Bot lane has a long history of weird metas. From as far back as the Ardent Censer meta that dominated League of Legends back when Ardent Censer gave flat healing on hit, to strange bot lane duos like Yuumi/Garen and double enchanters, bringing balance to the bot lane is a tall order. There’s always been some sort of strategy or unorthodox combo that can counter certain bot metas in the right situation —until now.

The current ADC meta is suffocating, for both players and viewers. The meta Champs aren’t all that toxic or gamebreaking (Zeri is debatable on that point). It’s just really, really bland in every major region.

In the LPL, a league that possesses the largest sample size in terms of games played, it’s brutally clear just how suffocating the bot lane meta is. Zeri gets banned, Jinx and Aphelios get traded. Every game. Well, almost every game. Some players are starting to try new things and switch up the bot lane meta here and there, but we’re seeing the same three to five ADC Champions the vast majority of the time in pro play.

Inven Global sat down with a wide array of LCS players to try and figure out what makes these three Champions so strong, and why we’re not seeing anyone try to find counter picks.

Out of everyone who spoke to Inven Global on this subject, Team Liquid’s head coach André “Guilhoto” Pereira had the most to say. Considering he plays a massive part in putting together Team Liquid’s drafts, his frustration with the crippling lack of diversity in the bot lane makes a lot of sense.

“As far as the bot meta, I think there are ways [to counter the meta], but the risk— It seems like the weight that you put on yourself is much bigger than, for example, if Jinx gets nerfed," Guilhoto explained.  "I think that we see a lot of Jinx/Aphelios, not only in NA but also across all regions with some Caitlyn here and there, some Ezreal and Karma here and there. But, if the meta is to be disrupted here, Jinx being nerfed is probably enough.

With the Lethal Tempo changes, Jinx as a laner is incredibly strong and she scales like a monster. It’s very hard to find a workaround, but I really want to. I feel like all the other players had their chances to show their versatility, and I keep telling Hans, ‘Just pick Jinx, Jinx is open, just pick Jinx’, and he has, what, nine games of Jinx? With only one loss? It feels bad for me to keep telling him, ‘Yeah, I guess we tried to give them Jinx, they didn’t take it. Let’s take it ourselves, I guess we have to.’”

Picking what wins will always be the way to go when it comes to pro play, whether the players like it or not. It’s an unfortunate byproduct of League of Legends’ fluid and constantly changing balance. Although, it seems like the bot lane could use some change. Whether the meta is balanced or not, players are just bored of seeing the same few ADCs every game.

A complete lack of diversity

When asking about players’ opinions on bot lane, I also asked about whether or not these players thought the current bot lane meta was a good fit for their team. And, despite players thinking the meta favors their players, pros still seemed to dislike the state of the meta.

“I would say the current bot lane meta and it’s Champions actually fit us pretty well as a bot lane, as a team," explained Dignitas jungler Kim "River" Dong-woo.  "But, for me, to be honest, I feel like instead of this type of meta, I’d like to have something more aggressive, more engage and fighting, more early game than this late game meta. I’d like to have a [bot lane] that can fight all the time.”

Considering Kim “River” Dong-woo’s tendency to favor aggressive, early-game junglers with high gank potential, his opinion definitely matches his playstyle. That said, even a player like Johnson “Johnsun” Nguyen, whose playstyle fits right into the meta, isn’t overly satisfied with bot lane.

“I’d say for the current ADC meta, I guess it’s kind of boring playing the same Champs every game," Johnsun admitted. "You’re just trading or having different priority when it comes to drafting. I’d say it’s helpful because I can play those Champions right now, but I’d say our success comes more from teamwork right now than Champions being OP in my role.”

FlyQuest’s ability to teamfight combined with Zaqueri “aphromoo” Black’s backline playstyle makes putting JohnSun on a scaling, late-game carry perfect for FlyQuest’s identity as a team. When things are going well in FlyQuest’s bot lane, it’s pretty easy for that lead to have an impact on other lanes.

But it says a lot that, even for teams who are benefiting from the current meta, most players seem ready to move on to something new. Keep in mind that, if viewers are getting tired of seeing the same Champions over and over again, players are likely just as sick of the meta themselves. Between Champions Queue games, scrims, and proper LCS games, they’ve been forced to play the same four to five ADC picks for hours upon hours.

The numbers in the LPL were a bit bleak, and NA’s ADC Champ pool for 2022’s Spring Split is similarly grim so far. Save Jhin’s middling level of popularity in NA, the rest of the world’s ADC priority looks very similar. But, if we compare these numbers to how diverse the ADC Champion pool was in Summer 2021 for the LCS...

