League of Legends is undoubtedly one of, if not the most competitive video game in history. With an esports scene raking record high view counts and even higher stakes each year, coupled with a cutthroat ranked ladder, the game sure is no home for the weak. And so, the overly fierce nature of League has been pushing players to optimize their playstyle for victory and overvalue them over other strategies, boiling down to what we call the META; Most Efficient Tactics Available.
But over the last few years, meta-defying picks came to show that creativity still triumphs over fine-tuned strategies and S-tier champions. For that reason, we’ll explore arguably the most notorious of their playstyles.
In the early years of the game, in such a fresh and undiscovered landscape, experimentation was the norm and so players sought to try whatever they saw fit in the fog of curiosity with no constraints of top-tier picks, OP items, or fixed team comps. Even the role of a jungler was unheard of at the inception of the game, and the bot lane didn’t consist of a marksman and a support from the start, but these strategies became conventional as their superiority was statistically demonstrated, and you’ll most likely be reported for trolling if you stray from them today.
Nowadays, the meta favors champions frozen superior into grating their team advantage, either by shear stats, broken items, or over-tuned abilities, with the constant patches keeping it relatively fresh and dynamic and the playstyles conforming to the classic win-con of overpowering the enemy team through objective control and shear force in team fights. But this is where the “inting Sion” strategy flips things a bit.
If you’re not familiar with the term “inting”, it means intentionally feeding the enemy team kills, a bad, very bad thing to happen on your team. But what if this IS the objective and the win condition itself? Tell that to our cute undead juggernaut whose sole goal is to munch every structure in the way with no regard to his deaths or even his team, basically seeing the toplane as his single-player map.
In essence, the game plan for an inting sion is simple; farm minions, push turrets, destroy the nexus… that’s pretty much it. Although to be frank executing it is not as simple as shoving your face into enemy structures, since this strategy plays around many game mechanics that you have to take into account at once.
First of all, you have to be mindful of your wave management, you can’t completely disregard XP gain for how crucial it is in keeping up with your enemy laner in terms of leveling. In terms of KDA however don’t expect to exceed 1 on average, because if you do you’re most likely doing something wrong; this strategy uses your death as a resource to pressure towers and contest farms, and sion being sion gives him extra time after his death to apply even more pressure from the grave! In addition to that, constant deaths give you control over the game’s bounty system.
As we see, each kill increases how much gold an enemy would gain if they’d kill you, and in parallel, each death reduces how much gold you give out on future deaths, which means your big brain feeding guarantees that you don’t give out that much gold in you 0/7 death streak and on the other hand, it inflates your enemy laner’s bounty drawing your team’s attention to him and forcing him to play safer.
I know you’ll be saying “But he will outscale me and stomp me in lane with that much gold”, but here’s the neat part kiddo, you are a turret decomposing machine. And what comes with turrets? Gold, lots of it. Using Sion’s passive, his tankiness, demolish, hullbreaker, and the AoE structure damage from his ult (even though it got heavily nerfed recently) makes you pretty much unstoppable in terms of chipping up buildings. So by claiming all turret platings, taking down the first turret and the tier two tower, you’re looking at 1675 gold valuing more than five and a half kills! Other than split pushing, this play applies constant pressure onto the enemy team with you sticking to the toplane like a piece of gum using your teleport and ultimate as tools to get back to lane as quickly as possible, forcing them to give up manpower in team fights by always sending at least one member to keep you at bay if they don’t want you knocking at their nexus in 40 seconds. Don’t worry, sion won’t be much of a help in team fights regardless, you’d be helping your team more by always forcing 4v4 or 4v3 team fights.
The thing that makes this strategy inefficient however is how risky it is, since you’re pretty much reliant on the enemy misplaying or failing to manage the wave. I mean, you’re quite literally giving your opponent free gold hoping that he doesn’t use it to stop you, so if you come across an experienced foe prepare to ff at 15 because you surely won’t stand a chance. That is if you’re not like our friend here, Thebausffs
Behind every masterpiece is an artist, and the mastermind behind this ingenious strategy is no other than the Solo Bolo maestro himself; Thebausffs. Not being your typical high Elo League of Legends streamer (you certainly don't see 15+ death games on their stream), he rose to fame by the power of his charming personality and his forsaken Sion. First crafting the strategy in mid 2020, he has proven that with calculated deaths and using mathematically correct feeding, you could get into challenger tier in both EUW and Korea. Using different iterations of the build, with lethality, bruiser, and tank variations, he managed to always stay ahead of the meta, completely disregarding counter-picks and teamplay (which got his account banned due to constant inting reports).
And although he’s globally hated in the ranks of other high Elo players for how unfun it is to play with or against, he still maintains a positive reputation among the community for his buoyant personality and entertaining gameplay.
In the competitive realm of League of Legends, the concept of the META has long dictated strategy. Yet, the inting Sion defies convention, championed by players like Thebausffs. This bold approach embraces destruction over preservation, challenging the status quo with calculated chaos. By strategically sacrificing deaths, Sion becomes a relentless force, demolishing towers and dictating enemy movements. While risky, this playstyle embodies the community's spirit of innovation, reminding us that victory can lie beyond the confines of convention. In the ever-evolving landscape of League, the inting Sion serves as a beacon of creativity, inspiring players to forge new paths to success.
If you’re inspired to try out the inting Sion strategy or experiment with unconventional tactics, starting fresh with a level 30+ unranked LoL account can give you the perfect opportunity to climb the ranks on your own terms.
