The Menace of Champions

What is menace? Simply put, what can this guy do to me? I don't think about damage numbers or win rates or pick/ban rates. I think about the champion themselves and how they function in the hands of a skilled player. When you get down to it, pretty much every champion is going to play roughly the same even in different hands. Part of destroying a champion is understanding how they are going to react in a given situation, noticing when they start telegraphing their intentions, and what you can do to defend against it.

The easiest way to illustrate this is with Ekko. He throws down his W when he feels either you are about to engage or when he's planning to engage. Once he's on top of you, it's going to be really difficult to peel him off, doubly so if he actually catches you in the field. By throwing down his W, he's giving away information about what he plans to do or what he's expecting from you. Your subconscious understands that he's setting up the opportunity to engage, and you have to redirect him or disengage while figuring out where he's decided the fight should be and basing your decisions around that. Should you really disengage? What if Ekko threw the mark down behind you? He'll catch you in the field as you try to make a break for it. Is his ult up? Where is his shadow at the moment? He'll likely be able to get it off before you can kill him, so don't blow everything on him at once. Hold back, force him to burn it, and THEN really let him have it.

Menace defines a champion; it is effectively their identity when you're facing them, your compressed knowledge of their abilities. It's as important to understand their menace as it is to know how to play as them, otherwise you're not going to get very far.