During their second to last game of the 2023 LEC Spring Split regular season, Mad Lions’ support was “forced” to play Pyke, to the detriment of its opponents. After the match against SK Gaming, Zdravets “Hylissang” Iliev Galabov joined the LEC analyst desk to discuss his stellar Pyke performance that helped Mad Lions secure a win against their opponents.
According to the veteran support the Bloodharbor Ripper “ruins every draft” and it’s not “a good pick” for the majority of the games. Despite saying so, Hylisang’s Pyke is known to the League of Legends community—and for good reasons.
Today’s match was the 33rd for the support on the champion, and with 22 wins on Pyke, Hylissang’s win rate on the champion goes beyond the 70 percent mark. In an interview with Dot Esports, Hylissang shared the crucial factors a Pyke player should bear in mind if they do not want to become “completely useless” during a match.
“First of all,” started Hylissang, “you need to play around jungle, and also the jungler has to play around you.” By creating a synergy with their jungler, Pyke players “can’t miss much,” especially if this synergy translates on the Rift with the duo roaming around the Rift.
In order to “not get scaled, not get bullied,” and “start losing fights,” the team should play around the Pyke and the bot lane in general. But also, according to Hylissang, the Pyke player should create the right opportunity for the bot lane to fight and win in the laning phase, as he did in the game against SK today.
But most of all, the Pyke players should be aware of their direct opponent: “I think also if [your opponents] have a ranged support that is not very mobile and does not have great defensive tools, like Lulu, you can go all in, but you have to know what you’re doing. Otherwise, you will lose.”
Hylissang and Mad Lions have yet to lock their spot in the Group Stage of the 2023 LEC Spring Split, and considering the positive performance of the support on Pyke, LEC fans might see the champion again in their match tomorrow.
