With Worlds on the way, we've seen an array of champions being played across the regions. With 5.18 being the juggernaut patch, we've seen Darius, Mordekaiser and Gangplank play a huge part in the pick and ban phase. Elise, Jinx, Braum, and Lulu are also up there in the high percentages. As the competitive meta has unveiled itself, a few picks have rose to prominence. Kennen becoming a flex pick, Veigar with his zoning and burst in the middle lane and Morgana's utility in the support role returning in value. The River King, Tahm Kench, has swam himself into those ranks with his in built tankiness and unique utility.

We're in a meta now that focuses on the top lane. With the juggernauts being inserted into the game and champions like Gangplank and Fiora being updated, top lane has one of the most impactful roles on the Rift. Teleport is a vital summoner and can change the flow of a game to be in your favour. You prominently see the bottom lane be the focus of teleport fights, joining the jungler and possibly the mid laner in bottom lane brawls. With a successful TP, you can create a lead for the top laner and bottom lane duo. Fnatic's "Huni" demonstrates here how to teleport correctly and decimate a team fight through quick reactions and prompt decisions.

The top lane's role is to get on the back line carries and take them out of a fight, reducing the opposing teams chances of winning. Champions like Darius aim to pull in the Jinx or Twisted Fate, keeping them close to him and overwhleming them with his damage and item based scaling. This has evolved throughout the map as we've seen champions such as Elise and Lee Sin rise to prominence, as they can set up picks onto specific targets. This is where the River King comes into the equation and his utility becomes rather potent in dealing with those specific compositions. Tahm plays to take all the damage for his important allies and protect them from potentially fatal situations. The array of abilities in his arsenal help him withstand the damage he's taking, while protecting his team mates from the enemy's clutches.

Tahm works to be a catfish incarnate of Braum, Kayle and Twisted Fate with a spirit visage combined together. A front line tank who brings another meaning to the word "peel". His abilities help him withstand the damage focussed on his back while his appetite searches for his allies and enemies alike to enhance and reduce the potentials of both respectively. He has formidable crowd control if allowed the time to apply it and can jump onto enemies who don't expect his arrival. Here are the 5 abilities that allow him to do this:

An Aquired Taste (Passive): A regular in Riot's creative techniques right now, a stacking passive which applies different effects after all the stacks have been fulfilled for Tahm Kench. The passive procs off different effects in his Q, "Tongue Lash" and W, "Devour". You can use Tongue Lash to apply the passive. After the champion has the Acquired Taste fully stacked, it will stun that champion on hit. In Devour, when the third proc is applied, he can then devour the enemy champion and eat them, making them unable to perform any actions. Consistently applying these passive marks makes Tahm Kench scary as the follow up crowd control can be devastating.

Tongue Lash (Q-Ability): A long range skillshot which hits the first enemy instance and slows them by a percentage. It also applies Tahm's passive and when the passive is fully stacked, it will stun on hit instead of slow. This is your main harass tool in lane and presence threat during the game. Use it to start off the passive stacks from a longer range and get the acquired taste applied so that the champion can then be devoured or stunned. The harass in this ability can be quite strong and the threat that proceeds the ability needs to be accounted for when facing the Kench.

Devour (W-Ability): The River King's most interesting ability and the main reason he's seen a rise in his play. Tahm can devour practically anything (not including allied minions, main buff monsters, dragon and baron). On enemy minion devour, he will eat the minion and then throw them a distance, dealing damage on hit and applying all hit with "Aquired Taste". On enemy champion, when the passive has been fully stacked he can devour them, unabling them from casting actions and have reduced sight. On spit, damage based on their max health will occur. On ally devour, his ally becomes immune to damage cast while inside him (DOTs applied before the devour still deal damage) and gives Tahm a surge of speed. You're mainly using the Devour ability to save your priority allies, protecting them from fatal situations. If you do get the stacks on a target though, chomping a champion down aggressively can end with an advantageous situation if used correctly.

