Theory-Balance: The Case For Midlane Fighters

One implicit balance lever of League is how classes counter each other, keeping any one of them from predominating. For example, if Tanks became popular in the jungle, then Fighters would become good Jungle counterpicks because they are class counters.

Midlane has usually only had two viable classes, Mages and Assassins, the latter countering the former. Were Fighters also viable there, they would counter Assassins but themselves be countered by Mages, forming a perfect balance triangle. Since the option to counterpick would always be available to the second mid laner in both draft and competitive, the trade-off between picking for lane, meta, and team comp would become more interesting. Blind pick Mid champions of any class would also become rarer, and all Mid champions would have room to be stronger in competitive play because whole classes of counterpicks would exist there.

Obviously the last two Mid fighters, Irelia and Aatrox, didn’t work, but perhaps different ones could.