2015 Spring: The Split of creative picks
Riot·5/21/2015, 8:11:32 PM·1 votes·25,928 views
Lee Sin begone! 2015 kicked open the floodgates for creative champion picks in the LCS. Teams like Unicorns of Love and Gravity Gaming led the way with their oddball champions that defied the meta, and actually changed it!
As surprising and unconventional champions snuck into every lane on the Rift, we did our best to catalog all of the trending champion picks here on the site. Here's a quick look back at some of those awesome picks we highlighted that started off as a surprise, and quickly became a pillar in Picks and Bans.
This lady-dragon and man-horse have seen time on the Rift before, but grabbing Smite on them in top lane was a mind-bender at first! The tears of their opponents -- when struck by a giant animal-person and Challenging Smite's powerful effect at the same time -- almost matched the belly-aching of their jungler teammates when they stole Gromp again.
Read more about Teleport/Smite in top lane.
Let us go, Lissandra
Bad news, frozen fools in the top lane--when the Ice Witch decides she wants to hang out with you, there's no denying her. This powerful popsicle has a massive set of control abilities at her disposal, and tons of mana sustain to poke enemies and nuke minions. Her Frozen Tomb ability sealed the fate of any LCSer who made even the slightest positioning error near team fights.
Read more about freezing suckers with Lissandra.
Gnarly Gnarvan
One of the first big surprises of the Split was the hotly contested combo of Gnar and Jarvan IV,whose ults merge into a veritable atom bomb of AoE destruction. Both took power hits in later patches, but their OP BFF bodyslams will be remembered forever.
Read more about the gnarly Gnarvan combo.
Corki, Kog'Maw, and Nidalee all brought great AP poke to the center of the map with the explosive new Luden's Echo item. But when it comes to long-range poke, the horribly gross Mouth of the Abyss cannot be dethroned.
Unicorns of Love's manager, Fabian "MasterOfSheepy" Mallant reveled in the fun of AP Kog'Maw, "You could make the enemy carries dance as they tried to avoid the poke. And if they misstep once, they die."
Alexey "Alex Ich" Ichetovkin put on a master class in AP Kog'Maw poke during the Challenger Promotion series. Watch the video below and note how his Kog'Maw is always safely tucked away, burning HP bars of the enemy backline without being seen. Dude's a death cannon.
Read more about how Kog'Maw uses Luden's Echo to melt faces.
There's no greater sign that it's time to engage than a 5-man Sejuani ultimate. When her Glacial Prison freezes the entire enemy team, it's feeding time.
The introduction of the powerful Cinderhulk jungle item enchantment in the middle of the season brought all sorts of interesting jungle tanks out of the woodwork -- like Gragas and Nunu. But Sejuani's high damage, incredible AoE control, and innate tankiness made her a fast favorite of playmaker junglers in the LCS. Where she leads, others follow.
Read more about Sejuani and the rise of jungle tanks.
Not-Seen Nidalee
Before tanks ruled the jungle later in the Split, it had a much more mischievous denizen: the hop-happy, javelin-tossing jungle cat, Nidalee. Instead of diving in deep to soak damage, Nidalee made her mark by peppering the enemy line before the fight and assassinating any carry unlucky enough to get hit by a spear. Unicorns of Love's Mateusz "Kikis" Szkudlarek shows the poke potential in the fight below, applying constant pressure from the fog of war.
Read more about Nidalee's guerrilla warfare tactics.
In a meta where team fights decide games, Sivir's pack-wide speed boost can enable your team to stave off defeat or secure victory at the most pivotal moments. And the boomerang queen has plenty of AoE damage to dish out during the fights too. When gnarly Gnarvan ruled the Rift for a brief couple of weeks, Sivir saw unprecedented competition in the draft phase to secure their team-melting engages.
Read more about streaking down lane with Sivir.
The Ugliest Urgot
Perhaps the most surprising pick-up of the Split was Urgot, the champion most famous for being consistently hate-picked in Nemesis mode. Team Impulse's support, Adrian "Adrian" Ma, was caught completely off-guard.
"Urgot's rise in popularity for both mid and AD Carry definitely surprised me," Adrian explains. "It was considered trash a year ago and was barely ever played."
