Even players who have been following the e-sports scene of League of Legends for years might be unfamiliar with the story of Team Gambit and their top laner Darien. However, in 2014, Darien managed to make his opponents ban his champion, Warwick, from the previous game, so he wouldn’t play it again. Back then, Warwick was simply terrible.
Which professional player is it about?
- The top laner Evgeny “Darien” Mazaev from Russia played for Gambit Gaming from America since the team’s formation.
- The team from EU LCS was founded on January 14, 2013, and disbanded on December 9, 2015. They won the Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) Season 9 in Cologne at the end of 2014.
- The top laner Darien was known for unique picks on the top lane during his time. He played champions like Shyvana or Lissandra before they became popular.
- But his biggest achievement was bringing the character “Warwick”, considered a bad champion until then, back into the spotlight.
Here you can see how much League of Legends has grown over the years:
Warwick was once just a shadow of his former self
What was Warwick like before the rework? Before Warwick was reworked in 2017, he had a very simple mechanic:
- Supported by the lifesteal on his passive and Q ability, Warwick could fight with automatic attacks.
- His other abilities only had the option to increase his attack speed and movement speed.
Apart from his ultimate ability, the champion simply chased after his opponents and harassed them with automatic attacks. Due to this simple mechanic, the character was not in high demand. In professional play, he didn’t play any role at all.
Only in the jungle was Warwick occasionally played as a niche pick. There, he only had to contend with the neutral monsters.
With the rework starting in 2017, Warwick gained the ability to traverse distances and finally make better use of his abilities. He also gained the ability to apply the status effect “Fear” to his opponents, thus having a multitude of new gameplay options.
The story of Darien takes place long before the rework.
Top laner celebrates that opponents banned “his” Warwick
Why did he have to be banned? The LoL professional “Darien” picked Warwick in January 2014, in Week 1, Day 2 against Millenium. His opponent on the top lane was the German Kevin “Kev1n” Rubiszewski.
Darien managed to dominate in the game with Warwick, finishing the game with a statistic of 3/0/9. After the victory against Millenium, Darien’s team faced the “Supa Hot Crew” on Day 3. There, the team banned the Warwick pick, thus denying Warwick’s power pick. Nevertheless, Gambit managed to prevail against SHC and leave the game with a victory.
Here you can see how much Darien is excited about the ban of Warwick. He managed to play a bad champion so well that he had to be banned:
Picks that you are comfortable with can be strong – even if they are not “meta”
What can regular LoL players learn from this? Whenever a new champion comes out, players tend to try it. The new champion is always picked and played, and many players fail with it.
If you play these new champions without mastering them, you are not really helping yourself or your team.
But Darien managed to prove something special to all players: If you can play a character well, then the pick will definitely be appreciated by you and your team.
With his off-meta pick, Darien surprised his opponents and was able to perform well in his role.
Professionals still do this today and play their favorite champions. This is referred to as “comfort picks”:
- A champion is actually no longer the best for a role in the current patch: Maybe they were nerfed or others became much stronger due to buffs
- But players have mastered the champion so well that they feel comfortable with it and perform strongly with it
The story of Darien thus encourages all players who do not follow the meta and try out bold picks. You can thus try out your favorite character and use new item builds for your champion. The main thing is that you have fun playing and keep up the practice.
However, do your fellow players a favor and do not experiment in ranked games. Players there want to improve their rank and try to win the game. In that environment, safe picks are the more common way.
We wish you and your fellow players much enjoyment in your LoL games. If you have any questions or helpful tips, please leave them in the comments.
If you want to see more news about the action on the test server, check out this article: LoL banned innocent players permanently and caused panic – Now Riot is backtracking
