We all have our favorite picks, our go-to champion, our main, but, as I’m sure we are all aware from doing the grind that is a ranked session of LoL, that pick may not be best. This can be because of several reasons; such as poor fit for a comp (for example, a Janna does nothing for a comp that lacks engage), damage imbalance (for example Talon in an all AD comp), or even the good old punch to the gut of facing down your counter-pick (it feels awful picking Leona into Morgana). But how do we get around this problem? Well, you expand your champion pool, of course. But even this may not be enough! Sometimes you may not have a pick that is out of the box enough to meet the needs required. So, therefore, in this piece, I will identify and explain 5 unique picks (one for each role) that you may want to add to your pool to pull out in the event that your team needs it.

However, before I start, I will give a reminder to not first time these champions in ranked. Take the time to go through the process of practice tool, normals, and then ranked. Your LP and ranked teammates will thank you in the end.

Quinn Top Lane

Top lane right now is currently in fear of the crocodile that is Renekton, as he is dominating early games in not just solo queue but pro play (he was piloted masterfully to dominate in several 1v2 scenarios in the early stages of the split by Huni and then recently by Xiaobai). This is due to the fact that Renekton’s power early is almost unmatchable and his roaming power is very strong too. This where Quinn comes in as a power counter. Her laning phase is very strong against Renekton thanks to the blind on her Q, Blinding Assault, alongside her immense kiting potential coming from her E, Vault. This and the fact that Quinn’s ultimate, Behind Enemy Lines, makes her roaming faster and stronger means that Quinn may be the containment device your team needs. It is these factors combined that make Demacia’s Wings (Quinn) a pick that you may want to learn to whip out to prevent the current king of the top lane (Renekton) from riding roughshod over your team.

Ziggs Bot Lane Carry

Now it is no secret that bot lane has evolved over the last few seasons to contain more than just the marksmen that dominated the role for Seasons 1 through 8. The ‘Awesome Dudes’ meta opened the door for picks such as Syndra and Vladimir to flex down to the bot lane, however, while these picks can provide damage balance for your team, it can come at the cost of objective damage potential as mages just aren’t as good at killing Dragon, Baron, or Turrets. This is where Ziggs finds his niche, as he is an AP mage so he can still re-balance a team’s damage type, but unlike other mages, the Hexplosives Expert can melt turrets thanks to his passive, Short Fuse, and his W, Satchel Charge. It is this combination of magic damage and turret taking that may make Ziggs worth adding to your bottom lane carry pool.

Vel’Koz Support

Ah, now we come to my role and my personal pocket pick. Traditionally the support role has been the filler for requirements of crowd control and/or utility. However, there are cases where a team can lack one or more of several things which can include wave clear, damage balance, range, or even damage total. This is where Vel’Koz thrives, as he provides all of these things and what is even better is that he can do this with the lower amount of gold that the support role provides. He does this via his whole kit and its high base numbers. Therefore, provided you can stay safe as a squishy support, Vel’Koz can be a pocket pick that you can use to cover the gaps in many compositions.

Rumble Mid Lane

This is a pick that has come to solo queue from the realms of professional play, but what does this Yordle provide in return for his short-range cost? The answer is two-fold in the forms of lane-priority and team fighting. Rumble naturally shoves the lane thanks to his Q, Flamespitter, which means he can then win a lane via generating a CS lead in mid or roaming to another lane to gank it without being punished. This effect is called lane priority, and it means the champion who has it has priority on who gets to act first. Rumble has always had an immense teamfight thanks to the immense damage and zoning potential from his ultimate, the Equalizer. It’s a simple yet powerful concept. Now there are plenty of champions who can get priority with powerful teamfight potential, but none who do it quite as well as Rumble right now and so picking him up as a mid laner (giving him two lanes to roam to) may be just the expansion your pool needs.

Nidalee Jungle

The current state of the league of Legends jungle meta has seen a return to junglers who can really dish out the damage with picks like Gragas and Elise being S tier while building full damage. So much so that they frequently see time on the ban list (Fnatic’s Selfmade has deservedly drawn many a ban on the champion). However, while these champions are great they are more gank and teamfight-focused, and sometimes as a jungler you don’t want to be ganking to outpace the jungler and this where Nidalee comes in. Nidalee loves to get in a mess with an opposing jungler whether it be poking them out in human form or just straight up assassinating them in cougar form. Nidalee is very unique in that she is played in this style (otherwise called having kill pressure) with an AP build. A package that has strong poke and a heal to bring her into a late game, where she still has a purpose and you have a pick that can provide the disruption your team needs in a pinch.

Conclusion

To conclude these picks will take time to learn, some more than others, but if you do learn them, they can be the exact tool you need to make a winning team comp. Whether it be to counter an opponent, retain the ability to take structures, ensure adequate team-wide waveclear, gain lane priority/have a winning lane, and/or having kill pressure these tools can be essential to any compositions ability to get the W so having the ability to meet these needs from unorthodox positions can be the difference in winning or losing a game and gaining that sweet LP we all crave. With this, I leave you with the thoughts of GL, HF, and GG.