Why LoL pros are playing Rumble jungle at MSI 2021, and how you can too

Rumble is in the League of Legends jungle at MSI 2021. He is dominating the pro meta since the recent jungle rework, and solo queue players are picking him up in droves. We’ve got the guide you need to play Rumble jungle like the pros right here.

Rumble has been a top and mid laner for most of his League of Legends lifespan. The Mechanized Menace was once a must-pick for his insane AOE damage. However, he’s fallen out of favor recently as tanks and bruisers push out AP champions across the board.

Now, he’s found a new home in the jungle. Like many other obscure picks, including Morgana, Rumble thrives in the jungle with a rapid clear speed and great gank potential.

However, is everyone playing him correctly, and is jungle actually his best role? With this guide, you can be sure every time you pick Rumble in ranked, you’re on the path to victory ⁠— no matter if it’s jungle, or perhaps mid lane (like some dispute).

Riot Games

There’s a Rumble in the jungle. Literally. That’s where he is played now.

Why is Rumble jungle popular at MSI 2021?

Rumble jungle popped up in the meta due to two reasons. One, the Mechanized Menace was buffed in League patch 11.8, increasing the damage on his passive when overheated, as well as adding magic resist shred onto his Electro Harpoon (E).

• Read More: Why are pros playing Lee Sin top and mid at MSI 2021?

The two in tandem rapidly sped up Rumble’s clear. The 6% maximum health damage on-hit when overheated, and bonus attack speed made him one of the fastest camp clearers in the game. The magic resist shred on E was the cherry on top.

The second reason was major nerfs to pre-existing meta junglers like Udyr and Hecarim. With the tanks slowly vanishing out of the picture, more carry-centric junglers like Rumble have shot up the tier list.

Riot Games

Rumble is strong in multiple roles now, but jungle is where many are playing him now.

However, the pros at MSI believe that Rumble’s strengths lie in his utility and teamplay.

“I think it’s pretty similar to Morgana. It’s all about setting up for your carries to find the right position to do their damage with something like the Equalizer. He opens up a lot of spaces for your carries,” Damwon jungler Kim ‘Canyon’ Geon-bu said in an interview.

Is Rumble jungle actually good?

Whether Rumble jungle is good depends on who you ask, and where you look. Analyst Nick ‘LS’ de Cesare believes Rumble is one of the best junglers in solo queue and pro play.

He ranked the Yordle at the top of the MSI 2021 tier list and has sung his praises the entire event.

Pros agree, with Rumble having the second-highest presence at the event, appearing in 89.8% of games (only Udyr is higher at 91.8%). He has been banned 24 times, picked 20, and has a 50% win rate.

However, the solo queue data doesn’t quite match up with that. According to stats site U.GG, Rumble has one of the lowest win rates in jungle at 46.95%. The Yordle is finding more success in mid lane with a 50.72% win rate, something caster David ‘Phreak’ Turley has emphasized.

• Read More: Morgana jungle is dominating League of Legends Season 11, here’s why

“[Rumble] is giga-overrated in [jungle]. He’s a good mid laner. He’s a bad jungler. Draft better,” he said on Twitter.

Best build, runes, and tips for Rumble jungle

If you do want to try out the Mechanized Menace in the jungle, it’s not all that complicated.

Rune-wise, you want to be taking Dark Harvest (and not Conqueror like Pabu unfortunately did against DWG). Cheap Shot, Eyeball Collection, Ultimate Hunter, Transcendence, and Nimbus Cloak are the best choices to round out the rest of your rune page.

Item-wise, you have a choice of Mythics between Hextech Rocketbelt (if you need more movement) or Night Harvester (if you get an early lead). Both builds work well on Rumble, helping him latch onto targets and defend himself.

Zhonya’s Hourglass and Void Staff are must builds, while after that, finishing the build with Morellonomicon, Deathcap, or even Demonic Embrace is viable.

Rumble thrives with his fast clear (just press Q) into decent gank potential, walking up to enemies with his W movement speed buff and using his harpoons to slow them down on the escape. It’s a pretty hard gank to escape unless you have a dash to dodge the first harpoon.

• Read More: Riot plotting to shift Nautilus back into jungle with LoL patch 11.11 buffs

However, he can be pretty easily countered by junglers who can negate his magic damage (like Mundo or Morgana), or counter-junglers who slow his clear and duel him before he hits his power spikes (like Xin Zhao or Ekko).

You’ll want to max Q for the AOE clear speed, into E for the bonus utility. The shield is mostly irrelevant after you put one point in it, although there’ll be some situations where maxing it second helps ⁠— like if you really need the tankiness and protection from dive comps.