Here's why pro teams keep picking Garen and Yuumi bot lane

The world of LoL esports is dominated by 'the meta'. The usual champions dominate the picks and bans in the majority of matches but sometimes an unusual draft leaves people scratching their heads or with their jaws dropped. That often depends on the results the picks deliver and the pick of Garen in the bot lane alongside a support Yuumi has had very strong responses.

While a lone Garen isn't the best pick, even G2 Esports, after bowing to fan pressure, couldn't snatch a win from Team Vitality with everyone's favourite Summoner's Rift Beyblade this Summer, his viability is enhanced greatly by the presence of the Magical Cat.

Fnatic picked Garen into Vitality a week after G2's attempt and won the game despite the less than perfect mechanics on the Might of Demacia from Rekkles, helping establish the pairing firmly in the LEC meta.

The power of the Garen-Yuumi is very similar to that of the former bot lane nightmare Sona-Taric duo. Garen starts with Relic Shield and Yuumi with Spellthief's Edge, as Garen farms while Yuumi's highly effective Prowling Projectile pokes to proc her item.

Durable, mobile, oppressive and relentless, it is not surprising that this is yet another new option for the bot lane over traditional ADC champions and supports.

Even with the changes to Yuumi in Patch 9.19 , her presence alongside Garen has continued during the 2019 World Championships on two occasions for Fnatic so far.

The first attempt versus SK Telecom T1 ended in defeat, but the resurgence against Clutch Gaming went in favour of the Europeans.

Yuumi was able to do incredible amounts of damage in the hands of Hylissang in both games, with almost 40% of the damage done over halfway through the second match.

Fnatic were not the only one using this duo, as they were picked by Hong Kong Attitude in their match against Cloud9. While HKA lost, the damage on Yuumi was also close to 40% which is a more than sizable chunk for a support champion used by Ling "Kaiwing" Kai Wingwho is not a particularly frequent user of Yuumi.

Having only been successful in one out of three games played at Worlds 2019, is the Garen-Yuumi combination so bad if the lack of balance does not deliver the wins?

Patch 9.20 reworks Garen significantly, turning his Ultimate into a true damage attack and removing the Villain mechanic, but this seems to have only strengthened the power of the duo for Garen and Yuumi players.