But there's a reason why this abomination popped up. "Playing against an Urgot is not fun at all," Adrian explains. "He's so tanky and does a lot of damage early. But at least he falls off later and can't really push down towers."
The tanky Urgot even saw action in the mid lane! Don't believe me (or just want to revel in the glory of your gelatinous overlord)? Check out this video. During this clash, Lae-Young "Keane" Jang (who is 0/3/0 at the start of this fight) tanks both enemy carries. He soaks up damage, runs away, and then pokes from afar and uses his shield to protect from repeated assassination attempts.
Read more about Urgot in the mid lane.
Did somebody say brawl? Nautilus perked up and shipped out to make sure he got his time in for ganks and wide punches on the Rift this Split. In past Seasons, he was usually played as a jungler. But the new, slap-happy meta let him flex his muscles in the roaming support role.
Read more about hooking fools and smashing face with Nautilus.
Annie's Annihilations
Don't blame her. She's just a girl that likes to burn things. It's really your fault for standing between her and the Nexus. Annie's personality took a more protective twist this split, roaming between lanes and landing big stuns in team fights to set up kills for her teammates.
Read more about Annie's destructive fun.
Kill Them All, Kennen
"Their was so much diversity this season," Adrian says happily. "In the support role, no single pick dominated the rest and you could play whatever playstyle you wanted. It's so much more fun when you don't play the same champions over and over."
And, for me, no one symbolized the freedom of supports to get a little crazy this split more than the League's tiniest ninja: Kennen. The Heart of the Tempest loves to scuffle, but his one weakness was a lack of hard engage. Then he made a new best friend in bot lane: Kalista.
Watch the video below, where support Kalista uses her ult to pull Kennen into herself to avoid Gragas' ultimate. Then, Kennen can use that ult to kick off the perfect counter engage onto the enemy backline with big stuns and DPS. It's brutal.
Read more about how Kennen lights up the top lane.
With all the exciting picks we saw at the Mid-Season Invitational tournament recently, it's clear that the creative champion picks have only just begun. I can't wait to see what off-the-wall champion we see in the LCS next!
Josh Augustine's favorite champion is Tryndamere, he's never enjoyed a Darius, and he will always go for the kill, even when he knows he shouldn't. He currently works as a game designer on EverQuest Next at Daybreak Games. He’d love to talk with you on Twitter.
Top Lane
Reckless Hecarim and Shyvana
This lady-dragon and man-horse have seen time on the Rift before, but grabbing Smite on them in top lane was a mind-bender at first! The tears of their opponents -- when struck by a giant animal-person and Challenging Smite's powerful effect at the same time -- almost matched the belly-aching of their jungler teammates when they stole Gromp again.
Read more about Teleport/Smite in top lane.
Let us go, Lissandra
Bad news, frozen fools in the top lane--when the Ice Witch decides she wants to hang out with you, there's no denying her. This powerful popsicle has a massive set of control abilities at her disposal, and tons of mana sustain to poke enemies and nuke minions. Her Frozen Tomb ability sealed the fate of any LCSer who made even the slightest positioning error near team fights.
Read more about freezing suckers with Lissandra.
Gnarly Gnarvan
One of the first big surprises of the Split was the hotly contested combo of Gnar and Jarvan IV,whose ults merge into a veritable atom bomb of AoE destruction. Both took power hits in later patches, but their OP BFF bodyslams will be remembered forever.
Read more about the gnarly Gnarvan combo.
Mid Lane
Kog'Maw Killer
Corki, Kog'Maw, and Nidalee all brought great AP poke to the center of the map with the explosive new Luden's Echo item. But when it comes to long-range poke, the horribly gross Mouth of the Abyss cannot be dethroned.
Unicorns of Love's manager, Fabian "MasterOfSheepy" Mallant reveled in the fun of AP Kog'Maw, "You could make the enemy carries dance as they tried to avoid the poke. And if they misstep once, they die."
Alexey "Alex Ich" Ichetovkin put on a master class in AP Kog'Maw poke during the Challenger Promotion series. Watch the video below and note how his Kog'Maw is always safely tucked away, burning HP bars of the enemy backline without being seen. Dude's a death cannon.
Read more about how Kog'Maw uses Luden's Echo to melt faces.
