A good support brings out the best in his AD Carry. The best supports bring out the best in their team. Europe has been blessed wholeheartedly in the support function this year, a level it has not approached since Season 2. The often misunderstood and undervalued role is actually one of the most important once the game reaches an international level. Junglers like loulex and TBQ can have their failings mitigated, but there is no such thing as a true international competitor without a strong support player.

The Korean support legend Madlife once said “a support draws the outline, and his team colors it in.”

Europe’s influx of strong supports was achieved somewhat surprisingly. We knew who was coming back from splits past, we knew of the returning veteran climbing Challenger Series with fury in his eyes. We did not know of up-and-comers who would make instant impacts on their rosters. Outside of our Worlds participants, G0DFRED springs to mind as the prime example, as he helped transform the Giants from a team that was lucky to avoid relegations to a Top 5 contender for much of the split.

Needless to say as the price of support became apparent, the value of European supports increased. Here are the players tasked with bringing out the best in Europe’s Worlds competitors.

kaSing

EU LCS Summer Statistics

Games Played: 28

Most Played Champions: Thresh (12), Alistar (7), Annie (2), Shen (2), Janna (2)

Most Successful Champions: Thresh (83%), Alistar (71%), Annie/Shen (50%)

Wards/Cleared Per Minute (Playoffs): 1.29/0.26 (4th/2nd in role)

Wards/Cleared Per Minute (Regular Split): 1.29/0.28 (4th/3rd in role)

The inclusion of kaSing was a turning point for H2K. It transformed them from a 0-8 team to arguably the second best team in Europe during the spring split. It also solidified a playstyle that H2K have not shied away from since. It has made them somewhat predictable, but that has not mitigated their success by any means. Some of the most successful teams in the world have done so with the same basic playstyle each and every game: Season 3 SK Telecom T1 K and Season 4 Samsung White spring to mind.

We know that kaSing started contributing to the team’s shotcalling when he came along. Whatever mentality he brought is up to speculation. Perhaps simply the removal of Voidle was enough to bring a better mindset to this team of rookies and Ryu. Regardless, H2K became the quintessential pick team. They would rush standing gold as fast as possible and were completely unmatched in the speed with which they would take over the map (after the death of spring split SK Gaming, of course). Then they would consolidate their advantages with dives from Odoamne and loulex to get gold on their carries. By that point, they were ready and it was kaSing’s time to shine.

kaSing’s task became very simple. As H2K rotated around the map and take objectives, kaSing would clear vision in the nearby area and ward appropriately for picks that he would make with Ryu. These picks would make the game a 4v5 in H2K’s favour and the true initiation could begin. While this may seem like a very boring way of thinking about kaSing and H2K, it was essentially what H2K’s gameplan would boil down to every game with kaSing playing his role to a tee. H2K’s pick-comp special was elevated by some of the best Thresh play the region had seen all season — he was able to extend to picks like Annie and have a real impact in teamfights after the initiation. His Alistar heralded a 35 KDA from playoffs.

When kaSing was in the zone, he outclassed his opponents. Faced with G0DFRED who had a similar effect on Giants Gaming, kaSing played on another level, accruing only one death in the entire series while accumulating a 45 KDA across Thresh and Alistar. His ability to abuse Adryh’s positioning was symptomatic of his skill in playing pick compositions as a whole. Outside of the mentality his addition gave his team and the consistency he showed within his champion pool, H2K could not have picked a better support than kaSing for the playstyle they attempted to pull off.

Mithy

EU LCS Summer Statistics

Games Played: 35

Most Played Champions: Braum (8), Alistar (8), Thresh (7), Annie (4), Nautilus (3)

Most Successful Champions: Braum (89%), Annie (75%), Thresh (71%)

Wards/Cleared Per Minute (Playoffs): 1.37/0.20 (3rd/5th in role)

Wards/Cleared Per Minute (Regular Split): 1.22/0.19 (7th/10th in role)

Mithy has not had a good few years since his explosive arrival in Season 3, but the fruit they bore over the course of one split has made his extended time in the ELO hell of Challenger Series worth it. A lot can be said about Mithy as a personality in the context of his team. He was, for a time, incredibly lane-centric, often refusing to play anything but the optimal 2v2 combo. As NiP ceded control away from Nukeduck and more to Mithy. he found safety in control perhaps. If so, he was misguided. This season he hasn’t been.

Let’s not be mistaken here. Mithy is the greatest mechanical support in the west. The more options he is given, the more powerful he becomes. The immense success he has had on the multi-faceted Season 5 Morgana of Braum shows as much. In as much the same way that Morgana was perfect both with and against Season 4’s pick comps, Braum is brilliant both with and against Season 5’s poke/siege comps. Mithy is able to maximize the potential of any champion he is given.

