Rumble is previously a champion that was played in solo lanes. He was known for being hard to wave clear with due to his flamethrower, however, it played correctly, he was known to deal massive amounts of damage. If you’ve been keeping up with the LCS 2021 Summer Split, you may be asking, why are pros picking rumble jungle? Well, here’s your answer.
At MSI 2021, and now during the start of Summer 2021, we are starting to see Rumble being picked or banned in every match. Currently, after Week 1 of the 2021 LCS Summer Split, Rumble holds a 100% presence rate. This means that he has been picked or banned in every game.
As a scaling AP jungler, Rumble needs time to get gold, objectives, and items, in order to deal the most damage. The pros have been taking dark harvest as the primary rune in order to maximize scaling and late-game potential. In addition to this, the fact that Rumble primarily does AP damage means that the mid and top laners can pick AD champions.
This is especially important when AD solo laners can help Rumble in the early game, as they can easily get lane priority for the scuttle crabs and even the major objectives such as the rift herald or drakes.
Another reason for the dominance of Rumble in the jungle this season is because of the importance of the drakes. Rumble being a champion with a game changing ultimate is especially important in team fights and little skirmishes. His ultimate if used correctly can destroy teams and win fights alone.
When teams are caught in the Rumble ultimate in specific choke points around baron and dragon, they must fight after taking loads of damage from the Rumble ultimate, or they have to give up the objective because they have no health left.
Several pros have had major success on Rumble this past week, especially Immortal’s Xerxe who went undefeated this week, using Rumble as a major pick.
Xerxe finished his match against 100 Thieves with a score of 5-0-14. This showed the dominance of Rumble, as he won the dragon soul and used that advantage to dominate team fights.
In addition to this, his mid laner Insanity picked high priority mid lane AD champions such as Jayce and Tristana. This meant that they had mixed damage, which prevents the enemies from building resistances against them both, and also ensures that Immortals had lane priority for objectives.
Rumble remains a strong pick in pro play because of the fact that it utilizes team play, while also scaling up, which ultimately means it deals major amounts of damage.