A guest article written by Hewitt Benson from Mobalytics.

Being in Challenger tier, personal coaching through college and now working at Mobalytics has given me literally countless opportunities to uncover detrimental patterns that hold new League of Legends players back.

There’s a fairly straightforward way to give yourself a huge edge in ranked League of Legends play; understand the basics of drafting and tweak a small champion pool to fit the metagame. If you’re not doing this, you’re getting outplayed by your opponent before you’ve even loaded up the Rift. As if climbing the ladder wasn’t hard enough already...

Playing the metagame is something many players don’t do because it seems like a lot of work. But it’s actually a pretty straightforward process that will make you a much stronger player. So, here’s the 3-step process for taking your League of Legends games to a deeper level.

STEP 1. UNDERSTAND THE DRAFT

Broadly speaking, there are two stages in the draft; the early stage and the late stage, and there are overarching considerations for each. Let’s start with early.

If you’re early into the draft - pick safe.

If you’re picking early, don’t make risky, easy-to-counter picks. For example, Vayne has a lot of counters so she can easily lose in lane. If you main this champion or other risky picks like her and you’ve been drafting them whenever possible, early or late, it’s been affecting your win/loss this whole time.

So what could you choose instead? Caitlyn also fills the marksman role, and has fewer bad matchups, so she’s a safer pick. Longer range or more mobility skillshots are typically safer qualities for champions to possess too, and Caitlyn brings both of these to the table. This means she can still farm safely even if she’s getting zoned out, she also has a dash (of sorts) to get her out of trouble, even if her flash is down. Other champions that fit this idea of safety for similar reasons include:

• Ezreal - very mobile, long range skill shots
• Sivir - Spell shield, long range skill shots, good wave clear (can’t be frozen on), lvl 6 run buff for more mobility
• Corki -Two AoE damage skillshots, long range, dash (even if it’s got a longer cooldown)
• Lucian - Dash for mobility, strong early game so he’s hard to zone out

Yes, that means by spending a little time familiarizing yourself with a slightly more varied champion pool, but you give yourself a much higher chance of not getting counterpicked all the time and making climbing the ladder even harder than it needs to be.

Over time, improving your versatility means you’ve got more champions to play with based on any meta changes, and you’ll understand how to play better against those champions when you face them in-lane.

Are you late into the draft? Pick your main when it works.

If you’re late into the draft, you can either pick riskier champions like Vayne if there are no bad matchups on the enemy team, or choose a backup champion if there is one.

Because you broadened your champion pool a little, it also gives you the chance to hard counter an enemy team member if one of your pocket picks fits that description.

In short, you’ve now got options instead of just sticking to the same champ all the time without a second thought. Yes, some people will dedicate to being one-trick ponies and we’ll cover a bit about that later on.

STEP 2. UNDERSTAND THE CURRENT META

Understanding what’s happening in the draft is the first stage, and the second stage is to research the current meta. But is it really worth you investing your time in this when you could be playing the game? Yes, it really is - and here’s why.

Doing research into what’s strong and what’s popular in the current patch is something practically all top-tier players do and it’s one of the key reasons behind their dominance. If you’re not doing this, you’re at a huge disadvantage to players that do because they’re adapting picks, playstyles and/or item builds all specifically tailored to beat you.

The first part of this is keeping up to date with patches. Every time a patch is due, the notes are typically released in the client. Another good way to keep up-to-date is by checking in with Surrenderat20.net which publishes regular news and game updates, including what’s happening on the public beta environment (PBE) which can give you a heads-up about what to expect in future patches.

It’s too easy to sit down and queue up another game without digging into patch notes, especially after a long day at school or work or whatever. But there are often significant changes not only to champs, but also to individual skills, items, or even mobs (which will affect your farming routes). Without knowing this, you’re messing with your win/loss ratio.

The best sites to keep up to date with meta include:

• Lolking.net/champions - Order champs by pick, ban, win and loss rates
• League of Graphs - As above, lots of metrics and visual data on champion popularity
• Champion Select - Great for finding counterpicks, lane synergy, advice on both
• Champion.gg - See the most popular items, masteries, and runes per champion
• Bestbans.com - Top bans for each tier. Helps see what’s being picked and the top bans

Okay, so now you know the fundamentals of the draft and how to find what’s going on in the current meta, it’s time to put this information to use.

