Boards›Player Behavior

Ezreal Support - How much higher a standard should players who pick "off-meta" champions be held to?

C9 Aphrolift·11/25/2018, 2:21:26 AM·37 votes·19,883 views
Imgur: The magic of the Internet

Hey Everyone!

I've been playing Ezreal support a bit towards the end of season 8 and recently received a two week suspension: https://imgur.com/a/1DkaTWq Game 1 Game 2 Game 1 Story Link here

I've received many comments in other threads about this pick/case already and I'm interested to learn more about what other people think.

Here's a short list of questions that I'd like to see how people answer and discuss with everyone:

  • Should off-meta champ players be held to a higher standard than players who play meta champions? If so, how so & how much higher?
  • How would you feel about an Ezreal support in your game?
  • Does your opinion of how you feel about an Ezreal support change at all if it's a low-elo(bronze/silver) game?
  • When playing an off-meta champ like Ezreal Support should you discuss your champion choice with your team before picking it?
  • What are the best safe guards I can put in place to main Ezreal support so I don't receive chat restrictions, suspensions or bans?

My Story: I got the idea from someone who I played with when I was filled to ADC one game sometime in the middle of Season 8.

It's also worth noting they did a rework on Ezreal which went out live on October 23rd. cited link

Why Ezreal? The main reason is because it's a champ I enjoy playing and I've tried him as an ADC and I don't enjoy playing him nearly as much or that role as much. I like the fast traveling skill shot q which can be spammed and used to poke down/get gold from enemy champions. I like that I can hit a meaningful mid game power spike that offers(pick potential, peel & damage) between 20:00-25:00 minutes in majority of my games independent of getting kills,assists or farm.

The official reasoning was "Intentionally Feeding". Here's an excerpt of the response I got from the robot initially when I submitted a support ticket:

...You’re receiving this penalty due to evidence found of intentional feeding, or “inting” as the human children say. It is, to borrow a human phrase, a “not cool,” and may result in a permaban the next time it occurs.

Obviously, one of the games cited I had 0 deaths so I requested a human to get more information. Eventually they responded with:

...Your account has been suspended for 2-weeks for hurting the competitive integrity of your teammate's matches, not for intentionally feeding. Specifically for taking roles that were not assigned to you. Please excuse our incorrect phrasing in your reform card.

Being that I queue for support in about 80% on my league games I find it particularly strange. Why would I try to steal someone's role when I have the role I want to be playing in the current game? Anyway, I added some of these comments to the tickets along with a few others and the last response from them looks like this:

...I get how confusing this is since you're testing out something that's not conventional and doing well. The problem is it's a team game. You have to be able to communicate your strategy to your team and work with them to win the game. Sadly it seems that there was a lack of communication of your role int he team and it's come back to bite you.

After reviewing your games with my team, we won't be lifting this suspension. Let me know if you need anything else!

So, it's very clear to me that this suspension will not be lifted. I find this response especially demoralizing for the entire "off-meta" community.

[edit]Adding some context to the games: Game #1: Jinx backed around 4 minutes and went top lane and wasn't seen again in bot lane for all of laning phase. I tried my best in a 1v2 lane and I feel like I was a major contributing factor to us winning this game.

Game #2: Our lane was heavily camped although I did not die. I spent a great deal of the last 10-15 minutes of the game clearing super minion waves that would have otherwise hit/killed our nexus towers which is why my CS is "high".

[edit #2] Here's a challenger commentary playing Ezreal support in preseason last season: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcBx0MOWz-E

322 Comments

disregardable11/25/2018, 3:17:19 AM15 votes

I think the support person honestly upheld this incorrectly. This is similar to the smite-support nunu ruling. They want you to ask your team permission to play off meta, so you don't get reported. If they refuse, then you don't play off meta. Smite-nunu deserved to get banned because he queued for a role he wouldn't play and expected his team to just deal with it. You played your role, just with a champ your team doesn't like.

Eedat11/25/2018, 6:35:15 AM15 votes

Lets take a look at this.

http://na.op.gg/summoner/userName=C9%20Aphrolift

It looks like every game you play Ezreal support you start taking farm right off the bat. This does not line up with your story of really trying to play support and more as trying to hijack a role.

https://i.imgur.com/Jt2JFya.png

See? Unfortunately for you we can tell when you started to farm on op.gg. Which is as soon as minions get to lane. Your claims of farming only after people leave is straight up bullshit. You aren't trying to support. You make claims like:

I didn't have any interest in playing ADC in this game I was simply forced into a 2v1 lane when Jinx left.

But you're straight up lying again. You **start out ** your game by stealing farm. You also always rush item 3004 which again doesn't line up with your whole 'I'm trying to support' thing.

Being that I queue for support in about 80% on my league games I find it particularly strange.

You don't. Not sure why you would make such an easily disproven claim like this. Just a quick look at your match history instantly tells us this is a bold faced, undeniable lie.

This whole thing smells fishy and your 100% beyond any shadow of a doubt lying about a lot of things so I simply don't believe you. What I think is happening is you are showing up to lane, stealing as much farm as you can, building full ADC, and not communicating what's going on ever. You then use your team mates tilting because of this as a smokescreen to cover what you're doing.

