Larry and Lawrie reign - A character that seriously refuses to fall off.

Oh the Mr. rules and Mr. bad cop. Ever since their addition way over a year ago they have endlessly plagued the meta.

Sure he was blatant broken stat-wise on release, but after all the nerfs how has he managed to retain his position?

On the surface his stats don't look all too crazy, 5.6k HP is pretty bulky for a thrower, 1.4k damage with mediocre DPS but very high burst an an ultimate that fires literal water as projectiles.

Yeah. On the surface.
Larry is by far one of the most, if not outright the most versatile character in the game. His attack is great at holding chokes whilst not sacrificing a lot of lethality (unlike Barely or tick) and is amazing at chipping away (typically landing the first hit guarantees a second hit.)
Additionally his attack's arc is distance based meaning up close it's instant hit, making Larry close to unapproachable and very reliable at denying approaching.
Oh he also has fast movement speed for some... reason..?

Buuut his ult suuuucks! ...R-right? RIGHT?
Hell nah. Lawrie is one of the better ults in the game. Sure it can't 1v1 a brawler but that's not what it's meant to do. This ult's sheer area denial by just EXISTING in your hand is something way too many people gloss over. As if Larry was already not hard enough to approach, Lawrie LITERALLY makes it impossible for 90% of the cast.

But that's not where it ends! Lawrie can be used to make space, shift tempo, tank bullets, waste ammo, help your teammates. Oh and it doesn't end there either! You have a gadget which heals the both of you 25% AND grants you agency over your deployable's movement, allowing you to essentially waste even MORE ammo! Or use the gadget to run away from an assassin! Hell, it can even make YOU the assassin!

You only need 8 hits to get it btw. (4 ammo)

Oh and also, his 2ND starpower erases any tank.

"B-but how do I draft him! I-it must be so hard!!!"
Literally firstpick him any thrower-oriented map. He's very difficult to entirely shut down him, even with traditional counters such as aggressive comps or even other throwers, he still provides some utility, so it's generally hard to punish a Larry first pick. Hell, you can even last pick him if the opponents don't have good shutdown for Larry specifically. This guy can LITERALLY hold lobbies hostage.

He's exceptionally weak to being outranged (so open maps with marksmen, throwers like tick, grom, or grass juju) as a lot of his power (Gadget, starpower, and well, the ult itself) are tied to Lawrie existing on the field.

If you have not already, do yourself a favour and upgrade this guy.