Boards›Gameplay

Why does off meta or 'different' champion picks make every loss instantly your fault? Sheep alert :s

TruckFump2016·9/10/2016, 5:38:26 AM·103 votes·6,842 views

So like....if you go off meta or do something different, you get blamed if your team loses.

It doesn't matter if you have the most kills, farm, score, whatever.

People will be like "Hah nice udyr top" or "nice TF jg" or whatever you are playing thats different.

Like, somehow not going with the herd makes you 2x as guilty/wrong/messed up than the 3/11 jinx who got buttrolled in lane.

It's pretty lame. When people started going AD Fizz, people would be like "wtf are you doing man!"

The answer: "new meta". In other words, "everybody else is doing it".

People have this need to know that what they are doing is part of the hive mind. And if you deviate from that, you are like the worst person who has ever existed, and every in-game problem becomes your fault. It's like jesus man how old are League players? I wonder if they even consciously know that all they are doing is enforcing trends.

facepalm [slayer-jinx-unamused]

200 Comments

deadlychuck9/10/2016, 8:42:01 AM22 votes

Anecdotal evidence

I have about a 70% win rate with AP Varus

But that 30% of the time, when i get bricked and lose, it's my fault, even when i'm the highest damage.

Requiemsfire9/10/2016, 8:10:02 AM15 votes

Well for me it's a matter of what you're providing to the team because when you ignore team compositions it really shows in team fights.

If you're midlane is Viktor , Top is Heimerdinger , ADC is KogMaw , Support is Soraka then picking summoner 11 TwistedFate wouldn't work idealistically for your team what so ever.

I would like to take this time to emphasise though that a troll pick is different to an off-meta pick where as an off-meta pick can work.

The meta exists for a specific reason though and sometimes the off-meta junglers can work and sometimes they don't. Very specifically in the jungle because of how harsh an environment it can be when your opponent is competent. For example, Nidalee, Graves, Kha'zix and Udyr are very strong in the jungle for multiple reasons. They have very fast clear, strong ganks, decent snowballing potential, and some degree of mobility except Udyr who simply has a good movement speed steroid.

SSShutTheDuckUp9/10/2016, 2:15:14 PM14 votes

I find it hilarious though:

Vayne Why are you going Sejuani top? 20 min into the game: Sejuani is dominating! Vayne Ok, i admit that works... care Sejuani, 3 man in this bush, why did you not dodge Blitz hook... Sejuani is legendary!

Ok sure but why9/10/2016, 5:43:29 AM8 votes

depends how off-meta you're talking

soraka jg is just a no no

hhaavviikk9/10/2016, 9:33:08 AM8 votes

because sheep BAH BAH.

support annie? get the fuck outta here bronze trash go uninstall the game gets played in LCS OMG SOMEONE PICK SUPPORT ANNIE

sad truth.

ChaosThief9/10/2016, 6:19:33 PM5 votes

http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/#match-details/NA1/2289229977/44880503?tab=overview

Honestly, I would be more scared of off meta picks in a game than on meta picks; typically the people who pick the off meta stuff are very experienced at it or know how it works.

GigaPube9/10/2016, 10:27:15 AM5 votes

champion picks become more and more important at higher elos. literally anyone can be good enough at most champs and climb to diamond just with that pick. so this means nobody diamond or below should criticise champ picks that are not outright troll picks. you can play whatever champ you want outside of pro play, what matters is how you play and whether your desire to climb ranks is as great as those in your team. like maybe you're a decent fizz and you pick AP fizz for mid lane. but if you pick it every single game, chances are, and this will happen, fizz will not be a good champion for your team AND will be easily taken care of by some decent kiting by your opponents. this is why the option to pick different champions is often taken advantage of. you've probably heard of a lot of 1 trick pony champion users. chances are, even they arent that great all of the time, and even if they are, they wont be the greatest pick for their team cos its not always going to be meta. sometimes that singed top would be a better choice against a shen than that fizz, and your team is gonna be worried about that matchup, rightfully because they dont know you and they're probably more skeptical than optimistic

BastionKross9/10/2016, 2:39:58 PM5 votes

Scenario 1: Renekton goes top, goes 2/1/0, team wins game. "Ren did a pretty good job spiltpushing and keeping the enemy team distracted."

Scenario 2: AP Shaco goes top, goes 2/1/0, team wins game. "OMG this useless shaco only splitpushed all game and refused to teamfight reported"

Then a pro plays AP Shaco top in a major tourney, dominates:

Scenario 1: "OMG didn't you pick Shaco noob" Scenario 2: "Okay Shaco is top, jungler go tanky so we have a front line."

Mysticman899/10/2016, 5:47:02 AM5 votes

Sometimes you can do off-meta things and do well individually, but your choice doesn't work with the overall team comp, or you can do well despite your choice due to outskilling your opponents rather than due to your choice.

Certainly trying new things and experimenting and so on can lead to new metas evolving, but theres a very strong chance that unless you're diamond+ (and even then), theres a good reason why the thing you're trying isn't a thing.

edit: That said, TF jg is a thing.

MonkeyMadness9/10/2016, 10:19:32 AM4 votes

The problem with off-meta picks is that people don't understand them and you are forcing your team to synergize with a strategy that is potentially foreign to them. Also, let's face this very basic fact: there's a reason why something is meta, and it's solely because it's been tried and tested and it clearly works. Not saying that everyone needs to be a meta whore, but please understand the implications of picking those weird off-meta champs (I saw an AP Varus in the comments...).

CerealBoxOfDoom9/10/2016, 9:14:20 PM4 votes

because going non-meta is a great way to throw your own team's game off, especially when and if you are too incompetent to actually share the point of your meta breaking

TwinkiePro9/10/2016, 10:18:48 PM3 votes

Enemy jungle quiinn, lux and wukong were extremely toxic to my team who thought it would be fun to do A full support team + an adc. Lux Called our nami a ho on a couple occasions, wukong had too many choice words for our lulu, and quinn Said in the post game lobby "Braum jungle" "Don't do it" and proceeded with lux to spew all kinds of hatred telling me to grow up. Irony at its best.

Thankfully no one questions my singed jungle.

Tobias Brackner9/10/2016, 6:08:31 PM3 votes

This this this.

Whenever I do an off-meta support and the team is chill, we have a fun time and a close game.

Whenever I off-meta support and someone decides to be all "hurr durr y u troll?" the whole game then it all goes to shit.

Nami in Bush9/10/2016, 10:04:19 PM3 votes

Urgot

Honeyy9/10/2016, 1:14:31 PM2 votes

Well, a few days ago in Champion Select I had seen Blitzcrank in my champ list and I was like "Wait, I have Blitzcrank?". So I tried out Blitzcrank Jungle. And even though I clearly see his weaknesses, his ganks are epic when you're a good skill-shotter, and he works kind of like every tank jungler. I somehow fell in love with Blitzcrank Jungle, but sadly I get flamed every time in champion Select and In-Game. But when I come to gank Bot and hook the ADC into our Alistar Support, everybody is like "that shit's broken wtf".

I don't get it