Stop picking champions you don't know how to play just to counter the enemy.

L0ve Is Blue·Jul 3, 2016·128 votes·5,548 views

Title. Like, please stop!! If the enemy goes Zed and you were going to play Lux who you have 50K mastery on, don't switch to Lissandra that you have played 3 times just because she counters him. I'd rather have you playing a champion you know and be actualy usefull even if you lose lane instead of having you trying to figure out how to play your champion in ranked. Skills>Counter. If you know your champion you can win even against your hardest counter. God, how many yasuo's have I destroyed as just because I know how to hit them through their E and use my combo when their W is down.

63 Comments

Mecha MaIphiteJul 3, 201643 votes

In addition, it's also really embarassing if you lose to someone you should counter, just because you don't know how to play your champ.

IcyPepperJul 3, 20169 votes

Not to mention there's more to the game than the laning phase...

L0ve Is BlueJul 3, 201612 votes

I'd have to admit that lanning does have way more impact than it did before because of the shortened games, I still rarely get full build even with the changes to tower and death timers, and snowball is still very present.

Bob BardoliniJul 3, 20162 votes

That's most likely due to some players are new (1 season active max) and don't have enough knowledge about the champion's database - who is early,mid,late game, power spikes and so on. The other key reason for the stomps are just in my opinion the boosted players all around platinums(cuz its cheaper than boost directly to diamond - but even these drop to platinum 99% of the time within a week so). 1 more thing is that all the current changes about champion rework/nerfs/buffs are focused primarily for competitive play and changing the meta for every split pro players play. So in this way competitive scene will be more entertaining for both - audience and players themselves. Rito's goal is not to balance out uncoordinated soloq games. Its all about the competitive play.

1 Example = Swain! Before rework Swain was still just as strong as it is now. The changes in heal amount is good. But he came now in the meta as very strong pick overall just because they add 1 more AoE ability = His Q. Which was single target slow and has no point to use it on wave clear( Before rework swain wave clear was terrible and costed so much mana to do so). Now after changes his Q is an AoE zone who applies damage and slow to 1 target at a time, but switching to next target if 1st one dies.

Just to mention that prerework swain with some decent AP - his healing scaling was super strong as well. This season one of the new items fits extremely well on Swain boosting his ultimate even more by giving mana back or the other one who heals for % of the mana spent. So i think the biggest change now about Swain is that he doesnt lack of wave clear anymore due to changes of his Q. And thats one of the key aspects of mid and top laners which can give you breathing time even in hard match up. Not everything is about killin enemy 1v1. For that we have custom games and 1v1 online tournaments. ;)

EndlessSorcererJul 3, 20169 votes

The other key reason for the stomps are just in my opinion the boosted players all around platinums(cuz its cheaper than boost directly to diamond

Honestly, I'd say Dynamic Queue itself is responsible for how stompy matches have been recently.

In the previous season, I'd typically see everyone within a game be within about three divisions of one another (unless a duo-queue differed greatly). As such, the approximate skill level of the players was rather similar within a match.

Now that Dynamic Queue allows premade groups, it is possible to have players within about 10 divisions of one another (or two full tiers) within a game. This can lead to uneven lane match-ups (i.e. Platinum 1 vs Gold 5 Top, Gold 5 vs Platinum 1 Mid, etc).

While the overall skill level between the two teams is generally similar, lane match-ups can be very uneven, resulting in the better player in those lanes snowballing and crushing their opponent.

EddardStark84Jul 3, 20164 votes

Yep, but according to RIOT, this only affects High Elo. Whatever.

NarasimhaJul 3, 20164 votes

Eh, to be fair, most lane counters switch over well into the team fight phase. Zed can't do much if he's locked down by Lissandra or his target is protected by Kayle, for example.

IcyPepperJul 4, 20162 votes

That is indeed true. It really depends if you leave a crippling flaw in your team composition.

Quinn top, for example, is lauded as a counter for many a melee champion (or at least she used to, I'm not really sure right now so correct me if I'm wrong) but can leave a serious lack of a frontline if the jungler and/or midlaner (for the rare AP bruiser) does not consider their picks as well.

I guess hard counters are more influential past the laning phase.

JofeyyJul 3, 20169 votes

LOL Lux with summoner 21 counters Zed tho

L0ve Is BlueJul 3, 201623 votes

Lux with summoner 21 counters pretty much anyone tbh XD

RocketRelmJul 4, 20162 votes

Morgana

My personal favorite mid here, I don't see enough Immobile Mids anymore but I love playing into them.

