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The Trifecta of Influence - The static meta. What can we do? [very long post]

VaIse·2/25/2014, 7:31:59 AM·50 votes·2,152 views

After following/playing this game for a couple years, there are some interesting trends I’ve noticed about how League progresses. This is simply an opinion piece from an average player, as well as a long and convoluted post, but I hope it facilitates some discussion. Hopefully a Red can contribute as well.

We all need to be more open-minded with how we approach League, and when I say "we" I refer to three groups of people:

  1. professional players
  2. the general player base
  3. Riot

Right now league is characterized by a slow cycle of professionals, and therefore players, reaching a stale meta equilibrium, which is then altered by Riot, which then settles again, etc…

The pros discover what's strong, and they spam what's strong out of necessity. They want to win (and in the interests of career, they have to) and so they are afraid of trying anything unorthodox. I’m always ambivalent when a new pick is introduced in an LCS match…it’s exciting to see a change, but I know if it doesn’t work then the standard champion pool is only being reinforced. One can't really blame them for this, but the general assumption is that they have essentially optimized League...that they have found the best champions, strategies, team comps, etc, for maximizing chances of victory. I think this perception is a bit illusory (more on this later)

The general player base wants to win as well, and so they'll generally copy the champions/builds/etc that pros use. This is so ingrained that many players are afraid to do alternatives because they will get flamed for it.

Riot sees the above trends and adjust accordingly, albeit arguably too quickly or drastically on occasion. It also begs the question of the change being really necessary in the first place (strong doesn't mean too strong). The attention a champion receives from nerfs may in turn reinforce faulty judgement (i.e. “see? I knew [insert champion] was OP, he just got nerfed”) if not frustrate players.

Going back to professional trends, I think there's more power in League than "what the pros do," especially with champion selection. I'm not saying their picks aren't strong. And I'm not saying some of the neglected champions aren't weak...but not all of them are. The reason I say this is because there are occasional cases of champions breaking through, and it seems to telegraph, thankfully, a competitive scene that isn't tediously optimized, or perhaps even a scene where the players don't know as much as we think they do. An example is Darien's Warwick. When everyone was playing Mundo/Shyv/Renek top, Darien picked Warwick. It hasn't become a popular pick, but it was noticed enough to earn a ban against Gambit, and other teams in both EU and NA LCS picked it up a couple times. Before this, I don't ever remember Warwick being considered competitively viable. The same could be said for Pantheon jungle, Lulu mid, Riven mid, etc.

“But random guy, that’s how this game works. With continual patch changes, different champions become top tier. It just takes some time to develop”

Yes and no. Of course champions become stronger/weaker with patch changes, but there are examples to the contrary. Let’s discuss the most infamous example of a meta shift independent of any patch: Annie support. Annie was almost entirely off the map in the competitive scene last season (in NA/EU anyway), much less so as a support. Then everyone watched Royal Club and how much of a power pick Tabe’s Annie support was in the Season 3 Championships. Now she’s a very popular competitive pick. Obviously, Tabe’s Annie was before the Season 4 changes that gave supports more power, and looking at Annie’s patch history, she was untouched between June 2013 and January 2014. Essentially, if she’s strong now then she was strong for a while and yet was under the radar (yes, this ignores other variables like nerfs to other champions, but I think it’s safe to say that Annie was strong in her own right). This begs the question of how so many professional players missed this pick for so long. It’s this kind of phenomenon that suggests we should be wary of blindly following the patterns professionals set (not only with what they pick but what they don’t).

One problem with the general player base is that we need picks to be validated by professionals/competition. I’m positive there are people out there that have thought about—and have ventured to try—Annie support many months ago. And they were likely raged at because the community has such severe confirmation bias. The reasons were probably: “Annie support is bad because her only utility is her passive. She has no heals, no hastes/slows, no shields, no auras, she has no mobility and she needs flash to engage. All her spells are damage spells, and yet this would be putting her in a position with no AP”

Now that she is highly contested, it becomes: “Annie support is great because her passive stun is strong and her AA range is great for harass in lane. Her ultimate AOE stun is difficult to dodge, and you can get off two AOE stuns in team fights”

There’s truth to both of these statements, but people will only care about the statement applicable to what is or isn’t being played. There’s been instances of this for a while.

