This article is brought to you by LoLwiz — The No. 1 in-game stats app.
Splyce’s jungler Andrei “Xerxe” Dragomir brought out one of his most famous champions in today’s EU LCS third-place matchup against Team Vitality to secure the series victory.
Xerxe usually played Trundle, Zac, Sejuani, and Olaf in the Spring Split, and he saw varied success with each of them. So the Ivern pick in game five seemingly came out of nowhere during Splyce’s push for victory.
This wasn’t the first time that Xerxe played Ivern this split, however—Splyce used Ivern in two crucial victories against G2 Esports and Unicorns of Love in the regular season.
Fans weren’t too surprised to see Ivern, though, as Xerxe has been known for his unorthodox approach to jungling since his rookie season in the EU LCS last year. While on Unicorns of Love, Xerxe famously played Rumble in the first week of the 2017 EU LCS Spring Split—and he’s continued to offer surprising jungle picks over the past two years, making him one of the league’s most versatile junglers.
Ivern is by no means the strongest jungler available in the current meta, but the champ was vital in Splyce’s win during the final game of the series. In the opening minutes, Xerxe’s great skill shot rooted the enemy Thresh to give ADC Kasper “Kobbe” Kobberup the first kill of the game.
Xerxe then continued to use Ivern’s kit to lock enemy champions in place and secure important objectives across the map. Xerxe used Ivern’s Brushmaker ability to leave death bushes in multiple lanes to keep Vitality at bay. It came down to mind games in the end, and Xerxe clearly felt confident in playing Ivern when his team needed a win.
