How to ascend for the ultimate reward?

Question

A new game mode just came out on League of Legends : Ascension mode.

The thing is that for a limited time only you can get summoner icons, and I have a really hard time getting the ultimate one for which you need to win when your team got at least one ascension and the enemy team none.

My question is, do you have any tips (champion picks, strategies, playing solo or with premade team) to increase my chances of getting this achievement ?

I'm fully aware of how this game mode works, I'm not looking for explanations about its rules, just ways to increase my chances of getting the ultimate icon.

Answer 1

There is no optimal champion for achieving this since it's heavily teamplay based, however you can look for a champion that fulfills one or more of the following criteria:

Stealing Potential
Securing the Ascension buff through stealing is a good option, however it can be pretty hard to pull off so it's not the most secure way. Champions like Lee Sin, Elise and Cho Gath can steal rather well since they have either High mobility, High damage or both.

Crowd Control
This is the safest way. Control the enemy team and deny the Ascension through crowd control. The only thing you have to keep in mind here that you heavily rely on your teammates to help you since your damage output won't be too high (so no stealing). Champions with Knockbacks are really strong. Good Champions Include: Lee Sin, Xin Zhao, Nautilus, Kennen, Galio. Basically everything that can keep a team busy.

Assassins
You still have to win the game, and for this you will also have to be present around the shrines you have to capture. You could take the role of an assassin to deny shrines to your enemy while your team fights xerath in the middle of the map. Good champions: Talon, Akali, Zed.

Basically it's up to you what you play. It's almost impossible to gain the Icon by yourself ssince it's as I've already mentioned extremely teamplay based. If you have a good team you will get it automatically.

Answer 2

To add onto Jutschge's answer, champs with high mobility will be extremely effective at both harassing and nabbing kills while the enemy team attempts to Ascend. It might be cynical of me to phrase it this way, but it is highly unlikely that a team will never have a chance to go for an Ascension.

If your team is lacking in one of the categories mentioned above by @Jutschge, fill it in. If not, then I would advocate for grabbing a champ who can control the field. Champs with the ability to quickly grab kills and get out reduce the number of opportunities for the enemy team to go for "Super Xerath". The list of these champs include: Nidalee, Elise, and Fiora. Each one is a high-end duelist, and can easily assist in teamfights as well as 1v1 fights, which can occur often with the fast-paced gameplay this mode offers.

The other type of champ that you might want to consider playing is a battlefield controller. On Summoner's Rift, these champs have all the potential when sieging or defending turrets. On Ascension, you can lock down entire areas of the map to assist your team. The champs I am listing, specifically, also have burst damage which is great for stealing Ascensions: Veigar, Ziggs, Twisted Fate. Veigar can instantly lock down enemies for your team to swoop in and kill, and Ziggs is phenomenal at dealing tons of AoE damage to enemies (with the issue of lacking true dueling potential versus assassins). Twisted Fate is half decent in this mode because of two facts: if he groups with his team and gets ahead, you can automatically kill any champ he stuns, and his ultimate will always mean that you can see where the enemies are, which is highly valued with champs like Akali and Shaco being more frequently chosen.