Not being absurdly broken doesn't mean you aren't viable. Being a niche pick doesn't mean you're not viable. Being a lot weaker than other champions doesn't mean you're not viable. Even Evelynn and Elise are plenty viable right now. There is not a single champion in the game right now that is 100% not able to perform well in any role at all.
Raptamei7 votesViable means able to be picked in ranked.
A champion that is strictly inferior than another is not able to be picked in a competitive game mode.
Elite4Runner5 votesViable means able to be picked in ranked.
A champion that is strictly inferior than another is not able to be picked in a competitive game mode.
Viable means capable of success or continuing effectiveness.
Every champion in the game is capable of being played in a role or multiple roles that can aid their team instead of exclusively hurting their chances of winning. A member of the team who decreases the chances of victory has more to do with the player, and their skill/comfort performing their roll with the selected champion than the champion itself.
I'm honestly not sure why this thread needed to be made because this should be obvious
warpenguin5554 votesPlayer skill over champion quality. aka blame the player not the champion. +1 for having good logic
Onimus Terlain3 votesEve and Elise are viable at losing.
Csfuser2 votesThe new Zilean with his bombs being skillshots and a little damage nerf is pretty trash tier, and I used to love playing Zilean mid or support. It's too hard to accurately land 2 consecutive, relatively short ranged skillshots on moving targets. Especially when going up against people with dashes.
Very Hard Engage2 votesim just going to go ahead and say if this were true then every champion would have an equal win rate in "random solo queue" where everyone picks their favorite champions every time and no one has any indication at all that this champion might be just a little bit op. OP is always considered in relation to what other champions.
thats what it all boils down to, people dont pick whats cool or what they like, they pick whats proven to be effective. i constantly browse games to watch and since veigars nerf in 5.4 there have only been a total of 6 games for me to watch. and out of all 6, veigar mid has fed in the diamond+ category. or should i mention his 9% win rate in master+ category? with the monthly average being just under 35%
pre 5.4 i was able to watch lots of veigar players, so tell me, how can veigar be a "viable pick" when no diamond+ player touches him anymore.
Elite4Runner2 votesim just going to go ahead and say if this were true then every champion would have an equal win rate in "random solo queue" where everyone picks their favorite champions every time and no one has any indication at all that this champion might be just a little bit op. OP is always considered in relation to what other champions.
thats what it all boils down to, people dont pick whats cool or what they like, they pick whats proven to be effective. i constantly browse games to watch and since veigars nerf in 5.4 there have only been a total of 6 games for me to watch. and out of all 6, veigar mid has fed in the diamond+ category. or should i mention his 9% win rate in master+ category? with the monthly average being just under 35%
pre 5.4 i was able to watch lots of veigar players, so tell me, how can veigar be a "viable pick" when no diamond+ player touches him anymore.
That's like saying that a Prius isn't a viable form of transportation because a Corvette is faster.
Very Hard Engage1 votesThat's like saying that a Prius isn't a viable form of transportation because a Corvette is faster.
unfortunately the only difference is the cost of the car, veigar is 1350, id much rather have a xerath on my team who is all around better in every way and costs 4800.
^.^ works both ways.
SmknWdl2 votesI love how the comments on this post dont get the point. Shyvana is a strong pick as a top laner. But I like to pick her as a jungle for her gap closing ultimate, chasing ability, high damage output, and general tankiness and jungle clear speed, making her a strong counter jungling pick. Ive been flamed at many games because aside from her unreliable ult, she has no cc. I pick her into teamcomps that already have cc, like leona or braum support, volibear or malphite top, and then like syndra mid or something... I also pick her against teams with assassin jungles like rengar who i know i can 1v1 in a fight, leaving me plenty of room to roam through their jungle, place wards, and steal camps. An entirely different scenario is fiora top lane... i pick her vs darius or garen, both who i can beat in short skirmishes. She works well against nasus too, as you just hard harass him when he goes to farm. Granted she does have her hard counters, like jax and panth, so she is a bit of a niche pick. I only pick her into games i know i can carry. She also can lane swap mid if needed... i like choosing mids and tops that can lane swap because it allows more flexibility into the team. I play a lot of yasuo for this reason. Pretty much every champ has a use (even bard; fizz uses him as shark bait for his ultimate)
Elite4Runner2 votesI will concede that there are 3 things that can render a champion 'non viable'
Team composition. Some champions do not compliment each other in laning phase, team fights, ... the whole game.
Matchups, or counter team composition. Some champions are weak at winning their lane, team fights against their counterpart on the other team
These two are decided in champion select
Lastly, and most importantly, player skill. The first two don't mean a damn thing if you are simply being outplayed.
ZeeDrakon1 votesNo champion is strictly a troll pick. But they arent viable at all. They have 40% winrate and theyre strictly inferior to alternatives. Theres no need to flame someone for playing them, but viability is something else
TheRakkun1 votes
are not viable
Skilled Theory1 votesVarus, enough said.
Nameless Voice1 votesI think most of the champion roster is actually balanced, but the reason a lot of champions are considered unviable is often not because those champions are very weak, but rather that a small selection of champions are overly strong and crowd out any competition.
It's like there's two tiers of champions - ones who are OP, who are "balanced" against other OP champions, and everyone else, who are balanced against each other.
(There are also a small handful that have been over-nerfed for various reasons, but those are actually very few champions.)
kile1471 votesSure all of them are viable, but a better way to put it is "why pick XX champion?". Every champion has a role in their team, and if for every role XX champ would be played there is another champ YY who can do that but better, why pick XX? You're right that there may not be a single champ in the game for whom that can be applied to across the board... But at a certain point the answer to that question becomes incredibly niche or lame, ex
"Why pick Elise 
?"
"Because I know the people on the other team and they are all arachnophobes"
