Since its launch in 2009, League of Legends has had many metas, some of which still haunt players today. An interesting yet frustrating one was the Funnel
meta, primarily initiated by 2 champions.
What kind of meta was that? A Funnel
strategy had existed before 2018 and is not uncommon in MOBAs. One player sacrifices their farm or jungle monsters so that another player can take them and gain a (gold) advantage.
However, in 2018 during Season 8 of LoL, this strategy was taken to the extreme. Master Yi and Taric became a significant threat, not only in solo queue but also in the professional scene.
An efficient strategy that changed the game
How did the meta originate? In a YouTube video, content creator Myth explains how it all started. On the old 3v3 map Twisted Treeline, such a strategy was completely normal. According to Myth, in 2017, Chinese boosters, people who level up accounts for money and rank them, began to play supporters in the mid lane to assist the jungler.
The most well-known combination was Taric and Yi. Taric would try to defend the mid lane while preparing the minions for Yi. He would then pick up not only jungle monsters but also minions on the lanes, thereby gaining an extreme gold and experience advantage. Kayle was also a good partner for Yi.
Yi and Taric then roamed together throughout the match. Back then, the experience gained from monsters was nerfed. However, the experience gained from the crab was heavily buffed. Since Yi and Taric established dominance on the lanes early on, the opposing jungler could do nothing to defend the crab.
Another advantage of this combination was that ADCs were weak at the time, meaning other champions had to take on the DPS role. Early-game junglers were also weak, which benefited Yi.
At that time, there was also Challenging Smite, which made Yi even more powerful in fights against single opponents. According to an old post by Phreak, a caster and employee at Riot Games, Taric and Yi had the highest duo win rate ever recorded (via YouTube).
Master Yi could then quickly take down not just single opponents but entire teams with support from champions like Taric. Simply because he accumulated gold and items so quickly. In solo queue, the opposing team had few counter options.
Taric and Yi were just the beginning
Taric and Yi made their way into the professional scene. In the first match of the LCK Summer Split 2018, the team bbq faced MVP. There, 2 funnel combos clashed, Nunu and Karthus against Yi and Taric. There was no real mid lane because both duos farmed in the jungle and on the lanes.
Master Yi dominated the game. In the professional scene, it wasn’t as powerful as in solo queue according to Myth, because teams could counter together, yet it was still frustrating. Even legends like Faker played Taric in the LCK, which displeased the fans.
Two weeks after this match, Master Yi, Taric, and Nunu, who became similarly overpowering with Karthus, were nerfed. But that was not the end of the funnel meta. Even outside of these champions, it was just an efficient strategy.
This led to professional teams having no real jungler but instead having 3 Smite users. Instead of duos, sometimes multiple champions helped a carry to gain gold and experience everywhere.
The state of the meta was criticized by viewers, players, and Riot, which is why the developers implemented nerfs to completely remove
it from the game.
What was nerfed? The jungle item at that time got an addition with patch 8.14. If you had the most gold in the team with the item, you received 10 less gold from a minion kill. This nerf not only weakened the meta but also junglers in general. You were punished for playing well.
In the course of further patches, Riot changed other mechanics of the item and the game. With patch 8.23, the addition was even removed because they introduced plating gold on towers and changed the bounty system. Funneling simply was no longer efficient. However, a specific player absurdly exploited the new
mechanics: LoL: A player invented a strategy where you have to die constantly, now one of the best in Europe
