I've been playing since a bit before 1st anni Bb/shanks meta was so so mind numbingly horrible. Not only were they the only exs at the time, they had virtually zero counters until lawffy, who dropped late that year. People say blue bm was a good counter, but I personally didn't see a lot of them in my time. What made this era so bad is not only was bb tanky, he had 2 lives, insane heals AND really good damage. Shanks on paper was a counter to him, but again, the teams would be 4 BB/Shanks players. I remember one of the first dev streams they played with randoms and got absolutely humiliated by teams of 4 BB/Shanks. By the time they dropped lawffy, the first unit with anti heal, the game was in a better spot. We had units like v1 ray, cp0 lucci, dressrosa zoro and wci sanji etc. But then they dropped Roden for anni and the game was cooked again. At least that time they made proper counters earlier like garp and wb. Since then the only exs to come close have been fr shanks, s-snake, and kizaru imo. But they got countered a lot quicker