Step aside, ADCs: One LoL mage is dominating the bot lane in Patch 13.7

Karthus is one of League of Legends’ most historic champions, and for a decade-plus, he’s been played in positions all across Summoner’s Rift. Before he was commonly played in the jungle, Karthus was a reliable choice for League’s mid laners. Now, he’s found a home in the bottom lane, where he’s ripping it up in high Elo games. 

In games played at Platinum rank or higher, bot lane Karthus has the highest win rate among not just all bot lane champions, but all champions in the game on the current patch, Patch 13.7, according to League stats site U.GG.

Although Karthus’ 54 percent win rate is impressive, the sample size at which he’s accumulated that number leaves a little bit to be desired. With just under 18,000 games played at the position, his popularity pales in comparison to that of more standard AD carries like Jinx and Kai’sa, who rank first and second in regard to pick rate. A dozen bottom lane champions have at least 100,000 games played on this patch, according to U.GG. 

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This isn’t an outlier, either. For four straight patches, Karthus has had the highest win rate out of all champions in the game. His dominance in the bottom lane has been consistent dating back to the start of the 2023 ranked season, meaning there are some really skilled Karthus players who reside in the higher ranks of the ladder. 

When you extrapolate Karthus’ numbers to all ranks, he only has 30,000 more games to his name, but the win rate is still there. From Iron to Challenger, Karthus has the second-highest win rate in League, only behind Seraphine, according to U.GG. This means that Karthus bot isn’t just a high-Elo-specific pick that can only be effective once you hit a certain rank; this champion is actually pretty solid.

While it’s unclear (and probably unlikely) that Karthus would be able to keep up such a relatively high win rate if he had the same level of popularity that champions like Jinx do, his status as a sleeper pick could be something that players could use to their advantage on the current patch. Karthus is not slated to be nerfed in Patch 13.8, meaning he could stick around at the top of the meta for a while longer.