Why do I do better playing trolly champions?

Niyumi·Sep 15, 2017·32 votes·2,464 views

Like, I can play assassins, tanks, juggernauts, ADCs, supports and all that just fine, but I tilt hardcore and tend to lose even if I'm massively fed.

But if I play Singed, Ivern, The Donger, Taric, Shurima (Azir), Gnar ADC, Lulu jungle / mid and other weird picks... not only am I laughing and having fun the entire time, I win more often. I don't get it. I don't play any better or worse, and in fact I'm just fucking around half the time trolling the enemy team and slightly my team (in a positive way though).

Just something weird I've noticed that I can't really explain.

Edit: A lot of people are getting the wrong idea, I don't mean troll picks, I just mean really unconventional or uncommonly played champs, or champs who kind of mess with people rather than directly do anything.

53 Comments

ChiTenshiSep 15, 201736 votes

Being positive influences your performance in a match. And tilting the enemy team makes them more likely to make mistakes.

NiyumiSep 15, 20179 votes

Except I'm not being positive to anyone. Nor am I being negative. I'm just running around doing my thing and jokingly taunting people in all chat.

FireDrizzleSep 15, 20174 votes

Jokingly taunting people in all chat.

That tilts people, I was saved from the enemy Riven by Tristana ult and I typed in all chat "thank you bro" and the enemy riven said "boosted ape bot". When someone ganks but feeds me I say, "10 out of 10, would be ganked again".

NiyumiSep 15, 20173 votes

I'm not even that mean. xD I just kind of joke around with people.

RalanrSep 15, 201727 votes

You're being positive to yourself however.

I don't support taunting people in game, but if you're having fun with a champion odds are you're less likely to care about doing bad and might even do better.

PhoenixOfHeavenSep 15, 201712 votes

Try Trundle you'll be a natural.

BoilTheOilSep 15, 20177 votes

how are taric and singed weird picks

0 HogapuSep 15, 20171 votes

Singed is considered a trolly pick (if you play da rudy proxy singed ofc)

Blitzball PlayerSep 15, 20172 votes

If you use them both bot lane ;)

(It works)

KennysDreamGirlSep 15, 20175 votes

Ivern a troll pick?

SpecterVonBarenSep 16, 20171 votes

In mid lane, yes, it's very unconventional.

VeraskaSep 15, 20174 votes

You have a scapegoat for losses that way, if you lose it's just because their dumb op meta picks and if you win you're truly a better player

It's why I almost exclusively play kled in tghe jungle

EvilUnicornLordSep 15, 20174 votes

It's not just League I do that in...

Degreaser Pyro and Sun-on-a-Stick scout duo is stupidly fun in TF2.

ArkilusalSep 15, 20174 votes

If you ask me it's fairly obvious. Those are the champions that you LIKE to play. Too many make the mistake of chasing 'face of the meta' champs which means they're only happy if they're winning. Play something you have fun playing, and you won't tilt as badly when you start to lose, because it's still fun to play the champion. On top of that, FOTM champs are always changing, and trying to keep up with that is expensive in IP (soon to be blue essense), and takes longer since you're constantly rotating through champs. But if you stop&sit on a champion, popular or not, you'll quickly gain skill and if you're not meta, you'll suprise your opponents, and if you ARE meta, you can use whatever factors are making you meta to faceroll the other guys into paste and free ELO.

Shuyin178Sep 15, 20174 votes

Troll champions are all about the mind games. If you play a standard champion, chances are they know what to expect out of you. If you play something trolly then they aren't sure what exactly you are up to and causes them to overthink or get overconfident thinking "This is just a troll, easy win".

OP Garen SupportSep 15, 20174 votes

Because FUN is more important then META.

48983507DEL1Sep 15, 20173 votes

...Taric is really good, what are you talking about?

EschetonSep 15, 20173 votes

Because the troll picks you mention all mostly work in a way that focus on teammates and macro instead of enemies and micro. It's about perspective. It's why Vayne mains tend to be a certain way. The champion just has a certain vision narrowing effect. Just like the way Warwick is build makes you wanna chase kills 3 turrets deep. Some perspectives/mindsets work better for some people.

option paralysisSep 15, 20172 votes

I dont get it either. I can play stupid shit in flex and normals and win. But the moment i tryhard in ranked, someones feeding and I hate this game.

HalcyonDwellerSep 15, 20172 votes

When you play in-meta, a whole host of practice and ingrained habits come into effect. You have worn those grooves of thought so much that it is easy to see something going wrong and begin to tilt.

Playing off-meta or silly champions offers such a refreshing difference in play-style that all of your ingrained habits and knowledge that lead you to usually tilt are not affecting you.

SEKAISep 15, 20172 votes

Outside of the much valid and cited psychological/emotional factor, there is another reason:

Because "playing trolly champions" often involve lesser played champs, or champs being put into unusual position and playstyle (for them). Most players (me included) have a harder time dealing with it due to a lack of experience against the "unusuals", and your chance of winning increase, maybe not much but is still present.

