Udyr, Morgana, And Rumble Plus The Meta - LCS Junglers Weigh In

Metas come and go in League of Legends. Metas define what players play in any sense of the game: be it normal or ranked queue and even to an extent the more “for fun” modes such as URF. In the end, all of these games obey the one rule, the one law — the meta. Metas help determine what best champions or what best items to pick in the Summoner’s Rift. This is even more present at the top of the competitive food chain, pro play. 

As is the norm for every competitive season, a handful of champions dominate the Rift, some more than others, but the rule still applies. For this year, one role, in particular, was taken by storm by a triumvirate of champions. A triumvirate that had one champion in sole possession of power who was later joined by another and ultimately settling with a third joining at this year’s Mid-Season Invitational (MSI).

This triumvirate consisted of Udyr, Rumble, and Morgana, each one joining the trio within a couple of months of each other. It first began with Udyr wreaking havoc with his trusty Turbo Chemtank and bare hands. He was later joined by Rumble and Morgana come MSI. They all had their strengths and weaknesses, and although Morgana has fallen out of the meta, Udyr and Rumble still remain in power — Udyr has been played all year long. 

MSI saw this trio dominate every single game, but since then, things have changed. The tournament was played on patch 11.9, undoubtedly the best patch for the three. Since then, each champion has been nerfed aplenty, with Morgana receiving the tougher end of the bargain. This has allowed new champions to present themselves in the jungle, something that League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) pros can agree with.  

“I think Morgana is pretty much no longer a good jungler; no one has really played it. I’d say Rumble is the best in the jungle right now, and Udyr is dropping in prio. I think there’s a lot of other picks coming up; teams are playing at a different pace. I think right now the jungle meta is pretty diverse, and we’ll see a lot more picks,” said Team SoloMid jungler, Mingyi “Spica” Lu.

Not as similar in his opinion to Spica’s, 100 Thieves jungler, Can “Closer” Celik, agreed with Morgana falling out of place but added his own twist of enjoying the two champions of the trio that are still in play. 

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“I think Morgana is not as strong as the other two right now, and it’s not getting played much, but I like it; I like the change. I think it’s kind of hard to adapt to junglers like Rumble when it’s [been] a top lane champion for such a long time. But other than that, once you adapt, they are pretty fun champions, so I don’t have a problem with them,” Closer said.

Both Spica and Closer agreed with the sentiment that Morgana is no longer as viable as she once was, and in a way, welcomed the dismantling of the triumvirate. This also seems to be the consensus amongst the rest of their peers in the same role. Some, in particular, are more fond of it than others. Take, for instance, Dignitas’ jungler, Joshua “Dardoch” Hartnett. Out of all of the junglers in the LCS, Dardoch has been at the forefront of diversity in the jungle this year thus far. He played ten different champions in ten games to start the season, an unheard-of stat. And when asked about the trio being knocked down a peg and diversity being welcomed, he was with it. 

“I’m a huge fan of there being more champions in the pool for jungle. Especially when I started out in 2016, the jungle’s come a far way from then. I think back when we were kind of flipping [between] Gragas, Rek’Sai; we’ve come a very long way from that point. I’m happy with where the jungle meta currently stands, and I hope they keep adding more viable champions,” Dardoch said. 

This was also seconded by Team Liquid’s jungler, Lucas “Santorin” Larsen. Alongside Dardoch, both of these players are some of the more experienced players in the league, especially in their role.

“I’m really happy that it’s straying away from champs like Morgana. I feel like it was really unhealthy for the game state because Morgana — first of all, the champion is too binary, it’s super easy to play. I’m happy now that champions like Viego and Lee Sin are coming back because those champions — it’s a lot easier to see if someone is playing them well or not. I’m really happy it’s becoming more mechanical again,” Santorin said. 

Although not as experienced, Cloud9’s jungler and reigning LCS MVP, Robert “Blaber” Huang, also views it the same way. Blaber is not near the same experience level as his peers, Dardoch and Santorin, but one thing he does have going for him was that he was the only jungler to go to MSI this year as, alongside his team, were able to represent the North American region. 

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In his eyes, the meta was straightforward back at MSI, Udyr, Rumble, and Morgana — that’s the rule. Without following that rule, winning the game was immensely difficult. “I definitely like the way that the jungle meta is evolving. I think it’s not just like so straightforward that if you don’t have Udyr, Morgana [or] Rumble, you can’t really win the game.”

Images via Tina Jo/Riot Games via ESPAT