The Challenger Series is a hotbed of new talent and unique champions that test the limits of player skill. This week, much like last week, has been like a zombie apocalypse in that champions have risen out of their graves after the meta pronounced them dead. Let's take a look at a couple of these champions from Week 4.
The Not-Quite-Queen of the Freljord
Everyone knows that Lissandra is the one true queen of the Freljord (no bias here, promise!), but Sejuani is slowly working on usurping her throne. The Poro Rider has been on a massive streak in just the past week, moving from a non-factor to considered one of the strongest junglers in the game. She offers unparalleled survivability coupled with copious crowd control at almost no risk, and fits into any team comp she’s a part of.
“She is just very rewarding to players with a good game sense,” writes Team Fusion jungler Josh “NintendudeX” Atkins. “If you use [her ultimate] at the perfect time it is probably the most devastating long range ultimate. It's like a Malphite ult but you don’t have to put yourself at any risk.”
Sejuani is already infiltrating the LCS and Ranked games as of Patch 5.5, with the addition of the Cinderhulk Enchantment. The enchantment sports a passive +25% boost to bonus HP which skyrockets her health pool to near unkillable levels. Even without the Cinderhulk Enchantment, she’s already an unstoppable tank that can single-handedly control enemies in a team fight, meaning she’ll be a staple in every jungler’s repertoire in no time flat.
The Playful Trickster
Fizz has slowly been swimming his way back into the meta over the course of the past couple months. Multiple teams in both China and Brazil have already picked up Fizz in the jungle due to his alarming gank and dueling potential, but top lane Fizz has only recently surfaced in the EU Challenger scene.
And to give it that Challenger spin, Lennart “SmittyJ” Warkus from Gamers2 had a broader plan for Fizz. Instead of hiding away in the jungle he sought to rework Fizz’s outplay potential into a huge split-pushing threat. “Later in the game, Fizz is extremely strong, as he outduels pretty much any champion when played right,” says Gamers2 manager Daniel Vorborg. Pulling a huge chunk of the team away from objectives to stop Fizz will just completely snowball the game for the other four members of the team.
However, Fizz played this way does have some intense weaknesses. “He is quite squishy for a long part of the game, and is therefore susceptible to crowd control effects. If you successfully land CC on him it doesn't take much to quickly kill him off.”
Played correctly, Fizz can be a huge menace to even the most organized of teams. Outplay potential coupled with raw damage makes for a huge threat. Fizz will definitely be appearing the upcoming patches as one of the strongest assassin’s in the game, especially now that champions like LeBlanc have fallen a bit out of favor.
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 VODs page.
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