" Why do we need a meta why can't everything be viable? "

When you have so many options, and so many are unique in one way or the other, something being better than others is inevitable and unavoidable. It's simply not possible to balance two different and unique abilities, let alone several hundred which can be mix and matched to make billions of possible combinations. The best that can be done is get them close, and basically take turns letting one be better than the other.

Your best option for finding balance is by playing a game that gives you no options (like Chess).

The meta is/was tanky top, gankhappy champ jungle, burst mid, ADC support bot.

So long as the game is balanced, this is how it will be. Do you know why? Before you complain about a meta you should understand why it is the way it is.

The tanky champion goes top. This is because they don't need anyone babysitting them, and they can survive a gank in the long-lane that is top lane.

The gank happy champion goes jungle so that he can exert massive pressure in every lane and get his team ahead. Generally, he/she functions with slightly lower amounts of gold and exp than laning champions.

Midlaners tend to be both gold and level reliant. Their scaling comes from leveling their abilities and stacking their respective scaling-stat. They tend to be squishy, and on top of needing levels and gold, they go into the shortest lane of the game as a solo-lane.

ADC and support go bot lane. Supports function with very little gold, and generally less experience-- they just need their stun/heal/whatever and they're good to go. ADC goes bot because the other lanes are taken, essentially. They need much less exp than their mid-lane counterpart because they are less ability reliant than they are gold-scaling reliant. Their damage comes from autoattacks, and thus mainly gold. They, however, just like midlaners are squishy, so they decide to forgo the extra exp of a sololane and instead adopt a protective support-- after all, midlane took the only short lane.

So long as the map itself does not change, and so long as something is not so blatantly overpowered that it shifts the natural state of the map, the meta will almost always default to this state.

The meta is the way it is because of the fundamental requirements of each respective role, and the layout of the map and the lanes. I didn't touch on objective control, but its worth tossing in there really quick that ADC/Support is favored bot as opposed to top because it also gives early-game dragon control.

EDIT: Also, everything being "equally viable" is simply impossible. Riddle me this: Why should an ADC be able to solo-top? If an ADC can solotop, why would I not take an ADC top? They beat the tanky melee they're going against early game now, since they're apparently able to solo-top, and they also beat them late game (as this is how the powercurve works--- ADCs beat tanks late-game).

The map's default state is pretty well balanced and gives everybody somewhere to play their favorite champion. This is likely what you meant, but all the same it is still a meta-- Meta is simply how one describes the state of the game being played. The most optimal way to play the game. No matter how hard you try, you'll never be able to optimally put any champion anywhere you want. The best bet is to give each type of champion a place to be played, as is the state of the default-meta.

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Glad to know I'm not the only one who has thought this before.

Why does chess have a set of meta opening moves?

Why can't moving a side pawn be viable?

The thing is, "Meta" isn't something anyone enforces, Meta in this context is simply the phrase that refers to "unspoken/unwritten rules of the game on an abstract level that affect how one plays the game" This is just the part of a game where you as a sentient being realize "hey, this is a better strategy/playstyle for winning than this one" and then play what you think you can win with.

Basically, as long as a game exists where more than one person plays more than one character, (i.e. not playing a single player platformer) there will be a meta. It is not something that is "enforced" or required, it simply exists, outside of any one person's control (Even Riot's).

The meta happens cyclically.

Champion/group A becomes popular. A lot of people use Champion/group A, because Champion/group B, more often than not, loses to A. Someone finds Champion/group C, which has strengths that beat Champion/group A. (A) becomes irrelevant because the counter (C) becomes popular, and (B) has some breathing room while (D) beats (C)...

Except it gets a lot more spider-webbed because of just how many champions and strategies exist.

I'm sure we've all thought this, but try thinking about how hard it would be to make that happen. For every tier 1 champ that gets nerfed, the meta recalibrates and something else becomes god-tier. I'm just glad they try to steer the meta away from anything really unfun or stupid (like Alistar top)

Having a metagame and having every champion be viable are not actually related. Every champion is different, thus not every champion will be equally strong in every situation. The metagame is about adjusting the best champions you choose and the strategies your team attempts based on what you think the enemy team will be doing. It's simply not feasible that every champion will be equally competitive in every conceivable meta unless you're willing to make every champion identical.

That said, my opinion is that the difference between champion strength based on match-ups is not so great that it cannot be overcome with skill, be it either familiarity with the champion being played, superior teamwork, or clutch plays in game.

It shouldn't take a silver V to explain this, but since I play games where metas are common outside of this one, I guess I have ground to speak.

Game logistics need metas. You can't have proper balance patches without a meta because the odds of people thinking something needs buffs or nerfs will be lower than someone saying "Just play X in Z lane instead of Y". You can't have proper counter-play without a meta because you won't know who's typically going where. You can't have proper game knowledge without a meta because you'll never know what to expect a player to do. Besides, a meta is based on a community's collective knowledge about the game itself and how it works, so some sort of meta will always exist. You can choose to go against it, but in a team game, it can catch some hate. All I'm saying.

Everything IS viable. To a degree. Its people unwilling to break that model of what we consider to be the Meta who make the game stagnant and un fun. As well as boring.

isnt everything viable now? its basically rock paper scissors, as long as you pick a champ thats good at what they do. this is only known as the tank meta because we're just coming off of a meta where tanks weren't viable. so in the past instead of actual tanks you picked fighters and buy an extra tank item, and you probably only have 1 or 2 of them. now, if you only have one tank its gg, and even two fighters doesnt quite cut it. so its the 'tank meta" because you need tanks, not because tanks are op

I absolutely hate having a meta. I still remember what really hooked me into this game. I was scrolling through the champion list and I came across this blue frost bird named Anivia and was just like "holy crap this is awesome! I can be an ice bird!" As I continued to look through champions, each one so unique, the thought dawned on me "wow, look at all the potential this game has. It seems like there is a character for everyone." Unfortunately, that's not the case. I'm never going to get through my backlog of purchased champions. Riot will keep releasing new ones, which I will grind for, just to earn my 6300 IP, so I can keep up with everyone else. We all do this, for one reason. Losing isn't fun. No matter how many champions came before, with their individual skills and stories (which is also a lost mess) they are irrelevant now. They will continue to be irrelevant, only to be forgotten in the sands of time as newer champions are released.

I advise Riot to be careful of this, because it will drive players like me away, who enjoy the characters, not just the competition. My Anivia is pretty useless. My Ashe is...still an ADC? with a damage output of a wiffle ball in comparison to the likes of Nidalee.

I have no interest in keeping up with the Jones's. I want to play champs I find intriguing and with skill sets that are fun for me. Get rid of the meta. It's going to kill the game.

Did you mean: The Tank Meta?

Because it would be impossible to balance.