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The Mind Of A Draven Player
Draven is the most difficult AD carry in League of Legends. Who would risk playing him?
Draven players are a special breed. To pick up League of Legends’ most notorious AD carry, you’ve got to have that confidence, that swagger. You’ve got to not just think you’re going to win - you’ve got to know you’re going to win. Anything less and you’ll fall.
That could be why so few players pick up The Glorious Executioner. He’s an incredibly risky pick, one easily punished. But for those brave enough to pull him out, he can be downright deadly. And in North America, there are three players known for their Draven: Cloud9’s Sneaky, Renegade’s Freeze, and (once upon a time) Counter Logic Gaming’s Aphromoo.
Aphromoo is a former Draven main
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How To Learn Draven
“You have to be pretty cocky to play Draven,” says Aphromoo. The CLG support may now be known for his flashy engages and super accurate Dark Bindings, but once upon a time, he was an AD carry main, particularly known for his Draven. In his past life as one of League’s most popular streamers, he garnered quite a reputation as a Draven player.
Once Aphromoo realized the potential of Draven - thanks to, as he says, his younger brother playing him - he knew he had to master him. “I started picking him up, learning the intricacies of playing Draven,” he says. It was just magic. Everyone was dying left and right, and there was nothing they could do to stop me… I would just run over people 1v2. The support didn’t have to do anything.”
While Aphromoo was rising through the ranks of Draven players, a young AD carry named Freeze was watching him. “That’s the funny part,” says the hyped Renegades AD. “I started playing him about 3 years back, when Aphromoo was a famous streamer. He was an AD carry then, and I was a fan. I was unranked, trying to learn from the streams of AD carries. He used to stream a lot, so I watched him. He was the guy I looked up to as an AD carry, and he’s why I started playing Draven.”
Now, Freeze has arguably the most feared Draven in the West. That is, if one ranks him above Sneaky, the only other North American ADC with a Draven pick in his pocket. Freeze respects Sneaky, but (in classic Draven player fashion) is confident that he can beat his. “I haven’t played much against [Sneaky], but if I did play against him and he did play Draven, it would be the most exciting moment in my life. It’s always so exciting to play against someone else’s Draven and just proving that you’re better than them.”
Sneaky’s Draven origins come from a desire to do something no one else was doing. “At the time, no one was trying him, no one was playing him. He was insanely strong. It felt weird playing him, because when you’re first trying out the axe mechanic,” he says. “It took me like 50 games to get comfortable on Draven. Straight. No other champions in the game [take that long].”
Aphro had a similar experience. “It took 30 games to get competent,” he says. “But to master him, it would take over 100. And I had over 100. [laughs].”
With such a high learning curve, the payoff better be worth it.
Sneaky has long been the best pro Draven in NA
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League of Draven
When a good Draven hits the Rift, everyone knows it. For Freeze, that notoriety is a key reason that he keeps the champion in his back pocket, ready to lock and load whenever he needs it. “What I managed to do in EU helped me a lot,” he says. “People were scared of me. That helps you so much. If AD carries are scared of playing against you, you can abuse that factor, play even more aggressive, and they’ll let you do whatever you want.”
That level of aggression is only fitting for one of the most arrogant characters in League of Legends. According to Sneaky, playing Draven can transform a player. “That’s kind of the thing with the champion. All of his quotes are just about Draven being Draven. ‘Everyone look at me. I have all these stacks, and I’m going to kill you,’” he laughs. “It’s part of the champion, and that goes into the player. I’m not normally super cocky or arrogant. I’m pretty humble. I usually take things as they come. It’s a bit weird for me mentally, but when I’m playing him, I turn into Draven, basically.”
It doesn’t hurt that when Draven gets ahead, he stays ahead. Give him one kill to get the extra gold on his Adoration stacks, and good luck on bringing him down. Says Sneaky, “If they don’t kill you and Draven gets a kill, the game’s over.”
With that lead, you turn into a different player. “It’s like Faker. If you’re playing against Faker, it’s like, ‘You can do whatever, just don’t kill me,’” Freeze says. “For me, it’s very important because I’m trying to put that fear into every player I play against. I want them to be scared of me so I can abuse that. Probably 20% of my playstyle is putting fear into my enemy AD carry and abusing them. I want to be more effective in the game and do more than they do.”
Even for someone who knows the champion incredibly well, he can be a tilting influence. “I think Dravens can be unexpected, unless you know they already played it,” says Sneaky. “Even though they play it a lot, I don’t think I’d ever really expect it. And when I do see it, I’m pretty spooked.”
That fear is earned. With enough of a lead, big items, and the right runes (Aphro swears by armor penetration runes), Draven can effectively one-shot an opposing squishy who has wandered just a bit too close to his spinning axes. He’s an immense teamfight power when left unchecked, capable of winning teamfights with fewer auto attacks than just about anyone else in the game.
Freeze's Draven comes to North America
© Lolesports
Taking The Draven Gamble
So, if he’s so powerful, why doesn’t everyone play him? For one, he’s very difficult to learn and play. Explains Aphromoo, “It requires intense focus, more than any other champion, to play it right. You have to be incredibly careful, because you’re not an escape AD carry, to not get picked off, as well as doing your axe drop movements to do as much damage as you can in teamfights.”
Sure, a skilled Draven will be able to maximise the damage in a solo queue setting, but even for an experienced player, it’s very risky to pull him out in a competitive setting. “If you get killed when you have a lot of stacks, you feel bad and can’t really do anything,” says Sneaky. “Most players might not like taking that risk. They might like more safe picks like Lucian or MF.”
Aphro finishes, “It’s too risky. You can lose a game for your team just by making one mistake at any time.”
Draven games can go one of two ways. Either he crushes everyone, or goes down like a side character in Gladiator. One thing’s for sure, though: It’ll be entertaining.
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