In Silver and Gold elo, do counter picks really mater? I main ADC and am wondering how relevant counter picking is. I feel like I've been counter picked many times, but still came out ahead (and vise versa). I can play a variety of champs bot lane so I'm never concerned about having my picks banned or being counter picked, but in these tiers should I even worry about counter picks or just play what I am good at?
It doesn't matter much in botlane, every champ played is ranged, unlike in toplane, where locking in a 0 mobility champ like darius into Quinn or teemo is unplayable.
I can throw an example game out to you (one that irritated the crap out of me)
https://blitz.gg/lol/match/na1/Illabethe/3249336228
Short story:
Xayah fed so fast, that both Senna and Caitlyn had a full item by 8 minutes! (I died once prior to 8 minutes as collateral damage to her 3 minute yolo duel, while killing Caitlyn in the process)
Needless to say, no matter what I did as Soraka, it didn't matter, because I had 2 600+ range adcs who could basically trade off anything, and were item fed because of the 0/3 by 8 minutes Xayah. Senna's stacks didn't really explode (80 at 24 minutes), but she had plenty of control to counter my heals, and whatever she didn't finish, Caitlyn could.
They had the snowball, and the game was more or less decided because while Senna could get kills/assists, I couldn't get a significant income as Soraka post T3 support item, and the opportunity to gain some kills was already long gone (If Soraka's going to get kill income, it has to be early)
It's the difference in momentum between 54% Kill participation and 74% kill participation.
I hit gold simply by playing xayah/vayne
a couple of matchups are probably best avoided but most often I just pick whichever one syndergises best with my support that i can play well.
Yes and no, they matter in a sense of balance of champions having match ups they win or lose but down there, skill is so far all over the board that it doesn’t matter
Counterpicks in League matter to a degree, but they're never too significant that they can't be overcome or even be in favor of the person countered. This is even more the case in low elo when people don't always know why certain champions are counterpicks to others, and that lack of knowledge can sometimes flip who counters who.
I wouldn't bother with them too much. Ban the champions you personally cannot deal with, rather than the ones that stats say counter your champion. And don't bother counterpicking unless you know how to play the champion you're counterpicking with.
