Hard support Faceless Void is taking over the Chinese meta

The latest weird support pick of patch 7.29d is one of the hardest carries in the game.

Royal Never Give Up defeated reigning DPC major champion PSG.LGD 2-0 with a support Faceless Void in the i-League 2021 playoffs. The final pick of game one'sdraft was a completely unexpected Faceless Void, which Ru "RedPanda" Zhihao played masterfully.

Support Faceless Void looked predictably foolish in the early laning stage of game one. A prolonged chase from PSG.LGD’s off-lane gave up first blood, which was followed by a second death minutes later. RedPanda spent most of the early and mid game stacking jungle camps and securing ganks with Chronosphere. They eventually won the first game in no small part thanks to Su "Flyby" Lei’s Broodmother.

Despite the mediocre performance, RNG drafted Faceless Void support again for game two. The threat of Chronosphere played a huge role in an extended team fight near the Roshan pit and helped with taking the high ground. Zhong "GodKingFeeder" Liushuai sealed the game on his signature carry Nature’s Prophet with 799 GPM, 11 kills, and three deaths.

Royal Never Give Up's stylish victory over PSG.LGD came during the playoffs of the $185,000 i-League, a Chinese online Dota 2 tournament that started in early April. RedPanda recently transferred to Royal Never Give Up after playing with Elephant since the superteam’s formation. The trio of RedPanda, GodKingFeeder, and Chong “FelixCiaoBa” Wei Lun rose to prominence together on Sparking Arrow Gaming before splitting up to play with different teams. Although RNG did not qualify for TI10, the team is still a threat in the Chinese scene.

How to play hard support Faceless Void

This build is so new and so weird that there are only two pro matches to analyze. RedPanda’s Faceless Void build revolves entirely around his second spell Time Dilation. The ability freezes enemy cooldowns and deals a ton of damage over time based on the number of spells frozen. Against heroes with four active spells, Time Dilation can deal up to 616 magical damage and slow for 40%.

As for the item build, RedPanda stuck with brown boots into Orb Of Corrosion, returning for Power Treads, and then picking up Aeon Disk. A casual Magic Wand is also a good option. This build wants to put as many skills as possible on cooldown, which also means being in the center of a team fight.  He notably skipped Aghanim’s Shard, though the item could serve as a late-game option.

This build’s biggest weakness is the laning phase. Faceless Void doesn’t pair particularly well with any carries, but he can trade pretty effectively against most enemy supports. He can still fulfill the necessary duties of stacking camps and pulling between casting Time Dilation on the enemy laners.