There are many different champions in League of Legends that take come and go in the meta, but some champions haven’t seen stage play in a very long time. One pick, for example, made waves when it was picked for the first time in Korea in over a decade.
In Dplus KIA’s playoff series against BINK FearX, superstar mid laner Heo “ShowMaker” Su locked in Nasus in the mid lane, marking the first time that the pick was chosen since 2013. After over 4,000 days, one of League‘s original champions has seen the stage in an unorthodox role, leading to a victory for one of the best teams in the region.
Nasus is rarely seen on the professional stage, and even moreso in the mid lane where the role has been often controlled by traditional mages. He was recently locked in for the first time in over 1,200 days at the beginning of the month when top laner Morgan picked him, but it was never in the cards for Nasus to see playing time in the mid lane.
ShowMaker has also played more meta picks like Taliyah, LeBlanc, Corki, and Tristana throughout the season, but he showed his flexibility by choosing Nasus into Lee “Clozer” Ju-hyeon’s Azir pick.
Nasus can be a good pick into certain team compositions and matchups since he can whittle down waves with his Spirit Fire, staying relatively durable while also wielding some impressive damage by stacking his Siphoning Strike for the late game. He also has a powerful slow with Wither, which can help with ganks and chasedown kills across the map.
Against Azir, Nasus can keep his distance with his Spirit Fire, while farming relatively safely with his Siphoning Strike. ShowMaker also built him with a few different tank items, making him a hard target to focus as the game progressed. Ultimately, however, it was his jungle and AD carry that took over the game, with the former collecting 10 assists on Ivern and the latter dropping a server-leading seven kills.
The team eventually beat FearX in four games, but now, they’ll have to play against either Gen.G or Hanwha Life Esports in the next round. Both options will be difficult, since the team will have to face off against either the defending LCK champions or a hungry HLE squad led by Viper and Peanut.
