League is the most boring MOBA. Prove me wrong?

Korica Riftaxe·Jan 27, 2015·1 votes·2,433 views

Perusing through old threads in the Archive from the older (better) forums when I came across old stuff from 2011. It was just after the first big Dreamhack tournament when roaming AP Alistar was shown off and Gragas was proved to actually be useful. But people weren't as concerned with that as they were with this strange new meta, which seemed to always include a Carry down bot with a Support taking no last hits, along with consistent (basically mandatory) junglers and a tanky solo top.

Here we are 4 years later and the meta hasn't changed. It's only gotten worse. Riot has gone to great lengths to balance around this meta, specifically enforcing the setup with every single balance change, item change, and map change.

19 Comments

BlackTh0ughtzJan 27, 20155 votes

Boring is an opinion. Kick rocks. Play something else

GrombleJan 27, 20154 votes

whats wrong with a meta? To me this complaint is like "herp, why do baseball teams have short stops?"

Korica RiftaxeJan 27, 20151 votes

{quoted}

whats wrong with a meta? To me this complaint is like "herp, why do baseball teams have short stops?"

Perhaps you've never played other MOBAs, but in many, there is no set meta. You can use different strategies. You can have a team with no carries if you decide to all play pushers and kill towers before the carry gets farm. You can choose to shut the carry down by picking ganking heroes. You can counter those previous strategies by choosing a bunch of strong AOE ultimates and pushing every time you wipe them.

RaptameiJan 27, 20152 votes

[{quoted}](name=Korica Riftaxe,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=3RrrsFNP,comment-id=00000000,timestamp=2015-01-27T06:35:24.012+0000)

Perhaps you've never played other MOBAs, but in many, there is no set meta. You can use different strategies. You can have a team with no carries if you decide to all play pushers and kill towers before the carry gets farm. You can choose to shut the carry down by picking ganking heroes. You can counter those previous strategies by choosing a bunch of strong AOE ultimates and pushing every time you wipe them.

Other mobas are much more about strategy but to the detriment of equal fights.

In DotA, you can easily find stuff to put into a lane that will completely shut out the enemy laner. That's how you win the lane. In League you win the lane by picking a similar champion and fighting better.

In DotA, rat doto strats avoid combat completely. If you're better at not fighting than the enemy is at starting fights you win, but if fights do happen they're a foregone conclusion. Etc.

Most importantly, most people play these games to get keelz and in DotA the focus on team strategy can easily overshadow or invalidate personal skill.

GrombleJan 27, 20151 votes

well if most don't have a set meta, then perhaps that is what makes league so fun. I look at the meta as just a mix of natural and artificial selection. I really support this because it makes it more like a sport. I don't get bored at all when I play this cause you have new teammates and enemies every match and if you want to learn another champ you just move on.

frigginmurlocsSep 22, 20151 votes

Yes why do baseball teams have a player set in the rules over a hundred years ago and is mandatory in the team comp of every professional baseball team

AlljoyJan 27, 20154 votes

You change the meta, people bitchmoan.

You keep the meta, people bitchmoan.

Ergo, people bitchmoan regardless.

Korica RiftaxeJan 27, 20151 votes

{quoted}

You change the meta, people bitchmoan.

You keep the meta, people bitchmoan.

Ergo, people bitchmoan regardless.

It's not about CHANGING the meta, it's about trying not to have one. The best meta is no meta, because then people are free to try out new things.

AlljoyJan 27, 20151 votes

Everything has and will always have a meta, or rather the most efficient way of accomplishing a specific task with the resources at hand in a given situation.

If you're playing with four other friends, you can definitely try something out of the norm given enough practice and co-ordination, but the fact remains that in SoloQ, as far as I know, the current meta tends to be the most efficient strategy available for everyone to fit into and follow considering you have little to no time to actually sit down and revise your entire teamplay.

