The process of finding surprising competitive picks
Riot·4/9/2015, 10:34:11 PM·0 votes·2,087 views
In the LCS format, where teams only play each other twice in a split, not only is each win critical, but each game is completely isolated. Teams do not play back to back games against each other until the Playoffs, making the impact of one-off or surprise strategies much more impactful.
Players like Gravity’s Lae-Young “Keane” Jang, Team 8’s Steven “Calitrlolz” Kim, Team Impulse’s Xian “XiaoWeiXiao” Yu and Team Liquid’s Diego “Quas” Ruiz have made their mark by consistently surprising their opponents with new and unique champions like Hecarim, Malphite, AP Corki, and Swain, respectively. But how do these players find new champions to play? What is the process of bringing an off-meta pick to the LCS stage?
In Week 8 of the North American LCS, Keane and Gravity faced Team SoloMid. TSM had just returned from their victory at the Intel Extreme Masters Championship in Katowice, and didn't have enough time to properly research Keane’s current champion pool. Gravity took advantage of this by pulling out Urgot. The off-meta pick completely caught TSM off guard, allowing Gravity to pick up an upset win.
Like Keane’s Urgot, an off-meta pick is any champion that is either rarely played competitively, or is used in a new way.
LCS pros rely heavily on their experience, and by bringing out a new pick, Gravity took away TSM’s experience advantage. TSM seemingly had no idea how to play around Urgot in team fights, and did not know how to predict his damage and survivability in lane. Its all about identifying the meta game and discovering ways to counter its strengths.
Keane identified the current meta game as “tanks with a lot of crowd control.” If you look at the past few weeks, you can see this for yourself in the champions that are seeing more play. Sejuani has become a highly contested jungler, players are bringing beefy champions like Urgot and Cho’Gath to the mid lane, and Cloud9’s Daerek “LemonNation” Hart won’t stop playing Nautilus at support.
Keane explained that the Urgot pick was inspired by a post on the League of Legends subreddit. He then took the idea to his team to begin the vetting process. “We try out new picks in scrims first,” he said, “and if it works really well, we play those champions in the LCS.” When Reddit isn’t making good recommendations, Keane turns to his peers across the world for inspiration. “I usually look up op.gg and YouTube for one trick ponies in NA and Korea."
The players of Team Impulse also acknowledged the importance of following other leagues. “Coach sometimes suggests some new picks after watching matches of other regions,” said Yoonjae “Rush” Lee. The team’s AD carry Apollo “Apollo” Price added that he and the team’s coach Sang Chul Kim will discuss what the coach believes will be strong. If Apollo likes the idea, he will “normally practice it in ranked, and look up some other pros that might be playing the same.” However, Apollo added that this process does not apply to the team’s star mid laner. “It doesn’t matter if he plays it in scrims or not, we just play what XiaoWeiXiao wants.”
While Team Liquid certainly follows the goings on in League of Legends across the world, their coach Peter Zhang prefers a more methodical approach to finding new picks.
He said that the team will examine the latest patch notes to see which champions received buffs. He will then send the players to solo queue to see how the champions work with their new changes.
If the player feels good about the champions, Team Liquid will then try it out in scrims. Should the pick meet expectations throughout this process, it will then see play on the LCS stage.
Zhang mentioned that the team also uses this process for champions who receive nerfs in order to determine if they should still see LCS play.
While they certainly play more games than most, Keane, XiaoWeiXiao, and the rest are by no means the only League of Legends players who can discover strong off-meta picks. In fact, once you know what to look for, you too can identify which champions are equipped with the tools to catch your opponents off guard.
Both Apollo and Keane recommended trying things out in Solo Queue, but both players also took time to note the importance of trying to counter the current meta game.
Once you’ve identified the meta, how do you break it? For the patch 5.6 meta game, Apollo recommends finding champions who deal damage based on a percentage of the enemy’s health.
Tanks often stack large amounts of health, so these abilities will be enhanced by being used on high health tanks. This is why another off-meta pick, Hai “Hai” Lam’s mid lane Jarvan, was so successful. Jarvan’s passive, Martial Cadence, causes his basic attacks to deal additional damage based on the opponent’s current health.
As counterpicks are discovered, old strategies give way to new. With League's constant cycle of nerfs and buffs, old favorites will resurface, while current popular picks fade into obscurity. The meta game is constantly shifting and evolving, allowing for new champions to arise again and again.