This problem is observable even within the professional community. Before worlds, I can remember watching Saint’s stream and he was explaining why Aatrox wasn’t a good jungler. He brought up a wiki of recent picks in OGN to show how Aatrox was missing. His argument basically was: “The Koreans aren’t doing it so it isn’t good.” Not only is this a defeatist approach (personally I think if you’re just gonna follow the Koreans then you won’t beat them), but it ended up proving a rather weak argument anyway, as we saw Korean, Chinese, and EU teams frequently picking/banning Aatrox at Worlds….

Considering the above, it’s a little concerning that Riot’s patches correlate so strongly with trends in play. Granted, some things have definitely been too strong (e.g. league of Black Cleavers), and sometimes a nerf has been very effective and balanced (e.g. the change to Zed’s ultimate), but knee-jerk reaction nerfs seem too common (at its worst, we now have an expression in “being Olaf’d”). It should be kept in mind that if some champs are undervalued, then maybe some champs are overvalued or maybe simply valued fairly. Popular doesn’t necessarily mean OP.

I’m not sure what we can do to have a more dynamic gaming experience, but it may be helpful if we all showed a little more agency.

Play within reason, but play what you enjoy. Let’s face it, statistically, most of us are not high elo players, and even less of us are (or will be) professionals. You don’t have to play what they’re playing, and that shouldn’t stop you from improving anyway. You want to play Nocturne but you think he’s “not good” because he’s hardly picked in the LCS now? That didn’t stop Ninjaken from reaching Diamond I/Challenger. Remember that neglected competitive champions isn’t a death sentence…take all that with a grain of salt. And if a teammate wants to try something unconventional, maybe it’s a legitimate experiment and not a troll. Also remember that professionals get a lot of ideas from solo queue; I believe Diamond even got a suggestion to play Evelynn jungle with a blue bot from his twitch chat (before the recent Evelynn change). They don’t pull things out of their butt in a fit of inspired genius. They’re not infallible.

I don’t really want to say that professional teams should be more innovative. There’s definitely a pool of (known) strong champions, and teams want reliable picks, so it’s hard to blame them for consistency. But they do seem to copy each other rather than attempt to surprise each other, which I think is kind of odd. Gambit seems to be one of the few teams willing to take some risks.

Riot is difficult to discuss because we have such little visibility on their internal processes. We only see the results. The odd thing about game balance is that as a qualitative skill set it is vaguely defined but it takes place in a very common realm. This isn’t a bunch of laymen telling a group of doctors how to diagnose a patient. It is a group of players that knows exactly what this other group of players, Riot employees, are working with. It’s easy to look at said results and think, if we don’t like them, “what the hell are they actually working on in the office?” when they’ve probably labored over these changes thoroughly. Nevertheless, I do think that Riot should be more proactive than reactive with their patching (this may be counterproductive to being a player-focused company, but I think you can be proactively address the needs of your customers and also surprise them).The jungle/support/vision changes for Season 4, for example, were a great redesign. When the Nasus buffs came out of nowhere a year ago, that was an interesting surprise. Other changes don’t seem as healthy, especially if they are meta-enforcing (like if Riot nerfs Lulu because of her recent mid play). I think another thing to remember is that while some champs may be popular because of their strength, they are also popular because they are simply fun to play. Ezreal is a good example of this. During the holy ADC trinity of season 2 he was very strong and then nerfed. He continued to be popular and was nerfed again and again. And while Ezreal is indeed a safe pick, he’s also very fun. He has skill shots. A global ultimate. He’s mobile. He’s flashy. People like to play him, and I think that gave a false sense of power leading to some undue nerfs.

In any case, it would be nice if Riot waited to see if players are creative enough to come up with counters to common picks, but many players in turn are reluctant to step outside their comfort zone once a meta begins settling in. They would rather cry “OP.” This makes it difficult to determine what is actually OP and what is simply a consequence of complacency (or other factors unrelated to power). I want to say that the professional game designers at Riot do know the difference, but it’s such an inexact science. And because these changes from Riot are so regular, players just work around it (i.e. “Well I might as well play this until Riot nerfs it”).

TL;DR There’s merit to the meta and why it exists, but there’s reason to believe it doesn’t have to be as static as it is. Unfortunately, players, professionals, and Riot influence each other in predictable ways.

64 Comments

Zalkreai2/25/2014, 8:48:40 AM10 votes

Very nice post, I upvoted within the first three paragraphs xD

I agree that people seem to only follow what the pros do, and it's unfortunate and frustrating that a meta is enforced (support changes... and others). I wish people were more open to unconventional/non-pro picks. I can't hardly bring myself to solo normals anymore because of ragers who get angry when I don't support annie/thresh/leona (support main here). I feel the same about solo/duo ranked too... it's just too risky (for me anyway). I personally hate the annie/thresh/leo support meta, not because they are strong champs, but because people get so upset when you don't choose that. What they don't realize is that a good lulu/nami/soraka can outplay an annie/leo/thresh if they're clever.

