Are counters really just in your mind?

It's always down to skills unless it's a hard counter that negates your entire kit.

Perhaps. But I remember when soroka mid was all the rage and I played zed into it. It sure felt like a really bad time

There are definitely counters in League, the way some champions work make it difficult for some champions to do what they're supposed to do. A good example would be a champion like Gangplank, who gives melees with a lack of mobility a very difficult time in lane.

not entirely. it is partially true, the champions were designed with being able to be shut down by another champion in mind. Otherwise why would you play anything other than the one champion that literally cant be stopped by anything?

However, even when countered the match up is a skill matchup. You can play your bad matchups and win, or minimize their lead and gain advantage elsewhere. If you absolutely dont have the capability to beat your lane opponent, you HAVE to go to a strategy of NOT DYING. Protect your turret until you cant safely fend them off, try roaming to pick up kills assists or even jungle farm, and call for a gank from your jungler. If like most solo q junglers they ignore you and do their own thing...tuff. they have to do their job and as a jungler they have decided that the best strategy doesnt call for ganking your lane, so DONT DIE. Just try to stay relevant through xp and whatever cs you get your hands on, and you can help in team fights. Roaming is the best counter to being countered, but if you suck at that to, go back to the dont die strategy.

Try playing Riven against Garen or Zed against kayle and tell me that isn't a counter lol

Have you ever picked into ?

Gnar vs yasuo is a terror if you aren't yasuo so I think counters do exist but not as bad as stuff like Dota 2 which means you can still win an unfavourable matchup

Counters exist. They can often be played around, but certain champions do have significant advantages against others due to the nature of their kits and playstyles. For example:

or vs . They can use their ultimates to negate his and harass him constantly during laning phase.

vs Yasuo can stick to Gnar and outtrade him easily in mini-form, avoid Gnar's telegraphed abilities in mega-form, and Windwall Gnar's Q to put it on the full cooldown.

vs Nasus can get Frozen Heart, max Wither second, and pretty much free-farm the lane. He will outdamage either of them in trades and due to their reliance on attack speed and become an unkillable monster. He can match Tryndamere's splitpushing through the entire game as well.

vs Lulu's E will give vision of Akali even through her stealth, Polymorph and wild Growth can render Akali helpless in teamfights, and Lulu can easily harass Akali down during the laning phase.

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I told my team that I got countered in lane and they said that its just in my mind. Is this true?

Not in your mind.... no.. but at lower elo levels... skill and champ familiarity are more typically important.

If you're familiar with fighting games, it's a bit easier to understand since the idea is similar. A champ that has a 5/5 matchup with another is not very common, usually any given matchup is 4/6 in favor of one of the champs (meaning that given equal skill the first champ will win 40% of the time against the second champ). That doesn't mean that second champ is an 'auto win', they only win 60% of the time. Sure they have an advantage but don't forget that the first champ, the 'countered one', still wins 40% of the time.

In other words, yes counters exist but if you play your best and don't make too many mistakes you still can win even against a counter.

There are some matchups that swing a little further, like 3/7, and those are what people usually think of when they imagine hard counters (zed, yasuo vs lux, quinn vs riven) but again, this is all just laning phase stuff. The reason this is fair is that champions have different power budgets and power curves. Shen for example doesn't have a combat ultimate so he can't exactly fight someone like darius straight up post 6 very easily, which makes the matchup in darius's favor - however if shen is snowballing botlane with his ult and making plays all game he can easily be more useful then darius in the long run.

If you find yourself in a bad matchup, it's liekly that what your champion specializes in just doesn't mesh well with your lane opponent, so take a look around the map and consider teamfights to see if you can find a way to take advantage of what your champ IS good at compared to your enemy.

Your team's a bunch of liars.

Counters are not only a thing, they are a thing Riot needs to address.

counters are are a real thing, but if you know your champion inside and out you will know how to not feed. and if you actually know your champion well and they are just playing that champ because it counters you(not knowing how to play it) then you will stomp them. at least you should.

the only real like "hard" counters that require next to skill I personally have taken advantage of is like riven vs talon/katarina/akali. and even then those champs can just stand back and farm safely if need be.

Never feel like you cannot win your lane just because there is bad match up. for the longest time I mained annie. because she was simple and snowballed really hard. Anytime I first picked her blind I would ALWAYS go against someone like Xerath, Ziggs, Azir, etc. These long range poke champs. I would just run movement speed quints, 3 points in movement speed masteries, and start boots 4. then rush ludens echo and laugh as they can't land a single skill shot. then they can't run from me as I get my harass off because I am infinitely faster than they are. there are almost always ways around it.

once you learn your champion you will learn what the hardest counters are to said champion and to ban them or to just farm as best as you can and roam at opportunities, call for ganks etc. For example, if I was going to play Annie, I almost always banned Kassadin because even though he's not picked...Annie really has little to no answer for him. especially once he hits 6.