Kog’Maw, Lulu, Janna. This has become one of the most terrifying things to see locked in against you in professional League of Legends. Those three champions create an unkillable Kog’Maw who melts your entire team once everyone hits two items. It is also one of the most difficult team compositions to play in League of Legends at the moment due to some fairly exploitable weaknesses.

Jugger’Maw was first played by the GE Tigers in the first half of the Spring Split of LCK. The composition revolved around Pray on Kog’Maw. They ran a Lulu top lane and a Janna support, providing massive shields as well as move speed buffs for the Kog’Maw. They did not run a tank. This is one of the characteristics of the composition, Kog’Maw acts as a tank. He can afford to absorb cooldowns and aggression from the enemy team with the help of Wild Growth as well as shields from Lulu and Janna. Whimsy from Lulu also helps him to chase people down and dodge skillshots. The composition also has a lot of peel built into it. It is designed to kite an enemy team while Kog’Maw melts them down. It won’t be engaging a 5v5 team fight against another team nor will it stand there and let the enemy engage on them. They are going to remain at a distance and watch enemies melt.

Why is the Jugger’Maw composition strong?

Tank busting. As he is typically built with a Blade of the Ruined King as his second item, Kog’Maw deals mainly health shred physical and magic damage with the help of Bio-Arcane Barrage. This coupled along with an Infinity Edge and Trinity Force creates an absolute killing machine. He will melt a top lane tank and a jungle tank in a matter of seconds. The jungler will also be slightly behind a top lane tank in terms of build. The amount of protection the Kog’Maw gets is what makes this composition so powerful. His survival is the core of this composition.

Key Point in a team fight where Jugger'Maw is played properly. Full Breakdown here

Where is the Jugger’Maw composition weak?

It is dependent on an immobile AD Carry and his proximity to other champions. The team also probably doesn’t have a true tank. Given the change in the meta with tank junglers as the most common type of jungle champ, this could change and the jungler might be a tank with a sightstone. Nunu is one of the strongest choices given the fact that he can give Kog’Maw move speed and attack speed. Another major weakness of the composition is its reliance on the Wild Growth cooldown. The health and slow provided by the ultimate are key to protecting Kog’Maw and letting him do his job. Forcing this cooldown onto another champion on the team puts the Jugger’Maw team into a tricky spot where the conditions under which they can safely win a fight are very limited. This dependence can be exploited easily by flanking the Jugger’Maw team and forcing the Lulu to use Wild Growth on someone other than Kog’Maw. That being said, if you can get rid of the Kog’Maw before Lulu can get Wild Growth on him, then you have cut the team's damage output by 50% at least, and they no longer have any hope of fighting you.

Key Point in a team fight where Jugger'Maw was played improperly. Full Breakdown here

How to counter it

Give the previous two paragraphs, here’s how you counter Jugger’Maw. Ban Lulu. No Wild Growth makes a much squishier and easier to kill Kog’Maw. Pick a combination of Vi, Sivir, Maokai, Sejauni, Annie or any other champion with hard engage. While the typical Jugger’Maw composition has a lot of peel, there is only so much they can actually peel. Sivir plus a Righteous Glory Maokai will run anyone down. Get to the Kog’Maw and get rid of him. The other primary targets are the Janna and Lulu. Removing either of these champions from the equation makes it much easier to reach and kill the Kog’Maw.

Jugger’Maw came out before the tank jungle meta started, but it has only gotten stronger since then with Nunu and Gragas becoming excellent picks for the Jugger’Maw comp due to their peel, as well as the reduced damage threats on the enemy team. As long as the tank meta continues to prosper, especially with Cinderhulk top laners becoming more prevalent, Jugger’Maw will be a serious threat in any professional game. This is a composition that every high level team should be able to play as and play against.