3 Sleeper Champions to Pick Up for Season 7

Every new year of League of Legends brings along with it a plethora of changes and updates that provide its players with new challenges and changes they must adapt to, if they want to show everyone else who the best summoner truly is, whether that be in a friendly game of normals or on the esports stage. This past preseason we were granted with an immense amount of alterations to the gameplay, the champions and the pace of the game, and each one of those changes brought along with it shifts in strategy. One of the larger focal points of the updates we received were centered around the different Champions, from the assassin update to the release of Camille, so who you lock in with in the loading screen has more weight than it did before. While it would be easy to go through the list of champions who have been changed recently, I thought that a better narrative might come from compiling a list of champions who have seen less play over the past month of preseason changes that could be extremely potent with these changes under the right circumstances.  

Let's ask ourselves one quintessential question before we go any further, what is strong in Season 7? Before we can delve into the champions that are the top sleeper champions, let's take a look at what are the biggest threats and powerhouses of the current meta-game.

(Picture courtesy of: Surrenderat20.net)

Increasing Jungle Pressure

First and foremost, with the jungle changes making clearing easier and faster, it is no secret that B-tier junglers will start to climb the ranks a bit more in win rate. Champions who can clear fast early will make giant strides in the early game, especially if they have a strong level 3 initiate. Champions like Zac and Lee Sin have improved drastically over the past month long span, because of their increased sustain and their increased pressure in the lanes early.  I won't go into these junglers in depth in the article, only because of how popularized the role has become. What is key here are the champions who can deal with this increased jungle pressure, and not only survive it, but turn it around and possibly harbor an advantage out of it.

Assassin Power Spike

One of the key focal points of the preseason update were all the alterations being made to the game's assassins. Rengar, Talon, LeBlanc and Katarina were all major recipients of these changes, with a list of other champions who were also buffed as well (not to mention jungle assassins like Kha'Zix getting indirectly buffed by the above jungle changes). So being able to cope with large amounts of burst damage, as well as escape mobility from a roam or sudden engage has become a much more valuable asset. While I could go into assassins further, and talk about champions who possibly fill the assassin role better than they did before, these champions are strong for the same reasons as the others. It's champions who can fend off these burst behemoths that are making the cut today. Also with the bonuses to stealth and the birth of lethality, the quicker the surprise party stops, the better the champion is in this current meta state.

The Tank Support Enlightenment 

One of the more under the radar changes when the preseason was announced were the new items coming to supports, and the only big mastery change that was being rolled out. 2 new items were rolled out just for tank building and support utility, and defensive bonuses were added to Aegis of the Legion (albeit removing its aura of magic resist). This has provided a much larger emphasis on those carry protectors in the bot lane. These items also provide large amounts of turn around potential (see: Redemption), sustain (see: Redemption), or targeted assistance to a damage carry (see: Knight's vow, or Redemption). These are items that any champion can buy, but where the true all stars are made are in the pre-game screen. Courage of the Colossus, the newest mastery replacing 'Strength of Ages', gives a shield to its owner when that champion applies hard crowd control to another champion. Now any supports that engage in a lane skirmish start the fight with a defensive bonus, all because they landed their engage ability.  

Honorable Mentions:

Zilean:  As you will read below, the Chronokeeper has a lot of the key components we are looking for. He has some crowd control, engage, and can protect his allies from assassination with his ultimate. However, his lack of mobility, the lack of speed of his bombs channel time, and the high cooldown on his saving grace ultimate makes him unreliable in an ambush, and not exactly the greatest form of disengage from a CC threat or a pesky assassin.

Evelynn:  Evelynn does fall into the category of indirectly boosted assassins from the myriad of jungle changes. However, she does lack that x-factor that the other assassins have. Her invisibility makes for good ambushing, but she still has a lack of an actual engage ability, something to latch onto opponents with. She also is a giant victim of bonuses to crowd control, as her staying in range of low health targets (namely with her Q) provides a large majority of her threat potential.

Alright, so who are the sleeper champions that can help bring that win rate up? Here are the 3 that are looking to disrupt the current meta changes.

