Learn about the strongest Junglers throughout League’s history and how they changed and evolved the meta. I’ll go in-depth and explain why the Champion was overpowered, what the current meta was, and how Riot addressed their strength.
Throughout League’s history, there have been several different Jungle metas and overpowered Champions. Tank Champions thrived during the Cinderhulk meta, fighters were strong during the Warrior Enchantment and Goredrinker metas, and mages were most prominent during the Runic Echoes meta. I’ll be covering Champions that dominated their metas and fundamentally changed the way League was being played.
Funneling Master Yi was a strategy that started back in 2018 in the Korean server. The idea was simple; give Master Yi maximum resources and carry the game before anyone else could scale. The strategy involved pairing Master Yi Jungle with a Support Mid Lane such as Taric. Taric would essentially hold minion waves for Master Yi to farm, allowing Yi to receive both Jungle and Mid experience/resources. Then Master Yi would hit 2 to 3 items before everyone else and run over the map without any counterplay. Taric’s invulnerability and stun paired perfectly with Master Yi’s playstyle of running into the enemy team.
The strategy was used in pro play as well because the mid lane Taric could buy the Support item and still receive gold, and there was no effective way to prevent Master Yi from hitting his powerspikes. Riot had to make significant changes to Jungle XP, support items, and gold sharing to prevent the strategy from ever occurring again.
Camille Jungle was a great pick back in 2018 for a variety of reasons. Her standard clear was taking red buff into a gank level 2 in either Bot or Mid. Jungle XP was completely different back in 2018, and she could secure an early kill for one of her laners without falling behind in tempo. Additionally, her passive shield allowed her to win early 2v2 skirmishes where her early dueling and engage was stronger than most Champions.
The Jungle meta rewarded early game snowballing, and Camille was the best Jungler in the game at putting pressure on the map level 2. IG Ning famously played Camille Jungle in the 2018 World Championship Grand Finals, sweeping 3-0 and securing an IG skin for the Champion a few months later. Riot eventually changed Camille’s E to not stun camps anymore, and level 2 ganking fell out of the meta in favor of full clearing and new Scuttle Crab respawn changes.
The most recent Champion that took over Solo Queue was 2025 Jungle Jayce. There were a few different reasons why the pick became so oppressive. Riot’s new system and Jungle changes made more non-traditional Junglers stronger because of new Jungle sustain buffs and early game pacing. Junglers take almost zero damage from Jungle camps, and thus the meta resolved around Champions who could full clear the fastest. Additionally, early Lethality and AD components became very efficient, especially on a Champion like Jayce who scales hard with flat AD.
Jayce as a Champion thrives in early game skirmishes due to his high base stats and damage. Players optimized his early game clear and utilized his strengths such as his poking out enemies before objectives. The Champion could cycle through camps with ease and then win early game fights spiking on cheap Lethality items such as Opportunity and Ghostblade. Riot eventually nerfed his early game clear, but the Champion is still very strong and popular.
Before his rework, Graves used to be a Bot Lane carry, focused on scaling and burst damage. In 2016 Riot decided to revamp his kit, giving him a new auto attack mechanic and changing his playstyle completely. Once people figured out his auto attack could knock back Jungle camps, his role shifted drastically. He became a Marksman in the Jungle, with the ability to play like a fighter due to his natural tankiness and skirmishing ability. The Champion had almost no weaknesses or bad matchups, allowing him to thrive as a powerhouse Jungler and dominate the Season 6 meta.
Graves popularity skyrocketed through popular streamers and YouTubers showing off his new kit, and the Champion was absurdly overpowered early release. Riot would eventually tone down his power, but Graves has remained a Jungler ever since.
Back in Preseason 11 during late 2020, Riot completely overhauled items and introduced a new Mythic system. Sunfire was given a damage over time melt effect that created a double burn when paired with another item called Demonic Embrace. Amumu’s W comboed perfectly with these two items to make the ultimate burn effect. The Champion was extremely tanky because both of his items gave health, but he also had a devastating burn that nobody expected.
Amumu was already strong after a recent buff to his ultimate, but people started to discover that he could solo Baron right when it spawned with these two items. Clips started to go viral of Amumu soloing Baron without any challenge and people began picking him up and trying it out for themselves. His win rate shot up to around 56%, and his popularity also skyrocketed. Amumu had never really been considered overpowered, and for the first time ever he got to shine in the spotlight. Riot eventually nerfed the items, but players during this time will always remember double burn Amumu.
Back in 2015, Riot released one of the most controversial patches of all time - the Juggernaut patch. They changed four Champions including Darius, Mordekaiser, Garen, and Skarner through adding new interactions, abilities, and designs, which completely altered how these champions were being played.
Skarner in particular was reworked to give more sustain, movement speed, and attack speed in the Jungle through the introduction of his crystal spires. These could be captured by him or his team and gave a massive power boost to Skarner while in it. He became an objective-control monster that had insane teamfight presence over different areas of the map. His early game skirmishing was unmatched, and the additional stats the spires gave him made ganking easy as well. During this time, Skarner had one of the highest win rates of all time in Solo Queue, sitting at an astonishing 65% win rate. Riot would eventually tone down his early game power and stats over the next few patches, but players back then remember how insane this Champion really was. The graph below is of Skarner's win rate over the last 10 years and puts into perspective how crazy this time was for the Champion.
The Jungle meta has changed drastically throughout the many years of its existence, with Champions reaching all-time win rates and popularity. Tons of Champions and strategies have dominated the meta, but Riot always manages to tone them down and introduce something new. My goal is for readers to learn and remember some of the strongest Champions throughout League’s history, and to appreciate how much the game has changed.
