This article explains some of the thought processes that are required for the Champion Select phase, but also covers general aspects regarding the stages preceding the beginning of the game.
Drafting in League of Legends is one of the most challenging tasks we face as Solo Queue players. It is not only because we only have a limited time to do so, but also because we need to pick something that satisfies a large number of criteria that can determine whether we lose the game before it even begins. We all share a large responsibility to make sure that our pick works well with our team’s composition and provides different attributes that our teammates’ do not have, therefore it is crucial to know how to draft both for the benefit of your team and for yourself.
By creating this guide, I have decided to explain the basics of drafting and what you should keep in mind when you are selecting your champion to help you win more often and climb the ranked ladder faster. Make sure to read everything described in this article, as it will provide useful information and will present different drafting scenarios that can be used to improve your decision-making processes during the champion select phase!
Since League of Legends is a 5v5 game, this means that you will share a team with four other players that you have possibly never met before (Solo Queue), and you will need to try your best to win the game by communicating efficiently and playing together at all times.
During this stage, you can let your teammates know what champion you are thinking of playing (and see what your team composition will possibly look like). You can select a champion that you do not want to be banned by your allies, while also making sure that you are not banning one of the champions that your teammates want to play. This stage usually lasts for 15 seconds.
The first step towards winning a game is a good Draft Stage. During this stage, you are required to ban a champion that you do not wish to play against, and you only have 29 seconds to do so.
After everyone has banned a champion, the screen will flash all the champions that were restricted for this game (an example is presented in the image below), which means that you no longer have to worry about drafting for/against them in this game.
For the Pick Phase, every summoner has 29 seconds to decide what champion they want to play. Since there are ten players in any Summoner’s Rift game, where only a maximum of two champions can be picked at the same time (excluding the first and last picks), this means that a total of six pick stages will be present during the Champion select section. They are as follows:
During this Stage, you can trade champions with other players or change your runes and Summoner Spells. A very important tip to remember is that you can always pick a champion for another player (or they could do the same for you) during the Pick Stage if you both consider that a certain pick represents a high priority for your team, because you can always get your champion in return during the Preparationstage. It is important to know that both of you must own both champions for the trade to occur. Otherwise, this option will not be eligible, and you will be required to play the champion that you have instead selected for your teammate.
After the release of Patch 12.23, now you can also choose to swap pick orders with your teammates.
Depending on your pick order, you should consider different approaches towards selecting a champion. If you are one of the first picks (B1, R1, B2), you should always attempt to pick a champion that you are comfortable with, but you should also consider the possibility that you might get counterpicked. Therefore, you probably would not want to pick Zed when your opponent could always choose something like Fizz/Lissandra, but you could always choose something safe like Orianna or Viktor that can be blind picked and works well against most matchups. Nevertheless, if your favourite champion is Zed, and you feel comfortable playing against your counters, then you should absolutely go for it. There are many players that have a limited champion pool in Ranked and reach high elo, so you could do the same if you believe in yourself.
A different approach may be taken by Bot Lane players, who need their champions to have a good synergy in lane. Based on your ADC or Support’s declared champion, you can pick something to maximize your success in lane regardless of your order in pick phase.
If you and your Support/ADC do not pick at the same time, you can always ask in chat if they intend to play the champion they have declared (see the example below), and you can pick something to match it accordingly.
If you both pick at the same time: Wait to see what champion your teammate picks. In this case, Rakan declared the champion first, and I have picked Xayah to match it.
If you are one of the last picks (R2, B3, R3), you should try to choose a champion that fits your team composition’s style and add different elements for it. To exemplify, if you are last pick, and your team has a Jayce Top, Lillia Jungle, Caitlyn ADC and Lux Support (heavy Poke composition), you could always play something like Corki mid to complete the Poke playstyle, or you could even play something like Twisted Fate that has a great poke as well but can also engage with Pick a Card and also has roam potential with Destiny. There are plenty of champions that can fit a team’s playstyle, so choosing one that works both for your composition and matchup is the best possible scenario. To exemplify this thought process, please find below two different scenarios that were present in my recent Ranked games.
As we can observe here, the enemy bot laners opted for a Jhin/Karma lane, while our support decided to pick Leona. If we have a look at their attributes, they have high poke and mobility, with moderate CC, whilst our Leona has hard CC and burst potential, therefore I need to choose a champion that can synergize well with that and provide burst, CC, and is able to survive in lane against the enemies’ poke. Therefore, champions like Jinx, Senna, Aphelios, Seraphine, Caitlyn, Varus, or even Tristana could have been a decent pick here. Nevertheless, if we consider Jhin’s attack range (550) and the attack range of the other champions listed here, only Caitlyn (650), Senna (600), and Varus (575) would allow me to poke both Jhin and Karma from a safe distance where they would be unable to reply, therefore one of these three champions would have been the best in this matchup. Nevertheless, because of my previous experience and the position of these ADCs in this meta, I have decided to play Caitlyn this game.
If you would like to see the champions' attack ranges before getting into a game, please follow this link.
After the laning phase was over (14:00), this is how our bot lane was performing:
To exemplify a thought process that could be followed in your games too, the image below has a different drafting scenario:
Having to pick during the B3 rotation, I could already see what three of my teammates and four of my enemies had already chosen. I waited until our Support locked in their champion, then quickly analyzed the situation and realized that:
This means that I would need to pick an ADC with the following attributes:
Judging by all these previously listed factors, Jhin provides utility without requiring a traditional frontline, can root and slow enemies easily after a team member uses a poke/engage ability, can hardly be reached by their frontline due to high Move Speed, has greater range (550) than Sivir (500) and can freely poke their bot lane, and works good with our composition overall.
The following image describes a positive outcome by the end of the laning phase, which means that we should have a great chance at winning the Mid game.
The post-game screen highlights that our team composition performed better during the Mid stages of the game, destroying the enemy nexus in 23:10.
Similarly, for any other role, you could always try to look at the attributes of your team composition and determine which ones you believe could be improved for this game, and the ones you consider to be lacking, so that you can select a champion that aims to maximize your chances of winning by increasing your team’s overall completeness.
In conclusion, you should always try to analyze the champions that are already locked in during the Champion Select stage, compare the attributes of your teammates and enemies with the champions that you are thinking of playing, and always remember that League of Legends is a 5v5 game, which means that regardless of how perfect you draft and play the game, you always need to rely on four other players. Therefore, any win is a team win, and a loss is a team loss (with some exceptions). I hope that you have found this article useful and that you will use some of this knowledge in your future games. Best of luck on Summoner’s Rift.
