I Seem To Have a Different Idea of What "Meta" Is Than Most

Gigglebytes·2/13/2015, 5:15:05 AM·2 votes·797 views

When looking at threads I see a lot of people referring to a certain group of champions as "meta" champions. From what I understand the meta is the solo top/solo mid/duo bot/jungler, which is made to maximize gold/xp flow, buff and dragon control. Mages frequent mid for dragon assistance and easy access to the blue buff, the duo bot is for more dragon control and a support to compensate for an adc's need to get fed. Going by this there is no meta or non-meta champions because all champions can play a role. I guess there are some champions that do better in the meta than others, but that doesn't make them "non-meta." Am I alone in this thinking?

7 Comments

Sailor Mint2/13/2015, 5:26:23 AM2 votes

The Meta is the current optimal way to play the game. Think of it as the book documenting all the justifications behind all the decisions that led to what's currently being used in "standard" play.

Some things change very rarely (i.e.: gold stream related decisions) while others will change every patch (strategies and strong champions).

To explain meta champions, just look back at the start of Season 5. The new jungle was so hard, the meta jungler roster at the time shrank massively because so few champions could clear it safely.

freeformline2/13/2015, 5:32:46 AM2 votes

You are not alone in this thinking. Many people consider the meta to be the particular champion set that seems most effective in a given patch, but there are plenty others, myself included, who consider metas to simply be role structures. In that sense, selecting Cassiopeia or Urgot as bot lane supports to a marksman ADC would not be off-meta picks, they would simply be odd choices for filling a role in the prevailing meta. A duo-bruiser bot or fighter kill lane, such as a Blitzcrank / Thresh lane, would be truly off-meta, in that it does not fit the popular strategy. There are, of course, other metas, such as the triple bruiser meta, in which an entirely different champion profile is used to create another set of roles for an effective team composition.

Xemeron2/13/2015, 9:39:22 AM2 votes

Little hint: Right now jungle Olaf works pretty well against the heavy CC Meta

ReaverCamera2/13/2015, 9:35:54 AM1 votes

You're right on positions, the champs are chosen usually because they are the highest tier of those positions. Kassadin was the go-to mid laner for a seriously long time, Lee was the go-to jungler, Leona/Alistar were the support, etc. It's an optimized team setup, meta champs are the baseline for what to choose. You should be comparing what you're using to the meta.