Please Read: New Team Format vs Current Meta

Okay everyone, I am interested in forming a team for ranked soon. That said, I wanted to get YOUR opinions on how effective this new team format would be vs the current meta. I've experimented with this lineup with friends to much success (in normals);

2 junglers, one top one bottom 1 top, 1 mid, 1 bottom

The potential of this lineup you ask? Well, this is just one example, but lets say you send Yorick bottom to solo vs 2 bot laners, have a Sion top, a Twisted Fate mid, a Nunu and a Lee Sin jungle. Lets say Sion also takes smite because she wants to build Cinderhulk. On this team, you have 3 smites, 4 including Nunu's Consume. Over a span of 15 seconds, that is potentially EIGHT SMITES. EIGHT. Total buff control, anyone? Early dragon, anyone? This team also has a lot of pushing potential and is strong early game This is clearly only 1 example, there are MANY other possibilities, and I will explain how it would all work and how the xp would be distributed later.

Please read below as to how it would work.

The Meta: Feel free to skip ahead to the next section on why I like my proposed team comp compared to the current meta. I do not like the current meta. You ever wonder why some matches seem to last forever? Blame the meta. In the current-meta, much emphasis is placed upon winning team-fights late game. Many champions that are built towards winning early do not fit in the current meta. There are 3 HUGE problems with the current meta: Mid Laners, Supports, and Blue vs Purple side.

---

So, whats the problem with mid lane?:

People who pick AD Assassins such as Zed or Talon. First off, they are not meta. They are anti-meta roles, and are meant to counter-pick the enemy APC. They are played because they counter most APCs in the game and snowball very quickly, often resulting in either very quick games where these champions snowball out of control or games in which they fall off late game and are far less effective in team fights than the current meta of most non-assassin AP mid-laners. You pick Zed or Talon for the same reason that you pick Teemo top and to a lesser aspect Nunu jungle. These 4 champions in the current meta specialize in denying many meta-picks in their respective lanes or in the jungle of a good early game/mid game, but in my opinion hurt you late game (Nunu not so much as the other 3).

This is because 1) In solo queue especially, people seem not to care much at all about team comp. Many times have I seen streamers in Challenger tier make remarks such as "This is not LCS, team comp doesn't matter." "Win your lane, win the game." So, if you pick Zed, Talon, or Pantheon and go mid, unless your top-lane/jungler is AP you just made the game 100x easier for the other team, if you don't snowball. You have no APC, so all they have to do is stack armor and health. You're late game is effectively non-existent against any smart team. If you send Teemo top, unless you have both a tanky support/jungler (one of which that can initiate), your late game is non-existent. You have no tank. You have no initiation. You are forcing your team to win early by picking Teemo without the righ team comp.

AP champions are sent to a solo lane because they scale very well off of levels, as opposed to an ADC (Marksmen) who scales strongly off of items and less-so from leveling up abilities. APCs will carry you through mid-game, ADCs will carry you through late-game generally due to this. In my opinion, by picking champions like Zed or Talon you are effectively trying to deny your opponent of that strong mid-game and are hoping that you either win the game quickly or your bot lane gets well enough ahead of the enemy's bot lane that it makes up for your weak late-game in comparison to meta-picks.

I also believe that due to this flaw, that is why Katarina is such an amazing pick in the current meta (in solo queue, especially, because an unorganized group of people is more likely to not cc the Kat when she ults) in my opinion. She has no resources, bursts and snowballs like an assassin, scales off AP/deals magic damage, and that damage is to multiple targets. The only other true AP/magic Assassin in my opinion is LeBlanc, but she has no AoE and thus is not nearly as much of a threat as Katarina is in a teamfight (in solo queue atleast. In ranked teams, I'd argue Leblanc is the best champion in the game due to the fact she is, in my opinion, more of a threat early-mid game and scales off AP/deals magic damage) The other 2 assassins are AD. You can negate Talon's and Zed's damage with the same items it takes to negate their ADC's damage. For this reason alone LeBlanc and Kat are better champions in the current meta than Talon and Zed unless their team adjusts as needed.

