When you think of the champion Garen, what comes to mind? Probably things like how sturdy he is, the amount of damage he can do, how relatively strong in lane he is, and - best of all - how annoying his innate sustain in the form of his passive, Perseverance, is. You probably think of things like how Teemo can beat him up top and how he is often chosen into things like Riven. But would you ever have considered him viable in the botlane? Would you have ever considered pairing him in lane with Yuumi, The Magical Cat?

No? Well, Fnatic of the League European Championship did, in a game against Team Vitality and even in the LEC Summer Semifinals against G2 Esports, both successfully.

So, let's dive into this newcomer duo to discover what it is, how it works, how you can use it to your advantage in your games, and how to stop it when you see it.

Logic:

Yuumi is a fantastic support capable of doing all of her best work without ever being in danger because of the nature of You and Me! (E), which renders her untargetable as long as she's attached to an allied champion. In order to reap the maximum benefits from this though, she needs someone who won't get deleted in fights. After all, it's really hard to heal up someone who is being bursted down. The nature of Yuumi's ult also requires her to be as close to the fight as possible in order to land it. Garen helps to remedy both of these, as he's incredibly hard to kill and normally acts as a frontline in teamfights, putting Yuumi directly in front of the enemies that she has to ult. Because he is so hard to kill (and he will be even more reinforced by Yuumi being on him), Yuumi will have plenty of time to fire spells off and jump between Garen and her other allies.

Garen, on the other hand, suffers from not being able to stick to his targets, as his only form of engage is running directly at his enemies and he doesn't have any innate form of movement-hindering crowd control. In addition to reinforcing his already bulky frame, Yuumi provides Garen with the ability to catch and stick to his targets with her spells Prowling Projectile (Q) and Final Chapter (R). Through heals, Yuumi can also remedy the ranged vs. melee disadvantage that he would encounter in the botlane.

Enter lategame.

Combined, you are now a powerhouse. Yuumi rides atop her trusty Garen, completely impervious to damage and freely able to cast and attack on the outside while Garen laughs with delight as he shrugs off blows and smashes his Demacian blade down on foes unfortunate enough to be blindsided by Yuumi's neverending projectiles. No one can kill you. No one can run from you. No one even wants to be on the same screen as you. Together you'll look on at the sea of "GGWP"s in all chat and embrace your inner Demacia...and cat.

Strengths:

- This duo is incredibly strong in teamfights.

- This duo is incredibly hard to kill.

- This duo scales very well into the lategame.

- Assuming they can reach their target, this duo has great dueling power and can kill most combinations and champions.

- This duo can absorb a lot of pressure without requiring a lot of the team's resources.

Weaknesses:

- This duo has a difficult laning phase against traditional marksman bot matchups and doesn't offer the same sustained range damage that a traditional marksman would bring to a team composition.

- This duo won't have much lane priority (unless the other duo is already behind) as a result of its subpar waveclear.

- This duo has predictable engage and is hard to force fights with.

- Because of the lack of escapes on Garen and Yuumi, this duo is highly susceptible to ganks and dives if overextended or shoved in.

- If your teammates are not familiar with this strategy, they'll probably think you're trolling.

Building:

(A model example of a viable Garen rune page)

For Garen, you'll want to run the Resolve and Inspiration trees. Grasp of the Undying, Demolish, Second Wind, and Unflinching are good choices to take for Resolve, while Magical Footwear and Biscuits of Delivery from Inspiration are great for the laning phase and getting you to those items you want faster. You can also go Precision as your secondary tree, opting for Triumph and Legend: Tenacity for those combat situations. Flash and Teleport will be your summoner spells of choice, though you can also take ignite instead of teleport if you're feeling confident in your ability to get kills. Most people's core items on Garen are The Black Cleaver, Dead Man's Plate, and Sterak's Gage, but some people also have been known to replace The Black Cleaver with Trinity Force. Do so at your own risk.

(A model example of a viable Yuumi rune page)

For Yuumi, you'll want to run the Sorceror and Precision trees, with Arcane Comet as your primary keystone. Follow Arcane Comet up with Manaflow Band, Absolute Focus, and Scorch, then take Presence of Mind and Cut Down from the Precision trees. As far as the stats, go for both adaptive force runes and round it off with the +5 armor stat. Because of the high safety that comes with Yuumi by being mostly untargetable in combat, you don't really need Flash, so you can take Ignite and either Heal or Exhaust. Your support item of choice should be Spellthief's Edge and your core build will almost always include Athene's Unholy Grail, Redemption, and Ardent Censer.

How to Play, Garen:

Sit back and strap in for what'll probably be a really tough laning phase. Don't worry though, with Perseverance (see what I did there?), you'll make it through. Focus on farming and try your best not to take any extended trades. Let Yuumi be the one to deal most of the damage in the lane and only look to trade once her Prowling Projectile has landed, slowing your enemy down enough to catch up to them with your Decisive Strike (Q). Try your hardest to avoid bringing any unnecessary attention from the jungler to your lane.

During teamfights you should be aggressive. You won't be the engage, so simply wait until you can find a key target and then go all in. You'll also want to stay close to as many people as possible so that Yuumi can get her ult off, though this won't matter as much if the Yuumi is switching targets regularly. Try to make use of your silences and only use Demacian Justice (R) if it'll execute someone. Once your initial target has been dealt with, then proceed with teamfighting as normal, prioritizing the closest targets to you.

How to Play, Yuumi:

For you, laning phase will be a test of just how well you can keep Garen alive. You'll be both his shield and sword as he looks to gather the gold for what will later be you guys' shining moments.

How to Beat:

These guys are a lategame ticking time bomb, similar to Nasus or Veigar. Once they have their core items and are conjoined at the hip, the game becomes drastically harder unless you have the tools to lock down and instantly incapacitate/delete one person. Alternatively, having a damage dealer on your team who excels against tanks (think: Vayne, Kog'Maw, Kai'Sa, Miss Fortune) and carefully protecting them can also prove to be reliable.

(Yuumi doesn't have lots of health lategame so if you can separate her, she's a relatively easy kill!)

You can also try the "divide and conquer" approach. Instead of directly trying to fight the two head on, you can look for picks on Yuumi's other teammates and look to separate her from Garen by playing on her instinct as a support to jump to that low health target and try to save them. This can be especially useful if you have a comp that's really good at locking players down, as once her partner dies, Yuumi is temporarily exposed! Lock her down and kill her, quick!

Lastly, there's always the "win lane, win game" approach where you severely deny the Garen farm and emphasize communicating with your team to make early game plays/ganks/dives onto the Garen before he has a chance to build up. Even if you don't net any kills from ganking, the constant pressure will set the Garen back just a bit and possibly tilt them both, especially if the enemy team isn't positively trying to help them.

Conclusion:

An eccentric combination that has taken the rift by storm, Yuumi and Garen can now be something that you regularly and routinely play with ease after reading this guide. May all who oppose Demacia or favor dogs over cats tremble in your wake, and may you see lots of victory screens while doing one-handed pushups near the Nexus in your near future.