One Trick Ponying

Golden Harvest·1/30/2016, 3:32:31 AM·1 votes·679 views

Hey all, With the new season I'm looking to climb the ranks, and one of the most consistent things I see for below platinum is 'be a one trick pony' and let your one pick carry you. I understand that a large part of that is because once you become really comfortable a single champion and have their combos and nuances down pay, you can focus on other areas of the game easier, like cs, map awareness, objective control, etc. I've tried to otp before and I don't quite understand. How do you not get bored of that champion and want to move on? The closest I've ever come to one trick ponying was Zed, and after 200+ games on him, I still frankly get a bit tired of his kit sometimes. Is this method of climbing not for everyone, or am I doing something wrong?

5 Comments

Ionian1/30/2016, 3:39:36 AM2 votes

I got 950k Ahri mastery points total (630k on this account).

"How do you not get bored of that champion?"

Ask yourself, do you get tired of winning?

Troiann1/30/2016, 3:37:38 AM1 votes

It's not for everyone, basically you have to fall in love and marry a champion. But that sort of commitment, especially in a video game, isn't for everyone.

It's much better to just play a variety of champs you enjoy.

ValyrianBlade1/30/2016, 3:47:32 AM1 votes

I disagree with the 1 trick pony. Perhaps for some really unique champions it makes sense, but I think it's very possible and better to just be a very selective player.

Benefits of 1 trick pony:

Lots of practice on the champion

Cons:

Champion can get banned / picked
Have to pick it in to counters
Could become very weak due to meta shifts
Have to pick it in to teams that don't want it
Can get bored

Benefits of selective champion choices:

Lots of practice on ~5 champions
Have options to deal with counterpicks
Have options to go with any team comp
Keeps things fresh
Better overall understanding of the game

Cons:

Perhaps not huge mastery of any individual champion

I think the average person has a skill-cap imposed on them by their gameplaying abilities (reaction speed, awareness, quick decision making, etc...) which are unchanged by playing only 1 champion. I feel like I've peaked on most of my main champions from an individual champion standpoint - my room to grow is now in the game as a whole or on new champions. Some few players may have the potential to get insanely good on an individual champion (think BoxBox on Riven) but these people are NOT the typical league player and odds are you won't reach that level and go challenger by being a one-trick.

So take some time and come up with a champion pool. Pick your two main roles. Pick your best champions in each. Try to find champions with similar playstyles but fulfill different roles. E.g. Corki and Quinn are both ADCs that depend heavily on their abilities and have access to a major MS buff, however one does magic damage and one physical, one is for poke and the other burst, etc... (so they work with different comps).

Likewise Zed and Ekko are both melee mid lane assassins that have huge outplay potential. However Zed is AD and Ekko is AP, which allows you to bring different offerings to your team.

So say you want to main ADC and Mid. There's 4 champions that offer a huge variety of gameplay options, you can focus on getting really good on all 4 and play whoever fits your team best and/or is strongest in the meta at the time. So when Zed gets nerfed you still have a strong Ekko to play, etc...

BluePolarizer1/30/2016, 3:48:38 AM1 votes

You need a larger pool because you shouldn't be one of those "mid only or feed" guys, especially when you do have a bad game, you will completely go on tilt.

However there's nothing wrong and no downside with 2-5 trick ponying.