League of Legends Screenshots

[Pocky]

I swear this is the most toxic draven I've ever played with (Crazyktulu) Locks draven when I call adc, says he'll carry, attacks me for not ganking since he keeps overextending, and shit like that. Otherwise, team was really really nice

[Ikaru]

Personally my issue with that sort of thing is that I know, at an equal skill level, things like that would so easily be punished or exploited that it's not worth trying. That Warwick didn't have Smite so he was going around lower than he could have been, and as such getting killed; that could have easily been the other way around considering his sustain exists at all versus Cassiopeia who can only get hers through items. And I'll give you how far ahead you obviously were (because of one of the aforementioned "off-meta" picks (not to mention one that left the game at some point)) but that still could have been better used and were I in a more sentimental mood I would call it disrespectful to the other team in the sense that you're basically saying "I'm so far ahead I don't even need IE or GA I'm getting like a hundred more damage on my ult and almost nothing worth mentioning on my W instead of cementing my lead for sure." Of course, if as you say, everyone was chill about it afterwards or in general, that's cool and more power to all of you.

The way I see it is that "off-meta" should refer to champions being played normally but in another position- if you've played 500 games with LeBlanc and decide "yolo I'm taking her bot lane to ruin some carry's day" that's whatever if you build her as you would anyway and either-

• compensate for lack of your own carry and end the game with a surrender at 20 or otherwise extremely quickly
• put your carry elsewhere, say, Quinn top or Sivir mid

If you don't, any organized team will plan against that and beat you eventually or exploit whatever weakness you've stuck yourself with in general.

In a similar vein, there's the whole lane-swapping thing- if the opposing mid is someone you're concerned about, or you picked yours first and then they grabbed Kassadin or something, put your duo lane mid and ruin his day or force 1v2 lanes elsewhere to push a turret and alleviate an enemy advantage. That's also non-meta because the meta is currently defined as solo top, solo mid, jungle, and duo bot. If you want two mages bot and a carry solo lane man you do your thing so long as you've got a plan for if it doesn't work out as... well, planned.

On the flip side and things I would consider essentially trolling, please do not play cassiopeia adc, or sion support, or jarvan support, annie/karthus/ezreal jungle (trust me, i speak from experience on every single one of those examples) or any of that unless your whole team is aware and doesn't mind, or you have some overwhelming advantage from the get go, be it in terms of skill or otherwise.

And don't get me wrong, I've played with things like Vayne with support Anivia and actually that might have been my best Vayne game (not that there's many to compare it to) so you can ditch that relatively unnecessary "meta sheep" comment there because they've done worse things than that and won games with it. I've seen an AD Gragas from Tony, an AD (spell vamp??) Ahri from Inuki, and Vega with "support" Udyr whose end build was 3x BT, IE, boots2 and Sword of the Divine and he had the most kills in the game. That doesn't mean I'd readily hop on the bandwagon in champion select with four strangers I've never seen before, but maybe that's just because I don't know how to have fun and LoL is a very serious game. Enough reason for you, Roo?

In any case, because this is the screenshot thread and not "Ikaru goes on a rant about things that bother him" here's a quinn screenshot from LoLking

the end

[Voctrode]

he's right though even though i only got so fed because firstblood double kill due to rainy dream not being there for 20 minutes and leona and corki vastly underestimating the power of love

[The Radiant Aeon]

Now I know why Mordekaiser is a beast. Bot lane fed, mid lane was at a stand still. But top lane tho. TOP LANE THO. Teemo/Mordekaiser 4lyfe. Fuck yo Riven

[The Fush]

Personally my issue with that sort of thing is that I know, at an equal skill level, things like that would so easily be punished or exploited that it's not worth trying. That Warwick didn't have Smite so he was going around lower than he could have been, and as such getting killed; that could have easily been the other way around considering his sustain exists at all versus Cassiopeia who can only get hers through items. And I'll give you how far ahead you obviously were (because of one of the aforementioned "off-meta" picks (not to mention one that left the game at some point)) but that still could have been better used and were I in a more sentimental mood I would call it disrespectful to the other team in the sense that you're basically saying "I'm so far ahead I don't even need IE or GA I'm getting like a hundred more damage on my ult and almost nothing worth mentioning on my W instead of cementing my lead for sure." Of course, if as you say, everyone was chill about it afterwards or in general, that's cool and more power to all of you.

