Popular champions come and go in League of Legends. But when playing ranked, it can sometimes feel like only a few champions are viable. Worst of all, those overly-played but strong picks are always on the enemy team. Thanks to some research, compiling, and data from LolKing.net, here are some of the most popular current champion picks in ranked and how they can be countered.

Support:

Thresh: A versatile support champion, he is highly effect at close range CC.

Tips:
- Thresh has long cooldowns early game, so if he misses at few abilities try to exploit it.
- To prevent Thresh's latern being used, stand on it or disable him (silence, kocck-up, stun, ect.).
- Start with a safe early-game and avoid being caught by Death Sentence for a first blood in bottom lane.
- Deny souls to keep his armor and ability power down.

Champions:
- Lulu: Effective silence
- Alistar: Hard CC, outsustain
- Leona: Hard CC

Items:
- Banshee's Veil: Gives a spell shield which denies Death Sentence

Leona: A strong support champion, she has incredible CC and excellent team fight potential.

Tips:
- Stay alert for Eclipse, usually a sign an attack will follow.
- Quickly retreat from center of ultimate, Solar Flare, to avoid full stun.
- Hard CC and an aggressive early game can prevent snowballing.

Champions:
- Alistar: Hard CC, outsustain, early playmaking, knockback
- Morgana: Hard CC
- Lulu: Effective Silence

Items:
- Quicksilver Sash: Removes debuffs like Leona's slow and stun
- Banshee's Veil: Spellshield can deny Zenith Blade

AD Carry:

Caitlyn: A popular AD carry, she has an effective range and usefull CC.

Tips:

- Stay behind minions when possible to reduce damage from Piltover Peacemaker.
- Work with your team to avoid easy kills by Ace in the Hole by blocking with tanks or using displacement to stop ultimate.
- Aggressive early game and outsustain will prevent Caitlyn from snowballing.
- Gap closing, when paired with a silence or stun to deny 90 Calibur Net gives an easy kill.

Champions:
- Sivir: Effective spell shield denies most abilities
- Jinx : Strong damage trades
- Varus: Long 'q' range, strong damage trades

Items:
- Randuin's Omen: Slows Caitlyn when she auto-attacks.

Summoner's Spell:
- Barrier: Can help prevent being picked off by range at low health.

Jungle:

Lee Sin: An AD fighter, Lee Sin has strong burst, mobility, and combos.

Tips:
- Attempt to counter-jungle when able to deny gold/XP as Lee.
- Focus on dodging abilities, then kiting and poking.
- Focus early game when Lee is squishy to prevent snowballing.
- Avoid 1v1 battles due to Lee's great escape and chase potential.
- Destroy wards to limit his high mobility around the map.

Champions:
- Udyr: Great counter-jungler, fast jungle clearing
- Renekton: Outsustain, strong early trades, effective stun

Items:
- Chain Vest: Provides early armor

Mid Lane:

Morgana: A versatile mage and support, she is a magic damage caster with strong AOE spells and disables.

Tips:
- Actively deny and steal blue buff.
- Gap closing can quickly chunk down Morgana's health.
- Stay behind minions when able to avoid Dark Binding.
- Build magic resistance to prevent snowballing.

Champions:
- Talon: Strong gap closer, high mobility
- Morde: Outsustain, strong scaling with farm
- Katarina: High mobility, effective spell dodge

Items:
- Quicksilver Sash: Denies Morgana's ultimate chains
- Zhonya's Hourglass

- Banshee's Veil: Denies Dark Binding

Top Lane:

Wukong: An AD melee champion, Wukong pairs strong damage and armor with impressive gap-closing.

Tips:
- Hard CC allows for easy kills.
- Wukong typically uses Decoy after Nimbus Strike- be aware of this and don't blow abilities on a decoy.
- Grouping up allows Wukong's ultimate to be used to its full potential.
- Pink wards and Oracle's Lenses renders Decoy useless.

Champions:
- Olaf: Strong early game, Strong harrass, outsustain
- Darius: Good scaling, Decimate is very effective
- Garen: Strong early game, effective silence, effective Judgement

Items:
- Randuin's Omen: Slows Wukong via his auto-attack
- Chain Vest: Provides early armor
- Frozen Heart: Slows attack speed

While these tips, champions, and items will not always be the easy answer, these suggestions can help propel a game in your favor. Remember, playing a champion you have little experience with in order to counter another lane may not play out in your favor. Instead,try playing a champion role needed by your team and doing your best to create a positive outcome.