Some (Very long) talk about Counterplay

So, I'm going to preface this with a few things. First, I have not played any ranked, so I am completely unranked. I'm saying this mostly because if I don't say it now, someone will probably go scampering off to look it up, then spam it all over responses calling me some 'dum unranked scrub noob' etc. So I'll just say this myself. I am completely unranked, and I do not play ranked.

Second of all, I believe Riot games is easily one of the best gaming companies I have EVER seen. They're responsive, they work extremely hard to make the game good, and try to make sure that everyone has fun playing their game. They talk with the community, and more than anything else, they will often LISTEN to their community. Now whether this ends up good or bad, is far less important than the mere fact they do it, which is impressive in and of itself. I greatly admire them, and appreciate all of the work they put in.

And finally, if you haven't guessed it already, this is going to be a BIG post, covering a LOT of topics, and will therefore be filled with :gasp: WORDS! Lots of them! If you're not ready to read a lot, you might want to just leave now, at the very least make sure you have the time to sit down and do the reading.

Alright, so let's actually get started then. I'm going to begin on the big buzzword that Riot talks about a LOT, which is of course COUNTERPLAY! Counterplay is huge right now, Riot is talking about it constantly, and the boards are filled with people talking about the way that Riot approaches it, either saying they're wrong, or saying they're right. I think that Counterplay is of course extremely important to the game, and how it works, and how it's balanced. However, I feel that Counterplay is a bit misunderstood, on both ends. Counterplay is more than just dodging skillshots, or landing them. Counterplay comes in many forms, and we're going to discuss these forms of counterplay, and talk about where Riot seems to be focusing, and the issues with that.

-Mechanical Counterplay

This is the first, and most obvious form of Counterplay, and is the one that is both easiest to see, and therefore the easiest to complain about, but also the easiest for Riot to adjust. Now, Mechanical Play, in the simplest terms, is how good you are at clicking the screen, and pressing the buttons versus your opponent, and how well they click the screen, and push their buttons. Mechanical Counterplay of course is focused around skillshots, and mobility. The tenents of Mechanical Counterplay are, quite simply, focused on things that you can see, being able to see tells, to actually see the move coming. The easiest way to see this, is Janna whirlwind, or Thresh hook. These are examples of good counterplay, things with some wind up, that you can see coming, and dodge out of the way of. In this form of counterplay, things that are impossible to dodged are extremely powerful, as are silences. It's impossible to sidestep something that can't be dodged, and it's impossible to push your buttons better than your opponent if your buttons don't work.

-Itemizational Counterplay

This is a simple form of counterplay, but one that is very important. This is simply building items against your opponent. If your enemy has a ton of AD, you build some armor, if your enemy has a tn of strong focusing power, and keeps focusing you down, you can get a Zhonyas, if your enemy has a ton of dangerous CC that will instantly kill you, buy a Quicksilver Sash. It's simple, but effective. In this form of counterplay, the strength of the item choices is very reactive, focusing on building against what your enemy will build, or is likely to build. A full AD comp is of course fairly weak to large armor stacking. A full AP comp is weak to heavy MR stacking. And of course, in turn, items like Last Whisper, and Void Staff, are strong reactive item choices against heavy Armor, or MR stacking champions and comps respectively.

-Strategic Counterplay

This right here is the big one. Strategic Counterplay is difficult to really define properly, but I'm already this far, so I'm certainly gunna try. Strategic Counterplay is how you, and your team strategizes around the map. It can cover countless factors. Team-comp being a large one. A heavy engage team will often be able to beat out a high poke team. Of course there's also counter picking champions as well, picking a Zed into a squishy Veigar means that your Zed has a TON of kill preassure, and if played well can absolutely slaughter the poor Veigar mercilessly in lane. However there's more to it than that, strong ward control, good map movement, and powerful objective control. All of these things are a part of Strategic Counterplay, and so much more. Which of course makes deciding what is 'strong' or 'weak' in Strategic Counterplay extremely difficult to gauge, which is actually a good thing, because strategies are as strong as the teams who pull them off. A strong team, using a bad strategy, can often beat a bad team, using a good strategy, or even vice versa. Personally, I think this should be the primary focus of Riot, and should be the biggest draw of League of Legends. But that's just me.

Alright, so there we go, that's the three major styles of Counterplay, there's plenty more, and many more things that fit into those forms of Counterplay, but we'll stick with those three for the sake of brevity.

So, what is Riot focusing on? Well, it's fairly obvious that most of their recent focus seems to be centered around mechanical Counterplay. A loft of point and click abilities are being changed into skillshots, things that were once instant have delays put on them, skills with previously no tells, or wind ups gain them.

Mobility is at an all time high to allow champions to easily counterplay, and even be counterplayed, because mobility CAN be used against a champion, if they move directly into a trap, or they go too deep. However, Mechanical counterplay is very straightforward, the better you are with high twitch reflexes, the better you are at clicking the screens, and pressing the buttons, than the better you are at the game.

