Rift Royalty: CS Summer Week 5
Over the past couple weeks we've taken a look at the strange and wild world of the Challenger Series. Last week we saw some killer plants sink their roots in mid and a fearless predator prowl the top lane. This week, we'll visit Karma the enlightened Duchess of Ionia in the top lane, then take a ferry down south where Tahm Kench the River King is waiting in the bot lane.
Top Mantra
Karma's seen competitive play this season, usually alongside AD carries in the support role. This week though, Team Dignitas EU's Martin "Wunderwear" Hansen felt that the Enlightened One was more deserving of the riches that accompany those who grace the top lane.
"I picked Karma because we had two hyper carries that I can speed up," explains Wunderwear, referring to Chres "Sencux" Laursen's Viktor and Kasper "Kobbe" Kobberup's Jinx. "Her Mantra shield is a mini Sivir ult that works to disengage and engage when you group. She also gives a lot of peel in skirmishes." Her shield's effectiveness is greatly increased when Karma is able to focus her build on AP, rather than support items like Sightstone or a gold per 10 item.
Around the 16 minute mark we saw this combination work to good effect for Team Dignitas EU, as Gamers2 overstayed their welcome in the top lane and Wunderwear was able to initiate a chase by granting his teammate Sencux the speed necessary to run down G2's Jesse "Jesse" Le on Caitlyn.
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Once Karma catches up to her enemies, she can make good use of the recently buffed AP items to take them down, similar to the mid lane Zyra from last week.
"The new AP changes make her interesting because Liandry's [Torment] is a really good item on her…the Q slows so it's extra damage and she has good base damage for spell penetration," says Wunderwear. Karma's bread and butter in top lane is her Inner Flame (Q), or Soulflare (R+Q) when empowered by Mantra, which Wunderwear used to push Gamers2's Lennart "SmittyJ" Warkus's Ryze under his own turret early on.
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Unfortunately for Wunderwear, Mateusz "Kikis" Szkudlarek, the newest addition to the Gamers2 lineup, had no intention of letting Karma bully around his teammate. After a skirmish at the Team Dignitas EU Blue Buff gave Gamers2 an early lead, Kikis returned top on Rengar to press his advantage, successfully handing off a Wunderwear kill to SmittyJ.
Kikis' Rengar had the desired snowball effect for Gamers2, and Wunderwear's Karma pick never had a chance to flex its compositional synergy. Despite dropping 0-2 to Gamers2 in the last week of play, Team Dignitas EU still move on to the Semifinal round where they'll face Denial Esports.
A Real Bottom Feeder
Tahm Kench has no problem crashing a party all on his own, but he managed to secure an invitation from Vortex support Tony "Saskio" Chau to accompany the squad in their fight against Renegades this past week.
As a brand-new champion to the League, Tahm's ideal role is still very much up for debate. He's able to swallow his allies with Devour (W) when they're in trouble and spit them to safety, which comes in handy as a support should his AD carry wander into an unfavorable trade. His beefy stats and global presence make him a viable top laner as well, as shown by SK Gaming's Simon "fredy122" Payne in their last match of the EU LCS Summer Split.
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For Saskio, it's less about what role Tahm is playing and more about the cast that he's surrounded by, as the potential for Tahm's ultimate Abyssal Voyage (R) as an initiating wombo tool is terrifying to say the least. "Specifically I would ult behind their backline with a Mega Gnar to engage a fight, but we never found the right engages," explains Saskio.
One of the reasons they couldn't find the best engages was because Renegades were able to amass a massive early gold advantage, a staggering 3.3K edge at 10 minutes. Ultimately there was never a time where this creative initiation was a good idea.
Nevertheless, Saskio is still excited about the possibilities that Tahm can bring in terms of mobilized initiation and has a few ideas about champions that work well alongside him. "Anything that can instantly flank and engage as he reaches his destination," he says. "Hecarim, an invisible Rengar will be very scary to deal with, and Kennen popping ultimate and Zhonya's."
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Whether it be shielding their allies or swallowing them whole, the Duchess and the King bring loads of synergy potential to many team compositions. Be sure to keep an eye out for them in competitive play, as with all the flavor they bring to a team, there are sure to be some delectable combinations in the future.
Stay tuned to Lolesports for more Challenger Series action, as the Summer Playoffs kick off with the Semifinal round starting on Tuesday, August 4th. To catch up on all the matches from the regular season, head over to our spoiler free VODs page!
