As first pick,

NinjaFifer·Apr 18, 2016·20 votes·2,135 views

I neither get to ban out my counter, nor do I get to counter my opponent.

First pick has officially gone from "Ooooh, I get control!" to "Better pick the safe pick so I don't get countered..."

29 Comments

disregardableApr 18, 20163 votes

You get to play highly contested picks, or pick them for someone on your team that wants them in exchange for a counter.

NinjaFiferApr 18, 201613 votes

That implies that I want to either play fotm champs, or can rely on any kind of cooperation from soloq.

disregardableApr 18, 20162 votes

The game is designed around requiring more cooperation now. You're just going to have to get used to it. At the very least you should try instead of picking some random champ because you think they're safe.

NinjaFiferApr 18, 20169 votes

Get used to relying on my teammates? You do realize we're playing league here, right? Gotta carry my way to the top, regardless of my team.

disregardableApr 18, 20162 votes

Yup. That's how it works now.

Troll for TrumpApr 18, 20166 votes

Aight, let's just create a 4man premade, and, when we play ranked, we leave the 5th guy in the dark and trashtalk him the rest of the game! That seems fine!

Oh, and have 3 plats vs a team of silver/gold players; Even better.

Acidic PuddleApr 18, 20161 votes

Yeah there are 4 other players in the game, and you dont even play ranked...

Stop bitching.

NinjaFiferApr 18, 20162 votes

No, I don't play ranked, I just want to play a certain few champions and have some fun. If I'm first pick, it's either play the champ I want and get counterpicked by a champ I couldn't ban out, or play the safe but less fun champ.

ChaoticPineconeApr 18, 20162 votes

From the amount of first-pick Ekkos that i see whenever he isnt banned, Id say that the majority of players would take that FOTM pick.

DoofsApr 18, 20165 votes

Highly contested picks still get countered. Every champion will have their weaknesses and Riot tends to focus on general match-ups, rather than specific match-ups. This means laning against a certain counter gives your opponent a tremendous advantage.

I'm more fearful of playing against a champion like Teemo if I'm playing Singed, and easily counted champion, than I am of playing against a first time tank Ekko.

Jungle Lux GodApr 19, 20162 votes

What I usually do when I'm first pick is that I usually pick my best champion.

Point is if you get countered, you'll do better with your best champion than anyone else, while any other pick you make will get countered just as hard, so you might as well pick who you know.

LauchmelderApr 18, 20161 votes

It's better than the old "I'm gonna ban the 3 Champions I don't want to see in MY lane, fk my teammates" System. Because that was how it worked most of the times. "Oh, I'm first pick, let's ban 3 midlaners because I don't want to lane against them or they Counter my pick".

LiveYiOrDieHardApr 18, 20164 votes

[{quoted}](name=MadKnife IV,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=sTtcG2hz,comment-id=0001,timestamp=2016-04-18T07:32:19.647+0000)

It's better than the old "I'm gonna ban the 3 Champions I don't want to see in MY lane, fk my teammates" System. Because that was how it worked most of the times. "Oh, I'm first pick, let's ban 3 midlaners because I don't want to lane against them or they Counter my pick".

That pretty much never happened, because Riot has consistently left 3 or more champions in true permaban status.

LauchmelderApr 18, 20162 votes

I didn't have that feeling in both S4 and S5 tbh

RasCaelestisApr 21, 20161 votes

It was always there, this season just exacerbated things and made it pretty mandatory to ban out certain champions. Remember Kassawin and his 97% ban rate? Not even Ekko reached those numbers last patch, and I'd argue (as someone who was around for the Kassawin perma-ban days) that Tank-Ekko was even harder to deal with than old Kass.

NinjaFiferApr 18, 20162 votes

True, I like the fact that they are spread out, but they should be for the first three players, not the last three. Last two get better chances to counter their opponents, while the first three get better chances to ban out their counters, where perma-bans aren't required.

PhantomGGApr 18, 20161 votes

I agree

Sure for pro play and high elo(diamond) first pick is indeed a advantage. But for anyone pre diamond first pick is a complete disidivantage, picks n bans should be given to the first three players not the last three.

Roll in GrassApr 18, 20161 votes

Imo, if you're good enough counters don't matter.

I'm an AurelionSol main and I constantly beat Fizz , Zed , and Ahri , which are a few of 's hardest counters. It's merely about picking a champ, or a set of champs, to main, then learning how to play against every champion as that champ.

Skill > Counter

Hedgehog HustlerApr 18, 20161 votes

[{quoted}](name=Only Star Dragon,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=sTtcG2hz,comment-id=0003,timestamp=2016-04-18T11:39:58.871+0000)

Skill > Counter

Well, yeah, this is League of Legends, not DOTA. Champions don't really have 'hard counters' in this game; even if you're playing Veigar against Zed your ult still has a 1.0 ratio, even if you're losing badly against Teemo as Wukong your all-ins will still work on him and you will still have teamfight presence.

Roll in GrassApr 18, 20161 votes

Every champion has a hard counter. Just learn the game and how to play against each champion.

