We’re hosting a Nemesis Draft Q&A session at 10am on 2/17. Come along to ask the Featured Game Mode team questions about counter picks, counter picked team comps, counter counter picks, counter counter picked team comps, and more! ...please don’t do either of the last two things.
How do you get people to actually read the game modes description? Seriously half the people don't know what they are doing in champion select.
I would definitely say I learned a lot from this game mode. Mainly that a large portion of the community know little to nothing about the other champs in the game. Quite a few games were lost due to the ever popular idea of giving all supports(Soraka, Nami, Sona, Taric, Janna were quite common). When asked, the reasoning behind this thought process was that they had bad clear times. Clear times mean very little when they can heal any damage you put out, have crazy amounts of CC and can actually do very good damage mid-late game.
The recommendation I usually put forth in champ select was to give them all melee AD champs that have little to no AP ratio's. Ideally I would choose Aatrox, Fiora, Nocturne, Tryndamere, Xin Zhao. Short range fighters, minimal CC and easily countered with armor/health. Which means even on a squishy ap caster you are getting a big bang for your gold with an RoA and Zhonya's. Obviously a smart enemy team will stack armor pen to counter and by doing so will lower their max damage. Get a Rylai's and Liandry's for more health and kiting power against them.
You may be asking, "why don't you do the same for AP champs?" Well, any champ can build AD and become an auto-attacker. Some AP champs do very well as ADC's. Malzahar, for example, gives a percentage of his ad to his minions. By choosing AD champs that have little to no AP ratio's you have locked in their build paths. Even if they were to build AP they would only be hurting themselves and their chances for victory.
No, these aren't weak champs or even terribly difficult to play champs for the most part. But the point of this mode is to increase your knowledge of champs and create a team composition that is easily defeated by whoever the enemy team allows you to play. It's also a good way to learn the importance of building against your opponent rather than following your generic cookie-cutter build. You have to remember that just because you aren't good with a certain champ doesn't mean that the other team doesn't have someone that will take that champ and make you regret picking it for them. Case in point, I've seen a lot of Yoricks chosen for the enemy. You don't see him picked much in ranked anymore but he is still a very strong champ that is difficult to counter, especially difficult if you aren't the one picking your own champ.
There are weaknesses to this comp because it relies on everyone being on board and not rushing for the Deathcap/IE build to max out early damage. Some champs will be able to do this if they have the ability to kite built into their kit. Otherwise you will need the early defenses to take full effect of any lead. Player skill also comes into play, quite dominantly, in this mode. You'll also need to watch for who builds tanky items and adjust your build to counter. There is no perfect team to go against but a good place to start is by limiting the choices available to the enemy.
Hope you all enjoyed my thoughts on the Nemesis Draft. I look forward to seeing you all on the fields.
GJ on the new mode RIOT!
Riot, did you secretly create this mode in order to find out which champs might need a couple of changes made in order to not be so unpopular?
How about you bring back URF?
The comments in here are horrendous, much like most of the community, but that's to be expected. Anyway, lets get down to it. The main gripes I have been seeing about this game mode.
It's a troll haven
- There are trolls everywhere, ranked, ARAM, normal; it doesn't matter, LoL will always have them, the Internet will always have them. It's time to move on and actually learn to cope people (looking at you millennials)
"Why would I want to play champions I hate"
- Well, first off, you aren't guaranteed to get a champion you hate. More than likely you can trade with someone to get a champion you like. Second, do you only play champions that are in the meta? If so, branch out, this is (here comes the shocker) a game after all.
