Last night, in the winners’ finals of the Spring 2020 LEC playoffs, Fnatic achieved a relatively easy victory of 3-0 against MAD Lions. Essentially, Fnatic is a significantly stronger team, so this win was not too surprising; however, the most unusual point was that Bwipo from this team brought Malphite into two games with a super bizarre rune setup of Conqueror.
After looking into it, we discovered that this guy had no intention of trolling at all; this was a strategic pick that Fnatic had practiced to seek the upcoming European championship. “But why Malphite and Conqueror?” many would ask, as there are many stronger champions than this ‘rock’ both in laning and team fights.
The first reason why Fnatic chose Malphite lies in the current ban-pick meta. If you’ve watched many tournaments, you can see that Assassins are almost untouched by professional teams; if they are picked, it’s only Kassadin or Qiyana, champions that are incredibly strong late-game or in team fights. This makes it easier to protect the AD Carry, which becomes extremely dangerous late in the game.
If the mid lane doesn’t pick an Assassin, neither does the jungle or top lane, then what champion can quickly and directly dive into the enemy backline? The answer is none other than Malphite with his ultimate, Unstoppable Force. This is why Fnatic could confidently let Aphelios go to MAD Lions, the most versatile AD Carry currently.
The purpose is clear, but the most questioned aspect by players remains the use of Conqueror, as a tank like Malphite using the Precision tree is already extremely unusual. According to our observations during the match with Fnatic, Bwipo utilized Conqueror to enhance his dueling ability and ability to trade damage during the laning phase, and to some extent, to provide additional damage during jungle ganks.
For many, AP Malphite means maxing Q – Seismic Shard is a given; however, with Conqueror Malphite, the dueling capability is increased, and Bwipo maxed out E – Ground Slam and W – Brutal Strike. In a previous light update, Malphite’s W now has a new feature that refreshes auto-attacks, so with the simple combo of auto-attack, activating W, and auto-attacking again, you have activated this rune.
Moreover, E – Ground Slam has a very annoying effect on top lane champions by reducing attack speed. This means that your opponent’s auto-attacks will slow down while Malphite will hit better, thus completely mitigating this champion’s laning weakness. Once past the laning phase, Malphite becomes extremely troublesome in the mid-game; with one ultimate, the enemy AD Carry can evaporate even if you build tanky; if the enemy doesn’t die, they will at least be left with a bloody head running away.
In summary, Malphite is not a weak champion; however, his poor laning capability has led to this ‘rock’ not being utilized. With the creative approach of Conqueror Malphite, this champion’s laning phase will be much stronger, paving the way for an incredibly powerful mid-game.