Anyway, enough of that rant.

Nerfs are also a problem... I've seen some really amazing champions nerfed to oblivion (Irelia anyone?)Some champs are powerful, yes, but when you come across them you have to be smart and creative and learn how to counter them without freaking out.

Basically what I'm saying is, don't let the "meta" influence you so that you're afraid to think outside the box. Cleverness, and inventiveness go a long way in this game. Don't be afraid to use your head and take a loss or two while you figure out a new playstyle :)

Hirok02/25/2014, 8:28:27 AM6 votes

From what I see in normals, gold to diamond seem to love experimenting and playing unorthodox combinations, but theres also a fair share of try-hard meta users. Gold particularly seems to be the meta phase (people using metas to elo boost). Bronze seems to be mostly 450 or 1350 champions (mostly bots champions) with a few obviously meta followers that don't know why said champion is the meta. Silver is mostly 3150 or below champions and being try-hard kill chasers instead of be aware of things like cs/lvl/objective/map control/shared benifits, but duo silvers often duo-lane with the older metas like Ezreal Taric

ploki1222/26/2014, 3:12:43 AM6 votes

Honestly, there are two thing that people don't seem to understand. One is that pros don't pick the strongest champions, the pick the most reliables given a set of conditions. The other is that you don't always nerf for power.

The perfect example would be Lulu. Right now, Lulu is seeing a gigantic surge of pick rate for the mid lane, but that's not because she's a better mid laner than the others. Btw, spoiler alert. Skip paragraph if you're not happy. Honestly, Reginald summed up the real reason excellently in his pre-game interview (vs Coast). He said something along the lines of : "I don't understand Coast. There's no point to trying to innovate and counter the meta if you can't do it reliably". Yes, he lost to a lich bane Ahri, but he doesn't really care. He's ok with his team losing to a hard-to-pull counter 1 time out of 3-4, because that's the situation where his win rate is the best.

Dyrus has a great Singed, OddOne can probably still man a mean maokai... But there's no point in doing so, because they're not reliable. The reason Cait is seeing so much play is not because she's the strongest... It's because it's hard to lose on her. There's a reason that Quas didn't bring out the Poppy pick just now and neither did Zekent, it's because you have minimum requirements to be able to do something. You can pick Poppy and carry most of the games, or be Thresh/Annie and be impactful every single one.

As for the nerfs, I honestly believe that Lulu needs a nerf. But not a damage nerf or a utility nerf. Simply a bully nerf. reduce her shield duration to 4.5s, and it'll be impossible to fit 2 Q in 1 E, so her lane won't be free anymore. On the other hand, Kayle is just as bad. Oh, and there's also the shady side of the balance. I'm calling it here, the second Poppy sees LCS play, her ultimate gets destroyed.

Shinjusuke2/25/2014, 8:20:29 PM5 votes

I agree with absolutely everything the OP has said, though I think you might be missing a point in there, in that there are champions who are OP, and seem immune to any worthwile nerfing. These are the champions who do not have, or do not have enough, counterplay or meaningfull counterpicking, and in the sea of "everything I don't know how to beat is OP", Riot never seems to take notice of the fact that there are things that can't be beat consistently.

Not going to name off champions because that's not the point of the OPs post, but you might wanna add in a little bit about that beyond "People crying OP drown out what's actually OP". There are extremes that have been OP for ages now, like from-their-release kind of "ages", that are being ignored because there's too many kneejerk-nerfs.

Also, I just have to, because someone else brought him up:

Ezreal DID NOT need to get slammed repeatedly with a rusty shovel of nerf, especially now that there are champions who would've ate even S2 Ezreal in lane. Revert some of that, please, Riot. Wanna play him without feeling like I'm a mediocre version of Lucian.

MasterofSFL2/25/2014, 9:45:26 PM4 votes

One of the things I have tried to drive into players I meet and I play with regularly is that Champion balance (who's good, who's not) isn't solely determined by Professional players. In many ways, the best of us (Platinum/Challenger) can show us how a particular champions or playstyle can dominate the field, but rarely do they show us that one champion is purely better than another in every way.