Okay, maybe I agree with you... but whats up with support:

The other problem with the current-meta is, although this has nothing to do with how effective this team comp is either, support is boring for most people. Try making a team on team builder, you will near instantaneously get a mid, top, adc, and jungler. Support? Almost always last. Play a ranked game, everyone wants to carry, and people don't view support as a carry. I do not agree with this, a good support can carry a game. I've seen it done many times. You know that awesome Blitzcrank that is amazingly accurate with his grab? Or that awesome Thresh that never lets you die? Or that awesome Janna that saves your team nearly every teamfight? Why do people undervalue the role of support? I'll tell you why, most people are stuck in a Call of Duty type mind-set where all that matters is your K/D, not about objectives or assists. People that play support are the real MVPs of League of Legends. That said, support is my least played role BY FAR, so no bias here.

The reason why the above paragraph is so important though, is due to how unpopular the support role is, there are often people pushed to play that role that don't play it effectively. This team-format would effectively change that and make it much more fun of a role to play.

READ THIS!!!!!! BLUE VS PURPLE!!!!

Blue vs Purple Side? What now?

Well, in the current meta, what side you start on has NO EFFECT WHATSOEVER upon which champions you select. Which is cool. But here is something to think about:

1. Bottom Laners can start with double golems on blue side, provided their jungler is fine with it.

2. imo, one side may be easier to play on than the other... I seem to have an easier time to hitting skill shots on blue, its more comfortable.

3. Blue centered junglers have an advantage, in that their red is more guarded, to a degree, by bot lane, and thus is more difficult to counterjungle in standard setups. Whereas junglers that start purple side have the advantage of their blue being more guarded to a degree.

4. If you start on Blue side, Red buff is on bottom, whereas if you are on Purple side, Blue buff is on bottom.

With this setup that I am proposing, which side you start on and all these things that I stated would matter much more to the game. For example, lets say you are purple team. That means that any champion that is bottom lane, whether it be the jungler clearing the bottom half of the jungle, or the solo laner, will have easy access to blue buff. Yorick with blue buff anyone? Ghouls for days. But lets say you started blue side, so now your bottom lane has access to red buff. Imagine an old-school Pantheon+Xin Zhao kill lane bottom. Either Pantheon would be the jungler in this scenario, and camp bottom/gank everywhere else when ult is up with red buff, or Xin Zhao would be jungling and camping bottom with Pantheon. In this situation, Xin Zhao would act as a support to Pantheon and would build Avarice Blade. Imagine a support that would leave for a bit, clear the bottom half of the jungle, then come bottom and put his very powerful early game with Panth to use + red buff every 5 minutes. Or he could hold bottom lane for a bit while Pantheon ults mid. The possibilities are endless with this comp, and the early strong either way. Late game, it may fall off though.

---

NOW THEN, FINALLY, TO THE ACTUAL COMP

My Proposed Team-Comp: Gank Squad (2 junglers)

How would running 2 junglers work you ask? I already touched on it a bit in the paragraph directly above this one. The issues with this line-up are large, admittedly. It would be chaotic without proper coordination with teammates in solo queue and there isn't a large champion pool of those that can hold their own bottom lane vs a support+adc, so the bottom jungler would just have to camp bottom lane and function similar to the meta support, perhaps more aggressive in denying the enemy carry of farm if your lineup doesn't have an ADC of its own. Also, a jungle invasion at the start of a game can hurt your team largely depending on which champions are on your team, because you have 2 junglers, challenging either buff and being successful is guaranteed to slow down at least one of your 2 junglers. There is 1 more glaring issue with this lineup (whichever jungler is in the top-half would split xp with top, sometimes mid-lane), that will be discussed later. This is where the cons end though, and although I admit those 2 are large, check out the pros.

Pros of running this format vs the Meta:

1. Your team can react more quickly to situation. You have 5 people spread throughout your side of the map, if you get attacked you are more likely to have an ally nearby to react.

2. You will have atleast 2 smites on your team, possibly more if your laners choose to build Cinderhulk. In my opinion, this would give you a clear advantage in not only getting objectives, but also counter-jungling. If your junglers are able to pin down the location of the enemy jungler, you could effectively take him out of the game in many cases and perhaps force laners to leave their lanes to help their jungler. This opens opportunities for your team to either push... or win early team-fights. Which brings me to the next point.