Illaoi

One of the standout releases from the 2016 lineup of champions, the Kraken priestess might seem like an odd choice for this list, considering she has no hard crowd control or enough potential as a jungler to qualify for that category. However, she does have some amazing laning qualities that make her a very nice hidden threat.  Her counter-ganking ability almost defines her. She has a ton of damage potential and sustain if you can utilize her passive tentacle placement correctly. She can pinch out a weaker threat with her E spawning in more damage and her tentacles hitting targets giving her back more health if they land on a target.  So now that the threat of a jungle invasion has increased, her utility has now become more relevant.  

She also transitions into the team fighting stage very well. While she doesn't have any hard crowd control to grant her the Courage of the Colossus bonus, she plays very well into the current team fight meta anyways. If she can land her E on a champion, even the tank who might be trying to engage, this means that the amount of tentacles surrounding the enemy team is going to be greater, and the engage potential due to the enemy tank's strength. So while the resistance bonuses make their tank stronger, it also makes Illaoi's presence greater, and if she can use the tentacles spawned and get an ult off near the backline, the enemy team would have little time to turn on her before she has cleaved down their ranks.

Lissandra

Lissandra has been a point of interest in champion select for a long time now. She always seems to rise in popularity quickly and then suddenly disappear again. Well I would put money on the fact that Lissandra might start to climb up the popularity charts once again. She has one of the most underrated crowd control moves, her W, which is a prefect burst prevention device. As long as you are not too jumpy with your trigger finger, you might be able to fend off the assassination attempt with the simple click of a button. Even if the situation isn’t right or your reaction time is a bit too good, you still have other options.  Your E, while slow, has a great amount of distance behind it and, if launched quickly after a successful W, allows your opponents only a second before you are out of range of their assault.

Her laning phase against roaming assassins and jungle threats is not the only beneficial part, nor reason, to her making this list. She can provide a large threat offensively in team fights. With the bonus to hard CC engagers, Lissandra can act as a great team fight disruptor, ulting the engager, and making the shielded tank not only immobile, but actually harmful to the enemy team who has fallen in around them. Lissandra also allows damage with her Q go through the protected tank and deal nasty amounts of damage to the backline. While all these factors would provide a great pamphlet for Lissandra players any day, with the ample list of changes to the above, she has become a much larger threat than usual.  

Nautilus

While Nautilus' notoriety has been on the rise over the past couple seasons due to his infamous legacy as a support and the brief override of the tank meta, he has slowly slipped back down into (and pardon the pun) the depths of the popularity pool. I see that slowly changing over the course of the next few patches however, if the preseason trends continue. Nautilus might be the greatest sleeper champion with these changes simply due to how he fits the niche of almost all of them.  

First off, he fits into that mold of jungle changes from both sides. As a jungler, he clears camps with even more speed and efficiency than he did before, and can become a lane nuisance like he never has been able to before. He also can prevent any jungle pressure in the lane he is in, whether it be as a beefy top laner, or as a noble support, able to protect his ADC from a jungler with his large suite of CC. Speaking of CC, as a support Nautilus provides quite the bodyguard for the carry. His crowd control is potent as ever, but now he has the added bonus of Courage of the Colossus. Now it almost benefits him to be stuck in an engagement, because of the shield he gets to utilize. He also benefits by utilizing the support items because of their stat bonuses. Nautilus' W scales off of his maximum health, so with the two new support items with health bonuses and an increase in the health bonus of Aegis of the Legion, Nautilus' itemization has not only become stronger, but more relevant.  

All these changes mean that he is even more of a monstrosity in the team fighting stage. He can fend off carries, use his itemization to provide himself a massive shield on his W, and another one on his mastery pages. If he can enter the center of a team fight and lockdown the damage with his ultimate or his Q or even his passive, he might be one of the most unstoppable champions in the current meta.

I hope this list acts as an eye-opener for some tricks you can try and pull off in the next few patches, and I wish you all the best of luck! If you ever have any questions or simply want to chat about League, feel free to contact me @Buns_and_roses on twitter, and I hope to see you all on the Rift!

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