Thick Skin (E-Ability): Thick Skin is how Tahm survives all the damage he aims to take while protecting his allies. When taking damage, you see the damage to him come up as "grey health" on his health bar. While not taking damage, Tahm will heal back a percentage of that grey health into permanent health. If you choose to activate the ability, Tahm will instead gain a shield which fills for all the grey health in his bar. Survivability is what Tahm gets from this ability. With the shield and health regeneration, even if he dies after, Tahm can survive for that little bit longer, which can mean the difference between his allies dying or living.

Abyssal Voyage (R-Ability): Tahm's ultimate has a few unique properties to it but in contrast to his other abilties, it isnt that strong. It comes in two parts; it's passive creates a damage amplifier to all of Tahm's damage (auto-attacks and abilities) that scales off his bonus health. The active is a channeling ability that blinks him and an ally (if clicked) to a destination on the map on a level scaling distance. Due to the channeling times on the active, you will rarely see aggressive actions used with the ability in the support role. The passive damage is what makes Tahm Kench more than just a support. As a full tank and in turn damage that scales of health, Tahm can be a considerable threat in other lanes than just the bottom.

Tahm has been slowly on the rise as the patches have come and with some buffs and showing at major tournaments such as Worlds 2015, Tahm is recognised to be one of the stronger champs on the current patch. His ability to counter pick compositions and champions alike, means he's a relevant pick. Champions like Jinx and Kog'Maw who lack mobility, when being paired with Tahm Kench, have an extra tool to survive damage. Competetively, we're seeing Tahm Kench as a support as his movement speed and overall slow playstyle is easy to move around and kite.

In Week 1 we saw Fnatic lose to the unbenched Kench when they went up against AHQ E-Sports. An and Albis on the bot lane were a rock for their team and An has outputted a high percentage of AHQ's overall damage throughout the tournament, mostly with Jinx. Albis picked up Tahm Kench to keep Jinx from Fnatic's grubby hands. Every time Fnatic got onto her, he'd munch her up, take her out of the fight and into a better position, which resets the fight for his team as Fnatic had their abilities on cooldown. When combined with Jinx, Tahm Kench can throw an enemy into Jinx's traps, chaining their crowd control together, which we saw AHQ's bot lane do frequently.

In SoloQ, Tahm Kench is not only a support. With his health based damage, Tahm Kench is quite the threat on top lane and can devour through mostly any opponent. He does suffer against ranged opponents as they can easily kite him but against melees, his tankiness built in with the damage from Devour can have surprising burst. We've also seen successful jungle Tahm Kench's, stated to be borderline OP. In the jungle, you'll get more use and higher success when using your ult for good flanks. Jumping into a lane from an unwarded area and locking an enemy down for allied follow up.

Tahm Kench's peel against the meta's evolution is why we're seeing a rise in his play. With hyper-carries for ADCs and squishy mages in the mid lane and top lane, having a tank who can make you untargetable from the damage that's most likely going to be focussed at you can be incredibly beneficial. For the same reasons you pick Janna in how she can reset fights with a well placed "Monsoon", Tahm Kench's Devour can save an ally and waste the enemies cooldowns. This in connection leads fights into the Tahm's team's favour as they can now use their abilities to control and win the fight.

To conclude per role, in the support role, play to peel whenever your team gets into trouble. Devour your allies who are getting focussed and build around that. Don't underestimate your aggressive options though. If you get the Acquired Taste stacked, due to your shields and sustain, you can take the damage while stunning and eating the enemies you catch. With the right champions like Jinx for example, you chain crowd control and damage to get the kill. In the top lane and jungle, abuse your health scaling damage. The percentage increase you get is substantial and really helps you stick damage onto an enemy. Get into the fights and aim to stack your passive on the important enemies as you can singlehandedly kill them with your autos, tongue lash and devour. Use the ultimate blink to roam on unexpecting enemies and get your other lanes ahead. Overall, The River King is a strong flex pick in the current state of the game and if used correctly, can change a games flow.

I hope to have brought understanding to Tahm Kench's recent rise in play and that it helps you play The River King in your future games. See you next time!!

Credit to MirthSpindle on Deviant Art for the great portrayal of The River King.

Are you into fantasy leagues? Then check out AlphaDraft and put together your allstar lineup!