The LCS pros know how to stay one step ahead of the meta, and now you can too. Who knows, you could be the one to discover the next Urgot mid. Perhaps you’ll even be able to predict what new and unique champions we’ll see in the upcoming Spring Split Playoffs. Be sure to tune in to Lolesports to find out!
Inspiration Is Everywhere
In Week 8 of the North American LCS, Keane and Gravity faced Team SoloMid. TSM had just returned from their victory at the Intel Extreme Masters Championship in Katowice, and didn't have enough time to properly research Keane’s current champion pool. Gravity took advantage of this by pulling out Urgot. The off-meta pick completely caught TSM off guard, allowing Gravity to pick up an upset win.
Like Keane’s Urgot, an off-meta pick is any champion that is either rarely played competitively, or is used in a new way.
LCS pros rely heavily on their experience, and by bringing out a new pick, Gravity took away TSM’s experience advantage. TSM seemingly had no idea how to play around Urgot in team fights, and did not know how to predict his damage and survivability in lane. Its all about identifying the meta game and discovering ways to counter its strengths.
Keane identified the current meta game as “tanks with a lot of crowd control.” If you look at the past few weeks, you can see this for yourself in the champions that are seeing more play. Sejuani has become a highly contested jungler, players are bringing beefy champions like Urgot and Cho’Gath to the mid lane, and Cloud9’s Daerek “LemonNation” Hart won’t stop playing Nautilus at support.
Keane explained that the Urgot pick was inspired by a post on the League of Legends subreddit. He then took the idea to his team to begin the vetting process. “We try out new picks in scrims first,” he said, “and if it works really well, we play those champions in the LCS.” When Reddit isn’t making good recommendations, Keane turns to his peers across the world for inspiration. “I usually look up op.gg and YouTube for one trick ponies in NA and Korea."
The players of Team Impulse also acknowledged the importance of following other leagues. “Coach sometimes suggests some new picks after watching matches of other regions,” said Yoonjae “Rush” Lee. The team’s AD carry Apollo “Apollo” Price added that he and the team’s coach Sang Chul Kim will discuss what the coach believes will be strong. If Apollo likes the idea, he will “normally practice it in ranked, and look up some other pros that might be playing the same.” However, Apollo added that this process does not apply to the team’s star mid laner. “It doesn’t matter if he plays it in scrims or not, we just play what XiaoWeiXiao wants.”
Strength From Analysis
While Team Liquid certainly follows the goings on in League of Legends across the world, their coach Peter Zhang prefers a more methodical approach to finding new picks.
He said that the team will examine the latest patch notes to see which champions received buffs. He will then send the players to solo queue to see how the champions work with their new changes.
If the player feels good about the champions, Team Liquid will then try it out in scrims. Should the pick meet expectations throughout this process, it will then see play on the LCS stage.
Zhang mentioned that the team also uses this process for champions who receive nerfs in order to determine if they should still see LCS play.
Please Try This At Home
While they certainly play more games than most, Keane, XiaoWeiXiao, and the rest are by no means the only League of Legends players who can discover strong off-meta picks. In fact, once you know what to look for, you too can identify which champions are equipped with the tools to catch your opponents off guard.
Both Apollo and Keane recommended trying things out in Solo Queue, but both players also took time to note the importance of trying to counter the current meta game.
Once you’ve identified the meta, how do you break it? For the patch 5.6 meta game, Apollo recommends finding champions who deal damage based on a percentage of the enemy’s health.
Tanks often stack large amounts of health, so these abilities will be enhanced by being used on high health tanks. This is why another off-meta pick, Hai “Hai” Lam’s mid lane Jarvan, was so successful. Jarvan’s passive, Martial Cadence, causes his basic attacks to deal additional damage based on the opponent’s current health.
As counterpicks are discovered, old strategies give way to new. With League's constant cycle of nerfs and buffs, old favorites will resurface, while current popular picks fade into obscurity. The meta game is constantly shifting and evolving, allowing for new champions to arise again and again.
The LCS pros know how to stay one step ahead of the meta, and now you can too. Who knows, you could be the one to discover the next Urgot mid. Perhaps you’ll even be able to predict what new and unique champions we’ll see in the upcoming Spring Split Playoffs. Be sure to tune in to Lolesports to find out!