Thеrе is а diffеrеnсе bеtwееn "оff mеtа" аnd "tеrriblе piсks".

Haha well, if you really want to be great at this game (or any MOBA game, for that matter), you gotta be a Jack of all Trades when it comes to the many diverse heroes. You gotta try them all! No matter what happens, that's the challenge though. You have to find a way to win with a severely outclassed hero, and you need to out-think your opponents. The great ones can beat anybody with any hero, and you should try to do it too.

 

I agree. I think the main difference is that some players are skilled enough that seemingly bad picks can turn out to be just off meta picks because they are able to play them competently at the very least. We also have to consider that sometimes we might just be unfortunate enough to be part of the experimentation process as it is entirely possible that these players will someday make a new off meta off of these picks but everyone has to go through the initial stage of experimentation and making mistakes.

 

Eh, some metas came about because people were willing to experiment. While I don't think this should be done in ranked it's definitely something that shouldn't be taken too seriously in unranked games.

 

I think trying out different heroes to have fun is what ultimately ends up changing the meta. If people always stuck with the same overplayed heroes the competitive scene wouldn't evolve. I'm all for going for the best heroes in competition, but you might find that trying out the "bad" heroes ends up with discovering a good way to make it more useful than people think it is.

 

I'm all against the meta and I think everyone should play how they feel best, but to refer to usual terms, I'll be talking about "breaking the meta" as every single League player understands it. Yes, there's a huge difference between breaking the meta and being utterly stupid. Breaking the meta means simply playing a champion out of the 15-Most-Played Champions Pool on a role that you think fits him the best in that moment, for the mere reason of having fun or even for trying to surprise your enemy with a strong attack (Wukong mid is a really strong pick, especially against squishy mages). On the contrary, playing AP Urgot with Ignite and Clarity means you have no idea about what that champion focuses on and what he's trying to achieve, and for that reason you shouldn't try to play it.
I am for breaking the meta and as I said, I don't care about the meta at all. Play what you want, as long as you don't prove being useless and in need to be carried.

 

Agreed. I think experimentation should be encouraged as it evolves the meta and it's just generally fun to discover and figure out new mixes of champions and items. It's also kind of interesting to see how the whole scene changes when there is something discovered on stream or in tournaments.

 

Yeah, definitely, I always refer to a certain Pokemon tournament whenever the meta discussion comes up. Some guy decided to use Pachirisu, who is considered extremely weak in the Pokemon meta. Somehow he ended up winning the tournament and Pachirisu played a huge role in his wins. It's always good to challenge the current meta, even if some losses inevitably come of it.

 

Yep, too many people throw out the "the meta isn't everything!" card, and then proceed to do something like AP jihn.

I've actually gotten destroyed by a wukong mid before as a Kassadin, so personally I'm pretty scared whenever I see one go mid. But there are other picks that literally just don't work. Things like Veigar jungle, or Yasuo adc (bot lane) at a higher elo game.

 

I think this is a statement that holds true for high elo, but less true for lower elos. Say I'm smurfing and I play AP Tryndamere toplane. Regardless of whether or not I feed on AP Trynd is irrelevant to my pick being troll or not. It comes down to if I was actually trying to fulfill the roles that my team needs from me in that position with the champion I picked. It might not always work, but it doesn't mean it's troll as long as the person is trying.

 

Totally agree with you. There's champion that are rarely used, but they can still be usefull, while there's other that are just bad because they don't fit the team. Or they're just plain bad in every case.

 

Yeah, Soraka mid with ghost/tp is just a troll that has no business and just wants to ruin a game, I play unconventional picks on mid everytime (Quinn, Vayne and so on) but I play to win and I don't troll.

 

Remember when PhantomL0rd used to play Karthus with Revive and Heal? I wouldn't think he was neither "off meta" nor "trolling" and he was truly carrying games. If you happen to want to play something that most people would be opposed to, that's fine, go ahead and mute them should they flame you. Play whatever you want, guys!

 

I do agree with this. It's okay to pick whatever champ you like and whatever skill as long as you won't just go trolling. Not in a sense that you would carry the game but feeding on purpose and doing bad moves whenever there is a clash would be really annoying.