The way I see it is that "off-meta" should refer to champions being played normally but in another position- if you've played 500 games with LeBlanc and decide "yolo I'm taking her bot lane to ruin some carry's day" that's whatever if you build her as you would anyway and either-

• compensate for lack of your own carry and end the game with a surrender at 20 or otherwise extremely quickly
• put your carry elsewhere, say, Quinn top or Sivir mid

If you don't, any organized team will plan against that and beat you eventually or exploit whatever weakness you've stuck yourself with in general.

In a similar vein, there's the whole lane-swapping thing- if the opposing mid is someone you're concerned about, or you picked yours first and then they grabbed Kassadin or something, put your duo lane mid and ruin his day or force 1v2 lanes elsewhere to push a turret and alleviate an enemy advantage. That's also non-meta because the meta is currently defined as solo top, solo mid, jungle, and duo bot. If you want two mages bot and a carry solo lane man you do your thing so long as you've got a plan for if it doesn't work out as... well, planned.

On the flip side and things I would consider essentially trolling, please do not play cassiopeia adc, or sion support, or jarvan support, annie/karthus/ezreal jungle (trust me, i speak from experience on every single one of those examples) or any of that unless your whole team is aware and doesn't mind, or you have some overwhelming advantage from the get go, be it in terms of skill or otherwise.

And don't get me wrong, I've played with things like Vayne with support Anivia and actually that might have been my best Vayne game (not that there's many to compare it to) so you can ditch that relatively unnecessary "meta sheep" comment there because they've done worse things than that and won games with it. I've seen an AD Gragas from Tony, an AD (spell vamp??) Ahri from Inuki, and Vega with "support" Udyr whose end build was 3x BT, IE, boots2 and Sword of the Divine and he had the most kills in the game. That doesn't mean I'd readily hop on the bandwagon in champion select with four strangers I've never seen before, but maybe that's just because I don't know how to have fun and LoL is a very serious game. Enough reason for you, Roo?

In any case, because this is the screenshot thread and not "Ikaru goes on a rant about things that bother him" here's a quinn screenshot from LoLking

the end

I completely acknowledge your points, and I understand the differing opinions and thoughts people may have on it.

The reason for my original comment was because Wes had immediately started shaming on a position for a champion that was uncommon without judging it for himself first (the warwick on the other hand was completely denying himself entirely though, I understand).

If there's one thing I want to say regarding LoL, it's that you don't have to play to the meta. Champions are able to play roles that they aren't usually catered to and still do it good. Of course, there are roles (meta-known or not) that champions are innately bad at; a good example would be a LeBlanc trying to jungle. Her sustain and jungling speed would, overall, be far too bad to keep up in it, and unless you're a godamn genius then that's going to fail utterly. Same goes for, say, AD Veigar. There is absolutely nothing about him that sends any signal to attack damage.

I understand that there are specific positions that specific champions can not do good at, whether these positions are meta-related or not.

But you can't be reported for not sticking to the meta game. Riot has stated that themself. I've seen the position of Roaming, an uncommon role, done very well, with champions like Blitzcrank, Janna and Shaco (though Shaco's pretty much a roamer himself to begin with), and I've seen champions done in meta positions they aren't usually in manage just fine, like jungle Karthus and bot AP carries. I've seen champions go with alternate builds; AP gangplank, "support" Udyr (I actually had that once myself, though he stayed true to his position instead of having a million kills), etc, etc. You get the idea.

Of course, if you're just doing an off-meta position at random, you're going to fail. Like with anything in League of Legends, you need to know what you're doing it and you need to gain skill at it. If you're doing it at random having never done it before and therefore not any setup has been made for it, that's essentially just you trolling. But if you're prepared, and you know what the fuck you're doing, and over time you become skilled at what you're doing, then there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

What really angers me is that the LoL community, being the League of Dipshits that it is, never understands this. People doing an off-meta role or position may know what they're doing perfectly well are still reported and constantly flamed by their team and the enemy's just because they're not sticking to the meta game, even though they've technically done absolutely nothing wrong at all. They most likely called their role, and just got flamed for it.

