A word about what Champion Diversity really means

This is kind of a repost of a comment I left on a top discussion on how champion play rates correlate to champion diversity. Oh well.

"League of Legends has, of this writing, 133 champions, with more on the way. But at times, you might feel like not all of those champions are available to you." -/dev: On Champ Diversity

He goes on to say that champions can not be available for two reasons: either they are really just underpowered compared to other picks, or they simply don't function in the meta.

I'm arguing, as I think Ghostcrawler is, that champion diversity has little to do with champion play rate, but much more to do with whether or not a champion is viable to play.

Let's start off with a great example, Aurelion Sol. My homie Sol has been a champion for only a short time, but he's certainly seen some very high level play. As a mid lane mage, he's extremely niche with a very diverse kit (like nothing else in the game really). However, he doesn't see much play. Why? A few reasons is that his matchups are very one-sided, and when he gets countered, he gets countered hard. Still though, no one can argue that his kit is extremely diverse and quite awesome in some ways as well.

The main argument though is that Sol still contributes to champion diversity. He is a very approachable mid laner who isn't really too weak or too strong, has an awesome kit and can do amazing things. What I'm saying is that he's playable. Playable does not equate to a large play rate, but rather correlates to a champion being realistic to pick.

There are plenty of champions like Aurelion Sol, who are perfectly fine champions with little or no problems in their kit, but they simply aren't played very much. They CAN be played, but they just aren't. And that's the crux of my argument; that if a champion is a realistic pick, then he/she contributes to champion diversity. Examples of champions like this: Aurelion Sol, Azir (high mastery curve, but still awesome), Bard (at times his play rate is quite low), Ahri, Malphite, Rumble, Soraka, Zac, etc. etc. Plenty of champions exist with very fun, unique kits that contribute to champion diversity not because they're played a lot, but because they can be played.

Some champions, of course, don't fit in this category. Some champions are so problematic that if they're picked, many assume they might just be trolling. Tryndamere, and Aatrox are prime examples. Other champions are simply so linear with such boring kits that they COULD be played, but they aren't really diverse; Xin Zhao comes to mind.

I think that people have conflated champion diversity with champion play rates, and therefore when they see that a certain champion isn't being picked very often, they assume naturally that the champion is underpowered. I think this is flatly wrong in many cases. Hopefully I've convinced some of you that champion diversity really has to do with the diversity of champions who can actually be played.

tl;dr. Champion diversity has little to do with champion play rates, but has more to do with A) the diversity (differences) of champions, and whether or not the champions can actually be played.

Shout out to my boy Sol.