Reworks. We love them because they give us champions with shotgun legs, parkour, and... even more shotguns. Huh, Riot seems to have a thing for shotguns.

One rework that has stood the test of viability so far has been Galio. Demacia’s tank of choice has been a popular pick after his rework because of his great waveclear, better crowd control and stellar ultimate. Any move that is badass enough to have you come gloriously to the aid of others is alright in my book.

Especially when you compare it to the old ultimate that gets completely negated by Udyr’s Bear Stance slap.

Galio has seen better days than now however, as the champion had his reworked kit immediately gutted because it was way too cool (and way too strong). However, you can take the fight out of the Galio, but not the Galio out of the fight. Seriously, Hero's Entrance isn't cancelable nor is it movable, so he's going to always be in the fight.

His utility is still fairly unmatched as he has a massive amount of crowd control and damage reduction in his kit. As such, teams have been experimenting by putting Galio in the support position, something that has also seen some success.

How does it work?

Galio support gives you all the upside of Galio while also providing a low economy way to keep him relevant. He has access to Coin or Relic Shield to keep his mana and health up, and the melee support meta makes it unlikely for him to be punished for his lack of range. He can help waveclear with his passive and Q, making him a great compliment to a champion like Kalista who has low waveclear potential, or Sivir who has high waveclear potential.

Once he has access to his ultimate, he can impact the map in stupendous ways. The ability for him to help push a lane and then roam to help a jungler and mid laner dive is unique to Galio because the speed with which he does it is comparable to Bard while being as disruptive as Thresh to pull off a dive.

And remember that success I talked about before? The LPL has a 100 percent win rate with Galio support on Patch 7.14.

At 3:54:08 of the above video, the Galio support is fully unleashed. His late game prowess allows him to safely protect the Jarvan IV while the Syndra cleans up and decimates the competition. In any other situation, the Galio in question would have been in the role of the Syndra or Jarvan, meaning that the damage was actively there to follow up on the Galio's disruption.

When playing Galio with items like Righteous Glory, remember to trigger the item's active to speed into battle with your taunt channeled. Otherwise, his tankiness and access to cooldown reduction will keep him a nuisance as the game goes on. Constant area of effect taunts into something like Thornmail can cripple a team's ability to teamfight you if done properly.

The Build

Ancient Coin + Three Health Potions Sightstone Mobility Boots or Mercury Treads Eye of the Oasis Righteous Glory Locket of the Iron Solari Knight's Vow Adaptive Helm or Thornmail

And don't forget your control wards!

Gabriel Zoltan-Johan is a news editor at theScore esports and the head analyst for the University of Toronto League of Legends team. His (public) musings can be found on his Twitter.