Ultimately, this is keeping up-to-date with the meta 101. And it’s a continuous process that becomes easier and that you’ll get better at over time.

3. ADAPT YOUR POOL AND PICKS

As we’ve said, your champion pool should often change as the meta shifts. For example, if you main a tank, then a huge mage overhaul happens (as it did not too long before the time of writing), ignoring the patch notes and playing the same builds and champions as you would against Fighters could land you in serious trouble.

Reading the current meta and then making accurate decisions based on your findings can be tough. Some things are simple, such as seeing one champion has a crazy high win rate against your main, you’ll know not to pick into your counter.

Another great way to learn stuff is to copy the flavor of the month cookiecutter champions and builds in your role, and then always look for why it’s working so well. That means not just picking the strong things and playing without a second thought, but digging into the wiki, watching your replays, and seeking insights on why it’s strong.

Much like a new player to Hearthstone might copy net decks rather than trying to build a deck without knowing the art of deckbuilding. This is just an easier way to understand the meta.

ONE-TRICK-PONY-EXCEPTIONS

So what if you’re a 1-trick? This guide is not to say this style of play isn’t effective. But unless it’s done properly, you can actually mitigate the advantages gained by laser focusing on a single champion.

The solution? As is often the case, deeper game knowledge is the way upwards. In this instance, it means you must dedicate a good chunk of time to learning all your matchups in as much detail as possible. That way, you learn to counter what’s strong in the current meta. This is especially true considering several apps let players get intel on each other pre-game. As soon as you’re spotted as a one-trick, prepare to get hard countered.

Playing one champ all the time, you’ll inevitably get good at trading patterns, combos and at least be approaching the time when you can use your skills without really thinking about them. Now you need to know what you’re up against.

Start with the most commonly-faced champions in your role and keep building knowledge by learning things like:

• Which items they’re likely to use and which ones represent powerspikes.
• Lucian and Twitch are very scary once they reach Ghostblade. Conversely, Caitlyn and Ashe are threats once they acquire Hurricane with Infinity Edge.
• Their damage output and burst potential with skill combos.
• A Fizz will be able to kill you from 100% if he lands his ultimate. However, if you can dodge his ultimate then it is a much closer fight.
• What levels their power spikes are.
• Some champions are very scary at certain levels. Beware of Renekton once he hits level 3 and level 6.
• Their combos/trading patterns in lane.
• Vayne has no burst and is rewarded for continuous autos (prolonged trades). Lucian has great burst damage that is cooldown reliant (short trades). With this knowledge, as Lucian, you know that your trading pattern directly outperforms Vayne’s as long as you can get out right after a spell combo to prevent her prolonged trading.
• Can they kill/catch you with a jungle gank while you’re lane is pushed up.
• You’re not getting away from Reneketon top with an Elise jungle due to split damage types, mobility and reliable crowd control. On the other hand, it’s fairly easy to walk away from a Garen top and Master Yi jungle due to no crowd control.

Adapting playstyle and items is a part of this too. For example, if you’re a Vayne one-trick and people are playing squishier champions in the current meta, getting an Infinity Edge build down is a good idea to take advantage of the burst damage.

If you’re against dedicated tanks such as Amumu or Malphite, rushing Blade of the Ruined King is the way to go for the %HP damage. A sub-optimal champion for a meta will do a lot better when you take the time to research and use optimal builds for that specific scenario. This is a huge advantage, especially if you have more game knowledge than your opponent and nothing they can do will take you by surprise.

CONCLUSION

Keeping on top the meta means not getting complacent. Complacency kills on the Rift and the problem is that it’s all too easy to fall into the trap of thinking that you’ve got a “good enough” handle on things when they’re actually changing all around you.

So the next time you have a small chunk of free time, whether it’s during lunch at school or work, sitting on a bus or train, or 30-60 minutes before a League session, remember this point and allot at least a couple of hours a week into staying up-to-date with metagame research before you play. There’s a good reason top-tier players do this, and the results will make you very happy you did.