Aurelion Sol has seen recent success in the NA & EU LCS Gauntlets, piloted by CLG Huhi and FNC Caps respectively. However, because of the champion’s unique kit and playstyle, the Star Forger sees little consistent play on the competitive stage. This past week, Aurelion Sol played large parts in both CLG and FNC’s winning team compositions.

So, what are the advantages of playing Sol over more meta mid-lane picks? How do teams adapt their strategies to counter the Star Forger? And, how do players find success on the champion?

Some Sirius pushing power

Let’s begin by taking quick look at some of Aurelion’s abilities and how he can affect the map. Center of the Universe, Aurelion Sol’s passive, places the dragon predictably in the center of three rotating orbs. As Aurelion’s main source of damage, these orbs are central to his unique playstyle as a positioning-oriented control mage. Sol’s W ability Celestial Expansion increases the speed and radius of his orbs, significantly boosting his damage output. By taking W level 1, Aurelion Sol’s ability to push lane is second to none.

By constantly shoving in his lane opponent, Aurelion opens multiple windows to roam and pressure sidelanes. His roams become even more potent at level 3 when Sol is able to put a point in Comet of Legend (E), which gives him an increased movespeed passive when pathing in a straight line. Comet of Legend‘s active allows Aurelion to quickly fly over terrain and appear in a sidelane in seconds. FNC Caps demonstrates this point perfectly in a dive onto H2K’s top laner Odoamne in Game 1 of the EU LCS Regional Qualifier.

You’re not the center of the universe

So, how do players punish the push-and-roam early game of Aurelion Sol? In Game 2 of Flyquest versus Counter Logic Gaming, FLY aimed to shut down Huhi’s Aurelion Sol early, ganking him while both mid laners were still level 1. Hai and Moon recognized that the level 1 Aurelion Sol with Celestial Expansion lacked both mobility and any crowd control ability to stop an early gank. By punishing these vulnerabilities, Flyquest sought to limit Huhi’s early pressure and contain the Aurelion Sol as much as possible.

Another aspect of Aurelion Sol that players can exploit is disabling Center of the Universe using crowd-control and silencing abilities. In the previous clip, we see Sol’s orbs retract for a moment as Jarvan knocks him up with Dragon Strike. Teams with heavy crowd-control can nullify Aurelion’s teamfighting prowess by locking him down and bursting him at the beginning of a fight. Champions like Malzahar and Warwick with long range suppression abilities are especially effective if their teams manage to focus Aurelion within the CC duration.

How to train your dragon

If we take a look at Aurelion Sol’s build-pathing, we find some fantastic tools for a control mage that wants to slow down the entire enemy team while constantly piling on damage. Aurelion is one of the few champions in League of Legends who can effectively abuse the item Hextech GLP-800 and its active ability Frost Bolt which:

Fires a spray of icy bolts that explode, dealing 100 – 200 (based on level) (+ 35% AP) magic damage to all enemies hit (40 second cooldown, shared with other Hextech items). Enemies hit are slowed by 65% decaying over 0. 5 seconds.

Because of its great build-path and an active made for control mages, Hextech GLP is the perfect item for our favorite Star Forger. By combining GLP with items like Rylai’s Crystal Scepter and Liandry’s Torment, Aurelion Sol players can apply infinite slows onto the enemy team while burning down tanks and squishies alike AND boast a sizable health bar.

Now, we revisit the CLG versus FLY game where frequent early pressure by Moon’s Jarvan pushed Huhi on the back foot. Despite the early focus, Huhi was able to stay relevant into mid and late game teamfights by maintaining careful positioning to bring both utility and damage to his team. This Baron fight at twenty-three minutes is a perfect display of Huhi’s ability to command the enemy team’s positioning.

Huhi begins the fight by burning down FLY’s tanks, forcing the team to split down the river. Even more crucial, he spends the rest of the fight positioning himself in front of his teammate Stixxay, allowing the Ashe to freely rain damage onto FLY’s remaining members. Huhi’s precise teamfight positioning throughout Game 2 of the series earned him the highest damage on his team at 24.0k total damage dealt to champions.

Eyes on Worlds

Although Counter Logic Gaming fell to Cloud 9 this past weekend, perhaps we will see other mid laners like FNC Caps bring Aurelion Sol to the world stage. Last Worlds season, we did see Sol being temporarily disabled due to some particle bugs during the Group Stage. However after those bugs were resolved, Flash Wolves’s mid-laner Maple played a fantastic Aurelion Sol game, earning himself multiple kills against SKT’s star player, Faker, and netting his team a win against the defending world champions.

Will we see four man dives bottom with the Sol sailing in on Comet of Legend? Or maybe somebody will pull him out to mow down the enemy front line. In any case, the upcoming Worlds patch could give Aurelion Sol room to make his way back onto the world stage. Until then, we’ll keep counting stars.