LemonNation introduces support Nautilus to the NA LCS
Riot·3/23/2015, 12:42:06 AM·0 votes·48,785 views
Once again, Daerek "LemonNation" Hart has brought something new to the bottom lane of the North American LCS. Last time, it was support Veigar, but as of Week 8 of the NA LCS, he's been the first NA player to bring out Nautilus support.
The Titan of the Depths saw two games of play in the hands of Lemon, so Lolesports grabbed him and chatted about what the big guy brings to the Rift.
The shortened cooldown on his Riptide (E), as well as the damage buff to Titan's Wrath (W), went a long way to helping his support viability, says Lemon. He saw the power of the changes immediately, stating that in his first few games on the champion, "We basically just stomped. Every game I was as strong as a god."
His LCS experience hasn't been as dominant, however. So far, he's 1-1 on Nautilus, only winning against Liquid and Chae "Piglet" Gwang-jin on Kalista. "More than any other support, Nautilus eats Kalista," says Lemon. "I just ult her, smack her, and she's gone. That's probably something he hasn't played against. [Piglet] may have just not realized it wasn't an ideal pick at first."
Without an easy target in their game against Team 8 though, he struggled to find the same team fight relevance. With Vladimir able to dodge the ability with Sanguine pool, Sejuani too tanky for it to be a good target, Lulu too low damage to waste the ability on, Graves being able to dash away, and Thresh being, well, a support, he simply didn't have a good target for Depth Charge (R).
It's a risky move to pull out new supports before the region has figured out if they're good or not, but Lemon feels that the payoff is worth it. "I think other people will play it, but they want to make sure it's good and be sure 100% that it's going to work out. So, they'll wait a week or two to find out if it really works, whereas I'll spam it and try to make sure get an advantage that way."
"If it's an OP [champion], I'll be the one on them first."
To catch LemonNation on Nautilus and the rest of the games from Week 8 of the NA LCS, head over to the Lolesports spoiler-free VODs page.
The birth of a new support
"I just know he's a good support," laughs Lemon when asked why he and Cloud9 would bring the a champion traditionally played in the jungle to the support role. Interestingly, until recently, Lemon didn't believe he was viable on a competitive level. "He's always been something that can be played, but has never been that great. And then on the most recent patch, he got huge buffs. So that's when I tried him out."
The shortened cooldown on his Riptide (E), as well as the damage buff to Titan's Wrath (W), went a long way to helping his support viability, says Lemon. He saw the power of the changes immediately, stating that in his first few games on the champion, "We basically just stomped. Every game I was as strong as a god."
His LCS experience hasn't been as dominant, however. So far, he's 1-1 on Nautilus, only winning against Liquid and Chae "Piglet" Gwang-jin on Kalista. "More than any other support, Nautilus eats Kalista," says Lemon. "I just ult her, smack her, and she's gone. That's probably something he hasn't played against. [Piglet] may have just not realized it wasn't an ideal pick at first."
Without an easy target in their game against Team 8 though, he struggled to find the same team fight relevance. With Vladimir able to dodge the ability with Sanguine pool, Sejuani too tanky for it to be a good target, Lulu too low damage to waste the ability on, Graves being able to dash away, and Thresh being, well, a support, he simply didn't have a good target for Depth Charge (R).
Dragging enemies to the depths
Even with those struggles, Nautilus is incredibly strong against certain team comps. In lane, "he's so tanky that he can shake [off harrass] for a while. He can walk at them, apply pressure, get a Q on them, or just bop them with an autoattack. It's just him being a big force applying pressure and taking hits to draw pressure from his ADC." Despite the fact that he has one of the lowest base movement speeds in the game, Lemon still believes that Nautilus is a strong wandering support. Therefore, he prefers to pick up an early pair of Mobility Boots. "I get them as a first item if possible," he says. "But you can only do that if you can get wards as well, so it takes a decent amount of money to do that. But once you get Mobi boots, your base movement speed doesn't really matter. It's negligible." In team fights, Nautilus serves two roles: an initiator and a peeler for his team. "In a team fight, what he generally does is build Righteous [Glory]," says Lemon. "So, he uses Righteous, ults the AD carry or sometimes the mid, and if possible, Q's the AD carry. But a lot of times, he just starts peeling." From there, he can use his passive Staggering Blow to root anyone that comes near his team's squishies and keep them safe.Bringing in the new guys
With the Nautilus pick, LemonNation has set a standard for players looking to bring new supports to their regions. He says, "Even before [Veigar and Nautilus], I was pulling out new things. I pulled out Morgana here first. I tend to be the first one to spam things and pick them up first."
It's a risky move to pull out new supports before the region has figured out if they're good or not, but Lemon feels that the payoff is worth it. "I think other people will play it, but they want to make sure it's good and be sure 100% that it's going to work out. So, they'll wait a week or two to find out if it really works, whereas I'll spam it and try to make sure get an advantage that way."
"If it's an OP [champion], I'll be the one on them first."
To catch LemonNation on Nautilus and the rest of the games from Week 8 of the NA LCS, head over to the Lolesports spoiler-free VODs page.
for supporting quite often in Seasons 3 - 4 actually. He is seriously a monster down there. A lot of AD players frowned on it because he is obviously not your typical legend of choice for support. But.... I still love him =) IN fact, I think I'm going to play support Naut at bot lane tonight. Whoop. =)
C9. But seriously the best player you could possible play anywhere is obviously the one and only. Urgod Mid
jungle also be commonly played now, too?
taunt machine. is making it into the LCS. i feel like a trend setter right now however wrong that feeling may be.LOL nothing like a good anchor to pull that one sheep out of a retreating herd.