Cloud 9 is a team that is well known for copying Korean strategies and using them to dominate the NA LCS scene. When asked in interviews why they play the champions they do, many of the members have stated they pick them because they are top picks in OGN. However you feel about their picking process, it's hard to argue with the results.

One of the aspects of their team that many other pros have described as being frustrating when facing Cloud 9 is the pick/ban phase. Although many of the members are well known among the highest ranked solo queue players, they are new to the professional scene. As summer season has progressed, many teams have tried banning out different players on the team only to discover each has a deep champion pool.

Knowing their propensity for Korean picks, it was a surprise to see Sneaky pick Ashe along with Lemon’s Zyra. Until this time Ashe had been an extremely niche pick that dedicated viewers might only expect from Genja, who famously carried himself into high elo maining Ashe, and Cop who was known for his cautious play style that lent itself into a more supportive role for his aggressive teammates.

Rather than being an aberration, some sort of cheese strategy by Could 9, Ashe/Zyra would go on to be a mainstay in Cloud 9’s compositions. Under a month later and it has become the target of bans at Cloud 9.

It’s worked out pretty well

Other teams are now running the same composition, Vulcun even admitting that they had shamelessly stolen the strategy. The bot lane Ashe/Zyre is a testament to Cloud 9’s ability to innovate.

With mixed success

But what is so great about it?

Lets start with the laning phase.

The Ashe and Zyra combination is an extremely safe lane. Both champions have anti-engagement tools. Ashe can all but permanently slow a single champion early game with Frost Shot and create an almost undodgeable AoE slow with her Volley. Against harder engagements, Zyras Grasping Roots can stop an initiation cold and the slowing proc from her lashing vines can fill in the spaces where an enemy may be moving at their normal movement speed.

Probably most notable, and something that drew a great deal of surprise, was that Cloud 9 was able to run the composition without wards during the laning phase. Strategically placed Rampant Growth seeds can provide an early warning system almost immediately and Hawk Shot can spot out approaching ganks or Jungler movement from extremely far out. Although the skill and intuition of Sneaky and Lemon as well as their team communication certainly played a large part to the lanes success without warding, the fact that it is possible opens up a great deal of early item options for the Zyra support.

Rampant Growth and Hawkshot can get a lot done

Despite what might be considered a conservative composition, Ashe and Zyra can also provide a surprising amount of aggression. You may have noticed Sneaky and Lemon picking the composition against lane matchups that have more limited range such as Graves and Vayne. Ashe has one of the higher auto attack ranges of AD carry and Zyra has the longest attack range of traditional support picks. Against a lane with shorter range this allows them to safely harass the enemy behind their minion wave while they farm. With Ashe’s on-hit slows and Zyra’s CC, taking this sort of harassment can be extremely dangerous, with or without a jungler nearby.

What turns out to be a formidable duo bottom lane also transitions into late game play by providing one of the most valuable tools for any team looking for fights.

Creating team compositions is a balancing act between damage and utility. Too little of either can be a recipe for defeat. Without enough damage you won't be able kill enemy champions and without enough utility there is no guarantee you will be able to keep the enemy around long enough to do your damage.

Ashe’s Enchanted Crystal Arrow is widely considered to be the single best initiation ability in League of Legends, at max range and combined with Zyra’s Rampant Growth and Grasping Roots, the two can hold down one or more champions for an amount of seconds nearly reaching double digits, after which they can look forward to a nearly permanent 30% group slow from repeated Hail of Arrows.

The Danger Zone

Ashe and Zyra bot provide a huge amount of utility which one typically does not find in the bottom lane, freeing up the other lanes to emphasize damage. Locking an enemy team down is an almost guaranteed win with strong AoE and zoning an enemy team apart is a playground for assassin champions.

If banning can be used as a measure of a strategy's effectiveness then the Ashe-Zyra duo has proven to be a focus even above Cloud 9’s favored solo lane picks inspired by the Korean meta. The composition is perhaps one of the most persistent strategies to appear in the NA scene and, now that other teams in the LCS are picking it up, could prove to be a valuable weapon come Worlds.