League of Legends’ latest champion is a tanky river monster named Tahm Kench, The River King. Despite his elegant catfish-mustache and battered top-hat, the River King is not the most genteel of heroes. In fact, one could aptly describe him as a bottom feeder, though hopefully that won’t be the case in-game as well.
So a lot of what Tahm Kench is all about is eating things. Friends, enemies, you name it, he’ll eat it. He’s got a frog-like whip-tongue that can slow and stun enemies as his Q power,, and a big mouth that allows Tahm Kench to swallow a champion, friend or foe, as his W power.
If it’s a friend, he gives that ally a brief immunity to damage. He also acts as a kind of armored transport during this time, and can race up to enemy champions and spit out his teammate right in their face.
The possibilities for this are intriguing.
If he swallows an enemy champion, they’re stuck inside his belly. He can slowly move around while they’re inside, while they are effectively blinded. It’ll be interesting to see how this is used for initiation.
Finally, his active “R” power, Abyssal Voyage, lets a friend climb inside him while he summons a whirlpool that lets the two of them basically teleport across the map.
Man, Riot say this guy can be a solo laner, but everything he does screams “support bottom” to me. Imagine bringing your ADC into the middle of an enemy’s attempted pick with Abyssal Voyage. How would you not want that option all the time?
Riot go into more detail on his abilities at the reveal page, as well as make a case for his utility in different roles. Personally, I just really want to see YellOwStaR and Rekkles get their hands on this guy in EU LCS.