Funneling should be embraced and not removed

HKT Saber·3/2/2019, 12:21:28 AM·2 votes·2,002 views

Note that this topic is entirely based on the current patch and not for before the fixes when it was impossible to stop.

Gold funneling, for those who don't know, is basically having someone give up their own cs and xp and instead giving it to the jungler to make them ahead of the enemy team. Some may argue that the laner helping the jungler clear may also be part of the funneling support's job, but recent games of funneling in high elo show more of a trend of supports laning like during frostmancy meta, and freezing the wave or baiting for a kill when the jungler is coming, so not sure if I'd include that in the explanation.

Anyways, the reasoning behind gold funneling strategies working are as follows -

  1. Champions like Master Yi are almost unstoppable if considerably fed, which the funneling strategy helps succeed in. Champions like Kai'sa may also work as the jungler being funneled, in this situation.
  2. Supports like Lulu and Taric are really good at making a single person really hard to kill. Lulu is also better than previously due to ardent censor buffs
  3. Losing a laner is not that signifigant anymore in the current meta since according to the wise words of LS, nobody deals any *kin damage anymore, and that everyone sucks, which is why Lissandra and Viktor and Ivern become good because those champions are used to sucking. Therefore losing a Top Urgot or Sion or Gangplank or Lissandra or Anivia doesn't change the team's damage output by much, while also making the jungler stronger and having another support to protect a primary carry on the team.

To summarize, ardent censor got buffed and therefore there are a few players using Lulu top with Yi jungle and suceeding in higher MMRs, and people will soon start to flame about it on reddit or something, if my predictions were ever correct [slayer-jinx-wink] Which leads to the next point - Since funneling is working, it means that the game state is so bad that it actually works even though it became absolutely nerfed to the ground. Players should have a chance at playing it if they want to, as it isn't overpowered to the extent where it has absolutely no counterplay, more like hard to pull off. Funneling should be a relevant strategy in solo queue that should be embraced and adapted by the playerbase. It adds more depth into the strategy book within the game, and while it won't work against junglers that actually have coordination with their team, it would still be a fun and really cheese strategy that sometimes works, sometimes doesn't, and has fair counterplay.

Ok I'm gonna stop with this half rant half appreciation post. Here are the opggs for the funnel players. https://euw.op.gg/summoner/userName=send https://euw.op.gg/summoner/userName=cosmic+kerberos https://euw.op.gg/summoner/userName=Obscurance

Edit: Forgot to mention that Exhaust exists, and that it is very likely that the new support champion will have some form of unique ability, which I was guessing to be some really good buff that will help the funneling strat, or a new type of cc that makes funneling unviable, which according to riot posts is an enchanter (think soraka janna lulu karma), and so funneling will change depending on whether that new champion affects the strategy as a counter to it, as a buff to it, or is irrelevant to the strategy.

12 Comments

ZephyrDrake3/2/2019, 12:25:14 AM2 votes

No, nerf it even harder

ModThe Djinn3/2/2019, 12:26:28 AM2 votes

Funneling should be a relevant strategy in solo queue that should be embraced and adapted by the playerbase.

This has a few major strikes against it:

  • One player has to sacrifice their own ability to meaningfully contribute to funnel the other, which reduces fun for that player heavily.
  • Players may start demanding funneling, leading to a more toxic game environment.
  • It heavily skews viable team compositions.
  • It's just less fun overall, as teams depend too heavily on one person in too many situations.
Mavëríck3/2/2019, 12:39:52 AM1 votes

I don't think there's any way to make funneling in LoL not ridiculous. It really doesn't have any middle ground. It's either totally broken, or it ruins your team if you ask me.

I would like to see more metas emerge though. Like duo top bruisers, or two junglers, support top. Stuff like that. The problem is that LoL is designed to be a very specific model with almost zero deviation from that path.

Lovelle3/2/2019, 10:10:38 PM1 votes

Tell that to Twisted Treeline players.

Light Burner3/2/2019, 10:16:30 PM1 votes

Remember how riot said they made that quick fix to funneling to worlds and they'd find a more permanent fix later. Well guess what that quick fix apparently is still here and nothing about the permanent fix has been heard of.

Lilin Ashe9/16/2019, 12:58:39 PM1 votes

Gold funneling can be a massive downside when its forced, not counting the funneling of heavy cs taxing which can often put the top lane in danger of being snowballed by the opposing top laner if no ganks giving kills back to top laner are done.

Also not fun for new players who struggle just to get 3 out of the 6 cs each wave, imagine now you still have jungler taxing cs everytime he ganks, Jungler gets kill, takes your entire minion wave then leaves. So you usually put in a state where you shared xp and lost cs so when enemy top returns you might at most have a 4 or 8 cs lead with assist, but enemy top laner has shopped and due to xp leach might his his lvl 6 or lvl 11 power spike before you leading to a reversal of what the original gank set out to do which was Feed jungler, ruin your top laner.

Gold funneling is bad for solo queue because people often force funnel, leaving a clear opening in the map. As long as the gank attempts are countered even if jungler funnels well certain team compositions can punish having the laners fall behind just a tad bit. To be honest i wish they would funnel gold into the mid lane role to be honest.