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The League of Legends Season 10 pro play provided fans with a lot of surprises. From FPX bombing their week one in the LPL to C9 going undefeated until the end of week 4, the fans had a lot to savor this time around in the spring split.
However, perhaps the most surprising aspect of 2020 was not the upsets that each of the leagues brought with it, but rather the unique meta defining picks that some of the more creative teams drafted into their games.
Sure, power picks like Aphelios and Senna paired with a beefy CC chainer like Nautilus and Leona made for extremely fun and action-packed games. But with all the teams picking the same champions every game, the drafting does tend to become a bit boring after a while.
So when G2’s Martin “Wunder” Hansen flexed his Soraka in the top lane, the LEC crowd literally went berserk.
Soraka is not a troll pick in any way. She is quite op in the current patch, and acts as one of the best counters to meta picks like Orn and Sett. Moreover, apart from Sona and Soraka top, there is one more pick which is as quirky and effective, and that is Rumble support.
So what makes them so good in patch 10.3?
Soraka/Sona Top: Countering the Meta bruisers
As we had mentioned before, both Soraka and Sona (the former a bit more effective) are an amazing answer to most meta bruisers at the moment.
Soraka hits hard in the lane and is one of the worst bullies that a melee champion can go up against. She can harass even the most prodigal of Orn and Sett players out of lane, and make them miss out on a lot of experience and gold.
To make matters worse for the enemy, Soraka scales incredibly well into the late game. She boasts both damage and sustain, and can literally make your team unkillable during team fights and while taking objectives.
During the pre-season, with the new Conqueror keystone changes, the top lane meta went through a lot of shifts. Many champions got nerfed, some buffed, and it’s not exactly certain which pick is the clear favorite at the moment.
Soraka is one champion who was unchanged after patch 9.10, where she got a buff on her Q ‘Starcall.’ The ability was given 5% extra movement speed at max rank, and didn’t decay as rapidly as it used to.
Soraka in 10.3 can now be flexed into top, mid and support, till she gets a nerf in 10.4, so make sure to use her before then.
During Week 2 of the LEC, Wunder was able to go toe-to-toe in terms of farm and lane dominance against an Orn. He was able to use Soraka’s ultimate ‘Wish’ quite effectively as well, and helped impact the other lanes whenever his teammates went in for a tower dive.
Soraka is not just popular in the west; she has gained a lot of popularity in the east as well, especially in Korea. In the Korean solo queue, she sits at a whopping 54.06% win rate along with a very high pick and ban rate.
LCK pros have already tried her out in the pro stage, two of them being HLE’s Lee “CuVee” Seong-jin against T1 and APK’s Jeon “ikssu” Ik-soo ssu against Afreeca Freecs.
Rumble Support: Allows for more kill pressure in lane
Rumble is perhaps one of the few champions who has been flexed into every lane.
Once a mid-laner, Rumble has effectively been used in the top, then jungle in season 8, then in the ADC slot when the team composition required more AP, and now in the support role.
As a support, it’s safe to say that Rumble is a sleeper op pick. He was buffed a lot in patch 9.7, where he gained 10% extra bonus movement speed on hie W ‘Scrap Shield,’ and even had his ultimate ‘Equalizer’ cool-down reduced.
Rumble hits hard even when he is building support items. His E ‘Electro Harpoon’ when paired with the keystone Arcane Comet hurts like hell, and is one of the most effective ways of poking an enemy and chipping away at their health during the laning phase.
He has a lot of tankiness and burst damage, and that is one of the reasons why he acts as such a great answer to heavy CC meta supports at the moment. His shield will keep him alive in the face of all-ins by picks like Leona and Nautilus, and he is more than capable of returning the damage when their engages fail.
Rumble support was flexed victoriously by Afreeca Freecs’s Son “Jelly” Ho-gyeong when he teamed up with Jin “Mystic” Seong-jun’s Ashe against Griffin. Ashe landing meant that the Equalizer too is bound to land, making the laning phase and team fights hellish for Griffin.