4 Step Cadence11/25/2018, 4:52:14 AM10 votes

How would you feel about an Ezreal support in your game? What does Ezreal bring to the team that everyone else doesn't?

  • Damage? Every other role can do that.

  • CC? I don't believe that there are any roots, knock ups, polymorphs, stuns, taunts, fears, grounds, slows, silences, blinds, or anything other things like that in his kit.

  • Protection? He can't heal or shield his allies from danger.

  • Engage? Same issue with the CC. He has no ability that can stop the enemy so the rest of the team can go in. Granted a "damage engage" with his ult might work, but it is easy to dodge, and there are others who can do it better.

Overall, Ezreal is probably the most useless champion you could pick for a support. The only really helpful thing he can do is shred towers with his W, but even then, anyone can do that. If you can't play actual support champions, then play an ADC that can, you know, do something besides damage.

Jhin has a root and 2 slows, one of which is his ultimate and can be applied 4 times. His ult range is wider than Ezreal's, and he gets more than one try to do something useful with it. Jinx has a slow and 3 roots placed at once. Caitlyn has a root and slow. Ashe has a slow as her passive, her W, and her R. Additionally, her R also stuns. She also has vision. Kalista has vision and a slow. Her ult can also be used for engage, or to save her ADC. Draven has a slow that can also knock enemies away from his teammates to save them if needed. KogMaw can weaken enemies with his Q and slow them with his E. MissFortune has a slow. Quinn has a blind, vision, and slow. Tristana has a slow, knock back, and turret shred. Twitch has a slow and DoT. Varus has a slow that also decreases self-healing/regeneration of enemies affected by it. His ultimate is also great engage, since it roots the first target hit, then roots every other enemy within range after that. Vayne has a knock back that becomes a stun if the enemy hits terrain. Xayah has a root than can affect several enemies.

Kei14311/25/2018, 3:48:43 AM7 votes

After re-reading SSNuNu's case, I feel I'm a bit better equipped toanswer your questions

[{quoted}](name=C9 Aphrolift,realm=NA,application-id=ZGEFLEUQ,discussion-id=xg6jTAAE,comment-id=,timestamp=2018-11-25T02:21:26.243+0000)

  • Should off-meta champ players be held to a higher standard than players who play meta champions? If so, how so & how much higher?

Riot stance is that if it's super off Meta, they expect you to communicate the strategy and get people to buy into it.

Should off meta be held at a higher standard in the regards of communication? I would say yes.

It's an unconventional that confuses many, so proper communication would certainly help calm people down and understand how to play around it.

  • How would you feel about an Ezreal support in your game?

I've said it before, I'm all for off meta. If I knew what you were trying to achieve, I would probably pick trist / ziggs / heimer or even morde bot (with demolish) to supplement your style.

  • Does your opinion of how you feel about an Ezreal support change at all if it's a low-elo(bronze/silver) game?

Low elo aren't familiar enough with champs to understand why it can work. High elo ais just Meta sheep, both elos will dislike it regardless of what's going on.

  • When playing an off-meta champ like Ezreal Support should you discuss your champion choice with your team before picking it?

That's just good etiquette, and it shows that you are capable of reason and communication.

I remember an old video about using Eve support (back when she had perma-stealth). They suggested starting champ select with "is it possible you pick a champ that can hold the lane 2v1? Cos I'd like to roam".

It sets the expectation and instills confidence into others.

  • What are the best safe guards I can put in place to main Ezreal support so I don't receive chat restrictions, suspensions or bans?

Start champ select saying that you want to play an unconventional support. Let them know that you will not take CS and will be heavily focused on poking and turret damaging.

Let ban phase go through but only hover your pick after all your team mates have banned. Once that has happened, hover Ezreal.

They will freak out again, and now you mention about your strong points for Ezreal, like the poke speed, the W turret dmg, and the E out to face tank CC

Reassure them that you won't take CS and ask them to trust you.

If they don't agree to it, then you might want to reconsider your pick.

Point is that you are talking and discussing with your team, and not shoving your strategy down their throat.

In game, make sure you pay attention to the map and ward often, as you dont have any CC, so they will blame you for any death if they get ganked.

Communicate the enemy jg position and tell them to position safer if the enemy jg is around. Trade aggressively and make sure you aren't just sitting behind your bot laner throwing out Qs. Also, don't just run away if they eat a bad hook, make sure you attempt to zone the enemy out as well.

If you want people to have more confidence in you, then you need to play at a higher level than they are in order to prove yourself to them.

Danksley11/25/2018, 6:26:10 AM7 votes

As an ADC main if you were doing this in ranked I honestly have zero sympathy for you. Maybe its just because I had a support Zoe today who couldn't land a single ability and basically made my lane 1v2 but without the benefit of solo XP.

"Your account has been suspended for 2-weeks for hurting the competitive integrity of your teammate's matches, not for intentionally feeding. Specifically for taking roles that were not assigned to you. Please excuse our incorrect phrasing in your reform card."

This is the super interesting part to me. Shows that in the event of genuine role stealing you can go to your assigned lane and basically get the person who wants to role steal banned at the expense of ruining the match versus accepting their "trade" and potentially winning.

ı Sona ı11/25/2018, 5:04:15 AM4 votes

This is still way too long. Its effectively tl;dr. Make it 70% shorter x.x imo