Pros weigh in: How will Renata Glasc hold up in competitive play?

League of Legends’ long-awaited “dark enchanter” support, Renata Glasc, finally dropped onto live servers along with Patch 12.4 last week. While the Zaunite business tycoon hasn’t had too much time to terrorize the Rift, the community has been hard at work discovering all of her ins and outs.

One funny thing that I noticed about Renata, is that her R smoke is so damn THICC, that if you Q right as the ult finishes casting, you cannot really see the missile going.

Meaning you can kinda "invisible pull" enemies into your ult, and they would not be able to see it. pic.twitter.com/3k4IW8YUQ4

— Evthys (@Shafulyn) February 1, 2022

Given the controversy surrounding Renata’s kit, even before her official release, it makes sense that pro players would have their eyes on her, even if some of them aren’t practicing on the current patch. In an interview with Upcomer, Riot Games game developer Blake “Squad5” Smith shared his thoughts on how League’s newest support might stack up in competitive play.

“I think Renata Glasc should provide a new type of enchanter that pairs well with late game hyper-carries in particular,” Squad5 said. “Most enchanters are a bit more defensively focused, so Renata should be able to create a lot of interesting high moments around her allies pushing for an aggressive kill, or seeing the enemy team kill each other off an amazing ultimate.”

We’ve got the scoop from the devs, but what do the pros themselves think? During Week 3 of the League of Legends Championship Series 2022 spring regular season, we asked the pros for their thoughts on the Chem-Baroness’ strength at the highest level of play.

Is Renata Glasc a permaban or pocket pick?

Currently, Renata Glasc has over a 52% win rate in Diamond 2 and above with a 16% pick rate according to u.gg. Here’s what some LCS pros had to say about Renata’s strength and potential competitive viability.

Choi “Huhi” Jae-hyun (100 Thieves support): When I saw her skill set, it just looked really fun and really strong at the same time. It’s also a support champion, so I’m pretty excited for it. I definitely want to bring it out.

Zaqueri “Aphromoo” Black (FlyQuest support): I feel like the champion is sleeper OP actually. Not a lot of people were playing it when I was playing her in solo queue, but I’m almost going deathless every game and just smurfing all the fights. Her ulti is actually really nice. I was surprised it was Nami ulti range, and then it will extend out, similar to Viper from VALORANT where the smoke extends. So if you’re doing any dragon fight and just throw it down the river, it’ll cover the whole river, which is crazy. And then they’re CC’ed for, you know, max rank it’s 2.5 seconds.

Other than that, I do think it’s similar to Bard where her kit is very weird, so you just have to put in a lot of games on her. Her W is actually very hard to use. I know when I first started playing her, I was so confused. If you put it on someone and they don’t kill anybody they automatically die, and then you can waste it, so you have to put it at the right moment. Similar to Bard ulti, where when people first started playing Bard, you had no idea what the f*** you’re supposed to do with the Zhonya’s ulti, but now it’s a lot easier after the champion’s been out for a while. So I’m gonna put probably 100 games on Renata, see how it goes.

Pro viable? I gotta test the interactions with the melee supports. If that is OK, then yes.

Philippe “poome” Lavoie-Giguere (Counter Logic Gaming support): I played her in Practice Tool, so I still don’t really know what to expect from her. She seems strong; of course, like every new champion, her win rate is really low. I think I’ll be able to play her this week in Champions Queue so my opinion is informed.

Ibrahim “Fudge” Allami (Cloud9 mid laner): I haven’t played against Renata at all. I do think it’s a very interesting concept though, the idea behind her ultimate. I think it’s gonna be interesting to see her in competitive. I wonder if she’ll actually be played a lot. I’m not too sure, actually, based on what I’ve seen from her.