Mechanical proficiency often goes hand in hand with confidence. On Annie, Mithy becomes the perfect teamfighting support: multiple stuns on priority targets per fight, able to switch between zoning and focusing in nary an instant. Never give him Thresh. It is the perfect compliment to Origen’s propensity for unparalleled aggression, initiating on opposition mispositioning like no other support can offer and affording a nice get-out-of-dive-jail-free card with his Dark Passage. His thinking in this manner often leads to successful roaming in the early game, with levels 1-3 moves across the map that apply pressure on his opponent in an instant.

During the finals against Fnatic, early game 2v2 trading was almost entirely in Origin’s favour, and it was on the back of Mithy that this was made possible. Though Mithy would later say that he was sufficiently outplayed, it was definitely not on a mechanical level. The Amazing/Mithy roaming engine out-played Fnatic’s engine of Reignover/Yellowstar — a key matchup that almost lost Fnatic the series, and frequently cost them the early game.

Mithy has displayed that he is still Europe’s top individual threat when it comes to his role. His development will come strategically. It will come as his team develops in its communication and consistency. Still, there is not a single 2v2 lane at Worlds that should not fear Mithy.

Yellowstar

EU LCS Summer Statistics

Games Played: 26

Most Played Champions: Thresh (9), Nautilus (8), Janna (7), Annie (6), Leona (4)

Most Successful Champions: Leona (75%), Janna (71%), Annie (67%)

Wards/Cleared Per Minute (Playoffs): 1.49/0.30 (1st/1st in role)

Wards/Cleared Per Minute (Regular Split): 1.30/0.37 (3rd/1st in role)

Yellowstar controls and owns the game.

KaSing may have brought fluidity to H2K’s strategic structure, and Mithy might maximize his options with his team’s fighting prowess, but Yellowstar will take over the entire game.

A lot of people boil this down to Yellowstar just being ‘intelligent’ but it’s more than that. He is a leader, confident in his calls, confident in his initiations and confident enough to take his team of rookies and foreign newcomers to a height unachieved since Moscow 5.

Everything about Yellowstar bleeds this. His champions are the focal point of a variety of compositions and his win rates show that the more essential Yellowstar makes himself to his composition, the more likely his composition will find success. Whether it is engaging with Leona, utilizing Janna in the Fnatic special poke comp, or as part of sieges with Annie, you must give Yellowstar control of the team and in return he will own the game. Though the percentages may seem misleading, make no mistake that this is the same support that held a 100% win rate across his pool until the summer playoff finals against Origen.

The impact Yellowstar has on a game extends beyond the optimal use of a composition. Though a critical factor in how Fnatic capitalizes on their advantages or comes back from their deficits, Yellowstar is also the man in the jungle taking full control of whatever side of the map Fnatic are looking to take objectives on. Much has been made of the Yellowstar/Reignover ‘engine’ particularly during the spring split. But while that engine still exists, Reignover is rarely, if ever, the one taking the lead in invades or setting up dives. He meets the real boss and follows. Where he follows him he often finds success. He helps Yellowstar slowly choke his opponents off the rift with unequaled vision control.

That is the story of Yellowstar this season. Yes, Febiven has put on one of the best mid lane performances we will ever see. Rekkles showed up when it mattered. Huni’s teamfighting has made him an instant threat within his role and Reignover joined up to be a part of the engine that drove Fnatic. None of these people would even be here were it not for Yellowstar. All of them came here to follow him. They followed him into his team, they follow him on the rift, and they have followed him all the way to Worlds. The path that Yellowstar paves this season remaining has the potential to become pilgrimage in the European scene.

Yellowstar did not just create a lasting legacy or been a part of it. He is the legacy. He is the first truly great and immortal player in Europe’s history. Yellowstar is the greatest support player Europe has ever seen and he is coming to Worlds.

Hooked on a Feeling

Do not let the language fool you. Every support Europe is sending to the World Championships is or has the potential to be world class. Though it may have been for several seasons, European supports on the international stage is more than just the Yellowstar show. Each of these teams have found themselves at World Championships in large part because of them. They are all threats and the teams of the world will have to take them into account.

The mechanical prowess of the European generation of supports make them a very real threat. All these players have the potential to upset some that are held to a very high regard internationally. The evolution of strategical Europe over the course of the last season makes them a match for their counterparts like never before.

Michael “Veteran” Archer is a former coach/analyst turned EU writer, and just can’t quite seem to get off of oracleselixir.com or lol.esportspedia.com. You can follow his addiction on Twitter.