Froggenivia: Alliance's mid laner and his famous bird
Riot·6/20/2014, 9:27:39 PM·0 votes·1,240 views
The bird is the word in the EU LCS, where Alliance's legendary mid laner Froggen has brought back the frosty flier Anivia. No other mid laner has given Anivia a second glance on the pro stage this split (perhaps because Froggen’s already pecked their eyes out?). Having picked Anivia in three of his past four games, Froggen has posted convincing results: 1/0/7 in their win over ROCCAT, 7/1/6 in their win over Supa Hot Crew, and 3/1/0 in their loss to Gambit Gaming.
But is Anivia ready for a real resurgence, or is she only Froggen's favorite fowl?
Froggen has a long-standing relationship with the wall-constructing cryophoenix. He's been terrorizing the Rift with her for his entire professional career, beginning with his first major tournament victory at Dreamhack Summer 2012. Playing for the now-defunct CLG.EU, he led his team to a 2-0 stomp over Moscow Five (who later became Gambit Gaming), playing on -- you guessed it -- Anivia. After that, Anivia became a staple ban against Froggen's team for the next year, and Froggen only rarely got to play her.
At the time, Froggen credited his success with Anivia to her strong kit and the fact that most people didn't know how to play against her. The same is still true today. Despite Froggen's dominant plays --
have a look at how he absolutely deletes Celaver's Caitlyn in Alliance's match agaisnt Roccat last split -- Anivia remains underplayed and hosts the same basic kit she had years ago. So what’s keeping this bird on ice?
Anivia is a territorial bird, whose kit lets her choose an area and terrorize anyone that dares step inside of it. She claims her area by throwing down her ultimate, a low-cooldown AoE that deals damage and slows all enemies inside of it.
It's a versatile ability that lets her clear minion waves with the best of them when farming, and force enemy teams to scatter when fighting. Of course, it's hard to scatter when Anivia can also summon a giant wall of ice at your exit route. Seems easy? Not quite. Unlike Karthus' Wall of Pain and Trundle's Pillar of Ice, there is no margin for error. Anivia's wall doesn't let allies run through it unhindered, and it doesn't lay down an AoE slow effect. It's a strict binary blocker that can doom your allies if you put it in the wrong place.
But when the wall lands, Anivia absolutely brutalizes anyone trapped inside with her. On top of her ticking AoE damage, she can throw out an AoE stun and unleash hefty burst damage up close, thanks to Frostbite.
Froggen is exceptional at combining this mix of control and burst damage to kite enemies. He often lurks in the back of fights, laying down his AoE, trapping enemies inside of it with a wall, sneaking in to do one quick burst of damage, and then running away if they try to chase him while they're slowed. It looks incredibly frustrating to play against.
Oh, and of course everyone loves Anivia's disappearing egg trick, as Froggen highlighted in his 11-0-14 performance at All-Stars this year.
But Anivia is still a classically designed mage champion, and that includes two major weaknesses: She's extremely fragile and has no mobility perks. She's forced to stick with the most basic of escape tactics: slowly fly away. She also doesn't have the flexibility of newer champions like Lulu or Brand, whose abilities can be used to produce multiple effects, like stuns or shields, depending on who they're cast on and in what order. Anivia's abilities all do one thing, and that's it.
Those major weaknesses can be exploited by certain team comps with hard engage abilities. Leap-happy punchers like Jax, Vi, and Yasuo can be excellent bird-snatchers.
When under heavy pressure, Anivia is forced to use her abilities to disengage, rather than maximizing her damage on the enemy team. You'd always prefer to use Flash Frost to stun the entire enemy team inside your AoE instead of to stop a lone Kha'Zix leaping at you. Aggression quickly reduces her ability to dominate team fights.
Despite her weaknesses and lack of general popularity, Froggen still feels very confident in Anivia's ability to hold her own against popular low-pressure champions like Twisted Fate and Nidalee.
If he keeps winning matches with her, it's only a matter of time before other pros try to emulate his success. We may have many more eggs in our future.
Josh Augustine's favorite champion is Thresh, 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 Sony Online Entertainment. He’d love to talk with you on Twitter.
An Icy History
Froggen has a long-standing relationship with the wall-constructing cryophoenix. He's been terrorizing the Rift with her for his entire professional career, beginning with his first major tournament victory at Dreamhack Summer 2012. Playing for the now-defunct CLG.EU, he led his team to a 2-0 stomp over Moscow Five (who later became Gambit Gaming), playing on -- you guessed it -- Anivia. After that, Anivia became a staple ban against Froggen's team for the next year, and Froggen only rarely got to play her.
At the time, Froggen credited his success with Anivia to her strong kit and the fact that most people didn't know how to play against her. The same is still true today. Despite Froggen's dominant plays --
have a look at how he absolutely deletes Celaver's Caitlyn in Alliance's match agaisnt Roccat last split -- Anivia remains underplayed and hosts the same basic kit she had years ago. So what’s keeping this bird on ice?
Winter Wonderland
Anivia is a territorial bird, whose kit lets her choose an area and terrorize anyone that dares step inside of it. She claims her area by throwing down her ultimate, a low-cooldown AoE that deals damage and slows all enemies inside of it.
It's a versatile ability that lets her clear minion waves with the best of them when farming, and force enemy teams to scatter when fighting. Of course, it's hard to scatter when Anivia can also summon a giant wall of ice at your exit route. Seems easy? Not quite. Unlike Karthus' Wall of Pain and Trundle's Pillar of Ice, there is no margin for error. Anivia's wall doesn't let allies run through it unhindered, and it doesn't lay down an AoE slow effect. It's a strict binary blocker that can doom your allies if you put it in the wrong place.
But when the wall lands, Anivia absolutely brutalizes anyone trapped inside with her. On top of her ticking AoE damage, she can throw out an AoE stun and unleash hefty burst damage up close, thanks to Frostbite.
Froggen is exceptional at combining this mix of control and burst damage to kite enemies. He often lurks in the back of fights, laying down his AoE, trapping enemies inside of it with a wall, sneaking in to do one quick burst of damage, and then running away if they try to chase him while they're slowed. It looks incredibly frustrating to play against.
Oh, and of course everyone loves Anivia's disappearing egg trick, as Froggen highlighted in his 11-0-14 performance at All-Stars this year.
Fragile Fowl
But Anivia is still a classically designed mage champion, and that includes two major weaknesses: She's extremely fragile and has no mobility perks. She's forced to stick with the most basic of escape tactics: slowly fly away. She also doesn't have the flexibility of newer champions like Lulu or Brand, whose abilities can be used to produce multiple effects, like stuns or shields, depending on who they're cast on and in what order. Anivia's abilities all do one thing, and that's it.
Those major weaknesses can be exploited by certain team comps with hard engage abilities. Leap-happy punchers like Jax, Vi, and Yasuo can be excellent bird-snatchers.
When under heavy pressure, Anivia is forced to use her abilities to disengage, rather than maximizing her damage on the enemy team. You'd always prefer to use Flash Frost to stun the entire enemy team inside your AoE instead of to stop a lone Kha'Zix leaping at you. Aggression quickly reduces her ability to dominate team fights.
Froggen + Anivia = BFF4Ever
Despite her weaknesses and lack of general popularity, Froggen still feels very confident in Anivia's ability to hold her own against popular low-pressure champions like Twisted Fate and Nidalee.
If he keeps winning matches with her, it's only a matter of time before other pros try to emulate his success. We may have many more eggs in our future.
Josh Augustine's favorite champion is Thresh, 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 Sony Online Entertainment. He’d love to talk with you on Twitter.
