Big tournaments are always a chance for dissecting the thought and valuations of pros, and this past weekend's MLG Spring Finals were no exception. As a jungler I'll primarily dig into that aspect of the tournament, but there's plenty more that could be analyzed.
Three jungle picks clearly stood out amongst the others in both frequency and effectiveness: Mundo, Nautilus, and Nocturne. While many other junglers made cameo appearances, these champions were the most frequent bans and picks throughout the tournament. With just a cursory analysis it's pretty clear why these champions were so highly favored.
These three champions have absurdly good fundamentals. All three can start anywhere, start with various items, clear without blue, clear quickly, hold a lane well, and gank effectively. Very few junglers can do all of those things well. Because they are not only jacks of all trades, but [i]masters[/i] of all trades they were head and shoulders better than other options.
Beyond the basics all three also brought incredible utility to their teams. Mundo is ridiculously tanky and has the best poke of any jungler. Nautilus has incredible initiation, lockdown, and peeling. Nocturne completely bypasses wards to gank, can split-push, and can ignore enemy frontlines and peeling to hit a high-priority target. They aren't just better fundamentally, but their more advanced applications crush most of their peers.
You can absolutely expect to see all three nerfed in the future. You've already seen a few minor changes aimed at weakening them, but they're barely noticeable. If these three continue to see play in future tournaments you can expect far larger changes aimed at opening up the jungling field.
As a side note, Kayle really shown during the finals. While it was a laning Kayle instead of a jungle Kayle, similar principles can be applied. Combining Kayle with a champion like Karthus, whose high damage is balanced by his vulnerability, is deadly. Abusing that type of combination can lead to devastating victories.
All in all it was an exciting tournament, and well worth watching. If the VODs ever become publicly available I'm inclined to do some in-depth analysis of some of the more interesting jungle choices that were made.
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