Furthermore, they don't seem to understand that you can have bad games no matter what you're playing as or doing; if a meta-positon-role person is having a bad game, they'll probably just be called bad; LoL communities do that. But if an off-meta-position-role person is having a bad game, they get insulted and bullied because for some reason the other players think that the off-meta position is the cause of the person being bad. It's unjust and unfair.

I understand that people may not like the idea of having to change what they're doing in the team comp because of an off-meta pick, but that doesn't mean they can't deal with it, adapt or be reasonable. There is nothing so bad about it. They can't expect every LoL game to go the exact way they want to, and they shouldn't be descending upon a player with a storm of hate just because they're doing something off-meta.

When I think of people who understand this and treat the meta and non-meta as they see fit, two youtubers immediately come to mind; Solwolf and EroticDiscoHeat. I'm going to leave a video of one of them here to fully support what I've said so far:

In conclusion:

• It's completely fine to play off-meta roles and positions, along with other stuff, so long as you know what you're doing and aren't just randomly trying something else. I italize that part because it otherwise might be open to misinterpretation. Helps if you've amounted some skill with that position aswell.
• Some people need to grow the fuck up and deal with off-meta events (I wouldn't address this to Wes; his jab was nothing too serious).
• Just because you're having a bad game while doing an off-meta thing, doesn't mean the failure is a result of the off-meta pick.
• There are certain things that certain items, builds, spells or champions are innately bad at doing. Please consider this.
• The meta is by no way a thing you need to always adhere to in League of Legends. Mould yourself and your champions.

I'd go so far as to say this applies in ranked aswell; though I would stress to anyone doing this in ranked that lobby communication with your team is vital; these are people playing seriously and you shouldn't just jerk out something at them at random. Be reasonable; if they continue to be assholes, that's their problem.

Anyway, rant ended! Here's the reason why I love Veigar and usually get around 1000 AP with him in a game; ARAM, but you get the idea:

[Ikaru]

In short, for the most part, I agree and it seems to me like we're on the same page- the thing is when people pull it out of nowhere and everyone may not be on board (for example I was somewhat opposed to all of those examples I listed when they occured but let it go anyway). But when Vega did that support Udyr thing it was because he was filling and wanted to make bot lane interesting because all the other games he was stuck bot were either boring or we got stomped; by that point we're just like "yeah man go for it" and he ends up carrying hard and we're all having a good time (as we do a lot when Vega plays with us- you should see his trundle (that obliterated an opposing Fizz jungle with his mid laner's (hi) help (and this reinforces the thing where you better know exactly what you're doing or you risk getting stomped by someone who does with a stronger pick)) *ahem* Anyway, THAT I don't mind. And like I said at the end of my thing towards Ryan:

Of course, if as you say, everyone was chill about it afterwards or in general, that's cool and more power to all of you.

Ultimately it's a game and you'll probably have to make it fun yourself on multiple occasions (if I tried to deny this game gets anti-fun more often than it should, I'd be lying to myself) but off-meta things won't always be amusing to everyone and the ones that don't agree are probably going to give you a hard time and it's really more trouble than it's worth. Not gonna lie, I've said more than once that anything can be played anywhere if you're good enough, but imo that's not always a safe bet. Another thing I forgot to mention is Ame's jungle Zyra phase (however short it was) in which she did perfectly fine; however, had our enemies been smart enough to invade (and do it right, as in, denying her blue and level 2) she would have been doomed and we all knew that going into the match. On that note:

• There are certain things that certain items, builds, spells or champions are innately bad at doing. Please consider this.

^ yes

My main point was the difference between off-meta and (subjectively) ineffective builds. If you play AD LeBlanc you're gonna have a bad time. If you play Leona top but still build as you normally would (maaaaaaaaybe a trinity force or at least iceborn), you might not have a bad time. If you play AP Leona mid you're gonna have a bad time. I've played Quinn AD carry, mid, and top, and with the exception of very small alterations to the build for top lane (assuming we have a traditional carry) have played her the same way in each position, retaining her overall effectiveness regardless of where I was on the map. In fact, she might even be best mid for her roaming potential with Valor's movement speed. Things like this I personally don't question whatsoever, but then there's the things I mentioned a few sentences back that will make me want to hurt you unless you are very good at this game and pull it off anyway. (but i'll still hurt you because ap leona is terrible)

[The Fush]

Out of interest, why do you consider AP Leona mid to be terrible? You're free to move this conv to a PM or the other LoL chat topic if you wanna reply so that we don't derail the purpose of this thread. Never saw her as too bad, personally.

