Over the past few weeks, we’ve covered a lot of the strange and wild world of the Challenger Series. This week, however, is by far the weirdest. Not only did we see one of the most polarizing champions of League of Legends picked, but he totally carried the game. Reader beware, war changes a yordle. Warning aside, let’s take a look at some of the picks from Week 5!
Evil Incarnate
Love him or loathe him, Teemo has been wrecking face in the past week of the Challenger Series. Though he is regarded by many as one of the biggest troll picks in the game, Teemo has proven himself to be quite strong against the roam and objective-heavy team compositions seen developing recently.
“Teemo’s strength is solely his mushrooms” writes Mousesport’s Hicham “Souzpurefect” Tazrhini. “Baiting the enemy into the mushrooms will alone win the team fight.” It’s nearly impossible to avoid stepping on a mushroom ever since Oracle’s Elixir was removed from the game and that leads to overwhelming objective control. However, it also has a downside as Teemo’s power structure is entirely reliant on these mushrooms littering the battlefield. Remove the mushrooms, and it’s essentially a 5v4 for the rest of the game.
Thinking about picking up Teemo? Don’t think he’s easy to play well! “I don’t recommend Teemo. He’s considered a troll pick and you might get harassed by your teammates for picking him,” jokes Sozpurefect. He’s incredibly difficult to lane with effectively, considering he has no way to clear a wave and relies on surprise and split-pushing to win games. He’s also pretty useless in most team fights, aside from his mushrooms. That said, he’s incredible when played with an organized team that understands how Teemo functions. Abusing his split-pushing power along with his objective control can lead to many victories.
The Third Wheel of the Freljord
We’ve already seen Sejuani rise up in the ranks to join Lissandra in high-level play, and now it’s Ashe’s turn. Though easily the most frail of this Freljord trio, she has a huge impact as long as the team is built around protecting her. Similar to Jinx, she has no real escape and if she’s pounced on she’ll die in less than a second.
Matthew "xSojin" Perez of TSM Darkness recently made a huge leap of faith and picked Ashe into probably the worst enemy composition....and won. CLG Black ended up with Sivir, Sion, Lee Sin, Ahri, and Annie, which seems pretty stacked against Ashe, right? Out of all of those champions, only Annie is a prime target for a crystal arrow. The rest have spell shields, tankiness, or mobility to escape from the engage.
But here’s where TSM Darkness went right with Ashe. They picked a team composition built around diving in on high-priority targets while still having a backline to protect Ashe. Between Lulu and Thresh, Ashe was able to just sit in the back and unload on every enemy that got near. Her early and mid game might be fairly weak, but once she gets three items (Infinity Edge, Phantom Dancer, Last Whisper) she can kite and outperform almost any other AD Carry.
You can catch unique champion picks like these and more in the Challenger Series broadcast every Wednesday right here on Lolesports. If you've missed any of the matches so far, catch up over on the spoiler-free
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