Jarvan IV’s presence in LoL skyrockets thanks to one specific item

Every so often in League of Legends, an item or champion receives buffs that, while they may not appear substantial in the patch notes, end up completely shifting the meta for a handful of weeks. This time around, the crown prince of Demacia is enjoying his reign over Summoner’s Rift thanks to an item that just recently returned to the game this season.

In an attempt to make Spear of Shojin a “solid middleweight fighter item” in Patch 13.17, Riot Games unintentionally made the item one of the strongest options for most melee champions—in particular leading to the dominant return of Jarvan IV in the jungle. This has led to a meteoric rise in nearly all of the champion’s statistics, including a 53-percent win rate, near 20-percent pick rate, and a massive spike to a 31-percent ban rate, according to data collected from OP.GG, U.GG, and champion.gg.