Recently, during the second round of the Group Stage at the World Championship (Worlds) 2022, Rogue’s Support Trymbi used the champion Nasus as a Support. This choice resulted in RGE’s complete defeat against DRX. Moreover, afterwards, Trymbi and the entire RGE team faced the wrath of the audience, especially fans from LPL and VCS. This loss officially closed the door for GAM Esports and TOP Esports to advance further.
However, in the history of Worlds, this is not the first time such a strange pick has appeared. And these picks do not always yield the desired effectiveness for the teams.
Teemo Top
Not only in professional play, but even in high-ranked games, players rarely use the champion Teemo. The reason is that this is a very champion that is fragile, lacks mobility, has a skill set that is not very effective in team fights, and has no ability to push lanes.
The only reason for Teemo’s usage is due to the mechanism of placing bombs that deal damage over time. However, in a professional setting, all five players will purchase numerous wards and Sweepers. Therefore, the opportunities for Teemo are limited. Yet at Worlds 2022, this champion was also used and of course, could not secure a win.
Kayle ADC
Kayle is an extremely powerful champion in the late game. As long as Kayle has the necessary items, this champion can single-handedly “carry the entire enemy team.” If the opposing team has a Kayle, they must pay special attention to this champion to ensure that Kayle’s power does not scale over time.
With an insufficiently mobile skill set, requiring too many items and levels, Kayle is only used in the solo lane. However, at Worlds 2019, Kayle was used by Teddy – the former ADC of T1 (then known as SKT T1) in the ADC position. In that match, SKT T1 won against Fnatic, and Teddy achieved an impressive performance (KDA) of 5/2/13.
Viktor Bot Lane
At Worlds 2018, Sneaky, who was still with Cloud9, shocked the world with the pick of Viktor in the Bot Lane. Although Viktor had been used a few times, his appearance at Worlds in the duo lane truly astonished the audience. This was the first and, as of now, the last time Viktor made an appearance at a Worlds event in the role of Bot Lane.
Being a slow champion with low health and lacking mobility, no matter how talented Sneaky was, he could not create surprises with this champion. In domestic tournaments, Viktor Bot Lane also did not yield results even in the hands of talented players like GALA, Teddy, or Ghost.
Nasus Support
The latest name to join the list of the strangest champion picks in Worlds history certainly has to be Nasus Support recently used in the RGE – DRX match. By experimenting with such a champion in an important match, RGE faced a lot of criticism. The reason being, throughout the match, RGE’s Nasus had no impact at all, from reducing damage or speed of the opponents to protecting the team’s ADC.
In terms of champion quality, Nasus is inherently a strong champion in the late game when stacking enough Q ability. Nasus only has one ability W – Wither that somewhat provides crowd control. Additionally, Nasus cannot empower or heal teammates. Therefore, choosing Nasus can be said to be a “self-destructive” move by RGE in their match against DRX.