Jeanne fan clubJul 4, 20161 votes

I prefer summoner 3 myself honestly, it has more uses and can translate into a pick or kill.

QuantumPantherJul 3, 20166 votes

[slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

This has been a PSA

Wild GeeseJul 3, 20162 votes

Knowing enough champions so you can counterpick or break even without picking somebody you don't know is best. Should be covered by knowing about 4 or 5 per lane.

L0ve Is BlueJul 3, 20161 votes

Of course if you know how to play a champion that counters your enemy, you would be leggit retard not to pick him and pick someone that is countered by yout enemy.

Wild GeeseJul 3, 20161 votes

Which is why it's a good idea to learn what the counter picks even are. I've had people pick Darius into my Quinn , I feel bad for them - They don't know what they're doing.

So there's a certain phase where people need to learn counterpicks, learn enough champions so they aren't forced into a bad situation. But if they're just going to go first listed on champion select net every time they'll be bronze 5 0lp eternal.

MunchCrunchLunchJul 4, 20161 votes

[{quoted}](name=Wild Geese,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=2xAgdU4m,comment-id=000600000000,timestamp=2016-07-03T22:00:04.174+0000)

Which is why it's a good idea to learn what the counter picks even are. I've had people pick into my , I feel bad for them - They don't know what they're doing.

So there's a certain phase where people need to learn counterpicks, learn enough champions so they aren't forced into a bad situation. But if they're just going to go first listed on champion select net every time they'll be bronze 5 0lp eternal.

umm. but quinn does counter darius.

ChoaruJul 4, 20161 votes

Yes but they have probably played so many darius vs quinn match ups that they know what they are doing when they have to face them :P

Wild GeeseJul 4, 20161 votes

I killed him around 5 times before 10 minutes so not so much. :D

Fox ByteJul 4, 20161 votes

It says "picked Darius into _my _Quinn" which I assume means they are the one's playing Quinn. =3 Which means they feel bad that whoever is picking Darius doesn't realize that Quinn is a hard counter to Darius.

4789Jul 4, 20162 votes

I actually think it's a good way to learn the champion and ur mistakes cuz u tend to play more carefully and pay more attention ( but not in ranked, no that's awful)

Obungo Jul 4, 20162 votes

Veigar

Ziggs Zed Yasuo Fizz

Bitch please*[slayer-pantheon-popcorn]*

ChoaruJul 4, 20162 votes

My main is Shaco and i love when the enemy picks LeeSin B) It either goes like this:

shits on my whole team and we all sit in a corner and QQ
doesn't have as much or atleast is equal with my early game pressure but might game I proceed to kill him and his carry whenever i get the chance >:V

Lady HammerlockJul 3, 20161 votes

And how Many Yasuo i've crushed with Katarina,rush cloth,dodge the tornado and roam get ahead kill the yasuo,buy item 3143 / item 3068 to legit fuck with him because they are actually good defense items on her

The DeckownerJul 4, 20161 votes

Especially when counters in legue is not s absolute as dota.

Blue Moon WolfJul 4, 20161 votes

I think the problem is the preconceived notion that "you HAVE to pick a champ that counters the opponent, regardless of your knowledge of said champ". Personally, I think you should be able to play a champ that is countered by the enemy if you understand exactly what you need to do so you don't get wrecked by the enemy, but it feels like Riot tries to enforce the idea of "the game is won in champ select", so we have people who will pick a champ just cause they know they counter the enemy without the faintest idea of how to use them.

Supreme Senpai69Jul 4, 20161 votes

I've done that as Morgana against Blitzrank, but only because otherwise my ADC faces death every 14 seconds.

ArthimetesJul 4, 20161 votes

I love picking only to see the enemy pick a Leblanc but have no idea how to play her.

Man it feels good stomping a leblanc.

warpenguin555Jul 4, 20161 votes

dont forget that counters only matter during lane for the most part. after that its mostly skill

MunchCrunchLunchJul 4, 20161 votes

this happens way too many times. you don't know how bad i've beaten kayles as darius.

