PSA that Soraka is not OP

People fail to understand that even the people in LCS are not unerring gods. The mentality is that anything that beat them MUST be op because there is no way a god could be overcome by outplaying or better decision making skills.

People cry "op" and "cancerous" so much that its lost all meaning to me

Soraka is very powerful in the right team comps or against the right team comps. She isn't feast or famine but she does have a weak early mid game (levels 8-10) which she often needs a lead to get ahead of. If she doesn't you need to farm it up for a bit. In solo-Q however, she is really hard to work with as she has to stay behind her ADC to save her health making it a requirement for the ADC to play well and trade. A support will often be the imitator of a trade but Soraka cannot do this well. She is also the only burst healer in the game and can heal for a ridiculous amount in the first 2-3 seconds of an engage which will often save a caught champion if she is close enough. Her E is also very powerful when used correctly.

Nothing balance related should be talked about when it comes to CLOWN 9.

She is disgusting to play against.

and I hate the concept of "focus soraka" because the ADC isn't going to watch while you kill their support which you probably wont do anyways due to exhaust and her self healing damage spell.

Soraka is very much feast or famine. She relies completely on her team to do well. Unlike blitz, thresh or any other tank that can support.

If a lead is gained she can be completely overbearing. When playing against her and her team gets ahead she can make that lead near impossible to lose. A team thats behind cant handle her 600+ heal every 1.8 second. Plus 900 with her ult. But if shes behind, there is almost nothing you can do to regain or obtain that lead, as Soraka. She NEEDS items to be relevant (aside from her silence). 250 heals every 2 seconds means nothing when the enemy ADC is hitting for 500-1000 every half second.

Tank supports do not rely on their team as much as traditional supports such as Soraka. They make a play by catching someone out and the game can be decided by that single play.

C9 played it pretty poor. They didn't counter pick the soraka with hard engage supports like Leona, Blitz, and Naut. You can kill Soraka in lane if you refuse to play her passive play game. If you can't get to soraka during lane phase, that's fine. Push her under her tower and roam. Soraka has no kill pressure on your ADC if you leave them, which allows you to pressure mid and enemy jungler. Game 1 Lemon should have roamed more on Janna. You can't kill Soraka in that lane. Karma was also a bad pick against it since you can't poke out a Soraka lane unless you can consistently hit Soraka. Then again, Lemon admitted that he was doing a terrible job during the pick/ban phase so maybe he'll listen to bubbadub next time.

Soraka may or may not be broken, but she is undeniably cancerous as fuck.

I laughed when C9 fifth picked Varus mid when Soraka was on the other side already.

Why pick Poke against sustain? That's just dumb.

I disagree that soraka in premades is not broken. The difference is that you think in solo Q mind frame where in 5s things are different. Yes the draft could of been done a different way from the start, but c9 like you did not respect the hidden strengths of the pick.

There are certain things going in in the match that was making even stronger than normal.

First, c9 kept taking mages to fight sorka. She is actually insanely strong verus other mages, yes this could be counter with take thresh, leo ect; but the fact that she invalidates every other mage support is a issue.

Second, Siver was the pairing ADC for sorka. Early game you need you spells to really poke down the opposition and with a spell shield to negate some of them you will never bully out them out. The fact a Siver Soraka combo is like having a season 2 soraka with you. Heals and mana regen (if done right).

Third is that LCS players develop highly specialized rune pages for champs for just their matches. Their is more trust therefore the ability to more tightly tune. Their might be a highly specialized setup between the two players to maximize sorakas potential.

I think the game would be better overall if people didnt try to dick-ride everything "the pros" do. They just blindly say, well this person did this and I see them as better than me, so they must be doing something I should be doing.

Now were down to looking at bans and people thinking, well X person banned Raka, so I should too...

Maybe they just didnt want their bot to face an all in shutdown with her silence, maybe they wanted a poke composition which Soraka counters. That is called strategy, not "this champ is OP therefor blindly ban."

Truth is we get waves of poor copy-cats trying to "use the pro strats" all the time, and fucking them up cause theyre trying to play like someone else instead of finding something that works for them, and being good at that.

she's not OP, just a huge pain in the ass

When we've got like 10-15 champions who are picked or banned in the majority of games and we think that the one that's picked rarely is the problem, I weep.