I first started playing League of Legends in season three. By that time there were already over one hundred champions. Transitioning from bots to playing against people was quite a rude awakening. I had no idea who to play, how to play them, or what my opponents champions did. I turned to some of my more seasoned friends for advice. They suggested the usual tips, and showed me several sites for advancing my knowledge of the game. Always being an analytical person who was looking for the most intimate game knowledge possible, I was hooked. But in between all the champion guides like "How to Dominate as Lux Top," and general knowledge guides of zone control, warding and last hitting, there was counterpicking. I thought this was the answer to all my problems. Oh the enemy locked in that OP hyper carry Jax, I better play Renekton. However even though this was generally seen as a favorable matchup, I had no idea what I was doing. So I lost, a lot.

There are some obvious benefits to counterpicking, but all of that requires deeper game knowledge than most newer players have. This is only reinforced by the interactions I had with "team chat" during champion select. "OMG I can't believe you picked Zed into Kayle. Don't you know Kayle counters Zed??!?!" Drafting became a source of unhappy stress. So I'd try to use websites to tell me who to play. Of course that did not benefit anyone involved. Not only did it hurt me in the short term, but in the long term it hindered my growth as a player. While I think that it's a great thing to pick up new champions, try them out and have a good time. It's also important, especially in ranked if you want to climb the ladder to try to get a nice core champion pool for each role.

Another way people often fail right from the start is they try to stick too closely to the meta. Now I'm not advocating Lee Sin ADC, I think it's important to remember just because the champion you learn to play in a lane isn't played by pro players, or seen as OP, it doesn't mean it's not good. Let's just look at the current top win rates for the last month in solo queue.

So besides a few outliers, Skarner, a recently updated champion that is acknowledged almost instantly as being too strong. The only other champions who have seen regular play in the pro scene are Ahri and Janna. Ahri has recently seen a small resurgence as a counterpick to the control/poke champions that have taken over the midlane and Janna is always strong because the utility she brings. But seven out of the ten champions have seen sporadic, if any pro play in the last year. By comparison the list of the lowest win rate in solo queue over the last week looks like this.

Powerhouse champions like Lee Sin, Gragas, Orianna all make an appearance on the list.

So remember metas shift, champions change, but if you play what makes you happy and what you enjoy you'll have a better time. So remember, if you love a champion and learn his or her kit inside and out you'll do better than if you just pick up Gangplank top because that's what the pros do. Sure some champions invariably have stronger kits than others, but a real mastery of the limits of a champions kit will in the end be more useful than meta picking.

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