The information in this post has been updated for 2024.
League of Legends Bot Lane Unconventional Picks: Caitlyn and Azir as Support The recent pro matches on January 26, 2024 saw Caitlyn and Azir being picked as support champions, leaving many players curious about this trend. Is this a sign of weak support champions in the current meta or are these picks deliberate strategies?
Banning Odd Choices in the Bot Lane While it may be tempting to try out these off-meta picks, it’s advisable to ban some of these unusual choices to prevent your support from picking them. But, are these picks really that problematic?
High-level players like T1’s support Keria have mastered playing Ashe and Caitlyn support, proving that it’s possible to play these champions in the support role. However, these choices are situational and require a specific team comp with adequate crowd control and peel to succeed in the late game.
Countering Heimerdinger with Azir Support In the first LCS 2024 match, 100 Thieves’ rookie support picked Azir support to counter Cloud9’s Heimerdinger. While Azir has some potential in the late game with his ultimate, he lacks utility in later stages.
Choosing the Right Off-Meta Support When considering these unconventional support picks, it’s essential to analyze the enemy and ally team comps. Caitlyn is an excellent pick against short-range compositions as she can easily out-trade the enemy support-ADC duo. Azir, on the other hand, can damage pokes with Comet or Electrocute runes and give more vision with his sand soldiers.
Even though these champions can work, they need the right kind of team and good communication, which can be hard to find, especially at low and medium elo. Thus, it’s best to stick to conventional support choices and save these flashy picks for when the team is better equipped to handle them.