CatastropSep 15, 20172 votes

That's because there's extreme fun to be had when you can crush someone's hopes and dreams with the most troll ass thing ever. And that fun feeds into a desire to play better which further feeds into more fun because really, while winning is fun, winning with something off meta is not only fun but gratifying of your skill level. As such, you play better with off meta picks because you end up chasing that feeling even more. It's like crack but healthy and virtual.

ChuShoeSep 15, 20172 votes

This is why blind pick is more fun than any other gamemode.

HenzoAFSep 15, 20171 votes

Try playin' Crit Yi

HenzoAFSep 15, 20176 votes

MasterYi item 3153 item 3031 item 3124 item 3364 item 3508 item 3046

NiyumiSep 15, 20174 votes

Except Yi isn't fun. : /

HenzoAFSep 15, 20175 votes

Isn't Yi fun? You don't know what you are missing

OHminusSep 15, 20174 votes

The only fun Yi build:

item 3800 item 3069 item 3009 item 3142 item 3046 item 3512

Gotta go fast

HenzoAFSep 15, 20173 votes

Supa fast but not enough damage :(

rtbf221651412Sep 15, 20173 votes

{quoted}

Supa fast but not enough damage :(

He will do a lot of damage if ulting with all that movement speed then Q'd by fiddlesticks.

[slayer-pantheon-popcorn]

SpecterVonBarenSep 16, 20173 votes

{quoted}

The only fun Yi build:

Gotta **dance ** fast

I think you meant to say this.

WyrmbladeSep 15, 20171 votes

You need to get the core fundamentals of the game down solid.

rtbf221651412Sep 15, 20171 votes

I do better with champions that can cc the enemy to annoyance. If that is what you mean by trolly, the reason is simple.

They can't do much of anything to you or your team when you troll them because they are cced.

If you are talking about Heimerdinger and Azir with item 3116 item 3151

I'd still consider that trolly even if it works. And it's hilarious to watch them try to get to you.

ValyrianBladeSep 15, 20171 votes

Some people have come close, but i haven't seen this idea yet:

You aren't good at knowing what champions are capable of, or at least you aren't as good as others in your elo at this (which means you're better at other things, to be in the same elo).

As a result, when you pick something meta you put yourself at a disadvantage because your opponents know what you can do and how to play around it, but you don't know what they can do and don't play well enough around it.

When you pick something that's kind of troll, it's not meta and your opponents don't really know what you're capable of, or how to play against it. It eliminates your disadvantage. This difference is bigger than the difference in power of the champions themselves at most levels of play.

To justify this theory: I've watched plenty of smurf play where the diamond player loses Lane to a gold opponent because of "cheese". The diamond player isn't better mechanically, he's just a lot better at knowing what his opponents will do and how to react. Throw something trolly at him and he has no idea and loses his advantage. Heck, if you know what you're doing with the troll pick you may even gain that advantage (because you know how to play the matchup).

People simply don't know what to do against cheese. They focus too much on punishing it, that they often get baited in to more cheese and eventually tilt.

PhearBunnySep 15, 20171 votes

Perhaps its a thing where... You feel like when you play meta, there are expectations for you to do well at what youre doing.

BUT

if you troll pick, well...Noone really expected you to do well in the first place. But then when you do, do well you feel a sense of accomplishment because you proved everyone wrong.

KnightOfEloHellSep 15, 20171 votes

I agree, when I do troll builds on Morde, I do really well. Like AD Morde, critkiaser, max attack speed morde, or hybrid pen Morde.

ZaryelleSep 15, 20171 votes

I wanted to go Rammus top and someone took it anyways after the game started, so I ended up going Rammus mid just to avoid the flaming, against Diana which I knew was going to be terrible. I went MR and tank items, somehow I outzoned her and beat her in cs by playing really safe and farming. The Diana was pretty bad but it didn't help that she seemed confused on how to play against Rammus. We still lost but I did pretty good mid for having that weird matchup. I think Diana did worse because she wasn't expecting to fight a Rammus mid. She could barely do any damage to me, I was actually doing more damage than her while having more tankability and more cs.

On another note, I never really saw Sion in most games until I started playing lots of ARAM. I used to hate playing against him because he always seemed to get a kill on his death ability. Once I started playing ARAM a lot and seeing him, he's no challenge anymore most of the time because it's really predictable. If you play a weird champ that people don't see much or they think is weak, you can catch them off guard.

Now that I think of it, Sion's rebirth is a little too subtle, unless you're watching him closely as he dies you might not even be able to notice that he's in his death state or w/e. That's part of the reason he was so challenging I guess, now I watch extremely closely every time he dies and I'm never surprised by it.

Ideal Gas LawSep 15, 20171 votes

I feel like a part of it is that your opponent may not know how to lane against weird picks. A top laner may not know the cooldowns or counterplay for azir while a midlaner will.

