Did Piglet Deserve More? Thoughts on the Team Liquid Interview.

After the first five weeks, Team Liquid management was not content with the performance of their S3 World Champion ADC, Chae “Piglet” Gwang-Jin, and benched him for the upcoming weeks for Rookie ADC, KeithMcBrief. Team Liquid management took some time out to speak with Ongamers' Travis Gafford about their decision. This article is a reaction to that interview.

(Screenshot From the Ongamers Interview)

by Michael "Tribble" Godani

First of all, let me state that I do not normally occupy myself with the NA LCS because I'm mainly a LPL watcher and journalist, but I did take a moment to reply to their interview because of my strong feelings on it.

Before the interview even started, while watching the introductions of the management of Team Liquid, I noticed that only Peter Zhang, the team coach, seemed properly dressed for the occasion. As Travis stated (and the management of Team Liquid agreed) the situation with Piglet was quite serious, and considering they were there to explain the situation to fans and critics around the world, I feel like head analyst, Mark Zimmerman, and manager, Steve Perino, may have missed the mark in their casual appearance. 

The management discussed problems that Piglet had and how he was on a different level compared to his teammates, but I didn't take this to mean he was better or worse than them. Rather, he just had a different way of seeing the game and how they should play it.

I found myself annoyed with Steven Perino's response when Travis asked if Piglet felt lonely in the gaming house and what was being done about that specific issue. Perino said, “We would include him in every single thing that we did,” in past tense, as if Piglet was already history for the Team Liquid Management. Also, he made it sound as if it was a privilege to be there on team building nights or nights out with the team, and it struck me as unprofessional and immature.

Perino also mentions that they went through a number of translators so that Piglet could understand what was being discussed in team meeting. Let me just say that if you bring in a non-English speaking foreign player, it is your obligation to make sure that he understands. No need to act as if you did something heroic by making sure that one of your employees understood what was being said in team meetings.

Steve also says that aside from the language barrier, Piglet did understand the details when it comes to the game itself. This statement blew my mind. We are talking about a player who has won:

Champion Summer 2013

Korea Regional Finals 2013

Season 3 World Championship 2013

NLB Summer 2014

All stars 2014

Champions Winter 2014

Quite an impressive list, knowing that none of the players in Team Liquid has ever come close to any of those achievements. Piglet knows a lot about the game and understands it pretty well, not to mention about the time it took him to acquire his Master Tier slot in the NA soloQ. So, I found Steve's statement flippant. Hopefully he didn't mean it in the way that I interpreted it, but it did come out that way.

During the whole interview, Steve seemed more busy trying to save his own ass then actually contributing to the issue. When he spoke about benching Piglet, he stated that he printed out three pages “in Korean” that addressed the issues and the expectations from the Team Liquid Management.

One thing that also bothered me is that Steve said that “IWD & Xspecial really liked Keith.” I don’t think that should be an issue for professionals, should it? It makes work easier, but it isn't necessary or even mandatory when it comes to working together to win games. All that matters is that you have one goal and that is to win games by stomping your enemies as fast as possible. 

For the people that might disagree with me here, please take a look at Star Horn Royal Club from last season. Insec and Uzi hated each other, yet they still managed to get all the way to the finals of Worlds. So, it is not needed to get a long with everyone in your team.

   

Piglet is the biggest player that has ever been imported into the NA LCS and he still is, despite the fact that he's been benched. Bringing a world champion adc into your team like Piglet, a player who is meant to carry your team and make crazy good plays, you would think that they would have been prepared to cater the team around him. Let me give an examples so that everyone can have a clear idea about what I mean.

TSM used to focus on Top and Bot lane ganks and leave Regi to his own devices, but when they acquired Bjergsen, that changed. The team refocused around mid, giving Bjerg's lane a ton of attention with ganks and wards to help get the young Dane rolling. (Get Bjergsen rolling, GGEZ is what the fans would say.) Was it easy for the team to adjust to this? Not really. Dyrus was a “victim” of this tactic and struggled a bit when he had to adapt, but he did, which makes him a very respected and great League of Legends player. 

With all due respect, none of the players that are currently on Team Liquid have the right to look down on Piglet or to be annoyed towards him, because he is a better player overall and he has proven that time and time again. Team Liquid would do well to have the team adapt to Piglet's playstyle rather than the other way around, I mean really, you get a player like Piglet just to bench him because he doesn't like the way that the team plays? He's the big name, he should be the one that carries the game by having four people play for him. 

The general feeling that I get here is that Team Liquid’s management find it easier to bench Piglet then to try and make it work for him and the team. Yes, it’s easy to remove the person who is being bullied out of a group instead of trying to solve the bullying and make it work.

I truly hope that Piglet will leave the NA LCS and return to a team with professional management who will work to accommodate him. So I will end my article saying #FREEPIGLET!

EU LCS Week 6 Preview

By Reece "SabrewoIf" Dos-Santos

The Spring Split is past its halfway point and now, more than ever, each game matters. Here are my picks for what to watch in the EU LCS Week 6.

Day 1- Roccat (4-6) vs H2k Gaming (6-4)

Since the introduction of KaSing, H2k have become a much more competitive team. They've gained the ability to make better calls, gained stronger map presence on a whole and now look much more decisive in closing out games and holding onto leads. This momentum is also helped by the slide some of the bigger teams have been having in terms of living up to their hype. One of those teams being Roccat. It’s been hard to predict Roccat this season as they have all the tools available to be a top tier team; they’re just not falling into place. Roccat can be the team to halt H2k’s KaWin streak but, considering the latter is coming into this off a win over SK, momentum is certainly in H2k’s favour.

