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A tale of two friends and the meta.

TheSlogs··1 votes·880 views

Last night I left a skype call with friends after they had a very heated argument directly concerning the tank meta. It was a 3v3 summoners rift game with 6 friends, however the conversation directly involved two of them. I will tell you both sides of the debate, and show you where my issue is. The idea isn't to pick a side of this discussion, but rather to solve it.

One who is now in gold 3 hates when people try specifically and only to win in normal games. Most especially when someone goes tank. To him it ruins the fun experience of normal games. To him normals are casual and all about fun and building fun things. When someone builds tank it ruins the experience for him because tanks have to be countered and built around. AD people have to make sure they pick up their armor pen. and mages almost always have to build magic pen. and specifically Liandry's. What he wants to do is just play normal games doing his build that he intends to build, regardless of what the enemy team is. He doesn't specifically want to win, he just wants to have fun. Understandable right?

The other is currently in silver 5 whose main role is tank. He enjoys winning, practicing, and learning with new champions. To him normal games are a great place to practice for ranked games. He also enjoys the idea of gameplay where you build around what the other team has. To him following the meta is something that is inevitable, and he plays with how the game is built for. Tanks are very strong in the current meta, and he enjoys playing them. The items are in the game, they are powerful, and he loves using them. And in the end he gets the satisfaction of winning. Nothing wrong there right?

Both sides are completely justifiable, and when broken down just want to have fun in their unique ways. The argument goes back and forth, getting louder with each time it goes around. At the end of the game we had they were almost screaming into their mics, and I left. They are likely to never want to play with each other again. The two sides can't be happy with each other, but from a spectators standing they both are good ideas, basically just defining fun in different ways. Now one idea to solve this is to have those who wish to win and play by the meta go to normal drafts, however there are still issues. What if the champion they want to play is banned? Well then have those who want to just build fun builds go there? Wait that wouldn't work.

The biggest issue for me is that two nice people can't play in the same game anymore because they have opposite views on how to have fun playing this amazing game. I would love to hear thoughts on this as well as any advise you guys have for people who are or have friends that are in this situation. Thanks for reading this rather bulky post!

25 Comments

WalkingInACircle4 votes

The guy who wants to do whatever in normals should learn to have fun losing. That's where his decisions are taking him and the 4 other people on his team.

TheSlogs1 votes

He doesn't mind losing. He just wants to build whatever he wants and not have to build around the enemy.

WalkingInACircle3 votes

{quoted}

He doesn't mind losing. He just wants to build whatever he wants and not have to build around the enemy.

...and he doesn't have to. He'll just lose if he doesn't. So he should learn to have fun losing.

AetherKingdom2 votes

tell him to fucking play bots then jesus christ what a huge bitch

TheSlogs1 votes

I don't know if you have ever played against bot or you are really bad(sorry) but bots are not fun to play against at all. They are way too easy.

AetherKingdom1 votes

Well then the guys just being a huge bitch. "ugh people actually build stuff that lets them live my gimpy burst" "fucking tryhard nerds" "ugh i can build whatever i want and win against bots" "too fucking easy" like for real

Zmuecat3 votes

One who is now in gold 3 hates when people try in normal games. Most especially when someone goes tank. To him it ruins the fun experience of normal games. To him normals are all about fun and building fun things. When someone builds tank it ruins the experience for him because tanks have to be countered and built around. AD people have to make sure they pick up their armor pen. and mages almost always have to build magic pen. and specifically Liandry's. What he wants to do is just play normal games doing his build that he intends to build, regardless of what the enemy team is. He doesn't specifically want to win, he just wants to have fun. Understandable right?

No. I don't understand. I think he's playing the wrong game if he wants to ignore entire roles and game mechanics just to have fun.

And the guy who wants to play tank and build around what the other team is doing is right.

TheSlogs1 votes

Where does he belong then? He enjoys the base concept and game of League. He believes that ranked is a very good part of the game and has no problem with the meta when playing there. When he takes a break from ranked he wishes to just find different unique builds and ideas that aren't meant for the meta but still exist in the game. Where is he supposed to have fun discovering those builds?

Zmuecat1 votes

Customs. Bots. With a team that understands what he's doing. In a normal game anyways, just with the understanding that he may lose more often.

But the way you described him is that he hates when people try in normal games, the literal fuck is up with that? That right there is where he's wrong the most.

TheSlogs2 votes

Losing doesn't matter to him! He hates when people try specifically to win and only to win. His team isn't the issue to him, it's the enemy team. And he does play and enjoy ranked games. Normal games are supposed to be casual in his eyes, and when people take it seriously it frustrates him. I didn't think it was that hard of a concept to grasp.

Zmuecat2 votes

My first response was that I didn't understand.

It just sounds like he wants everyone to have fun his way to me. Which is still wrong.

TheSlogs1 votes

Well is that any different from the silver person? To him fun is about winning and following the meta. He thinks that counterplaying even in normals is how it should be and that it's fun. That's his specific way to have fun and believes that everyone should have fun with the game being like that.

Zmuecat2 votes

But that's how this game is built. It's built around counterplay, counterbuilding, and, to a lesser extent, counterpicking.

