LoL pros are experimenting with one support champion in unconventional roles

While the major regions are ending their respective 2023 League of Legends Spring Splits, pros are preparing for the upcoming playoffs which will determine the representatives for this year’s Mid-Season Invitational. The LCS and LCK have already locked in the playoffs teams, while the LEC and the LPL will be deciding the brackets this week. 

With teams playing this final phase in Patch 13.5, there are high chances we get to see some spicy picks and less-popular champions or builds popping up. Pro players have been doing some heavy testing in solo queue lately, especially in the eastern regions, with LPL players trying out Nautilus in the jungle and other roles.

The first one to bring out Nautilus jungle was EDward Gaming’s jungler Jiejie who started spamming it after trying out the newly-buffed Pantheon. Other LPL junglers followed suit, with LNG Tarzan and Team WE’s Heng also playing it.

Why is Nautilus being played across different roles?

Nautilus has made a strong comeback to professional play and solo queue after receiving some buffs in Patch 13.3, alongside other engage supports. Riot Games was hoping to lower the power of ranged supports, and bring back champions like Nautilus who went off the radar.

The main reason why Nautilus is being tested out is to see how he performs in different roles. If the pick ends up working, then professional teams would get their hands on an incredible flex pick. This, in turn, would always give the team drafting Nautilus a big advantage in champion select. The more roles he can be flexed in, the better.

Aside from his main role, support, Nautilus can also technically be played in the mid lane, as well as jungle and potentially the top lane too. The Bilgewater Titan used to be Doinb’s signature mid lane pick played. The former FPX player destroyed G2 Esports in game one of the finals, forcing the enemies to ban it in the following game.

According to League analyst Molecule, Nautilus finds himself in a similar situation to 2019. “I think Naut is really strong right now and a legit flex pick between four roles. In order of power, it would be support, then mid, then jungle/top,” he said on Twitter. “I think playing it in the mid lane works in a similar fashion to how Ksante neutralizes the lane by simply one-shotting the wave and then playing around the jungler for two-vs-two.” He also mentioned that Lee and Nautilus are a playable jungle-mid duo.

For jungle Nautilus, instead, it’s all about spam ganking lanes. His clear is much slower compared to other meta junglers, and according to Molecule, the best way to play him is to clear red-side camps and then look for ganks or force any fight in the early game. Thanks to Nautilus’ crowd control, he can set up great skirmishes for his own team.

Nautilus’ jungle build by LPL pros

While no one has tried Nautilus in the mid lane, there are a couple of different builds when played in the jungle.

Jiejie went for the full utility build, which is similar to the one you would get when playing him as a support. He picked up Evenshroud as the Mythic item, and then Knight’s Vow to tank a part of the damage taken from allies.

The other tanky build, instead, involves Jak’Sho, the Protean and Sunfire Aegis. It makes Nautilus harder to kill while also increasing his overall damage output thanks to the Flametouch effect (which deals damage every second to nearby allies).

That being said, LPL players have also tested out the full AP Nautilus build, with reasonable success. The build includes Night Harvester as the burst-damage Mythic item, followed by Shadowflame, and Zhonya’s Hourglass. This trio of items offers a good amount of damage while also giving Nautilus to use the Zhonya’s active effect to protect himself or bait the enemies.

In case you’re looking to test out jungle Nautilus yourself, it’s important to know the early jungle clears. If you’re starting from the red buff, unlock Titan’s Wrath (W) at level one, otherwise, take Riptide (E) for a solo raptor start. The maxing order is E first, followed by W, and Dredge Line (Q) last.

With squads getting ready for the most important phase of the first half of the season, Nautilus will definitely be an exciting pick to look out for. The first region to kick off its Spring playoffs is LCK, which starts on March 22 between KT Rolster and Liiv SANDBOX,