Assassins in bot lane

Is anybody else seeing an increasing amount of assassin - type champs being played in the bot lane, either as adc or support, or is this just a bronze/silver thing?

At the moment I'm a Bronze 3 in soloQ, bronze 1 in flex (and yes, I know I probably do suck, but i hope that doesn't completely invalidate my opinion/question), but I feel reasonably competent (for my division of course) at playing all the lanes. Since the start of s7 I've been playing a lot of ADC (and some support) when I play blind pick, partly to learn the bot lane better, partly to challenge myself by trying to do well at a role that's weaker at the moment, and partly because not a lot of other people want to play in bot lane. As has been frequently observed, mages like Malzahar have been migrating to bot lane to fit the more aggressive support meta, but in a lot of my recent games - say over the last month or so - I've seen burst champions/assassins coming into bot lane as well. At this point I'd estimate that about 1 out of every 8 or so games I play in bot is going to have a Yasuo, Master Yi, Zed, Alkali, Fizz, Katarina, LeBlanc, Ahri etc.

First, is anyone else seeing this happening more often, or is this just a low-division problem, where people pick weird champions anyway?

If other people have seen/noticed this, does it seem healthy/a good development? Whenever I have to play one of these lanes it usually ends as a ff@20 for our side, and at the very least an incredibly un-fun laning phase. I never enjoy any of these games, which isn't something that can be said of any other type of champ i play in bot lane. Again, I'll probably have some people saying that it's just because i'm bronze (and maybe that's true, but if so please give me a good explanation beyond just "you're bronze so u know nothing"), but it doesn't feel like there's any way to counter this type of champion as a marksman or many support champions. Basically everything those champions are good at (mobility, high burst damage, etc.) goes perfectly against the weaknesses of marksmen - low mobility, no real escapes, no burst damage and low DPS until at least 2-3 items, little reliable CC, and of course low health/no resistance itemization. Even if I'm playing someone like Ashe or Varus, where i have some hard CC, I have to save my ult just to try to save myself from their combo every time, and God help me if their spell rotation comes off cool down before my ult. With a MF or Jhin, say, I just feel screwed. If I step away from my turret to farm, I'm probably going to die. And I understand enough to know to play defensively. It's not like I charge two-thirds of the way into lane and try to shove the wave under THEIR turret, but even if I stay under my turret - and I mean right under my turret - I'm going to miss out on a ton of CS, and once they hit lvl 6 I'm probably guaranteed to die anyway. If I even try to defend my turret, any of these champions can dash to me, unload their full combo, and get out of turret range with a decent amount of health. Meanwhile, the ADC gets off one or two auto attacks that do basically nothing. Maybe I get lucky and get a support with good CC (or am playing the support), and we trade kills because of the turret hits. But that's it, that's the optimal situation: he kills me/my ADC, but, you know, at least I used Heal and Flash to keep him under turret just long enough that it killed him too. Great fun.

Again, if I'm missing something because I'm only bronze, let me know, but it sure feels like there isn't a damn thing you can do against this kind of lane. You're going to fall hopelessly behind in CS and either get killed for extra fun, or stand helplessly and watch while they take turret after turret. Of course that means you get no gold, which means you get no items, and get further and further behind. I think specifically it's the fact that these champions combine mobility with huge burst, because I can deal with immobile burst supports like Brand decently well. But somebody that can dive me under my turret and burst me down while I have neither the tank to sustain it, nor the damage to counter it, seems oppressive and anti-fun

I understand the role that assassins play in the game, that you need someone to be able to get to the backline and take out the carries. But that's a healthy game mechanic once lane phase ends, and the carries have a couple of items and are reasonably fed, and there IS a backline, and by implication a frontline. It doesn't seem healthy at all in lane phase, where marksmen are both really squishy and have low damage. It's one thing to lane against these champions as a Brand or Syndra or something where I have a huge burst to use if they try to get too close, but there doesn't seem to be a single thing I can do. The only way to even survive is to have your jungler basically apply for a building permit and start making a house in bot lane, which obviously hurts your team a lot. Otherwise I'm just left yelling at my computer "I. Just. Want. To. FARM" That's not to mention how much fun it is to have your teammates flame you constantly for "intentional feeding" while you're sitting there shaking in fear and desperately trying to sneak close enough to get a single CS.

Freezing the lane helps a bit, having a tank/CC support helps a bit, but at the end of the day assassins are assassins and they're build to get past a frontline of a couple of tanks, not just one level 6 support with Targon's Brace and a Sightstone.

I'm terrified I'm going to see more of this in upcoming weeks, because it WORKS. That's the worst part. It's not just annoying, it doesn't just give me ulcers, cancer, and AIDS combined, but it works. It means I get terrible CS, usually give up first turret, give up map control and thus probably control of dragon pit, and the assassin usually manage to grab a few kills and snowball nicely while I descend into bitter, sobbing irrelevance before the inevitably flame-filled ff@20.

Mostly I'm just posting to see if anyone else has noticed this, or if this is a trend or a fluke or just a low-ELO thing; or if (maybe) there's anything riot can do about it, although I certainly can't think of anything. Although, if anyone has any tips on how to play agains this sort of this I'd welcome them.

I've tried to make this as well thought-out and reasonable a post as I can, hopefully I've succeeded. Sorry it's a bit long :)

If I ever see you on the Rift: GLHF