It seems like all everyone focuses on in picks now is early dominance, extremely high assassin damage, and mobility. LCS picks are so common it is somewhat boring to watch at this point. Is there ever going to be a shift from this?
RiotRiot Sotere3 votesI always hope we see more variety. Recently, Nocturne has been picking up steam and he tends to be a late game focused jungler. Likewise, Jax has seen a resurgence in top. Orianna also breaks the early game, assassin, mobility stereotype.
That said, the competitive scene will likely always focus on early game power because they are confident in their ability to win games provided an early lead.
Limakoko8083 votes4.5 has already showed some change in picks. With heal and exhaust so strong, passive midlaners are being picked more(like TF has shown a rise in popularity).
And strong lane bullies like renekton arent being picked as often because we rarely see standard lanes anymore. With the late invade, 4 man tower pushes, people can pick weaker early game champions like jax because they can farm for 20 minutes with little interruption.
And personally i would rather see early game action than 4 man tower pushes so the picks arent really whats is affecting how entertaining the competitive scene is, just the meta.
Sinspunch1 votessame could be said for 
. But thats not the point. I mean dont get me wrong i LIKE see her play again with the nerfs she has, considering Zions the ONLY one ive seen play her. All these common champs like 
etc just seem to show they are THE champions that prove dominance.
What happened to 
Theres ALL these champions that were played last season and yet they now just sit here. Why havent we seen them? They make good plays and comps. I like last seasons comps. they were actually fun to watch, now its just dull
Phoenix Kotori 1 votes All been played in Korean competitive play within the last week, the problem isn't the champs. The problem is the NA teams commonly sticking to same picks even more than other regions do, imo.
were seen at at IEM.
And let's be real.
were never truly competitive common pick and those junglers only saw play when they were truly OP.
While other of those champs are simple out of the meta. And a few too recently updated or released for teams to pick them up yet.
Catches Axes1 votesDoesn't that point to a fundamental problem with later game champs, then? If they're insufficiently better than the early game dominant champs to make up for the expected kill and objective lead, why HAVE champs that aren't designed around early game dominance?
RiotRiot Sotere3 votesThat balance is always going to be tricky. There are also a number of factors that complicate it. The main one that springs to my mind is professional play vs. solo queue. In solo queue most (if not all) "late game" champions are perfectly viable. But your team expects different things from you. It is a viable strategy to farm for 20 minutes in top lane in solo queue. In competitive, while your team may allow it, they may also prefer you participate in objective control earlier.
That all said, watching OGN semis and LCS playoffs these last two weeks makes me pretty happy about the pool of champions represented. Today, for instance, we had Jax picked up by C9 multiple times, knowing that he'd lose his early lane. The team had clearly concocted a strategy to ensure he wouldn't fall too far behind. They recognized their weak early to mid game, gave up some objectives, and it paid off for them.
tl;dr: Picking a champion who doesn't do well early is always going to be a risk. Professional players have a lot at stake for their games and are going to be more averse to risk than most.
Akava1 votesI believe itemization is part of the problem with this though. Right now, there is very little choice in terms of building for different points of the game. Everything with the exception of Doran's is built with end game in mind and the itemization power curve is the same for everything that's considered worthy of purchase.
I feel very strongly that if end game items had multiple build paths that focused on different power curves you could see some variety in champions even in competitive play.
Fomorian271 voteswait a second... Riot sotere? Are you the same sotere as the trinity force podcast? When did the Riot happen?
RiotRiot Sotere3 votesSame dude. Riot thing happened about 9 months ago. Sorry for the slow response!
Rapsei1 votesI'd love to see my main champions be played a lot more, such as Blitzcrank, Morgana, Zilean, and I wish they started to play under God Tier and Tier 1 ADC and Supports.
Jingerbeardman1 votesI still feel like Ori fits mobility with her W. It is not that I dont understand why they pick the way they do. They want the best advantage they can get in order to win and advance. This has always been the mainstay strategy to competitive gaming.
It is just disappointing when it is always a battle to get those few power picks and then fill in the gaps. I would like to see teams picking champs for team synergy and strategy. So long as the major deciding factors and scaling stays in the early game and laning i dont see that happening anytime soon unfortunately.
Phoenix Kotori 2 votespicks now is early dominance, extremely high assassin damage, and mobility.
Yup 
,
,and 
are early dominance, high damage assassins with tons of mobility.
Not late game scaling monsters who are weaker early game at all.
Also 
isn't assassin nor mobile at all and is a popular pick atm.
Though I could see arguement that is where junglers and bot lane to tend to go towards it in the LSC, since it doesn't see near as much 
as OGN has been seeing lately.
Right after I post this CLG takes
Jingerbeardman1 votesjax has excellent mobility, Ryze can be considered high damage, and karthus is... well he is karthus. extremely high assassin damage is the ability to 100-0 a carry with little effort which both jax and ryze are capable of.
Soraka has an extremely powerful early and mid game.
Jinx vayne and twitch all have bonus mobility in their kits, Jinx has a much more demanding cost to hers but it is an incredible boost in speed.
I also only said LCS.
Sonimus2 votesI remember when TF and Shen were picked or banned every game, and Jarvan was the go-to default jungler in the na summer split. I look forward to what the meta will lean to next, preferably with Lulu mid being dead
Thales1 votesPicks do change, and fairly dramatically. It's just that they do over a longer timeframe than it's easy to keep in mind. It's true that picks will remain somewhat stagnant within a patch, but the champion pool has a lot of turnover. And it's not just from a specific champion getting buffed or what-have-you. Look at Soraka, who has suddenly risen to permaban status without any changes in months!
Remember earlier this season when Taric was the dominant force in bot lane? Or how Lissandra's fortunes (admittedly mostly on EU for some reason) have ebbed and flowed? Lux's rise? There's only a handful of champs that have never seen LCS play, a list that grew smaller recently when Heimer saw play in top lane.
To be sure, there are champs like Lee Sin and Orianna who have remained perennial contenders in the LCS. They tend to be flexible and very high skill cap. And there's champs who aren't going to see much LCS play unless they're just plain overtuned. Amumu and Malzahar, though very powerful, have sufficiently exploitable weaknesses that they won't be able to compete against the best and most coordinated players.
But still, the champion pool isn't as stagnant as it sometimes seems. It has changed radically, even if not day-to-day.