Mages and the revamped Statikk Shiv have been the two utmost defining characteristics of League of Legends’ mid lane meta for the past several months, both within solo queue and professional play. In nearly every situation, choosing a champion that fills one of these niches—or both—is crucial to bursting through waves of minions and opposing health bars with ease.
Unfortunately, this has done very little to help the problem the mid lane champion pool has struggled with for a number of years: vastness in size but difficulties in maintaining each champion’s efficiency. As League is an ever-changing MOBA, players often focus on learning matchups with champions that sit atop the meta, leaving the less-popular picks waiting for their chance to shine in some future patch.
But that’s exactly why Immortals’ Bolulu has brought unconventional picks to the LCS stage. What teams were preparing to play against Vel’Koz or Zoe in a meta where LeBlanc, Azir, and Neeko run rampant? Either they had to waste ban slots targeting Bolulu’s vast unorthodox champion pool or they’d be forced to play against champions that are normally only seen by one-tricks in solo queue.
“I’ve been leaning more towards my pocket picks now, because I feel like it’s where I can have a lot of impact and change the course of the game,” Bolulu told Dot Esports. “I remember a lot of times scrimming with the Vel’Koz and one-shotting people at level six. The team [has to] adapt to [these picks], and I do a good job telling the team what I need—enemies are just a bit dizzy of how to play against that.”
Bolulu made his unexpected LCS debut last split, being called up from Immortals’ Challengers roster after the departure of then-starting mid laner, Ablazeolive, due to personal reasons. Within only a few months in the North American scene, Bolulu was suddenly thrust onto the main stage alongside a group of players who he only had experience with in practice and scrims. Luckily, the mid laner had extensive experience elsewhere that helped make him a major talking point.
For nearly half a decade, Bolulu competed within the Turkish Challenger League (TCL), emerging from multiple playoff series victorious alongside a handful of teams—even taking part in previous international tournaments, including MSI 2019 and the 2021 World Championship. He quickly took over the scene thanks to his expertise with more obscure, off-meta picks like Vel’Koz and Zoe in metas where they were most certainly not priority picks.
While opting for these champions over others would normally be considered a “troll” move, they allowed Bolulu to assume vocal leadership positions within his teams, hand-crafting situations where his teammates would set him up to carry games. To this day, Bolulu has amassed a 69-percent win rate on Vel’Koz across his entire career, according to League stats site Oracle’s Elixir, having mastered the unique teamfighting angles that this champion can bring to games.
But these picks can only do so well on a team lacking coordination. Immortals currently sit in last place in the 2023 LCS Summer Split standings with a 2-10 record, falling behind FlyQuest, who recently surged with a handful of victories of their own. As Bolulu has continued to opt for his comfort picks, they’ve been scarcely contributors to victories for the team—now with only a small number of games remaining for Bolulu and the rest of Immortals to try to qualify for the upcoming LCS Championship bracket.
Despite this precarious situation and the possibility of not making the playoffs being an all-too-real possibility, Bolulu is doing everything he can to not only get himself to refocus on what’s in the immediate future but identify any quick fixes that the team can institute with such little time left in the split.
“The kind of stance you have to take in this situation is, we’re aware of our mistakes and we’re disoriented in some parts, so now you just have to put band-aids on it and try to optimize as much as possible,” Bolulu said. “Accept that you have flaws, accept that you are not perfect, accept that you are playing bad with some comps. Try to just adapt the game plan, that’s our stance for the remainder of the split.”
While he’s tried to bring his central team voice to the LCS, aiming to continue his shot-calling ways that led him through the TCL, Bolulu admits he hasn’t had much success. Between the circumstances of his debut in the Spring Split to the current iteration of the roster that sports players with “seven or more years of experience,” he’s felt rather drowned out by the number of veteran voices trying to have a say at once—a change to his methodology that he has not yet adjusted to and feels is impeding his skills.
“I am a player that, when I am on a team, I like to kind of control how the team plays and communicates—but with this roster, I found that we had three, four people that wanted to do this as well.” Bolulu said. “You just have to compromise and try to find the best way, but then people can disagree on what is the best way, so we don’t actually have that good synergy. It’s a bit harder this split to kind of showcase myself as a player, just because of how we kind of come together as a team.”
As someone who has competed in various leagues professionally for half a decade, Bolulu has used his experiences to become a more confident player, particularly in terms of allowing himself to stand out among others. His continuous drive stems from his unwillingness to have any regrets when a split comes to a close, acknowledging the sacrifices he’s made to get where he is and attain years of success.
But it was only in the last few years that he truly became comfortable to admit this to himself, to step on the stage and play as himself rather than as a pawn of an ever-changing meta. He equates much of this comfortability in paving his own path to his former coach on Papara SuperMassive, GBM, whose teachings he hopes to pass on to those looking to step into the professional scene themselves.
“Everything comes down to how you are as a person, what are your strengths as a player?” Bolulu said. “Big props to GBM for also helping me to kind of figure myself out. I had a lot of doubt before like, ‘oh, I need to play meta’ or ‘I shouldn’t play these champions.’ But then, once I pick it, enemies struggle a lot.”
Immortals will look toward their last chance at an upwards climb through the LCS from the bottom of the standings as the penultimate week of the Summer Split begins today, July 12, where the team will first be confronted by 100 Thieves—with the chance of being eliminated from playoff contention creeping nearer. Regardless of the outcome for the team, Bolulu is sure to emerge feeling like he’s done all he set out to do, before getting ready to do it all over again next year.