The Lone BardJul 4, 20161 votes

I truly love playing Draven against Caitlyn sometimes i even counter pick myself

cornpirdeJul 4, 20161 votes

today i learned Nami top actually counters a nice chuck of the top lane pool because people dont know what to do when they see the fish top lane lols xD

YoungKawaiiLordJul 4, 20161 votes

untrue...just gotta pick the people you cant fuck up with like Malphite ...legit barely play him but almost always win when i pick to counter with him

SaiannaJul 4, 20161 votes

(Unless it's Zed. You can pick Zed. Even left shoe would carry with Zed)

Serika ZeroJul 4, 20161 votes

Or just ban Zed, he is sitting at 80% ban ration for a reason. And its generally not the mid laner that is "having problems with Zed"

SpoofghoulJul 4, 20161 votes

not goign to post a 70 pages long rant here but

Sion is my best zed counter, hes actually very good into alot of assassins.

the only thing you have to watch out for is early on when you are still sort of squishy beyond that this champion pretty much counters everything an assassin wants to do.

theres a couple of em that are difficult due to the nature of their kits like ahri and yasuo

PiVoRxJul 4, 20161 votes

so each time i get mid i should go with yi anyway?

L0ve Is BlueJul 4, 20161 votes

If you don't know how to play mid don't play it or play norms

MrHaZeYoJul 4, 20161 votes

Well 1, I personally think Yas is easy to face as Syn. and 2, how else do you learn the match up lol.

L0ve Is BlueJul 4, 20162 votes

1- Yasuo can block Syndra's only CC and the totality of her ultimate if he times his W correctly. And he has all the mobility he needs to dodge her skillshot only kit.

2- Look up champion counters online

MrHaZeYoJul 4, 20161 votes

Its called out playing frand. I agree Yas should win that match up lol. Doesn't mean I think its hard to beat a Yas as Syn lol.

Looking up the counters doesn't give you the effect of playing out the match up, shit even doing 10 times isn't enough. I used to have to play Syn against Yas 3-6 times a day, prolly why I think it's easy to me. Ofc if I play against a Yas who is flat out better than me I'll prolly get stomped, but that doesn't mean I'm scared of the match up lol.

Toplane FencerJul 5, 20161 votes

How many games did you play a day?

MrHaZeYoJul 7, 20161 votes

Idk I play anywhere from 6-12 games a day, depending on the day and how I feel, this was back when Yas was the FoM.

SlashStrikerJul 4, 20161 votes

i pick Yi MasterYi enemy picks riven Riven

enemy team after 10 minutes in game: REPORT RIVEN!

Sun Wukong SunJul 4, 20161 votes

My Wukong will destroy any > Darius Garen Illaoi LeeSin Nasus Sion Volibear Trundle XinZhao Udyr

How I normally beat Darius - start with item 3074 then item 3068 item 3065 item 3072 item 3071 When he gets me down to 30% of my max health, I run behind my turret, through my jungle to mid lane, cross to the other side, kill midlaner, recall and TP top. After doing that 2 or 3 times I have more gold and experience, then I can straight up wail on Darius and out trade him.

Also puts his mid-laner on tilt. "Noob Darius losing lane to Wukong." "This Darius must be retarded, doesn't know how to ping MIA."

When his only response is, "I'm winning lane and destroying him, I thought he recalled."

Then I take his turret before he takes mine because I'm stronger due to midlane kills. This also boost my midlaner and we have a double steamroll thing going and now the jungler only has to watch bottom lane.

Xenos11111Jul 4, 20161 votes

Well, I picked first time Vladimir to counter Veigar. It worked.

Doctor Doom 12Jul 5, 20161 votes

It kind of ticks me off when people on the enemy team or on my team pick champs just because they are considered freelo or op, such as Swain and Vladimir, when they do not know how to play them at all and end up feeding . . .

TyrekGoldenspearJul 6, 20161 votes

A situation actually happened to me yesterday. I main JarvanIV top, and the enemy team picked Swain top. (I could tell he was going top because they instalocked Zed when nobody banned him.)

I was the last pick, so I was seriously temped to look up Swain and play a counter champ. But I decided instead to play a champ I'm good at. So I stuck to my guns and picked JarvanIV .

Needless to say it was a pretty one-sided lane. I couldn't get anywhere near Swain without getting birds thrown at me, and all my poke was just healed away. So instead of trying to win lane I decided to help out the other lanes. My jungler Malphite and I helped Yasuo keep Zed at bay and I summoner 12 ganked bot a couple of times to help take their tower. Eventually I got tanky and get Yasuo fed, and he tore up the enemy team easily, including the Swain I had trouble with laning phase. I mostly delegated myself to disrupting their Zed and Cait with a well timed ult after he used his shadow to keep him in one spot long enough to get killed.

We won the game much to our surprise considering they had Zed and Morgana while we had an inexperienced Sivir bot, and toplane was pretty much counterpicked, but just goes to show what teamwork can do.