Mage bot has been one of the biggest discussion topics in League of Legends for weeks.
Many players want champions like Ziggs, Seraphine, or other AP picks directly nerfed, but Riot seems to view the problem a little differently. In an interview, Matthew “Phroxzon” Leung-Harrison, Lead Gameplay Designer for League of Legends, explained that Riot is mainly concerned about mage bot in combination with roaming supports.
Mage Bot Itself Is Not Automatically the Problem
The most important point from the interview: Riot does not want to simply remove mage bot from the game. Phroxzon emphasizes that bot lane diversity can be healthy for League. So it is not automatically bad if mages appear in bot lane alongside traditional marksmen.
That is an important difference compared to parts of the community discussion. Many debates make it sound as if Riot only needs to nerf the strongest AP bot laners and push the role completely back toward ADCs. But Riot does not seem to want that. Mages should remain a legitimate alternative, as long as they do not completely replace the normal bot lane structure.
Still, Riot does see a real problem. According to Phroxzon, there was a clear spike in mage bot after MSI, even though the meta has recently started moving back somewhat toward traditional marksmen. In regular play, mage bot laners also have elevated win rates, which Riot partly explains through shallower mastery curves. Put simply: many mages are easier to stabilize with in bot lane than classic ADCs.
Why Mages Work So Well in Bot Lane
This is where the topic becomes interesting. Mages in bot lane often do not have to dominate. They only have to survive, clear waves, and prevent the lane from collapsing completely. Champions like Ziggs or Seraphine can farm from a safe distance, neutralize pressure, and still remain relevant later with strong teamfight tools.
For traditional ADCs, that is much harder. Many marksmen need gold, items, protection, and space. If they are left alone, their kits often function worse. In the interview, Phroxzon points to Jinx as an example: some ADC abilities are not really designed to work reliably in constant 1v1 or 1v2 situations.
That is the major difference. A mage bot can often “hold” the lane while their support affects the map. A classic ADC gets punished much faster in the same situation. That creates a structural advantage for picks that can survive alone.
The Real Problem Is Support Roaming
Phroxzon says fairly clearly that Riot is not happy with mage bot through the avenue of roaming supports. That hits the core of many recent community discussions. On Reddit, players have repeatedly argued that mages themselves are not the main issue, but support power. If the best way to play is to unlock the support and send them around the map early, bot laners who can stabilize alone become much more attractive.
That almost turns the support into a second jungler. They can gank mid lane, disrupt vision in the enemy jungle, prepare objectives, and create tempo while the bot laner simply controls the wave. In pro play, that is especially powerful because teams can coordinate these roams extremely well.
For gameplay, however, it is risky. Mid laners get surprised by supports more often, junglers lose control over their own jungle, and bot lane partly becomes a 1v2 stabilization task. Riot seems to dislike exactly that dynamic.
Riot Does Not Want to Force the Old Bot Lane Back
Still, the solution is not simple. If Riot nerfs support roaming too hard, bot lane could quickly swing back in an old direction: enchanter plus hypercarry, little diversity, lots of scaling. Phroxzon directly mentions this risk. Riot does not want mage bot to disappear and leave only traditional ADC lanes behind.
What is interesting is which version of mage bot Riot seems more willing to accept. A double-ranged bot lane setup with Seraphine and another ranged champion appears healthier from Riot’s perspective than Ziggs holding the wave alone while Pyke runs across the map and pressures every other lane.
That shows what Riot is really targeting. Not every mage bot is problematic. It becomes problematic when the bot lane pick is mainly chosen because it completely frees the support from lane.
Community Criticism Was Closer Than Some Thought
The interesting takeaway is that part of the community was actually pretty close to Riot’s view. Riot is not only looking at champion win rates, but at the structure behind them: why do these picks work? What do they allow the support to do? And which roles lose agency as a result?
At the same time, mage bot remains its own issue in regular play, because some picks are easier to play and more forgiving than traditional ADCs. Riot therefore has to solve two things at once: mages should not become easy free-win laners, but bot lane diversity should remain.
In the end, the interview makes it clear that Riot is not simply working against mage bot. Riot is working against a specific version of it: bot laners who only waveclear so the support can win the real game on the map. If Riot hits that cleanly, mages may remain in bot lane, just not as the key that unlocks permanent roaming supports.