The Ballad of the Support: NA LCS Pros' first impressions of Bard

Here comes Bard. With The Wandering Caretaker's release into the wilds of the Summoner's Rift today, you can bet the LCS pros have had their eyes on him to find out if he's the new support hotness. With the lockdown that comes from the double stun of his Cosmic Binding (Q), the sustain and speed buff on his Caretaker's Shrine (W), the tunneling of his Magical Journey (E), and the AoE stasis of his Tempered Fate (R), he's got some of the highest utility of any champion currently in the game. While he won't be available for play in the LCS for a few more weeks, every NA LCS support player we talked to already had him on their mind, including Team 8's Jun "Dodo" Kang, Counter Logic Gaming's Zaqueri "Aphromoo" Black, and Team Liquid's Alex "Xpecial" Chu. Now, keep in mind that the pro supports haven't had much time with the Bard, but that wasn't going to stop them from laying out their first impressions of the brand new champion.

First listen

"When I first saw Bard, I just wanted to be a Bard main," says Dodo. "His kit has so much outplay potential. Some people call it troll potential, but I see him as a really good playmaking support, which I love playing." Xpecial, on the other hand, thinks once Bard comes of age, he'll have the capability to make game changing plays. "He reminds me of Lulu," he says. "When she first came out, she was difficult to lane because there were so many lane bullies. But once people figured her out, people could really do well with her. She did really well in teamfights, and I feel like that's where Bard will excel, as well." Forever the kind of player to take on the toughest challenges, Aphromoo immediately recognized Bard as a tough one. The CLG support says, "He's going to be one of the highest skill cap champions for support, just because you have offensive and defensive capabilities on almost all of your abilities. He's going to be super hard to play."

Roam if you want to

As to be expected, Bard's ability to, well, wander around the map very much intrigues the pro players. Between the speed buffs that Bard gets from collecting Chimes, those he can give to allies with Caretaker's Shrine, and the ability to take shortcuts over walls with Magical Journey, he can get in and out of sticky situations with relative ease. "For supports right now, in competitive, you want to get into the enemy jungle and get vision control," says Dodo. "But some supports don't have the escape abilities to get out quickly. Bard has the [Magical Journey]. Right now, the jungler and support always roam together, and they can use it to get around the map really easily." With the prevalence of early support roams and 2 vs. 1 lanes, Bard could very well find a home in the current meta. Says Aphromoo, "He's going to be a good 2 vs. 1 champion, just because you can walk around and collect as many Chimes as you want. And then you have his CC and teleport abilities to cause a ruckus in 2 vs. 1 situations." The fact that he can run around the Rift so easily is good, particularly because most pros aren't convinced he'll be the strongest laner. Notably, according to Xpecial, he'll struggle in standard lanes because he's got so many utility spells and so little damage. "The more damage a support has, the easier it is to play in lane," he explains. "It's all about killing the other people. But when you have utility skills, it's all about trading, it's all about using your skills effectively. It's a bit harder." Xpecial especially sees problems for Bard against all-in opposing supports. He says, "If you're playing against a Leona or a Thresh looking to all-in you all the time, that will make it hard."

Ultimate possibilities

Of all Bard's abilities, his ultimate Tempered Fate is the one raising the most pro players' eyebrows. Placing everything -- and we mean everything -- in stasis in an area could be extremely strong in certain situations, but it looks to be extremely difficult to pull off. "I think [his ult] is one of his most situational spells," says Aphromoo. "For example, you can hit the enemy team while they're doing Baron to allow your jungler to Smite it. In teamfights, I don't know what I'm going to do with that [laughs]. I either stun their whole team, and we can set up for an engage. Or, I prevent big damage on my own team. It's going to be a pretty hard ability to use." Mirroring that, Xpecial points to its flexibility, but also the way it could screw over your own team. "The point of his ult is that it can do anything. I see it as really punishing. If you land it incorrectly, if you land it at the wrong time, it can really affect both sides of the teamfight. If you're Leona, you either land [your ult], or you miss it. That's the worst case scenario. But with this, you can screw up your whole team, your whole engage. It has a lot of potential, though." Dodo thinks of the ability a bit more defensively than his CLG and Team Liquid counterparts. "I think it's more of a disengage tool, because they don't take damage during it," he says. "But you could set up other ulti's or other CC with it. Other more experienced teams might be able to counterplay that really well, though. So, for me, I think it should be used more defensively."

Getting added to the playlist

So, will Bard see play on League's biggest stages? The pros can't say for sure, but they're definitely intrigued. "For me, personally, I do like to play the harder champions in the game," says Aphromoo. "So, I will probably play Bard a lot. I want to see if he's capable of being LCS-worthy." So what do you think? Are you going to bring Bard onto the Rift as soon as possible, or wait until you see what he's capable of?

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