Hedgehog HustlerApr 18, 20161 votes

[{quoted}](name=Only Star Dragon,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=sTtcG2hz,comment-id=000300000000,timestamp=2016-04-18T16:41:16.708+0000)

Every champion has a hard counter. Just learn the game and how to play against each champion.

If by 'hard counter' you mean 'champion in which the matchup is so bad you cannot do anything until lane phase ends' there are very few of those. Some matchups can seem like counters because of a very high skill level on the side of your enemy.

The only thing I can think of as true counters are Galio vs. Syndra and Master Yi vs. Rammus / Draven vs. Rammus.

Pandemic PunchApr 18, 20161 votes

Nasus vs Sion

CptnWunderPhuckApr 19, 20161 votes

[{quoted}](name=Sir Dreemurr,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=sTtcG2hz,comment-id=0003000000000000,timestamp=2016-04-18T17:38:06.484+0000)

If by 'hard counter' you mean 'champion in which the matchup is so bad you cannot do anything until lane phase ends' there are very few of those. Some matchups can seem like counters because of a very high skill level on the side of your enemy.

The only thing I can think of as true counters are Galio vs. Syndra and Master Yi vs. Rammus / Draven vs. Rammus.

As a Syndra player who gets first pick too much, I know this exact pain and the bane of my existence that is Galio.

Roll in GrassApr 20, 20161 votes

By hard counter I mean a weakness in a champion's kit that can be exploited. Zed has long cooldowns and his skillshots are fairly avoidable; dodge the skillshots then move in to trade whilst his abilities are on cooldown. Master Yi is farm-oriented and squishy; counter jungle him to set him behind in gold and slow down his devourer, then group early so he'll be too far behind to do anything in a teamfight, and cc him when he tries to do anything. So on so forth. Ekko is the only champion in the game that doesn't have an exploitable weakness right now, but he's permabanned anyway. Just find a champion's weakness and exploit it.

More can be found here: http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/sTtcG2hz-as-first-pick?comment=000300020000

OH MAN NOT GOODApr 18, 20162 votes

[deleted]

Roll in GrassApr 20, 20161 votes

I have over 60 games on him, Mastery 5 with over 40k mastery, and he's my 4th most played champion. Therefore, he is one of my mains. And he's only been out for a little less than one month.

NinjaFiferApr 18, 20162 votes

Thing is, I'm not just looking for a win for the sake of winning. That would be why I don't play ranked. Sure, you can outskill a bad matchup, but most of the time for mages, the counterstrategy to their counterpick is to just sit under tower and ward so your other lanes know when the assassin roams. It comes down to literally "I am going to do nothing productive at all for half the game just so I don't feed my lane partner." Where's the fun in that?

Roll in GrassApr 20, 20161 votes

most of the time for mages, the counterstrategy to their counterpick is to just sit under tower and ward so your other lanes know when the assassin roams. It comes down to literally "I am going to do nothing productive at all for half the game just so I don't feed my lane partner."

This is the most untrue thing I've ever heard. Zed is a bad matchup for Ahri, but if you're confident enough in your ability to play your champion, you'll be able to beat the enemy no matter who they play. That's why whenever I get into a game, I don't look at any pick as a counter; instead I think to myself, "How can I win this lane?" I watch their movements, how they use their abilities, where they go when so precisely while they're farming that it gives me a general idea on how they're going to play the lane and how they're going to try to fight me. As well, confidence is a HUGE part of midlane; if you're not confident, you're going to lose. There's no question. The midlane game comes down to a mental state where if you hesitate even the slightest, you won't win. You NEED to be confident to play midlane.

And so I use that confidence and analysis to beat the enemy. Let's say I'm playing Aurelion Sol into Zed. First, I'm going to walk into lane and not show any signs of hesitation or weakness. I'm going to farm just as I normally would, and I'm going to move up to him to harass him for the Thunderlord's proc up until level two. At level two, I'll continue to farm, but now I'm going to play the observation game. I'll throw a few Qs out to generally see how he's going to react to it; which direction does he move most? Let's say he moves below the star all three times. Great, now next time I know to throw the star slightly downwards, so then he'll be walking into it. Next, I'll watch how he harasses. Which way does he generally throw his skillshots? Is he throwing his shadows beside me or linear to me? Does he throw his Q above me, below me, or directly to me? Let's say he throws his shadow above me and throws the shuriken behind me. With these two observations, I now have everything I need to win the lane.

At level 4, I go for the all-in trade (not an all-in, but an all-in trade). I throw my star below him so the stun hits, then I constantly move downwards, so I'm getting out of range of his shadow, and diagonally towards him, so I'm not getting hit by his shuriken. Then, once his abilities are on cooldown, he'll move back to tower since he's losing trade, which allows me to pressure him more and get more trades off. I keep chasing him until he's under his tower, letting my stars hit him, then I back off.

Now that I've won the trade this way, he'll either change his playstyle based on mine, or he'll continue playing off of habit, and most of the time solo-queue players are playing mindlessly, just doing what they do by habit, which makes it easier to continue to win the lane. However, if they are also observing my playstyle, then I just observe theirs again and repeat the process.

There is always counterplay, you just have to be smart and confident enough to find it. No lane is unwinnable.