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Freeze showed why you should never ever let him pick Draven

It's his signature champion, and he made Fnatic pay with 13 kills in two games.

By Pete Volk
Riot Games

When Aleš "Freeze" Kněžínek signed with H2K this offseason, returning to the EU LCS after a split with Renegades in North America, a memo might as well have been sent out to the rest of the teams in the league: BAN DRAVEN.

Looks like Fnatic didn't get that message. Friday's EU LCS Match of the Week saw previously undefeated Fnatic square up against H2K in a series between two of Europe's best, but it was Freeze's Draven that stole the show in a 2-0 sweep.

The Draven pick came as a late surprise for H2K in Game 1, and served as an effect counter to Martin "Rekkles" Larsen's Sivir choice early in the draft. H2K took an early lead fter jungler Marcin "Jankos" Jankowski was able to get his lanes ahead with Lee Sin, and H2K was able to force team fights against a Fnatic composition that included champions like Kha'Zix and LeBlanc who are less fit for 5 vs. 5 situations.

Armed with an early lead, Freeze landed a perfect stun + ultimate combination on Fabien "Febiven" Diepstraten's LeBlanc for an impressive kill.

Freeze finished the game 5/0/4 in an 11-1 win, earning Player of the Game honors. And even still, Fnatic did not ban Draven in Game 2, instead electing to ban H2K mid laner Yoo "Ryu" Sang-ook's Viktor and picking Kalista instead of Sivir to deal with the Draven.

That, of course, did not work out either. Fnatic still picked Kha'Zix, once again hampering it's ability to team fight vs. Draven, and when Freeze picked up H2K's first three kills of the game, Fnatic found itself in serious trouble again.

Freeze notched kills No. 4 and 5 by 18 minutes, bringing his Draven to a point where no other single champion could deal with him 1 vs. 1. Now armed with an Azir, Fnatic was better able to deal with a strong Draven in the late game, but H2K was able to secure the Elder Dragon and pick up the 18-10 win, with a final line of 8/1/3 for Freeze.

The performance caught the attention of another famous Draven player: paIN Gaming AD Carry Felipe "brTT" Gonçalves, who has Draven's axes tattooed on his arms.

Freeze now has a career record of 13-6 on Draven in competitive play, by far his highest win rate (next-best is 5-4 on Sivir). It's the champion he's played third most in his career, following Caitlyn (16-14) and Lucian (13-12).

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