Shenyang: the cut belongs to Kennen, 28.1% of the Top 64
Riot Games China has released the Top 64 deck distribution from day two of the Shenyang Regional Open, and it turns Friday's picture upside down: Kennen, Heart of the Tempest holds 18 of the 64 seats, 28.12%, close to triple the 9.91% it started from. Master Yi follows at 7.81%, with four Legends tied at 6.25%. Even so, 34.6% of the cut sits outside the top seven.
The cutKennen converts at almost three times the field rate
The two charts describe the same tournament from opposite ends. With 1,191 entrants and 64 seats available, the average chance of surviving the cut was 5.4%. Kennen, which had 118 players on day one, put 18 of them into the Top 64 — 15.3%, just under three times the field average.
It is the other side of the same coin. Shenyang had shown the most open field in months, with more than half the room on Legends outside the top seven; the cut put things back in order, and it did so more sharply than anything seen so far in the Vendetta cycle.
The comparison with the other headline Legends is unforgiving. Irelia converted 4 of its 74 players, 5.4%, exactly the field average; Jayce 4 of 65 (6.2%); Master Yi 5 of 65 (7.7%), the second best rate of the day. Akali, third on day one with 72 players, moved just 2 through: 2.8%. Ornn, the Legend that won Barcelona, is absent from the Top 64 entirely despite starting with 46 players. The conversion rates are our own calculation from the two charts Riot published.
The standingsTwenty Legends for sixty-four decks
Beyond Kennen and Master Yi, the cut rewards a quartet on four decks each: Irelia and Jayce, already near the top on day one, but also Diana and Rek'Sai, which sat in the long tail on Friday and are now worth 6.25% apiece. They are the two genuine surprises of the day.
| Legend | Decks | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Kennen, Heart of the Tempest | 18 | 28.12% |
| Master Yi, Wuju Bladesman | 5 | 7.81% |
| Irelia, Blade Dancer | 4 | 6.25% |
| Jayce, Defender of Tomorrow | 4 | 6.25% |
| Diana, Scorn of the Moon | 4 | 6.25% |
| Rek'Sai, Void Burrower | 4 | 6.25% |
| Vex, Gloomist | 3 | 4.69% |
| Ezreal, Prodigal Explorer | 3 | 4.69% |
| Azir, Emperor of the Sands | 3 | 4.69% |
| LeBlanc, Deceiver | 3 | 4.69% |
| Rengar, Pridestalker | 2 | 3.12% |
| Fiora, Grand Duelist | 2 | 3.12% |
| Akali, Rogue Assassin | 2 | 3.12% |
| Volibear, Lucian, Viktor, Sivir, Vi, Draven, Kai'Sa | 1 each | 1.56% |
Below them sit four Legends on three decks (Vex, Ezreal, Azir and LeBlanc), three on two decks, and seven represented by a single player. Twenty different Legends across sixty-four seats is still a high number: the variety has not vanished, it has simply moved below the top of the table.
15.3%
The share of Kennen players who reached the Top 64: 18 of the 118 who started. The field average was 5.4%.
34.6%
The slice of the Top 64 outside the seven most played Legends: twenty-two decks out of sixty-four.
The benchmarkSingapore stopped at 19.3%
The closest yardstick is the Singapore Regional Qualifier earlier this month, where Kennen began at 11.5% of the day one field and climbed to 19.3% after the cut. Shenyang starts far lower, at 9.91%, and lands far higher, at 28.12%. Across two consecutive tournaments on two continents, the same Legend is the best in the field at turning Swiss rounds into a seat past the cut.
One caveat is worth stating. The Chinese circuit runs on its own calendar, a Regional Open is not the exact equivalent of a Regional Qualifier, and the cut structure is not identical either. The Legends at the top of the list, however, are the same ones shaping the Western meta, which keeps the comparison readable from here.
Why this matters for us. Anyone preparing for the European circuit now has two readings of the same deck: in the main hall Kennen is one option among many, but in the closing rounds of Swiss it becomes the deck to beat. That means answer cards earn their slot on day two more than on day one, and that building a sideboard purely from registration percentages risks preparing for the wrong tournament. It shows up in the wallet too: while Kennen converts like this, the pieces of the deck are not getting cheaper.
The short version
- In the Shenyang Day 2 Top 64, Kennen accounts for 18 of 64 decks: 28.12%, against 9.91% of the opening field.
- Master Yi is second at 7.81%; Irelia, Jayce, Diana and Rek'Sai are tied at 6.25%.
- Akali falls from third most played to just two decks in the cut; Ornn does not make it at all.
- At Singapore, Kennen stopped at 19.3% after the cut: here it lands almost nine points higher.
Source: r/riftboundtcg, which circulated the official Riot Games China infographic. Images: Riot Games.
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