Why Nami has invaded the Worlds 2021 bot lane meta

Nami has seen an uptick in play at the League of Legends 2021 World Championship. The support saw a smattering of picks across 2021 in professional play, but not in any of the top flight leagues and was not considered a sleeper pick by any means. Now, according to players at the event, the champion has emerged as a duo pick with Lucian who received some slight buffs recently. Paired with the dual gun wielding marksmen, Nami has become a lane bully and has made appearances across multiple teams and games at Worlds 2021.

According to Gen.G’s Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk, the pick has risen in priority thanks to its preferred partner Lucian and her laning power with the early game bully AD Carry.

“Nami has always been a very strong laning pick and with the major update with Lucian, the Lucian and Nami comp has become so strong,” Ruler said in a post-match press conference. “But, Nami itself isn’t that good to be paired up with other AD Carry champions.”

All the players who have picked Nami at Worlds 2021 so far have also used the Domination tree rune Electrocute as their runes of choice. Nami’s most common runes in solo queue, according to op.gg, is the Sorcery tree rune Summon Aery. The way Lucian interacts with the rune when played with Nami is another reason the champion duo are seeing play at the biggest tournament in League of Legends.

“When Nami uses E [Tidecaller’s Blessing] and Lucian uses E [Relentless Pursuit] on top of it then it will proc the [Electrocute] so that is why this combination is very strong and getting picked,” DetonatioN  FocusMe’s bot laner Yuta “Yutapon” Sugiura said in a post-match press conference.

But according to filtered solo queue data, and League of Legends caster David “Phreak” Turley, the original rune page of Aery is should still be preferred despite what the pros may think.

A follow-up: Diamond+ solo queue worldwide 30 days

Electrocute Nami + Lucian wins 50.14%
Aery Nami + Lucian wins 52.96%

Each pair has over 25k games. The 2.8% win rate lift is not a statistical aberration. It does not fluctuate with MMR. Aery Nami is better.

Rune better. https://t.co/Zo2CzOay71

— David Turley (@RiotPhreak) October 13, 2021

Regardless, Nami and Lucian have become a powerful bot lane together in a meta where the roles are focusing more on scaling than scrapping in lane. As the tournament has continued on, the support has even been banned a few times. But, fans may see more out of the ocean dweller as the tournament continues and the meta evolves.