One of the most prominent bottom lane duos this World Championship was definitely the tandem of Yuumi and Garen. And although the combination of characters might have proven to be a threat in the tournament’s early stages, it’s tough to see them moving forward as a tandem in the coming weeks.

In a meta where bot laners and support players have an immense amount of options on the table, it was looking like Yuumi and Garen were going to be a lethal combination throughout the tournament after the first week of the Worlds Group Stage. However, with tougher competition on the table and undesirable results in mind, the Yuumi/Garen combo that gave some teams a rough go of things early on in the tournament and others a crutch to lean on, is slowly fizzling away.

The infamous bot lane duo as the combination was selected 7 times during the Group Stage of Worlds. Over the course of those 7 games, however, they only posted a record of 3-4 together. Two of those wins came courtesy of Son “Lehends” Si-woo and Griffin, who used the combo to beat up on Cloud9 and HKA. However, when Griffin busted out the lane in game 1 of their Quarterfinal series against Invictus Gaming, the team experienced its first defeat of the tournament when using Yuumi/Garen. Regardless of the loss and eventual early exit for Griffin, Lehends still proved that he was the best Yuumi at the tournament over the course of his team’s two-plus weeks of play, posting a KDA of 13.0 on the champion, accompanied by a DPM of 801.9, a DMG% of 33.7, and a KP of 82.5%.

However, outside of Lehends, another high-profile support made Yuumi a signature pick at Worlds this year. Zdravets “Hylissang” Iliev Galabov of Fnatic showcased his abilities on the champion on three separate occasions this year at Worlds, most recently in a loss to FunPlus Phoenix during the Quarterfinal round. And although Hylissang’s numbers on the character aren’t impressive as the ones that Lehends put up, he, alongside Martin “Rekkles” Larsson, emerged from the tournament as one of the best Yuumi/Garen duos at Worlds – despite the fact that Fnatic didn’t achieve the result they wanted.

However, moving into the final stages of the World Championship, it’s safe to say that the Yuumi/Garen combo that’s been so prevalent thus far at Worlds won’t be gaining any traction in the Semifinals or Grand Finals. With Griffin and Fnatic knocked out of the tournament, there aren’t any teams left at Worlds who’ve played the combo even once. In fact, only Hong Kong Attitude, AHQ, and Damwon Gaming played Yuumi/Garen at all outside of GRF and FNC.

And, it’s only reasonable to assume that as time goes on, and more and more teams that were reliant on the duo get knocked out the tourney, the champions’ presence in the bottom lane as a tandem will quickly drop off. And that’s exactly what’s happening here at Worlds. Out of the 24 games during Week 1 of the Group Stage, Yuumi and Garen were picked together in four of them, posting a pick rate of 16.6%. However, in week 2 of Groups, Yuumi/Garen was only played in one game, drastically dropping the duo’s pick rate to 3.8%. From there, the tandem was selected in just 2 of the 16 Quarterfinal games, and as far as the Semifinals go, it’s hard to see the lane making any more waves as all four teams present in the tournament have yet to feature Yuumi/Garen as a bot lane duo at all.

It was a good run, Yuumi/Garen bot lane, may we never see you again.

Photo Credit: League of Legends, Riot Games, Lolesports