The biggest examples of these changes are on the PBE, but may very well be patched in soon. Veigar's Q ability becoming a skill shot, and the delay on his E stun. Changes to Zilean, making his bombs a skill shot that lands and stays on the floor to be picked up by enemies. This shift from point and click abilities into skill shots, and delayed abilities are good for Mechanical counterplay, but they can actually hurt other forms of Counterplay, which is problematic, and is something I don't think that Riot is focusing on as much as they should.

Veigar is the biggest example of this of course. Veigar has less Mechanical Counterplay than some mid laners, with a lot of point and click abilities, and an instant stun, which are very powerful. However, these strong abilities with low Mechanical Counterplay comes at a cost. Veigar is extremely weak to both Itemizational, and Strategic counterplay. Being the tiny waddling yordle that he is, he's extremely squishy, and very easy to kill. Strong jungler focus, or even aggresive play from the other mid-laner can easily bully Veigar out, if not just murder him instantly. In addition, you can build a moderate amount of HP, or MR, and survive his burst, which allows you to easily counter-engage and kill him. Once he blows all his spells, he's exceptionally vulnerable. That's not even the end of it, as shoving the wave early against Veigar, forcing him to farm under tower can easily post-pon his scaling, as he has a hard time CSing and farming up his Q under tower until he gets a fair amount of AP.

Yet Riot doesn't seem to see his weaknesses as comparative to his strengths, since they seem to value Mechanical Counterplay so much more than other forms of Counterplay. So instead they decide to nerf his Mechanical strengths, and actually weaken his Strategic weaknesses. The changes to his Q reward Mechanical counterplay, dodging his skillshot with normal movement, or mobility, yet the lowered cooldown and the ability to hit multiple minions make him harder to strategically counter, because shoving him under tower doesn't work as well anymore, since he can CS much better with his Q now and scale up even under tower, and the longer range means he can even stay farther back in lane, making him less vulnerable to jungler attentions, and enemy lane aggression.

These changes, whether they be too harsh a nerf, or too strong a buff, is honestly far less important than how much it shows Riot's focus on Mechanical Counterplay at the expense of other forms of Counterplay. Sacrificing Strategic Counterplay especially is extremely risky, because it threatens to weaken one of the most important parts of the game. League of Legends, at its core, is a team game. Team games, especially at higher levels of play, rely on strategic counterplay to be interesting, to allow varied team comps, and strategies to keep the game competitive. If the game all falls down to nothing but Mechanical Counterplay, then it won't matter if teams have strong teamwork, or if they work together well, or consider good strategies. It will only matter if they are the best at clicking the screen, and pushing the buttons. While some might argue that that should be the people who are the best at the game in the first place, I, and I believe many others, would disagree.

Now, of course, Riot isn't going to choke out strategy with a few changes to a few champions here and there. They physically CAN'T change the game that drastically with such small changes. However, with the increased emphasis on re-working older champions I feel that there is a very real possibility that they will continue sacrificing more, and more strategic counterplay so that they can fit more focus on Mechanical Counterplay. Now whether this focus is because they see it as the most visible, and easy to understand way to make champions more fun to play, and play against, or if they're just doing it because it 'looks cool' and makes for better #LCSBigPlays, I don't care. The reasons for it are less important than the impact of it.

So Riot, I ask you to consider very carefully the forms of Counterplay that you give to champions, both new and old. I ask you to consider the strengths of immobile champions, and to accept that sometimes champions NEED to have somewhat invisible power, sometimes champions NEED to seem like it's impossible to approach them, or fight them. Because it fits into the character's concept, and it's actually one of their greatest strengths. Champions that seem impossible to fight, but actually are not. Veigar, once again, is the prime example. Veigar relies almost entirely on his enemy being absolutely terrified to get close, he WANTS his enemies to believe that they can never fight him, because in actuality, fighting him is the easiest thing in the world. Strong strategic play, both with your team, and individually, correct Itemizational counterplay choices, all of these things can easily shut down Veigar before he even gets going. Players have to be smart, work with their team, learn Veigar's weaknesses(His MANY weaknesses) and play against them properly. This is one of the most interesting parts of League in my opinion, and is one of its biggest advantages over its competitor games. Fights are not wholly decided on who pushes their buttons better, but on how teams move around the map, work together, control vision, and focus on certain lanes during power spikes, and weak phases for each champion.

So, if you've read this far...wow, really? You did? Damn, thanks a bunch! I hope my possibly horrible grammar, over-use of commas, and terrible run-on sentences didn't infuriate you too much. I also hope that I got my point across in a clear, polite way, that people can understand well. Feel free to discuss. Am I wrong? Am I right? Am I wrong but close? Am I right but I worded it poorly? Am I a dumb unranked noob scrub who should go play Skyrim and leave the real players to League? What other champions have low Mechanical counterplay, but high counterplay elsewhere, and should STAY that way? What champions have too MUCH Mechanical Counterplay, and could use a bit less? Talk, discuss, do what you like, just try t be reasonable, and civil about it is all I ask. Or if you're going to be rude, and uncivil, be rude and uncivil to me, not other people.