3. THIS JUNGLER NEVER GANKS MY LANE!!!! Will never be said again. You have 2 junglers. You may see friends duo queue as jungler with very strong early ganks. Imagine getting ganked at level 2 by Lee Sin and Shaco. You could instantaneously gank top and mid right off the bat, those are 2 of the strongest level 2 gankers in the whole game. Your team can accomplish anything and is amazingly versatile with this lineup. If you really wanted, you could play it in a fashion very similar to the current meta. ADCs can farm the current jungle extremely safely through the use of soft resets if you start at Gronks and would begin the game with Red Buff and a clear advantage over the opposing laner.

4. Lets say the enemy team starts blue side and they started blue. This means that their blue buff will reappear around the 7:15 mark. Keeping this in mind, you ward their blue buff around the 6:15 mark. You see their jungler go for blue with their mid. In the current meta, what are you going to do? Everyone on enemy team is alive. In my opinion, you do 1 of 4 things: 1) Gank bottom, try for dragon. 2) If your jungler started blue, then you take your blue while he does his blue, both of you return to lane with blue buffs. 3) Push lane, look for ganks, maybe continue laning as if nothing is happening, 4) Contend for blue buff. If you are going to attempt to steal their blue, you, your jungler, and your top lane will be in close enough proximity to help. Their top is also close. It turns into a 3v3, you hopefully either secure some kills or steal blue and get away.

In my proposed line-up, all hell can break lose. You can either bully your way through a 4v3 (your 2 junglers, top lane, mid vs their jungler, top, and mid), or have mid go bottom and force a dragon fight. Remember, you have 2 smites, possibly more if your laners want Cinderhulk.

5. Due to the massive flexibility this team comp provides, YOU CHOOSE how you want to win. Your ADCs having an off-game in the current meta cripples your team. The current meta is based on safe play. You have somebody protect and hand kills over to the person who will carry you later in the game. Everyone else does their thing, but none of it matters. 2/5 people on your team will not leave their lane to gank, they aren't running teleport, they are just kicking back farming up a storm, unless they are contending for dragon. And later on in the game, I don't care what your score is, if you can't find a way to get to their ADC you will lose because he will kill you and all your friends.

What if, keeping that in mind, you built a whole team around capitalizing on that weakness? Forcing fights early game, ganking like crazy, denying their ADC as much as possible, pushing hard, counter-jungling, and getting objectives like bosses BEFORE their ADC got items? Nunu would be top tier. Imagine having both your junglers run smite, Nunu is on your team, and your top lane has smite so he can grab Cinderhulk. You effectively have 4 smites. Theoretically, over a span of 15 seconds you can smite 8 TIMES! Your team's whole purpose in life is to get dragon every time it spawns and as soon as an enemy dies you team runs over, burns his turret down and kick anyone who tries to defend it in the face. You would be very strong early, but weak late. You would capitalize on the current meta's weaknesses.

You can play just like the current meta if you wanted, only whenever red buff appeared the jungler camping your lane acting as a support would give it to you. Or, with the way this new jungle works, you can have your ADC jungle. Yes, ADCs can jungle VERY SAFELY this season taking little to no damage, but run the risk of getting counterjungled. Thing is, you won't get counter-jungled or caught if you started by blue buff and smited the wolves every time. This would act as a free ward, you'd get wolves/frog/blue buff, which would be amazing for Graves/Ashe/Varus/Ezreal. This would make ADCs with a lot of CC be prioritized. Or even Caitlyns. If you saw enemy mid-lane starting to get low while you were clearing your half of the jungle, you would just pick them off with your ult. Although would be more likely to get counter-jungled, I would definitely recommend if you run an ADC in the jungle starting Gronks though. The stun is very important.

Junglers could function like very aggressive supports that cleared jungle every time it came up, the best imo would be the ones with a lot of damage and CC built-in to their kit such as Xin Zhao, WW, or Pantheon, but everyone would have their purpose. You could have 2 "roamers". The possibilities are endless, and because of all these factors I believe having 2 junglers would make for a very powerful team. You would rarely, if ever, get counter-jungled by the enemy jungler, thats for sure.