Your support Annie analogy is right, I being one of those few who were scolded for trying it (I want nothing to do with it anymore). Reasons being that while many players like to think they are individuals who's thoughts are their own, people as a whole are steered by the opinions of others, even our own Professionals. It takes a certain kind of individual to throw off labels of what is good or is bad and to legitimately try something new or abhorred.

I remember when Leona first came out how many players mocked her saying "Amumu does everything she does, but better." Look at the mentality now, Amumu isn't considered be nearly as good as Leona, or as popular. Both champions are still quality picks, both champions bring a needed niche to a roster, but both champions are not looked at equally.

But due to a sheep's mentality that people naturally nest in their minds, we have huge shifts in the meta because of one player's decision to do something different. This is why I advocate for Riot to create tutorial and educational programs to help develop critical thinking in their player base, so that player's can look at a play and know why it's working the way it's working, instead of assuming it's because of one champion or one player in particular.

MXXIV2/25/2014, 10:17:30 PM4 votes

Not sure if I'm allowed to talk here, since I'm way from counting as pro player (or even good player).

But honestly, I never could hold myself to build "pro" recommended items. Some of my builds were a little shitty, but where's the fun if the game is always the same? :)

Fulminous Edge2/25/2014, 6:28:42 PM3 votes

I agree with this post. As a jungle main I like playing frontline junglers that are "In your face" and get in on the fight, leading the team to victory.

I started playing in season 2 and tried Hecarim during his free week and loved it so much I bought him on the spot; his ganks, speed and ult awsome with decent damage and tankiness. So I decided to main him despite everyone crying for him to get buffs because his passive was garbage and such and dismissing him for not ever being in LCS. Then Season 3 rolled around and Hecarim with Elder Lizard was all the craze. With zero changes Hecarim went from UP to OP overnight and everyone cried till he got nerfed, then nerfed again, and again along wih core item nerfs to elder lizard.

I picked up Vi during season 3, always thought she was a solid pick for her ganks, initiation and damage and now i'm seeing a repeat of my hecarim experience. Despite 2 nerfs (1 big, one minor) she went from under the radar to OP perma banned in solo queue and QQ nerf Vi posts. it's sad but to be expected I suppose.

Now whenever i go into solo Q and Vi is second ban (after Kass ofc) I just go Nocturne and stomp anyway, waiting for the Nocturne rage to come in once Vi starts getting hit with the nerf hammer.

Mad Hit Monkey2/26/2014, 1:36:07 PM3 votes

You, sir, I applaud for this very well written study of the meta.

While I would like to argue that Nerfs are a necessary evil, but best when implemented correctly, I don't think I'd be bringing anything new to the discussion.

So take my +1 and let's hope Riot takes notice of this. :D

Remlap12232/26/2014, 2:10:13 PM3 votes

I wouldn't have a problem with the meta if there was a wider champion pool. But as of right now, 17% of the champions are getting picked 84% of the time. Not because they are overpowered, but because A: Literally every other champ is underpowered, and B: Every champ that is more powerful than the meta champs is too impractical to use properly in the meta. I don't mind sticking to the meta, but ffs we have 118 champions, I'd like to see a wider champion pool than this in the meta: Amumu Annie Blitzcrank Caitlyn DrMundo Elise Gragas Jax Jinx Kassadin Khazix Leona Lucian Nasus Renekton Shyvana Riven Thresh Vi Yasuo

AbiwonKenabi2/26/2014, 7:44:17 PM3 votes

While I think this post has very good points--some of which I agree with--I can't help but get hung up on some of your examples. Mainly the "this champion suddenly becomes played out of nowhere" part.

This is just not true. Almost ALWAYS there is some sort of change that allows a champion to start seeing play again; it's not always a direct nerf or buff to the champion themselves, but there is certainly some change associated with them.

An example you used, Pantheon. While he didn't get any huge buffs, Spirit Stone did. The regen he gets from the Spirit Stone changes makes his jungle clear much easier. In combination with the strengths he already offered for a team (AD caster with a stun and super long range engage) and BAM he's suddenly a hot pick. In fact, Spirit Stone changes enabled other junglers like Gragas and Wukong. Sure it happened very quickly, but it didn't happen "out of nowhere." There was a change that enabled it.

Schtauffenz2/25/2014, 7:24:04 PM3 votes

I like the meta, the idea of bruiser top, support + adc bot, ap/ad caster mid, and a jungle. However, when it comes to items I would love for many more available build paths. Otherwise they might as well take the way of HoStorm (hehe) and get rid of items all together.

