What if every champion was viable?

Wasabo·Sep 3, 2014·2 votes·920 views

What if every champion was viable? I know about the rock paper scissors thing and stuff, but what if somehow it happened? What would need to change?

6 Comments

Serpents EmbraceSep 3, 20144 votes

Balance and having a meta game aren't the same. Diversity in picks would increase, but there would still be FOTM champions and compositions. You'd have popular and unpopular champions, even when they were both as potentially effective in a match.

League is actually pretty balanced in that regard because you can take any champion in to a game and win. There are no champions with 0% win rates, and the lowest win rates never go below 40% or so, similarly the highest never really exceed 55% by much either. Part of it may just be how many factors go in to each game, but which champions are on what team don't necessarily determine a win.

OmnipheriousSep 3, 20142 votes

We'd see more diversity in picks and strategies.

However, there can never be a state of perfect balance because not all champion kits have the same quantifiable value. Even if the values across all abilities and champion base stats were standardized, there would still be an optimal combination of abilities for comps and naturally, better picks as a result.

WasaboSep 3, 20141 votes

If that happened, wouldn't there be chaos and extreme randomness in the picks? Because if everything was viable then any could counter anything and people's picks would be so random?

OmnipheriousSep 3, 20144 votes

No it wouldn't, see the last part of previous post.

Even if the values across all abilities and champion base stats were standardized, there would still be an optimal combination of abilities for comps and naturally, better picks as a result.

Basically, even if Vi and Jarvan had the same base stats and dealt the exact same amount of damage over 5 seconds, either one would be a better pick than the other depending on what you want for the situation.

Enemy team has Xerath and Kog? J4 can trap them both in Cataclysm. Enemy has Tristana? Vi can get to her guaranteed, get her a dive buddy and you're set.

Nocturne will still be valued for his vision denial, Lee for his versatility.

The difference in champion kits will naturally cause some picks to still be above the rest. For example, in that state of 'perfect balance' you would still never see Garen picked with priority because he'd still only offer a modicum of utility and damage.

MAZZ1M0Sep 3, 20141 votes

You sum up every argument about balance in this game with your last two posts. Kudos. Buy yourself a cookie.

ZXDYKioaMxSep 4, 20141 votes

Every champion is viable, its the truth.

The term "_____ champion is not viable." is only created because us as players have created "meta". The Meta is not originally part of League. There is no such thing as meta technically because League was made as a competitive game with 3 lanes and 5 champions per team and that is it. The only reason example: Olaf, Sion, Poppy, Teemo or whatever are not viable is because the playerbase of League has created meta.

This meta says "_____ champion cannot go in _____ lane." and "_____ champion must build _____ items in _____ order."

In actuality with a certain team comp maybe our team would benefit more from replacing our typical "meta" botlane of 1 mid/late game damage dealer and 1 utility otherwise useless champion for lets say...2 Bruisers. A combination of perhaps Jax and Darius that would naturally dominate in trade against almost anyone. Maybe not but it all depends on the situation.

And yes it is true "meta" was made because through playing the game the players have refined the team compositions to the point where they believe the current "meta" is the best possible option for a team and that has some truth to it. But at the same time it is not a fact just a strong guideline. What if we switch up our team comp to a solo bot laner using a champion with good range and safety and instead of having a support which means we lost 1 players worth of utility but basically 0 team offense lost. Instead we have 2 junglers allowing for constant map pressure and the ability to control your entire jungle and half of the opponents jungle because of more junglers to move together.

I personally think all champions are viable, I just don't think they are viable the way people force them to be used. And because of being reported and banned I wouldnt try to use those champions how i really want to use them often.