Personally, I like playing champs which do not see much play in competitive League of Legends because most people do not know how to deal with champions they do not see consistently in competitive play. One could call that meta and especially in lower Elo people tend to pick champions they see the professionals play because they think that those champions are the best to play in every situation. That might be true in a competitive environment or ranked 5's but is this true in Dynamic Queue with a lower amount of coordination?

Before we look into the pros and cons about picking meta champions and if you should primarily pick champions you see the professionals play we want to look at a definition of meta.

When typing "what is a meta in a game" into the google search bar you quickly find a Wikipedia article about metagaming which includes the sentence: "In simple terms, it is the use of out-of-game information or resources to affect one's in-game decisions"

I think this is a great definition of meta in League of Legends because there are several factors outside the game itself which influences the game. First of all, we have pro player picks which influence the meta all the time because people follow their favorite pro player and try to copy their picks because people think that those champions are the best to pick right now and help them to reach the rank they are aiming for. There even has been a series of Riot Games in which pro player introduce their favorite champion which was called "Pro player pick". Overall, you could say that pro player picks will always have an influence on not only the competitive part of the game but also the casual one. Another out-of-game source which influences the meta are updates of the game. Those updates, called patch notes, are being released every four weeks and change the game in several aspects. Not only do they strengthen and weaken the champions itself but also change the way objectives work which has a massive impact on the professional scene and thus ultimately the casual environment. Patch notes also change the way you build a champion. Item changes can often change the meta drastically and the way champions work completely because items are an essential part of the game.

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What are the pros of picking meta champions?

Professional players have a lot of staff around them helping them to figure out the best picks for each patch. That means that most of the time they are playing the strongest champions on each patch. This often reflects on the win rates of the meta champions if it isn't a newly released champion. Another point in favor of picking meta champions is that those picks are easier to learn because there are a lot of guides about those picks especially if they just became meta because people who mainly played those champions before they became meta, release content on why their champion became meta and how you can make the champion work. A champion being meta mostly means that they have close to no real weakness which means that you can often blind-pick those champions which will help you in a lot of cases during your ranked game experience.

What are the cons of picking meta champions?

Patch notes are not the only thing that influences pro player picks. Professional games have a lot more coordination which allows them to pick certain champions/strategies which aren't possible to execute in casual play. Thus you should not always blindly copy your favorite professional player's pick. This point even applies to simple things like taking Teleport as a Toplaner. Nowadays it is a must in competitive play and most people copy it in casual games. But there might be certain situations/matchups in which you should have taken ignite to prevent your opponent to scale up freely. When always picking meta champions you become predictable in what you will pick, thus you lose the factor of surprise completely which can often throw the enemy off completely. Playing meta champions often mean that you are not an experienced player on those champions which often restrict your ability to take over the game and mechanically outplay the enemy because they know what your champion is capable of as well as you do. This might not be the best argument to not pick meta champions but you are less likely to get surprised by an off-meta pick because the best way to learn how to face off-meta picks is to play them yourself.

Should you pick meta-champions?

In my opinion, you should at least give off-meta champions a try in a normal game because they are simply the best champions on the current patch and you might find your new favorite champion. But don't forget that blind-picking them in a ranked game might not be the best option because you do not know the limits of the champion very well if you aren't experienced on those champions. If you like the current meta champions but can't seem to make them work in a game without coordination do not hesitate to queue up with your friends and try some team compositions your favorite team just won a game with.

Overall, you could say that you should always be open-minded towards meta champions but don't forget to think about why they are meta and why they might not work out for casual play!

Concluding I want to thank you for reading. If you have any questions about the support role, you can send me a tweet @AcresLoL. Also if you do not want to miss out on any upcoming video content (support guides) or more written content do not forget to follow me on Twitter as well. Let me know if you liked the article, I appreciate any kind of feedback!

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