Not only did last year’s meta through the Summer Split have much more variety than the current meta, it also had a diverse set of early game oriented, high mobility ADCs that made bot lane extremely dynamic and volatile. That is, until Ziggs came into the meta alongside Jhin and Miss Fortune.

Even then, there was an actual dynamic to lane matchups. Bot lanes seemed to be drafted with a unique goal in mind, one that differed from that of the opposing team’s bot lane. Whereas now it feels like both sides end up drafting with the goal of hitting late game and keeping their hypercarry ADC alive.

With a few exceptions.

All about tempo

Out of all the LCS games so far, there have only been 11 ADC games with picks that weren’t within that rigid top 5 of Jinx, Aphelios, Jhin, Caitlyn, and Zeri. One of those matches truly stands out as a team having major success with a meta-defying pick.

CLG’s Fatih “Luger” Güven and Philippe “Poome” Lavoie-Giguere were a fantastic duo through their 2021 run in Academy. These two were tearing bot lane apart whether they won or lost the game, and their synergy is undeniable. Despite CLG’s rough start, it’s not surprising that two players who have a ton of prior synergy managed to make an off-meta ADC pick look good against a very strong team.

It’s fair to say CLG got off on the right foot here with their near-flawless 4-man dive in bot lane. However, what’s important is how CLG used that lead. Sivir’s strong teamfighting and high pressure from wave clear was used to pressure C9’s Kim “Berserker” Min-cheol out of the game, resulting in CLG netting themselves three easy Drakes early on.

Luger also managed to outrange the Jinx and use his long-range poke to its fullest extent, salvaging a questionable teamfight for CLG. It’s very difficult to outrange Jinx’s rocket autos when she has Lethal Tempo stacked, but Sivir is one of the few Champs that can consistently outrange Jinx thanks to Sivir’s low cooldown, high damage Q. Sivir was clearly a strong situational pick, one that worked out well for CLG.

We sat down with Poome after CLG’s win over C9 and talk about the thought process on their draft in this game, as well as his general thoughts on the bot lane meta in a more extensive fashion.

What do you think about the current bot meta and the fact that people are just trading Aphelios/Jinx/Zeri, and do you think you’ve started on the path to breaking that mold?

No. The meta is still very stale. The only reason we could pick a different carry is because of Karma, which is usually a first pick/ban Champ. As you saw, C9 banned Yuumi prepping for the Karma. So I was kind of amazed they didn’t pick Karma [first pick or second pick] because the Champion is super strong as seen across the world. Other than that, the bot lane is super stale.

Until the top-tier ADCs get nerfed, it’s always going to be the same. Jinx has too much range, and Aphelios is just a super strong Champ that goes well with Thresh and Tahm Kench.”

When you say that Jinx has too much range, I know her Q gives her bonus range, but do you think that we should be targeting Runes for nerfs like Lethal Tempo? Or items?

Well, Jinx is the best Champion that excels with Lethal Tempo by far. She gets even more range with her Q. So, if you nerf Lethal Tempo, you probably nerf the other Champions who can use Lethal Tempo as well, which is probably not a good sign. The other ADCs will be weaker, while Jinx will still be strong. So, probably nerfs targeted to Jinx including her passive, cooldowns, mana use. She is super low mana, you know? So she guarantees prio in the early laning phase.

According to Poome, Jinx’s overwhelmingly high pick rate seems to be due to her range. Range has always been strong in League of Legends. It’s something that some players don’t think about until they realize half their health is gone before they even get to start fights.

Poome’s wonderful insight sheds some light on what we heard earlier as well. Guilhoto’s assertion that there’s a massive amount of risk involved with trying to counter ADCs with so much range and safety. The only way to win is to either pick a similarly strong late-game ADC with comparable range, or to out-tempo the opponent. And in this instance, that's not a reference to Lethal Tempo.

Tempo is the idea that, when you make a play and find a lead, you continue to find leads and create victories small and large for yourself across the map. For example, when CLG pulled off the early gank on C9’s bot lane, the tempo came from getting a Drake, getting Herald, and finding more kills in mid with the help of Poome’s constant rotations.

But playing in a way that requires tempo puts a massive gamble on whether or not you can find that lead in the first place. That’s part of the reason why Poome getting Karma against Cloud9 was so important. Her early game influence helps mitigate a lot of that risk, and he looked excellent on the Champion. That said, when given the opportunity to draft in a way that’s safe and easy to execute, most teams will take the safe option over something risky. And that’s a shame.

 We’ll have to see whether or not nerfing Jinx is enough to shake up the bot lane meta. But, for the sake of the players who are tired of playing the same Champions over and over again, I truly hope we see some balance changes soon that bring some much-needed variety to what has been one of the most stale ADC metas we’ve ever seen.