I thought I had a third but I basically summarized what I was thinking in those two subjects. I like this mode because it forces a break from the meta. I had a ,  lane which ended up being a hilariously awesome kill lane where  and  couldn't keep up. In summary, this community needs to lighten up, that being said I know it will never happen. Maybe because this Q&A forum is right on the client people may see this and actually think, "Hmm, a valid point". But let's be honest, that won't happen. This is the Internet, and worse, this is the LoL message board on the Internet.
i hate the gamemode
Urf is better
You have to counter pick the counter of the counter of the counter whos picking the counter o 1 sec i left my pancakes on the counter.
why did you make a shitty gamemode that is not fun at all unless it's vs friends on skype
This game mode has honestly become hyper stale very quickly because it's the same champions picked basically every single game. It's a bit sad to see which champions the League community feels are bad or just worthless (though it can be fun to prove people wrong with interesting item builds on those champs.) This one, IMHO, has been more of a flop when compared to the hyper popular URF and All4One modes.
i have really enjoyed this game mode... finding out that many people believe 
, 
,
, and
are weak champs has made me laugh more than once...
that aside i would like to see a version of nemesis that made both sides choose balanced teams based upon their recommended primary/secondary roles... also ever since i found out that there is a summoner icon i've had a sour taste in my mouth about the experience... my girlfriend had me drop a match during champion select to go do something with her, and knowing that i now have no way to earn the icon because of it irks me... i still play the game mode, and have fun when i do, But..... oh well, what can i really do about it?
Plz rito bring back Urf.
I feel it's more like "Bad Comp Draft". I was expecting more something like a Team A consist of 
and Team B be 
. I thought THOSE were Nemesis'.
when will u make permenent new game mods
BAby gimme urf pls
Someone gave me 
42/2 i dont think the guy still thinks sejuani is a support...
I think my favorite part is how everyone thinks sucks so much, and then I purposefully ask to trade with someone to have her, and my final scores are OUTRAGEOUSLY high. I'm hoping to teach people just how great Evelynn really is, since everyone thinks she's garbage for some reason.
This mode sucks because they're all like, "y u give X?" every time.
I haz to give SOMETHING! No one is really THAT bad. The only things anyone seems to agree on is no ADCs and Urgot is bad enough to give out unless you're banning him.
Literally, the only fun I've had with this game mode is right before I log off each time I play. I simply queue up, give the enemy team an ADC, then dodge at 1 second.
The hope the enemies have for those 2 minutes and the rage my teammates feel in the meantime is hilarious. It's far more entertaining than actually playing this game mode, where every game is 10 supports.
Nemesis draft is honestly an interesting game mode to me. Even if it's just because it puts me out of my comfort zone as a support main. Found out 
is a surprisingly fun jungler that people underestimate for dayz >.>. 
is the champ I usually give to the other team because he's fairly difficult to use despite his versatility. T.T People rage at me for handing over azir, but he's rarely a problem. Can't pick him up fast enough.
I'm one of the many people who had a real blast playing URF, but it doesn't take flashy over the top game mechanics to make a game mode enjoyable. A small Gimmick like simply picking champs for the other team was dope. Keep it up Riot.
One of those game modes I'm glad I mained Evelynn and Elise in S4.
if we are to assume that the champions picked are considered MOSTLY the worst champions. Most of these from what I've seen are supports. This indicates that even though in the normal game we need supports for ADCs most everyone thinks they're bad champions. Riot, you should consider the ramifications of this discovery.
On the flipside, the champions that almost never get picked are certain generally all meta champions and all marksman. This can indicate that those generally non-picked are considered overpowered by many and thus I feel, should be re-balanced according to this implied knowledge.
I just wish at least one of their events weren't in the middle of a business day. I know im not the only person in the largest game on earth, that has to work.
why does people rage whenever someone give them a "certain" champ, like i had a game where a friend of mine gave the other team 
, and they all started yelling at him .-. wtf people
Honestly, I didn't like it, every game was like the same, same champs, and raging kids.
How hard would it be to make every "seasonal" game mode considered ranked? Say Nemesis draft releases on the first of the month and a mini ranking system would be associated with Nemesis until its culmination. Following the short season: icons, rp/ip rewards, or any other small incentive would be given out for the top X number of people. Would this be too much work or am I missing the point of the "seasonal" game mode?
This mode is funny. I used ad Janna 
first time.