Even if the silver person is doing the same thing, he's at least playing the game to have fun and to try and win by following basic gameplay mechanics.

TheSlogs1 votes

Then where does he build his fun builds that don't follow the meta? He enjoys the competitive side as well in ranked where he counters plays and builds. However there is rightfully a spot for him to try his own casual and fun builds. And just because he wants to do that doesn't mean he should have to play against bots or something along those lines. He should have a place to play against other people in which he doesn't have to build around the enemy team to have fun. Because right now when you build fun builds and you don't counter anything, or you play a tank champion and go full AP or AD you get hated on quite often. But why? He is just trying to have fun out of the competitive atmosphere of ranked.

Zmuecat2 votes

Create a custom lobby and wait there until he gets a pair of teams that want to do just that.

That is the appropriate place for him to do this. You won't have anyone build tank, unless they want to build full tank Teemo, in which case I guess he won't have fun. In which case just name the lobby "No tanks, build full AD/AP"

Saixos2 votes

I would say that the place for him would be team builder. An environment where you can already choose your champion and role and can warn your team about your intentions. It's quite unfortunate that team builder isn't that popular, as it would be the perfect place for someone of his mentality IMO.

TheSlogs1 votes

It's the enemy team that is the issue and you find people trying to win specifically in team builder as well.

Saixos1 votes

Then I would say it can't be helped. League is a PvP game before anything else, and in a PvP game you generally assume that the enemy wants to win. Hating the enemy for wanting to win and thus trying their best is just as ridiculous as hating birds because they like chirping.

Vincent Lucius3 votes

Hi there. So, it sounds like both sides should just calm down. There's nothing wrong with troll builds as long as you do it with people that know and approve of the attempt at something new, and I also believe that anyone playing tanks just because it's the new meta have every right to do that, even if I consider them just be, and I may be using this incorrectly, flavor of the month players who jump on whatever happens to be powerful at the time.

But hey, if you have friends that will let you screw around without judging then that's great. And if you play to win, that's also great, as long as you don't let it be the only thing that matters to you. Besides, you can always just tell the one that wants to win that he could be responsible for making a new meta build and/or carry your screwing around buddy in normals.

Honestly, I'd suggest slapping both of them and telling them to calm down and relax since in the end nether of them are pro, nether of them are making money off of this, it's just a game for both of them so they may as well chill out a bit and play together when it suits them. Otherwise let them be since they're obviously not mature enough to deal with the idea that someone else does things differently from what they like.

Wînter Fox2 votes

The first friend needs to stop forcing his version of fun on other people. If he wants to try new things with his own troll builds or whatever - that's cool. Do it. Just know that it's not optimizing for winning and other people have fun in other ways - like your second friend. He has fun by practicing for ranked games and builds like it, as a tank. That's cool too. The first friend should realize his dumb builds for fun are exactly that- dumb builds for fun. Don't expect to win from them too.

Killstrado2 votes

Sounds like one big whiney baby who doesn't fully know how to play so he thinks people should quit playing the way they want and do it they way he wants( tank hater)

Then there's a guy who will most likely win more often but because he has to argue with a selfish tank hater instead of just ignoring his stupidity, he's going to drag the rest of his team down because of toxicity

My advice is for you not to play with either of these two and go have your own fun

TheSlogs1 votes

The gold person completely respects the tank meta and clearly shows it by being in gold right now. He just wants to play normals and have a casual game. Both of them are nice individuals when not arguing about things like this, and I would like to stay their friends.

LifeCyclesTWA1 votes

I think the only difference between a silver and a gold player is how lucky they are with teams and what champions they main.

For example: A Riven main would be able to get into gold much easier than a Sona main.

Some champions are better are gaining ranks than others. I wouldn't say one friend is better than the other at the game because of rank. Anyone below challenger/diamond are players that need vast amounts of help. From what I've seen, Bronze - Gold players suck at teamfighting and objectives. Platinum players the same but to a lesser extent. Diamond = Players understand when the best time to accomplish what objectives is. They know their priorities. They would rather take an inhib than get a dragon.

Alice Null1 votes

I think the gold is in the wrong, here, because he acts as if tanks are somehow super tryhard 64, when (from what I have seen, including myself) most tank mains who AREN'T just jumping on the metawagon are usually the people more likely to play casually.

Seems to me that he should just play assassins of some description, so he can just target the squishies first.

LifeCyclesTWA1 votes

Building tank isn't meta. Building tank is a part of every single RPG ever created in the history of RPGs. You need tanks, you need someone that can take a hit. Even movies based on RPGs have tanks. Lord of the Rings? Had a mage, a melee damage fighter, an ADC/marksman, and a tank. Frotto Baggins would have died in the first movie had he not built tanky (yay for mithril!) If you have a problem with tanks, stay away from RPGs. I hear tic-tac-toe is fun.

How would I solve the issue? Normal games are practice for ranked... and just for fun. They are the same as ranked games, but with no penalty. Just as how you respect the fact someone wants to have fun, you should respect the fact someone wants to prepare for ranked. I wish more people tested out builds and whatnot in normals, btw, so props to that friend.

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