The Security of Marksman Champions in Professional Play

In League of Legends there has been a certain composition-based Meta that each team must consist of an attack-damage carry and a support in the bottom lane (or top depending on the tactic deployed by the team to gain early map control) which has been around since the early days of both normal and professional play.

This composition Meta was established and followed early into the professional scene, with carries being used in the Season One finals between Against All Authority and Fnatic (Corki and Ashe respectively). The overall Meta seemed to be based on being ahead in gold compared to the enemy team, with both supports and top laners investing in gold per ten items, sometimes even stacking Hearts of Gold and Philosopher’s Stones. This however had no effect surrounding team compositions as each side played the same type of team we see today in Season 3.

But more recently the spotlight has been thrust upon whether the role of an Attack Damage Carry is dispensable or if they provide enough sustained damage throughout team fights to be important. In professional play there have been a few rare occurrences where teams have opted for different champions to complete their style of play or tactic.

TSM’s Xin Zhao pick – A creative gamble designed for early game presence and turret-taking which backfired when Vulcun were able to appropriately counter TSM’s lack of range with Zuna’s Caitlyn. The removal of what could have been an effective ranged lane was replaced with a high-risk, high-reward Xin Zhao pick which could have worked if Vulcun were not prepared.

HosaN’s AP Nidalee - In the European spring split HosaN showed his skill as a world-class Draven player which was awarded with various bans throughout Dragonborns’ campaign. However one game HosaN showed his versatility and mechanics by playing an AP Nidalee in the bottom lane. This time the gamble paid off and Dragonborns moved on to win the game, with their pushing potential and skirmishing too much for Evil Geniuses. HosaN went on to win MVP for his performance in the Spring Split super week.

Azubu Frost/KT Rolster A’s Popular Annie & Brand – This tactic removed both the role of an attack damage carry and a support by playing a double AP lane. Their early game could be considered weak compared to the laning phase of an ADC and Support, yet they provide a lot of utility for their team in the late game with two stuns and high nuking potential. The tactic gained some traction in normal play as well, perhaps the most known attempt at not using an Attack Damage carry.

All three of these attempts show that some professional teams or perhaps, players - consider champions that are known for their high damage potential to be dispensable for another source of high damage. The use of HosaN’s Nidalee replaced a steady damage output for a high chunking potential with max-ranged spears, and the Annie and Brand bot lane combines high utility and nuking potential to negate any damage from the opposing laners. However in TSM’s case they did not consider the lack of damage and range in their side, which could perhaps have been a reason for the Zilean pick from Reginald to enable Wildturtle to latch himself on to Vulcun players.

When speaking to Raymond 'Yerrow' Tsang of Team Dignitas UK, he expressed how important the role of a Marksman is in team compositions -

"Attack Damage Carries are incredibly vital for late game. They provide the extra pushing and sieging power since they have the damage and range for it, which makes up for the other 4 roles in the team. At any given point in the game, the carry is sort of like the last resort you try and protect in order for him to deal the most damage overall in a teamfight since he will scale the most out of all the other roles."

Overall it seems that some professional players believe Attack Damage Carries to be dispensable in compositions as long as their damage can be replaced, or the composition is for something such as early game aggression and turret taking (Wildturtle’s Xin Zhao). Yet, the Marksman champion pool is still strong in every aspect of play due to the sustained amount of damage throughout the game and their high range. Perhaps in Season 4 League of Legends eSports will see a more substantial change in the ever-fluctuating Meta.