LongFur FoxJan 27, 20154 votes

The meta is there for a reason and no matter what you argue every other established moba also has a meta (yes this includes dota 2) it might just not be as solid due to being a relatively new game or if the game is getting major patches frequently.

Korica RiftaxeJan 27, 20151 votes

Dota is not new, it's super old. And it doesn't get patches frequently. They do a big patch maybe twice a year. It most certainly does not have a set meta. Sometimes you have a team of 4 carries and initiator. Sometimes you have global gankers and pushers. It varies wildly from game to game.

Visage is at the very bottom of the popularity list and he was the most frequently picked character in the pro tournaments, despite having not been picked almost at all in the previous tournament.

LongFur FoxJan 28, 20151 votes

Sorry for the confusion english is not my main language. I never meant to say dota 2 was new just that it had a meta.

Also i would say a big patch twice a year is decently often. The season start patch in lol almost always changes the meta in some way.

Anyway to take your examples:

Sometimes you have a team of 4 carries and initiator.

I have seen something like this in lol matches too. Having riven top, syndra mid, rengar jungle, jinx adc, and leona support. There you go leona is your initiator and the others are your carries (even if not AD carries they are still carries).

Sometimes you have global gankers and pushers

This happens in lol too. Panth jungle + tf mid with some tryndamere top fits the lol meta pretty well.

I think were we disagree is our definition of meta. Where your definition seems to be defined by which champions are picked (which a meta can define) whereas my definition is that a meta is what the most optimal playstyle is. Dota 2 certainly has my definition of meta. There is typically no junlger, at least not at the start of the game, and instead you have a support leash the camps so there spawns new monsters while the old ones are still alive. Doing things like that is a meta. It is simply the most optimal way of playing.

Also having a champ go from most played to least played or in reverse is not something new to lol either. From what i can see you might as well say lol has no meta.

Miku Lv99Jan 27, 20152 votes

You can't prove TC wrong since boring is subjective.

But really, the meta isn't a problem. Watch some LCS. They don't even follow what a lot of people call the meta. They'll often start with adc and support top. And the other team might send their support top to help them out. Or sometimes even take their top laner into the jungle to go with their jungler.

You see, even though there is a meta, the good players can tell when to stray from it and they actually stray from it and roam quite often, and that's a huge part of what makes them so good. If you're too badly stuck in the meta of you can only go to your one set lane and can't roam it's going to be really hard to get passed high gold/low platinum. Even if you are a near perfect laner.

NugosaurusJan 27, 20151 votes

if u don't like league or it bores u don't play :)))))

SaruyanJan 27, 20151 votes

roaming supports was the meta for awhile, and lost out to standard 2v1 lanes overall, while the current meta doesnt necessarily mean it will always be 2v2 bot, as is the case for 2v1 lanes.

the game is more metafree than its ever been post actual competitive arena(ranked game, professional play)

BeatzBoyFTWJan 27, 20151 votes

Basketball is actually boring, cz all you get to do is bounce the ball with your hand. Why can't we kick the ball?

Football pretty much sucks too. Why can't we just slap the ball around the giant field instead of having to kick the poor guy?

Kuroi86Jan 27, 20151 votes

Prove me wrong?

Trick question, your opinion is already set, nothing said can change it even if you are wrong.

asktiksJan 27, 20151 votes

ive grown bored of leage too

its the most fun moba around , just go play HOTS , no fun there....oh wait....nvmnd forget that :)

truth be told this IS (was for me) a fun game , its ok I still abhor the use of adobe air (client sucks we all know it) but there are lots of good things bout the game yes, I do agree with you at the stale as fuck meta, perhaps that's part of the reason ive grown bored of it and find hots to be so refreshing, no real meta there yet but I imagine it will form at some point but meantime , im having more fun over there, haven't played a single league match in bout a week actually

Meep ManJan 27, 20151 votes

I dont want to wish to have a new meta, but I wish there was champions made to abuse and play a different role in the current meta, BUT NOT change it.