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Power is Based on Perception

Adanim·10/22/2015, 8:56:02 PM·6 votes·556 views

The strength and power of a champion is only as high as you allow it to be. What I mean by this is that if you think a champion is "OP" then that champion is going to stomp you every single time. There is a huge psychological factor to this game and it has gotten to the point where the entire community falls into the same mindset.

There are two things I want to address.

  1. "That which you manifest is before you."

I'm going to use Darius as an example because of the community opinion on his state of balance. If you go into a game playing a champion who is currently "in the meta", then you are probably thinking _God DAMNIT why wasn't he banned? I'm going to lose because he wasn't banned and now I have to deal with a stupidly OP champion. _ You are going to lose to Darius if you think this way. You are giving him so much power just by thinking that he is a terror to deal with. It affects how you play. Psychologically you have already lost, and now your gameplay is going to reflect on that. I referenced the part about being "in the meta" because another aspect of this comes from what the meta actually is. People assume that what is "in the meta" is the best available. No, that is incorrect. What is "in the meta" happens to be what the professional players are playing, and they are playing champions that have the highest synergy potential in the game. They are not playing what are strictly the most powerful champions in the game. This creates a single-minded play style in the community where the same 30 champions get spam picked every single game. Every single champion is just as viable as the next. I will say it again, Every single champion is just as viable as the next. Don't believe me? I have been running this mentality my entire League career. I can play the champions that are unpopular and succeed with them perfectly fine. By contrast, I hate playing Vayne and Riven and Fizz , three champions perceived to be the strongest in the game, and I am terrible at them. Terrible. My play style and patterns do not take advantage of these champions at all.

Back to Darius , I have discovered a way to beat him, and so far I have been successful (even against very skilled Darius players and very experienced Darius players to all of you people doubting that they were a decent match-up for me). I can beat them. I don't let the community perception of power in the champions dictate who I play or how I play. Champion power is given to them in game by the players opposing them. Take the time to learn how to beat them and I'm sure there will be a helluva lot less complaining about balance.

  1. "Those who live in the past are unable to succeed in the future."

When a champion gets reworked, on many occasions the community will complain about them being ruined or unplayable or just plain bad. This is because as a community we like to play champions as they were back at their "highest power point". Take Cassiopeia , Kassadin , and Veigar . All three of them were reworked for one reason or another. Once they were, the community stopped playing them on the grounds that they were unplayable. This is because you were trying to play the new Kassadin as you would the old Kassadin. You tried playing the new Cassiopea as you would the old Cassiopea. People tried playing new Veigar like they would the old Veigar. And guess what? Everyone thought they sucked. They cried about the changes, they begged for them to be reverted, they refused to pick them up again. There were some, however, that decided to figure out how the new kits worked. And they were successful. And now guess what? Veigar and Kassadin are all over the place now, even after being labeled as "unplayable". What happened? Nothing outside of a mentality change in the players. It is all in your head.

I have been called an idiot, a dumbass, a retard, and many more names by fellow players because I didn't ban a certain champion that is "OP". I have been called names for thinking that champions are not that big of a deal to handle and saying that they give me no difficulties and saying that the only way to beat them is to fight them over and over again/play things that are "out of the meta". I have succeeded while those who called me names are still out there pulling their hair out and swearing up and down that champions need nerfs or buffs. It is getting old. Actually try things out and actually use your brain to solve problems instead of mindlessly complaining about things that aren't even a problem.

3 Comments

ømg10/22/2015, 9:14:15 PM1 votes

No. Kassadin is not "all over the place", and he's not doing well as a champion. Look at the win rates, they're shit tier from bronze to diamond. He's a niche pick, and not even a strong one at that. Kassadin's playstyle has NOT changed. He used to be broken (mainly due to silence), and now he's simply weak.

Veigar got a buffs that made him good. Event horizon cannot be bypassed by dashing, the time it would take for his W to do damage was shortened, and he gets permanent AP upon assist. The teleport meta made it so that even if his laning phase is not strong early, he could make up for it by teleporting back into lane without losing CS even when forced out of lane.

Being unable to utilize the strong champions because you're gated by shitty mechanics (you mentioned Riven and Vayne) doesn't mean that champion isn't stronger than another champion. Under the same conditions - two players with high but equal skill - those strong champions will perform better than weak champions. That can be seen by looking at win rates at higher elos (plat and higher) and competitive play.

Adanim10/22/2015, 9:41:58 PM1 votes

"Shitty mechanics" doesn't make much sense. I play other champions who are just as mechanically demanding just fine. I have gone against players who are better than me while playing my prefered champions and they are on the mechanically demanding ones, and I have won. I'm not gated by "bad mechanics" any more than you are. If I was, I wouldn't be Platinum tier.

Don't play champions who excel at hard engages against Veigar, play poke and siege compositions to counter him. He is only perceived as powerful because he counters all of the popular champions right now. He has low spell ranges so the poke/siege comp strategy works very very well.

Kassadin is strong. His damage was nearly untouched with his rework. His power comes later in the game as opposed to earlier in the game (now vs then) because of the loss of utility. His burst is the same, people can just fight back. You have to pick and choose fights. I have seen plenty of Kassadins do fine in games. People who have him figured out do just fine.