I Main SwainSep 15, 20171 votes

same, except not just with trolly picks but with everything. ive been practicing xayah a TON recently, like if at all possible i play her because i love her kit and her character and i wanna get really good with her but i still am really just average with her, and then i go and play rakan after not even attempting to learn his kit more than the basics and straight up screw with the enemy team and get S's left and right. last game i had i literally spent an entire minute walking circles around their poppy spamming my taunt while she attacked me, did essentially that same thing like 4 times. twice i randomly burned all my abilities summoners and items. ended the game with an S.

Xion The XIVSep 15, 20171 votes

You did exactly what I did yesterday. in the first 3 minutes the enemy Ashe said Fuck you to our mid lane Draven. About 10 seconds after she said that I told my team I'm camping this Ashe so mid and top be careful. The Ashe was 4/10 and was raging the entire game. I was having fun and fucking around in only ganking bot lane and just walking around clearing their wards and taunt them in lane. I would power ball into their vision and then walk away. Our bot lane was a Lux and Morgana bot which was funny, because if they are taunted/snared/rooted at all they would be dead because of the CC train.

It got to the point that Ashe and Karma could not leave their tower. So of course I had our Mid draven and Me sit behind their tower to block their path and our Top Nasus teleport down. They accepted their fate.

sobi999Sep 15, 20171 votes

Azir is a troll champ [zombie-brand-facepalm]

BârdSep 15, 20171 votes

It's largely because you're gold 5.

At this level, your enemies are not good enough to adapt to off-meta picks they've never seen before, to accurately judge when its safe to fight Singed or Heim, or know what an Ivern is.

Simultaneously, you are good enough at those things that your experience with the picks gives you an edge over their inexperience.

big boi edriSep 16, 20171 votes

A lot of people have a tendency to do worse when they're over analyzing and super into things. I've played for a long time, and stagnated in a certain league, then came back after a good long break and done loads better. After coming back I was out of practice, but the difference was I didn't care as much. Before I'd stress and even panic in certain situations, when I came back I wasn't stressed and didn't make poor decisions like I would've prior.

Tldr; Sounds like when you play your main roles you stress out over trying to do extremely well. When you take a trolly pick you stop worrying and play better because of it.

Spice POWAHSep 16, 20171 votes

Well, a couple of things

Either it's easier to remember the good games if you're having fun, or...

The other team probably doesn't know how to deal with anything even slightly off-meta. This is the main reason off-meta tactics seem really OP, then if they become mainstream tactics people will practice against them and learn

But being positive and having fun is the ultimate goal of the game anyway! It can be nice to get a break from the Salt Factory.

Skins ProjectSep 16, 20171 votes

What about trundle?

LordGeovanniSep 16, 20171 votes

I mained champions considered weak and trolls because people essentially forgot what they did and i used that as an advantage same thing with new champions. now champions i used to main are just weak champions with a bunch of in kit delays whos biggest power is they make the enemy stop what they doing to run away and not get hit by any of your skills. Sion Taric Galio Poppy etc

DarkRitualSep 16, 20171 votes

People aren't well practiced playing against them.

When you play vs the same meta champs over and over, you get better at playing against them as you become more familiar with their kits and damage thresholds.

Then some bozo goes mid with Sona and you're suddenly having to adapt on the fly, which usually doesn't work out for the first bit of a game.

ElipoSep 16, 20171 votes

Maybe when u are using off meta stuff you unconsiously concentrate more to compensate?

Or maybe your natural playstyle is lut of meta or outside the box

The SoulforgedSep 16, 20171 votes

I always enjoyed off meta things, but I feel like for the past few seasons, they've been continuously become worse and worse in comparison to meta picks. Pisses me off.

SpoofghoulSep 17, 20171 votes

Kinda like how i only play ''troll''

It's just more fun so you don't get as tilted during the game cos you have fun anyway and while that might not even affect your current match necessarily it does affect the games that follow.

Also losing to weird ass troll stuff is frustrating to opponents so they get very prone to tilt which they will as their metaclown brain can't handle it

Plus you might accidentally hardcounter people

like how i picked Yorick mid into TwistedFate

and the guy probably thought oh hes trolling let's do this

only to eat a face full of ghouls every minion wave and then having to back because he was oom and could not farm with basic attacks because getting walled in meant flash are death

then thinking alls fine after getting tabi and mana to push me in and roam with ult only to either lose herald or drake depending on where he roamed or lose his tower

there was nothing to be done about it

and ganking a midlane yorick happened to be surprisingly difficult to pull off i mean yea i see you jungler im walling of that poor TF and throwing a handful of ghouls your way have fun being slowed and minionblocked

so he kinda gave up after 3 tries

TBH i lost that game if i remember correctly but it was fun and i did really well, the TF was pretty tilted tho and the enemy was arguing if my team had done better this wouldve been won from the tilt alone ^^

So yes sometimes doing troll stuff can really throw people off.

Though from experience i can say that this works best if you pick a champion with clear contributions to your team whether that is by tanking or providing utility or being exceptional at things like taking objectives and splitpushing Then you can go for those things and your team wont have to adapt much if at all which works best Doing trolly stuff which relies on your team to work best can work against you.