Also, more champions need to be viable. If we have to watch Renekton vs Shyvanna or Nasus vs Mundo one more time...

Gorbache2/26/2014, 5:04:06 PM2 votes

The pros discover what's strong, and they spam what's strong out of necessity. They want to win (and in the interests of career, they have to) and so they are afraid of trying anything unorthodox. I’m always ambivalent when a new pick is introduced in an LCS match…

This is an interesting point and I think that even pros should revisit this idea. In Korea SKT T1 who had a perfect season last split (they really didn't lose a single game during the season and playoff) was the team who always brings new picks and new comp (you'll see double AD, double AP carry, etc).

Letler2/25/2014, 8:59:56 PM2 votes

The sentiment regarding regular old non-pro players is something I often try to fight against in champion select. If someone like Kass, Thresh or Leona are open, even sometimes Amumu, people automatically think we have to take that champion. I try to get people to play the champions they are best with, most comfortable with and that are going to work for us.

I have been supporting a lot of playing Ashe as ADC. When a support player asks me what support they should pick with Ashe I always tell them "the one you are best with".

Knight Devout2/27/2014, 9:28:57 AM2 votes

A player posted the extra credits' video about perfect imbalance. If you yet have to see it, I recommend doing so.

What are you saying is true to a point, but keep in mind that as long as LoL has a competitive side, that attitude will seep through the crack and get to the playerbase. Because of thats, people will be more and more demanding of perfect balance , rather than perfect imbalance. In rock-paper-scissors you have ALWAYS a 33% chance of getting any of the three results, and while LoL can never hope to get so well balanced, people won't be happy with less than a +/-4% winrate difference.

The fact that the community is toxic doesn't help. Sure, I can try a Karma Support , Fiddle supp, or whatever cross my mind, but if 4-5 games out of 10 I find abusive players playing cheesy champs and laughing in all chat , I'd really rather play whatever the most OP champion is in that moment and maximize my chance of winning, or at least of having a fair game.

Different champions have different impacts, and while this doesn't necessarily mean they are over powered, people like to play champions who can be reliable in solo Q even without an elaborate 5 man strategy. Come to think of it, isn't natural that not all 118 champions can fit in this category?

A champion who is:

  1. Reliable in soloQ (high individual impact)
  2. Favored by the meta(high performance against the current common matchups)
  3. Still decent in his role (not Olaf'ed, or Eve'd , or Rengar'ed, etc.)

If for all of this, we were to put a filter and divide half of the champion pool in 2 parts for each of those requirements, we would have (1/2)^3= 1/8=0.125, which, multiplied for 118, gives 14.75 15 champions who are more or less top picks, according to the meta.

Pyrrasu2/26/2014, 8:49:00 PM2 votes

It's hard to innovate by yourself when you're queued with 4 people you've never met before and have only about a minute to come up with a team strategy. It's much simpler for you all to follow the meta rather than each come up with a unique team comp and pitch it to your teammates in the short time you have. I think that's a big force behind why the meta seems so stale. If 5-man ranked were more popular, we might see more champs being used.

the Anarchit3cht2/26/2014, 5:35:05 PM

"LONG POST" <2000 words. lol. go back to school kid. you don't even know the definition of simple words, how the hell do you think you can comment on something like this?

EDIT: Really though, you're bitching and moaning because people aren't intelligent? Because they aren't daring enough? You're challenging an issue that is far beyond League of Legends, my friend. There is nothing you, or I, or even Riot could do to change the thought process of an entire generation. We like to emulate our idols, so that is what we will do. Our idols like to be emulated by us, so they have to remazin popular. And how do they do that? By achieving success at whatever they do. In this instance, that means winning.

Let me give you a simple analogy so you might better understand how the professional players feel. Imagine you own a minin company. You have fields of aluminum that you know you can dig up and make money off guaranteed. But you also hear about fields of gold that would make you more money than this aluminum ever could. But you only have enough money to start up the mining rigs in one spot. What are you going to pick? 9/10, the gaurantee, of course.

If you want people to be ingenious, then be ingenious yourself. Start trying out crazy, meta-breaking roles. But unless you knkow you can do it, don't do it in solo or duo queue. Do it with your friends. The only reason I say this is because it's no fun when you want to support and someone calls "Zed Support" and then feeds the whole game and blames it on never having done that role/champ before, or "just trying to have fun." That may be all well and true, but that essentially means you purposefuly wasted around 30-40 minutes of my life.