A brief history of Teemo at the League World Championship

Teemo is arguably the least popular champion in the history of competitive League of Legends. With only a handful of major region picks to his name, and just a couple of them occurring on the international stage, Teemo is one of the least-relied-on champions on the roster. 

As the game’s most prominent “meme pick,” Teemo is rarely ever picked in a competitive setting. It’s relatively hard to find a good reason to draft a champion with little crowd control and relatively weak teamfighting abilities, especially when there are so many champions that can do what Teemo does but better.

Even with that in mind, some teams have gone to Teemo at Worlds. Sometimes, the Swift Scout was picked to throw the opposing team for a loop, and on other occasions, he was picked in meaningless games at the tournament. Regardless, Teemo, like nearly all League champions, has a history at the game’s most prestigious competitive tournament. 

Here’s a breakdown of Teemo’s brief and sporadic history at Worlds through the years. 

Worlds 2011: Teemo makes his international debut

Teemo was picked twice at the 2011 World Championship, winning one game that he appeared in and losing the other. At the first Worlds, Teemo was picked twice by the same player: TSM’s TheRainMan. TheRainMan piloted Teemo to a win against Epik Gamer in round two of the loser’s bracket but lost with the champion in the lower bracket finals to Against All Authority. TheRainMan’s Teemo finished the tournament with a split 1-1 record and a KDA of 3.8. The champion was not picked by any other players at the tournament. 

Worlds 2013: TSM goes back to Teemo 

Although Teemo missed Worlds in 2012, the Swift Scout was picked up in a meaningless game at Worlds 2013. Once again, it was TSM to pick the champion—this time in a largely inconsequential game against GamingGear.EU. Both teams had been eliminated from knockout stage contention on the group stage’s final day, so TSM made the call to role swap four of their five players in a “for fun” game that ultimately saw starting mid laner Reginald take Teemo into the AD carry position. Although Reginald secured First Blood with Teemo, he finished with a scoreline of 3/6/8 in a loss. The win against TSM was the only victory of the tournament for GamingGear. 

Worlds 2014-2021: Teemo stays on the shelf

Teemo was not picked at any League World Championship between 2014 and 2021. During those years, he was only picked eight times in major region regular season games, with Cloud9 mid laner Hai and then-Griffin AD carry Viper being the only players to find wins on the champion, according to League stats site Games of Legends. 

Worlds 2022: Isurus brings Teemo back 

Teemo made his return to the Worlds stage this season when he was picked by Isurus’ top laner ADD against Royal Never Give Up during the play-in stage. Isurus’ backs were against the wall in that game, with two losses already to their name and an uphill battle ahead of them in the defending MSI champions. Isurus’ Teemo pick didn’t throw the LPL’s fourth seed off their game, though, as RNG won decisively in 26 minutes, while ADD finished the game with a dreadful scoreline of 1/9/3.