Since the beginning, the Korean Challenger rank has been a breeding ground for extremely creative playstyles. In the current meta, a series of jungle champions are being utilized as surprise picks in the mid and top lanes with remarkable effectiveness.
Below is a list of jungle champions being used in the solo lane in patch 10.12:
Fiddlesticks Top Lane
During the laning phase, Fiddlesticks is a champion that can be extremely frustrating to deal with due to his fast wave-clearing ability with his W – Reap. It’s difficult for enemies to trade damage with him because he has healing from W and can retaliate with Q and E. Not to mention, just landing one fear with Q can leave the enemy jungle empty-handed after each gank, making him hard to kill. With a pure tank build, even if he gets caught, Fiddlesticks can safely retreat.
Once he has his ultimate, roaming becomes easy for Fiddlesticks as he can control vision with his passive and surprise enemies with his ultimate – Crowstorm.
In the late game, Fiddlesticks becomes even more powerful with his ambushes. His well-timed ultimates will contribute significantly to team fights in both damage dealing and crowd control roles.
Evelynn Mid Lane
As one of the few champions with strong healing from her passive, turret lane is not a major challenge for Evelynn. Especially, once she reaches level 3, Evelynn can quickly push the lane and assist her jungler in controlling the map effectively.
From level 6 onwards, controlling Evelynn in the mid lane becomes incredibly difficult. At this point, Evelynn can clear waves with just one combo, and if she roams, her opponents will struggle to follow due to her stealth passive.
By the late game, Evelynn’s main role is as an assassin hunting down low-health champions who are wandering alone. If opponents play too safely and don’t split up, Evelynn can still use her skills to hunt down the enemy carries, delivering her full combo and retreating smoothly with her ultimate – Abysmal Surge. With her passive allowing for quick healing, just stepping out of the fight for a moment lets Evelynn return with safe health, making her an extremely dangerous champion in the eyes of the enemy team if played cleverly in and out of fights.
Graves Mid Lane
In the early game, Graves still focuses on farming like any other champion. Once he has some damage and lethality items like Long Sword or Duskblade, he can play more aggressively. Graves’ kit allows him to kite opponents effectively, so if he gets ganked, he can easily throw out W and dash back to safety with E.
In the mid-game, Graves can secure solo kills fairly well with his high-damage skills, good dodging ability, and especially with his long-range ultimate capable of delivering decisive blows at unexpected moments. At this point, Graves can roam strongly with 1-2 lethality items in hand.
Finally, Graves can either split push or team fight depending on the game state and team strategy. Regardless of his role, Graves’ damage output is incredibly high, enough to obliterate an enemy in the blink of an eye if he gets close enough.
