
Origen is hit particularly hard by this ban, as their jungler, Maurice “Amazing” Stückenschneider, has selected him in four out of their ten games. Additionally, Fnatic’s Eujin “Reignover” Kim has selected him twice, SKT T1’s Seong-Ung “bengi” Bae has picked him once, and KOO Tigers’ HoJin “HOJIN” Lee has not selected him at all.
The disappearance of Gragas will have a dire effect on the meta. Without him, we may just have Elise and Rek’sai in every remaining game. If one of those two is banned away, Lee Sin, as the fourth most popular jungle pick, seems poised to fill the void left by the departure of the drunken brawler.
(For more information about Riot's decision, click here.)
