why is playing the meta rewarded more than playing outside of meta?

ALL MłGHT·Jul 31, 2017·7 votes·483 views

edit: fucked up the title, it should say "why is playing meta equally rewarded to playing outside meta/viability"

if I play something outside of meta/viable champions how come I'm not rewarded. its ez to play champions like lux mid and do well but harder with kogmaw mid. however lux mid gets rewarded the same as kog but instead kog gets nerfs slapped to his face

my point is that its easy to play viable champions in most matchups (besides counters) and harder to play outside of meta, but both are rewarded the same. more effort should equal more reward whether that be higher LP or IP. this would promote people to play different champions in different roles for those seeking to climb or reap IP

10 Comments

YrzenJul 31, 20173 votes

It's bad form to reward people for playing things that are worse. If it's "harder", it's worse.

However, if it actually does work out, you already are rewarded for playing uncommon things in that it makes it easier to get better grades. I've gotten Jinx, Varus and Miss Fortune to mastery 7 primarily by playing them as Supports.

ALL MłGHTJul 31, 20171 votes

hm, there are evidently better champions in the meta right now for a number of reasons (lethality, camouflage, item changes etc) but for those unaffected are they technically worse? lets say a change to lethality brings rise to champions like jhin varus and mf again. if I were to play kogmaw into one of those and do well, should I be treated the same as them for playing something that's considered "worse". tbh worse isn't the right word because of how black and white it is. I would probably use the word "less efficient" in this case because with lethality being buffed those chamions are more efficient with them whereas kogmaw, jinx, tristana aren't. in this scenario should kogmaw be rewarded for breaking the evident boundary separating him from the meta or do we equate them as the same. this doesn't pertain to out of meta/unviable ADCs either.

take wu kong toplane prior to lethality changes. he was completely out of the meta, couldn't snowball like he used to, and unfit for team fights compared to other champions. say he is matched with a jayce (somehow this champion is always viable) and wu kong ends up winning the game and doing well in lane etc. should wu kong be rewarded equally to jayce winning a game? I dont think so

Flawless FetusJul 31, 20171 votes

Mmm. It's like comparing a vhs tape to a Blu-ray DVD. Are the vhs tapes "worse" than they used to be? I guess not. They just suck compared to what I'd currently meta - Blu-ray's. Lol.

zacktootallJul 31, 20171 votes

cuz more often then not anyone who claims to be playing "off meta" is just trolling which is sad because i agree when done right going off meta is really fun but unfortunately morons are just barley capable of hitting the install button.

DemainaNyxJul 31, 20171 votes

The meta is basically "the most optimal."

If you know that going left will mean you only have to walk 3 miles to get to the finish line and going right means you have to walk 5 miles to get to the finish line, why go right? You're welcome to pick either, but if you want to beat the people who picked left, you have to work harder to do it. But, this was all your choice to personally handicap yourself since no one forced you to choose right. Your reward should be the sense of satisfaction for being able to make it work (or possibly a chest if no S on said champion before).

I mean, you could play AP Vayne. But considering she has no scaling and, unless you buy something like Lich Bane or Gunblade, she'll never use the AP, why do it?

Better question is why reward people for it? I would hate for someone to be in my ranked game to do it thinking, "if I win, it will prove I'm better because I gave myself a handicap from the beginning."

RequiemsfireJul 31, 20171 votes

The question is why should they be rewarded for playing outside the meta, it just promotes people to pick things that don't work very well in a defined role or rely on cheese to work for success when realistically regardless of champion choice both team's goals from the start to finish should be to win the game. META stands for "Most Effective Strategy Available" and while off meta strats are still usable and might take more effort to pull off people shouldn't necessarily be rewarded extra solely for that mordekaiser midlane.

Flawless FetusJul 31, 20171 votes

...because the meta is determined by what is strong. Why would you get rewarded for playing something off meta (something weaker than what is currently meta)? Putting your team at a disadvantage is not reason for reward. Lol.

GayFluffyUnicornJul 31, 20171 votes

*meta is determined by what riot wants to be meta

Warlord RhinarkJul 31, 20171 votes

"We do not force the meta" - Rito Gaems

Flawless FetusJul 31, 20171 votes

To an extent. Through buffs and nerfs, they are consistently changing what is meta, but it boils down to what the players view as strong. Meta can vary from region to region. Sometimes our shit picks are considered op in Korea. Lol. If riot hard enforced the meta, it'd be universal.