In my opinion op.gg's games or using any websites similar screw you up in game. You either end up over estimating or underestimating your opponent. Just play your best and feel out your opponent in the lane and play accordingly you will play alot better in general.
It is helpful though when I find out the ADC has no armour.
FeelsGoodMan
The runes & masteries are honestly useful.
I've learned not to trust the rank of my opponents to represent their performance.
Yep. Often time I'll play a game and someone will blame their lose on the fact that their opponent was a higher division than them. If they lose, it's because "They got an unfair lane." If they win, it's because "I'm so good, I can beat people in a higher division/league".
Mental gymnastics are real.
op.gg is a tool. Like any tool, it's only as useful as you know how to use it.
If you treat it like infallible gospel, you're asking for too much.
op.gg and similar sites are incredibly valuable, especially in ranked games. As a jungler, it is great to see enemy runes, as well as their KDA with their champion, and also their match history.
It can be a useful tool if you know what to look for, completely useless if you get discouraged by seeing that your opponent is X # of divisions above/below you.
If I see a LeBlanc with M.Pen/H.Pen Reds, Flat HP yellows, and flat AP Blues and quints. I know they are 100% trying for early kill pressure I know that if I play a bit safer I am better off than being my normal aggression (as she'll have better stats level 1-2 where I run scaling)
If I am jungler, I tend to play counter junglers. If I see Amumu jg on the enemy team took hp seals over armor, he is going to be super low on his clear. I am going to invade his blue and cripple him. I did see this once, Amumu was 0/3 very early to my Fizz.
I don't use it to gauge their strength/skill, I use it to see what advantages I can take vs what is normally there based purely off their runes/masteries setup.
While I agree with what you're getting at, I think it is 100% possible to overcome this by just training yourself to not consider your opponent's supposed skill level before actually facing off with them.
Information is still king, however. For example, an AP midlaner who takes scaling AP runes as opposed to MR may be playing for the late game. Hit him early and set that back. A Support who takes CDR over MR blues is going to take a lot of hurt from the support Karma on the other end - maybe aim those Qs at the support over the ADC.
I would never willingly give up information. If over/underestimating an opponent is something you struggle with, that's a great area for improvement. Don't limit your knowledge because of that shortcoming.
I like to look at people's winrates and KDA with the champ they're playing in order to get an idea of how good/bad they are with said champ.
If my opponent is winless with Garen, after several games, you'd bet your ass I'm gonna try hard to not be his first and only win.
I think it's usually some pretty useful information as long as you can avoid playing cocky. The data is useful, but people assume bad stats automatically mean their opponent is a bad laner. I have around 60% win rate on Zyra in 160-ish games, but I'm not good at getting kills in lane. On the other hand, I'm crazy good at laning with Teemo but have a really hard time getting caught out after lane is over.
But in general I think it's useful. Especially if you notice that your mid laner ("guys, let me mid I'll carry I promise!") is only silver 2 because of placements, only has 6 ranked games played, and thinks he's a god because he's won 2/3 games on his champ. In cases like that, it's useful to know. I'll make a point of roaming mid to ward for them (because you know they won't), gank a bit, and ping enemy jg anytime they're visible.
It can also be helpful in identifying smurfs. Like when you see a Silver 5 with 50 games, 65% win rate, and a 90% win rate with Poppy after 30 games....you know that's a smurf.
i use it to try to encourage teammates to play the champs they are actually good with
o? you have 227 games with jinx adc and a solid 68 percent winrate and are instead decididng to just try out vayne adc with 10 games and 20 percent winrate?
DAMN MAN YOUR JINX IS SEXY AS FUCK! they likely pick jinx just to show the team how sexy their jinx is XD
I use it if theres a vayne in my queue. if she doesnt actually know how to vayne, i dodge. tons of free wins whenever shes fotm
nah im good. i will gladly keep getting freelo from knowing your runes and masteries. how this is your first time playing jinx
I agree with this. Started in 2nd half of last season without ever playing any MOBA games prior to LoL (cause I spent years being addicted to WoW). I ended in SI which I thought was max I deserved. Had a horrible 10 games before this season start (this being my first full season in LoL) and ended up in BV. Slowly but surely climbed to being 1 win away from qualifiers for Plat. Never even considered checking who I was going to against as I always assume that the other person is better and that I am the underdog in the match. I find that logic to be quite helpful.
its great for dodging automatic losses. in a diamond game if i have 3 support mains you bet your ass im dodging, you aren't going to win a game like that when the majority of people specialize in one or two roles. They are going to get stomped trying to jungle or top lane. I find most supports can mid though since mid is by far the easiest lane to play. so incredibly safe.
I never realized how messed up the match making system was until I started watching these sites. I'm not pro, but playing against a level 5 and 8 as a level 30 is a waste of my time. If I can't win that match, I should quit immediately.
Of course, having a level 21 in bot lane with me as a team mate isn't a lot of fun either.
Ranked is messed up and norms match making is extremely uneven. I like LoL when I get a good game. Seems to be happening a lot less often recently though.
totally on point. I get matched with a decent amount of diamonds in norms now. Sometimes, they are really good and stomp the entire game. Others (probably when they're not playing a main role or trying a new champ), i would guess they were gold or plat based on their performance.
one game in particular i was Zed vs a dia 4 lissandra. She kinda is strong against zed, but i just did my best. Won my lane and our team won the game. If I had known she was dia before, in addition to the nature of liss vs. zed, i probably would have psyched myself out , gotten nervous, and played poorly.
long story but yeah OP imo you are right
I use LoLNexus just to see how they do with that champ. If I see they have 300 games played with said champ in rank, I know they're at minimum experienced. If I see KDAs that go along the lines of 15/4/10 for that champ after an average of 10+ games, I know to play safe, because that user has proven to be good with that champ multiple times.
It's useful in the sense that if they have 500 ranked games and 0 games as diana... you might be on to something.
Op.GG Has only been useful to me since I don't care whether the opponent is Diamond or Gold I'll play the same. The only reason I use it is to see Runes and Masteries and how many times someone has played that champion so I can be mindful to camp that lane if they main that champion.
They should be used after matches still, as the information they provide is very valuable on reflecting and seeing where you did well or poorly. I agree however, I've had people say things like "Oh your x laner is bronze" or "Our jngler is plat V watch out" Or allies warning us if an enemy on the other team is gold or whatever. And it creates a false impression.
In my opinion op.gg's games or using any websites similar screw you up in game. You either end up over estimating or underestimating your opponent. Just play your best and feel out your opponent in the lane and play accordingly you will play alot better in general.
As someone pointed out already, you can scout your opponents config (runes/masteries). You can see if someone forgot to switch their pages, have greedy runes/masteries (example: no mr/utility masteries jungler, easy to invade as elise/nidalee, or bot lane with armor/lvl instead of flat)
more intel is always a bonus
Like people have been saying the biggest use is runes and masteries. If top isn't running mr at all and I'm Amumu jungle I may swing by that way earlier to try and get my top snowballing.
Also I do kind of like lolskill.net. 90% of the time you still can't pull solid info about strength but every once in a while you'll have a little insight that you may want to help a lane out or something if there is a player who was higher rank (ie plat last season in mid/low good game) and has good stats on the champ with really low games played this season. They do poorly sometimes still, but a lot of the time they are someone who started late in the season and just hasn't climbed back up after placements.
Honestly I don't out of more laziness than anything else. But people DO severely overestimate rank- I'm a lowly silver and I've played with Diamonds and Platinums before- and won. Rank isn't everything, especially with how luck-based promos can be.