Jungle
The Sejuani Stampede
There's no greater sign that it's time to engage than a 5-man Sejuani ultimate. When her Glacial Prison freezes the entire enemy team, it's feeding time.
The introduction of the powerful Cinderhulk jungle item enchantment in the middle of the season brought all sorts of interesting jungle tanks out of the woodwork -- like Gragas and Nunu. But Sejuani's high damage, incredible AoE control, and innate tankiness made her a fast favorite of playmaker junglers in the LCS. Where she leads, others follow.
Read more about Sejuani and the rise of jungle tanks.
Not-Seen Nidalee
Before tanks ruled the jungle later in the Split, it had a much more mischievous denizen: the hop-happy, javelin-tossing jungle cat, Nidalee. Instead of diving in deep to soak damage, Nidalee made her mark by peppering the enemy line before the fight and assassinating any carry unlucky enough to get hit by a spear. Unicorns of Love's Mateusz "Kikis" Szkudlarek shows the poke potential in the fight below, applying constant pressure from the fog of war.
Read more about Nidalee's guerrilla warfare tactics.
AD Carry
Suddenly Sivir
In a meta where team fights decide games, Sivir's pack-wide speed boost can enable your team to stave off defeat or secure victory at the most pivotal moments. And the boomerang queen has plenty of AoE damage to dish out during the fights too. When gnarly Gnarvan ruled the Rift for a brief couple of weeks, Sivir saw unprecedented competition in the draft phase to secure their team-melting engages.
Read more about streaking down lane with Sivir.
The Ugliest Urgot
Perhaps the most surprising pick-up of the Split was Urgot, the champion most famous for being consistently hate-picked in Nemesis mode. Team Impulse's support, Adrian "Adrian" Ma, was caught completely off-guard.
"Urgot's rise in popularity for both mid and AD Carry definitely surprised me," Adrian explains. "It was considered trash a year ago and was barely ever played."
But there's a reason why this abomination popped up. "Playing against an Urgot is not fun at all," Adrian explains. "He's so tanky and does a lot of damage early. But at least he falls off later and can't really push down towers."
The tanky Urgot even saw action in the mid lane! Don't believe me (or just want to revel in the glory of your gelatinous overlord)? Check out this video. During this clash, Lae-Young "Keane" Jang (who is 0/3/0 at the start of this fight) tanks both enemy carries. He soaks up damage, runs away, and then pokes from afar and uses his shield to protect from repeated assassination attempts.
Read more about Urgot in the mid lane.
Support
Nautilus Knockup
Did somebody say brawl? Nautilus perked up and shipped out to make sure he got his time in for ganks and wide punches on the Rift this Split. In past Seasons, he was usually played as a jungler. But the new, slap-happy meta let him flex his muscles in the roaming support role.
Read more about hooking fools and smashing face with Nautilus.
Annie's Annihilations
Don't blame her. She's just a girl that likes to burn things. It's really your fault for standing between her and the Nexus. Annie's personality took a more protective twist this split, roaming between lanes and landing big stuns in team fights to set up kills for her teammates.
Read more about Annie's destructive fun.
Kill Them All, Kennen
"Their was so much diversity this season," Adrian says happily. "In the support role, no single pick dominated the rest and you could play whatever playstyle you wanted. It's so much more fun when you don't play the same champions over and over."
And, for me, no one symbolized the freedom of supports to get a little crazy this split more than the League's tiniest ninja: Kennen. The Heart of the Tempest loves to scuffle, but his one weakness was a lack of hard engage. Then he made a new best friend in bot lane: Kalista.
Watch the video below, where support Kalista uses her ult to pull Kennen into herself to avoid Gragas' ultimate. Then, Kennen can use that ult to kick off the perfect counter engage onto the enemy backline with big stuns and DPS. It's brutal.
Read more about how Kennen lights up the top lane.
With all the exciting picks we saw at the Mid-Season Invitational tournament recently, it's clear that the creative champion picks have only just begun. I can't wait to see what off-the-wall champion we see in the LCS next!
Josh Augustine's favorite champion is Tryndamere, he's never enjoyed a Darius, and he will always go for the kill, even when he knows he shouldn't. He currently works as a game designer on EverQuest Next at Daybreak Games. He’d love to talk with you on Twitter.
