Ebb and Flow: How the Meta Impacts the Pro Teams
The meta in League of Legends is a changing tide, influenced by many different factors that end up washing up a set of strategies for any given tournament. While the exact definition of “meta” will be left for another article, the current meta has definitely evolved as a result of Season 3 changes. This comes as no surprise to anyone, especially those suffering through the League of Black Cleaver, League of Warmogs and League of BoRK that has just passed. While some of these changes have made their way up into the LCS, the changes in the meta can be far more subtle and influential in the professional scene.
The new trend that I’m talking about is a shift in individual role meta. The solo lanes have drifted away from a sustained, strong teamfighter to a snowball or reset character. The jungle has moved away from extreme support and into more of a carry or utility bruiser role. Bottom lane has seen adjustments away from mobility and into utility. These are far from rules to follow, but this small change in role-style has altered how some professional teams play.
Let’s first take a look at a team that’s somewhat slumping lately: Evil Geniuses. Now silly curses aside, they have had a pretty rough week, going 1-4 in the Super Week and having a poor showing at IEM Hanover. Diamond talked about this and the team itself has brought it up in some AMA’s on Reddit, but their compositions are somewhat outdated. They play very similar champions, but more importantly a very similar style. Snoopeh was absolutely legendary when support junglers were king, and he definitely showed it. His Cho’Gath and Maokai play was exemplary, and he proved time and again he knows the support style. Wikd is known for his Irelia and Renekton play, and while Renekton has stuck around, his style is very different in the new season.
But the new change is pushing towards a carry jungler and snowball-type solo lanes. Renekton can certainly snowball a lane in solo queue and he’s been fierce in competitive play. But he doesn’t have the same impact as a Zed or Akali in the laning phase. And let’s be honest, Snoopeh hasn’t had a big impact on carry junglers so far. This is nothing against their team but they have to adapt to the new style of play, not just the items or character picks- a problem they have recognized and began adjusting. But not all teams have suffered from this; the counter example to EG is Curse.
Curse was usually the team that was #4 NA, which is not so prestigious. They lost the LCS qualifier to CLG.NA, but managed to get through with the other new entries such as GGU and compLexity. However after four weeks of the LCS, they remain very strong in the standings. Again, we can look to the change in the way the game is being played to help them out. Saintvicious is not a support jungler, and never has been. Now he’s given the chance to shine and carry his team with the new set of junglers. In addition, they picked up Voyboy and he’s been absolutely tearing through teams with his Akali and Elise play, two characters that can secure a lead and strangle their opponents.
While Curse’s dominance was shut down by Dignitas and EG has seen a bit of light with some newer, more aggressive strategies, the point remains that some teams have fallen into the meta changes for the better or worse. The truly amazing teams will transcend this natural division, just as they have in the past. I’m sure EG will come out of their slump and Curse will have the rest of the LCS catching up to them. The question remains as to whether future shifts will be beneficial to teams and styles they’re more comfortable with.
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Towards the end of the article about having other teams catching up to Curse it seems a little biased, coming from a TSM/CLG fan in the sense that you don’t give enough credit to Curse securing their “#1″ spot in the LCS. Just my 2 cents, not trying to lecture you or put you down in any sense, just wanted to let you know that it seemed just slightly biased.
At the same time as pro teams effecting the meta though, soloq effects the pro teams, I think it was Krepo that said in an interview or as a guest on the LCS stream about how they tend to keep an eye on what new stratergies or builds are coming out in high elo, what people are testing out build wise or lane wise can effect the pro teams too, I think it tends to be found more in normals or low elo soloq that players will watch a stream and then try to copy it.
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Diamond’s Nasus is likely my next article, but Jarvan and Volibear are still utility bruisers compared to straight support such as Maokai or Nautilus. While they’re not typically Zed, the jungles are having a significant impact on the damage equation instead of just the utility portion. Sorry if I’m hyper vigilant in commenting, I encourage discussion not enforcement of my points.
I’m not really sure I agree with your assessment of the metagame. Right now, it seems like the Jungle is more of a support/engage position than anything else. Champions like Nasus, Jarvan, or Kayle are not picked to carry games–though they do deal some damage–but rather to make the carries better. For instance, Diamondprox levels up Spirit Fire first on Nasus so that Alex’s Kha’Zix and Genja’s Bullet Time deal more damage. Jarvan largely gets picked because of his aura and his ability to engage. Kayle is probably the only jungler that really fills the “carry jungler” role that you talk about, and even then, part of the reason you play her is to be able to ult your carries.
In terms of laners, the person who really becomes the carry varies from team to team. I can’t remember where the interview was where some pro was talking about it (think it was Chaox, can’t remember), but the person talked about how some teams give a lot of farm to Mid lane, like TSM. Meanwhile, other teams put a lot more into their ADC such as GGU, and a few teams give their top a lot of farm (Crs is one of the only examples I can think of and only when Voyboy is on a semi-carry champion). I would note that Gambit–more than any other team I feel–does a good job of partitioning their CS depending on the situation, giving more to Alex, Genja, or even Darien depending on who is doing well and who can carry.
That being said, while I don’t think your assessment of the current meta is correct, I do agree that it seems that EG’s old strategies and champions are not working.
Great point, Alex. I feel that the pro scene sets the standard for what’s to come in the item builds and champions picks, but not necessarily the flow of the game. I plan to write an article about who I see the meta and a bit more explanation on this front. I do fully agree that pro teams are the gold standard for soloqueue, but Riot sets the pace, the pros just discover and abuse it.
It’s funny that it should be said that the meta has a subtle effect on competitive teams, whereas I think of it more having a hyperbolic effect. Voyboy’s showing of Tankarina in what seems like so long ago is an excellent example of the ‘OMG EVERONE BUY WARMOGS’ craze that was the trend at the time. Sure it worked for Voyboy… but then half the time I’m afraid to see what crazy strategy he’ll pull off next.
In the end, I think the point is that League is an ever-changing game, more so than any other sport or professional game. Since Curse and TSM and all the pro teams are our exemplars, our paragons of the League of Legends community, they need to show that they are just as- if not more- adaptable than us of the soloqueue. Strategies are great, but the real strength of MOBAs and all strategy games is the opportunity to improvise and find that “so crazy it just might work” idea.