Since coming into the professional scene back in the Spring, Kai’Sa has been a mainstay in the competitive meta. While her competitive presence sat at a modest 38% throughout the course of the NA LCS Summer Split, that number eventually shot up to a whopping 88% of games during the Summer Playoffs. With no signs of disappearing any time soon, Kai’Sa could just be the most prominent pick in the competitive League of Legends meta going forward.

Throughout the course of the North American playoffs, Kai’Sa was a part of 22 champion selects, with 4 bans and 18 picks over the span of six days of play. And while each bottom laner in the tournament, except Cody Sun, was able to take Kai’Sa into their hands, there was a certain renaissance in the way the champion was played towards the back end of the postseason that could potentially revolutionize Kai'Sa for months to come.

As one of the most prominent and promising champions to grace the scene in recent history, Kai’Sa has most definitely made a name for herself as a signature power pick across the board in nearly every major league. With a 39.4% pick-rate in all leagues alongside a 52.3% win-rate, Kai’Sa has quickly emerged as one of the most significant champions in the game, just four months after her release.

In the North American LCS, she’s become one of the most influential Marksmen in the game, as she appeared in over a third of all games played this past summer, while 71.4% of them during the regular season. Throughout the course of the split, she rose to prominence through some of the region’s greatest stars, including Zachary “Sneaky” Scuderi, Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng, and Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen, arguably the three strongest bottom laners currently playing in North America.

The three combined for nine games on Kai’Sa, and while the champion was in their hands, she managed to be a part of the winning team on all nine occasions. Additionally, the average Kai’Sa KDA between the terrific trio was 12.7, with Zven leading the pack with a mark of 14.5.

Naturally, as two of the most revered Kai’Sa players during the regular season, it only made sense that Doublelift and Zven were two of the most prominent Kai’Sa players during the playoffs, as well. Both of them were able to take the Daughter of the Void onto the Rift at least 3 times, combining for a record of 8-5. Throughout the postseason, Doublelift posted a KDA of 5.3 on the champion with a record of 2-1, while Zven picked her a total of 10 times, finishing with a record of 6-4 and a KDA of 4.4.

And while there were plenty of Kai’Sa players throughout the course of the playoffs, Doublelift and Zven were by far the most revolutionary ones, solidifying a new way to win with the champion. They both surveyed their respective landscapes and decided that if Kai’Sa was going to be a focal point when it came to winning games in the postseason, some drastic changes had to be made in order to adapt to their surroundings. By making a mid-series adaption in the third place decider against 100 Thieves, Zven completely changed his loadout for Game 2. After choosing the traditional build of Guinsoo’s Rageblade, Infinity Edge, and Stormrazor, along with other items that aim for a classic AD loadout in game 1 of the series, Zven opted for a change in strategy towards for the remainder of the series, building only AP items on Kai’Sa throughout each of the final matches.

While maintaining Guinsoo’s Rageblade in the new approach, the TSM bottom laner prioritized items like Nashor’s Tooth and Zhonya’s Hourglass, while adding Banshee’s Veil and Rabadon’s Deathcap later on in order to pack a little extra punch for the late-game. And although this move would seem unorthodox at first, it began to make sense as soon as it became evident that Zven was becoming more present in the laning phase alongside his support, Alfonso "Mithy" Aguirre Rodríguez. Towards the backend of the series, Zven became like a laser with Kai’Sa’s W, Void Seeker, as almost every time he casted the ability, it was sure to hit an enemy champion, while dealing a serious amount of damage.

Kai’Sa ended up falling into Zven’s hands five times out of five that series, posting a record of 0-1 with the AD build, and surging to a record of 3-1 with the more optimized AP build, clinching a series victory in the process.

Throughout the entirety of the playoffs, the traditional AD build held a record of 5-7, but as soon as Zven pioneered his new approach, the win-rate for Kai’Sa in North American competitive play skyrocketed to a record of 5-1, with Doublelift finding two wins using the strategy against Cloud9 in the Summer Finals, while Zven took the only loss on the champion in a 31 minute shootout with 100 Thieves during the league’s 3rd place decider.

And now, with the League of Legends postseason in full swing, and the World Championship right around the corner, Kai’Sa could continue to hold a massive sway over not just the North American meta, but the international meta, as well.

With qualifiers coming up across the globe, as well as, eventually, the World Championship down the road, Kai’Sa could be one of the most influential picks in competitive League of Legends for months to come, especially now that some of the most the most prominent and talented players in the world are finally figuring out how to capitalize on the champion’s full potential.

If Zven and Doublelift can uncover new forms of greatness within Kai’Sa on the North American regional stage, imagine what players like Jian "Uzi" Zi-Hao and Kim "Deft" Hyuk-kyu can do with the champion once the World Championship rolls around. After winning all three of his games on Kai’Sa at the Mid-Season Invitational with a KDA of 18.0, Uzi immediately established himself as one of, if not, the best Kai’Sa players in the world. And now, with more international play looming on the horizon, it’s almost a certainty that with the champion being so prevalent in the meta, new Kai’Sa players will most definitely make a name for themselves in just a few weeks.

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