Did EXP Change?

So I had a game where I was Kha VS Nidalee,

I was stuck on loading for like 6 minutes. I finally loaded in like 10 seconds before surrender, and was able to somewhat recover. So usually in these cases, I'm gold behind but not EXP.

But in this case, I wasn't quite able to catch up in EXP until I got a huge amount of kills over the Nidalee. I pretty much had to curb stomp her just to get equal in levels . . . so did EXP change? In an even match I wouldn't quite be able believe that a recovery is possible.