Lee Sin, the real King of the Jungle.

Image Credit: Riot Games

It's no secret that Lee Sin is a strong jungle pick. If I asked you to name a popular competitive jungle he'd easily be one of the first to come to mind, and Lee Sin is widely regarded as one of the 3 "S tier" or best jungle picks available. Lee Sin's kit gives a lot of potential to out play and that along with the relative strength of his numbers makes him so popular. What's not so obvious though is just how utterly oppressive Lee Sin is in the jungle.

Throughout season 4 Lee Sin has enjoyed a top spot in the jungle. In spring Lee Sin and Kha'Zix teamed up to force all but themselves Elise, and Evelynn out of viability in competitive play with their insane early damage capabilities. Other junglers like VI or Jarvan simply couldn't deal with with Kha or Lee who would walk into their jungles and fight them from level 3 on. Since then Kha'Zix ate a hefty nerf that dropped him from the equation and left Lee Sin alone at the top.

Since Kha'Zix fell out of favor it has opened up junglers other than the S tier of Lee Sin, Elise, and Evelynn in competitive play but almost all of them require Lee Sin to be banned before they can safely be played. In OGN Lee has only slipped through against non S tier junglers a grand total of 6 times. While Lee does hold a 2-4 record in OGN it's all examples of skill disparity between teams, like in Samsung Blue's victory over IM#2, or heavy misplay like CJ Frost's loss to SKT T1 S. When we expand to include the LCS regions in our numbers Lee Sin's win rate grows to 12-10 over non S tier junglers this summer. A full seven of the 10 losses against non S tier junglers, including the four from OGN, are blatant examples of skill disparity or misplays.

The three losses for Lee Sin not easily explainable by blatant misplays, or by the fact it was a team that failed to advance facing a team favored by many to win OGN Summer, come at the hands of Nunu. Nunu's victory over Lee Sin shouldn't come as too much of a surprise though. The Yeti rider has always had a very binary nature in the jungle, either getting an early lead and playing flawlessly to win, or making a mistake to fall behind and lose in fantastic manner. It's why I continue to hate Nunu in the jungle when I see it picked, because few teams have the ability to play it as flawlessly as required to ensure victory.

Some might argue that Lee Sin alone is not that oppressive in the jungle considering that Evelynn and Elise hold a much more impressive 23-14 record against non S tier junglers. While those numbers are certainly more impressive it is important to notice the fact that almost universally in those games Lee Sin received a ban, usually from the team playing the non S tier jungler. What's more while they will allow Elise or Eve to make it through champ select, the teams with the best pick/ban phases almost never allow Lee to slip through when intending to play anything other than Elise, Eve, or Nunu. Samsung White, SKT K, Alliance, Fnatic, and C9 have never allowed Lee Sin through champion select when they picked any jungler other than Nunu, Eve, or Elise. Samsung Blue has only allowed it once against IM#2 who failed to escape groups, and CLG has only allowed it once but picked their non S tier jungler after seeing the enemy lock in Elise.

Lee Sin commands intense respect in champion select from top teams making him the target of dozens of picks and bans in the summer season alone. The best teams avoid the mistake of picking any jungler other than Eve, Elise, or Nunu without first guaranteeing Lee Sin is off the table. Those teams that have picked non S tier junglers into Lee rely mostly on out playing their opponents, which has worked for some like SHC and SGB, and exploded in the faces of others such as CRS and TSM. It is clear from looking at the way the best teams play champion select that this summer Lee Sin is the undisputed king of the jungle.