[Succession]

Happy that I bought Syndra yesterday

[Amethyst]

Out of interest, why do you consider AP Leona mid to be terrible? You're free to move this conv to a PM or the other LoL chat topic if you wanna reply so that we don't derail the purpose of this thread. Never saw her as too bad, personally.

Her ratios are low, she has no poke, she has low burst, the lane is too short for her to stay on an opponent to do sustained damage, her main damage is too obvious to rely on in a solo lane, her passive is completely useless when solo, she can't do significant damage in a team fight without being in the middle of the team

Even if you happen to need a tank-mid, she's outclassed by things like mid maokai and even mid malphite

[The Fush]

Her ratios are low, she has no poke, she has low burst, the lane is too short for her to stay on an opponent to do sustained damage, her main damage is too obvious to rely on in a solo lane, her passive is completely useless when solo, she can't do significant damage in a team fight without being in the middle of the team

Even if you happen to need a tank-mid, she's outclassed by things like mid maokai and even mid malphite

I actually discussed this with Ikaru quite a bit in a PM on the forums; seeing as how it's past midnight though, I'll probably have to get back on this later.

[Shanco]

I posted my two cents on the LoL chat thread, it's probs where the conversation belongs

To get us back on track, here's a 3v3 screencap of me discovering how strong Xin is on Twisted Treeline.

Xin is the king of 1v3s

EDIT: Yes, I kicked your dog. Problem?

[Cyrus]

Ranked woes into Bronze II. Getting to Silver this weekend hopefully. Just going to carry top each game.

[Aessence]

I need to redo all the qualification matches. I don't know if I will be lucky getting Silver IV this time xD

[Joker]

Why can't I just get these guys on my team every single game? Also lol at all the sunfire. They really were just messing around. lol. The Amumu ganks were amazing, and I would have lost my lane if not for them. My only death was to bail Amumu out and let him get away, which looks stupid now that I consider my bounty gave them a lot of gold. But hey, I'm not good, so I can improve on that.

[Pocky]

Dat 6v6 is insane yo. Teamfights are more chaotic, more ganking, more fun. 10/10 keep it up riot.

[Diana]

wao what

is that in pbe? qq

[The Fush]

I don't even play sivir what even

[Pocky]

Yup. Coming to a server near you!
Hexakill.
Coming soon.

[The Radiant Aeon]

Hot damn Nidalee. Dem snipes.

Real talk tho. As much as I liked poking enemies from afar, I hated this match. Why? Fucking Renekton. He gg surrenders after every 5 minutes because they were beating us so bad, talks shit about the rest of us even though HE lost lane early, and then claims he carried. Urgh! People like that is the reason why I hesitate ti click the Pvp option and play bots til 30. Its almost unbearable since, for the most part, that is almost every other game. On my first Pantheon game, I did horribly, yet we were all friendly with each other. On this game, I just gave Cait the heals/Attack speed boosts and watched her get fed.

[Yuki]

i had 2k and desperately wanted to finish my lich bane. could kill any of them with QRE except nasus, he took /two/ QRE's.

[The Fush]

SOME CALL IT MAGIC I CALL IT GOOD AIM

I still think that Lucy's ult is essentially MF's but with like 0.1x the damage but other than that he's still cool as fuck and he can still move during his ult I guess

[Diana]

who the fuck managed to give that thresh a kill because they need to uninstall

ALSO his ult actually does a lot more; it scales with both attack speed and ad/ap

there was a point were five nashor's tooth and a deathcap let him ult for over 10k damage

[Dark Desire]

you do much more single target dps with the culling then you can do with bullet time, can almost always get about 70% of a squishys health with it at rank 2 and good aim

also because riot loves me so much and gives me so much lp but i just wished they wouldn't leave me hanging like this ):

[Pocky]

I've done it.
A second penta with Katarina.
Luv you bby gurl with yo knives n shiet. <3

[Shanco]

Going full man mode with an epic Baron steal

Mantheon is a god.