I'm a player on the NA server; I main Cho'gath and off-meta champion positions, such as River Shen himself, jungle Cho'gath, ADC Garen, and other dumb things. I play mostly with the intent of confusing other players with "unique" playstyles and weird items. I don't play ranked, so I cannot say I am a rank 1 challenger or d4, but I duo q with gold and plat players, and can hold my own in these games just fine.

River Shen is not a champion. River Shen in not a Role. River Shen is a way of life. The first documented sighting of a River Shen was published on January 27, 2015, in this youtube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udBa7LCcNGQ

VideoGameStoich claims that he had witnessed multiple River Shen's, and had come into contact with them prior to the release, although there is little footage of the encounters. since then, there have been numerous guides an gameplay footage of River Shen, notably from former Rank 1 jungler, Pants Are Dragon. He has also been played in Worlds 2020 by Spicia.

Some of you are probably asking yourselves, "why is this a jungle guide, if I don't even have smite as one of my summoners???". The answer is easy: River shen doesn't use smite. Smite is a summoner spell used primarily when farming and clearing jungle camps, but River Shen doesn't take camps. River Shen's sole purpose is to gank lanes and to farm scuttle crabs. All experience and gold will come from kills and scuttles. If you play properly, all of your lanes will be snowballing right into the enemy nexus.

River Shen is a very specific path, with very specific needs.

1. Exhaust/Ignite is a must, becuase you will be underleveled due to lower CS, and so you need all of the damage you can get.

2. Always have predator. All other runes are encouraged, but predator is required.

3. Never take jungle or lane CS. Scuttle Crabs will give all the CS you need.

4. After every play you make, good or bad, "River Shen" must be put into /all chat.

5. Do NOT stop ganking lanes, no matter what.

This is the pathing that the River Shen gods have declared.

Step 1: Gank top lane. Hide in the middle bush, and have your top laner kite the enemy out, by any means necessary. They should intentionally get hit, run at turret, or even dance in front of the enemy. Just make sure the enemy is to far from turret to run. Once they have passed the middle bush, run at them and hit them with the E/Exhuast Combo so they cannot run. Chase them down until they die. If this fails on the first try, leave. Don't waste time, and instead go to step 2.

Step 2: Gank Mid Lane. On the way, take top scuttle, and use the predator boots ability to get to mid fast. Gank and kill the enemy.

Step 3: If you got credit for both kills, back and buy. Otherwise, go bot. Take bot scuttle, wait for a good position, and kill everyone.

Step 4: Take Drake

Step 5: Back Again.

Step 6: Keep ganking; prioritize lanes with the least kills, so that they can snowball harder.

Step 7: Watch that sweet, sweet LP roll in.

If there was anything I missed, or that you think should be in this guide, say so in the comments.