Illaoi, the tentacle slapper of League of Legends , never really caught on in the competitive scene. She’s a bruiser who excels at staying in the same lane for as long as possible, which is genuinely not how top laners play. A good top laner likes to travel, take the scenic route down to middle lane or maybe just teleport into a bot lane tower dive. Illaoi never really fit in since she’s fairly slow and immobile, and most pros deemed her too weak.
Riot has been buffing her ever since she came out. Patch after patch, the tentacles kept getting stronger. After 6.11’s round of buffs, Illaoi is just too strong not to be played. If you want to know why we will all soon be Illaoi mains, just watch game two of the Echo Fox vs NRG series. Quas has been been struggling since the LCS started, playing mostly Maokai and dying early. After going 0-3 in the first two weeks, NRG and Quas finally started playing well.
Throughout the game, members of Echo Fox died at least three times to an unexpected tentacle slap. Either they have no experience against the champion, or just disrespected the tentacle damage. When Illaoi pulls your soul out of your body, you become a “vessel” that spawns slapping tentacles. Just watch KFO giving first blood up , he got smashed into the pavement before he noticed what was happening.
That happened multiple times throughout the game. Quas used Voidbringer Illaoi, which turns the giant of a woman into a voidling with purple tentacles. Those arms shooting out of the ground can be hard to see, especially in the middle of a hectic teamfight. Keith died twice to random tentacles, which gave NRG the upper hand and even led to a few Barons.
This may have been the first game with Illaoi in the North American LCS, but it won’t be the last. Her damage and sustain are just too high right now; a five man ultimate can wipe out an entire team. Quas essentially ended the game himself, using Illaoi’s ultimate on the entirety of Echo Fox. Before they even knew what happened, their health bars were depleted.
Watch the whole game here, and cower in front of the new queen of the top lane.