Day 1- Gambit Gaming (5-5) vs Copenhagen Wolves (6-4)

Gambit fans finally have something to smile about, the team has been on a good reverse tilt ever since H2k turned themselves around as well. P1noy and Cabochard look great in their positions, Diamond and Edward seem like they've been revitalized and NiQ, prior to his side-lining, looked to be meshing well with the team. Luckily for Gambit fans, the swap in of Betsy didn't affect the team dynamic much and they should feel confident going up against what looks like the strongest Copenhagen Wolves squad in a very long time. Youngbuck, Airwaks and Unlimited are starting to show really good moments while Freeze and Soren have been instrumental in holding the team together in later phases and team fights. The special matchup of this game will certainly be in the bot lane. P1noy vs Freeze won’t disappoint.

Day 2- SK Gaming (8-2) vs Elements (4-6)

The battle of the two "should-be-top" teams in the EU LCS. While one team has lived up to its hype, the other has fallen prey to the same kind of weaknesses they displayed this time last season. Froggen’s super team are no strangers to really slow starts, but with the addition of Krepo in place of Nyph, maybe they have the right Elements to produce a winning formula. Krepo provides a strong analytical game sense, leadership and solid mechanics in a form that nRated brings to SK. If Elements have actually built upon their hardship and learnt the power of teamwork and friendship, this will be the perfect time to show it against a recently shocked SK. While an 0-2 week isn't necessarily a panic siren for them, poor momentum could easily make it a third consecutive loss.

Fantasy Forecast:

H2k owners should feel very confident considering Giants and Roccat aren’t the toughest looking competition on paper right now. Unicorn owners should be wary of SK Gaming and Fnatic owners of the Wolves but generally those two remain solid picks. Be mindful that this is a week that could halt the Wolves' hype train but it could be a very profitable week for their carries. While it seems impossible for Elements to lose against MYM, it also seemed impossible that they’d be 4-6 this far into the season so never say never.


Reminder: Krepo is Elements’ starting support over Nyph and Betsy will continue to start over NiQ on Gambit.

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By Reece "SabrewoIf" Dos-Santos

League of Legends, a Cultural Phenomenon?

by Louis "Guichex" Lemeillet

This a bit late, but I wanted to react to the recent release of Riot Games' official music album, which features eight tunes centered around the universe and lore of their unique game, League of Legends. Riot's music passion didn't start with this album, as they normally create unique tunes for each new champion or event, and even co-created an “eSports anthem” with the popular band, Imagine Dragons, for the Season 4 World Championship. Nevertheless, Smite & Ignite is truly a unique product and it's the first “album” made by Riot Games. If you consider this, in addition to their short animated movies, the growing in-depth writing of the lore of the game's universe, and the production of endless drawings for each champion, you can say that League of Legends contains several different art forms: cinema, literature, visual arts and so on.

Can a Videogame be Considered a Form of Art ?

Taking the words of one of the biggest figures in the videogames industry, Hideo Kojima, famous creator of the Metal Gear Solid series, videogames are a type of service and not a form of art. Game designers, since they seem inspired by countless artistic pieces, can be considered “museum curators,” arranging those pieces in a way that displays their artistry. But one can say that the line is really thin, and some other games designers and people in the videogame industry often consider videogames as a “greater” art - since they gather several forms of art in one piece. One art to gather them all, and in the darkness (of an attic), join them.

This debate, of course, comes along with the technological prowess of our current gaming devices which allow the display of stunning realistic graphics, long and intricate stories, and the face recognition which translate human emotions on a whole new level. Beyond Two Souls, of the famous Quantic Dream studios, was so presented in the Tribeca Movie Festival last year as a piece of art alongside several “real” movies. 

Personally, I believe Kojima is the one on point: the main goal of a videogame is definitely entertainment. With the economical landscape, you have to appeal to the masses if you want to make some revenue out of your work, potentially restricting the artistic desires of the game designers. We play videogames for various reasons, but the one that is always here is: we want to entertain ourselves. You could put all the artistic views you want in a game, but if the gameplay sucks, it will not live on as a masterpiece.

League of Legends cannot be considered a piece of “art,” but it has reached a level of deliverable entertainment possibly never reached before by any other cultural product. With the combination of several arts, the entertainment and the cultural “potential” of the sports world, League of Legends might become something which children will learn about in history books someday.

League of Legends, the Legacy

I might be getting ahead of myself with that previous statement, but it is also true that we've never experienced something similar before. Of course, eSports and videogames have existed for decades, but never have we seen a game reach the level where LoL stands right now. Even if you consider all of its franchises, Starcraft - maybe the most popular eSports game before LoL - has not reached Riot. Yes, Starcraft is truly a pure and very successful videogame with astounding storytelling, a strong universe and powerful cinematics (Blizzard's cinematics are on a whole other level and I don't think any other game developer reached it.) But as amazing as Starcraft is, they've never reached the popularity of League of Legends, at least in our Western regions. League of Legends' global viewership reached the level of traditional sports first, with spectators outnumbering the NBA finals and other extremely popular sporting events.

Moreover, eSports is the first and will probably stay the only sport which will be shared on approximately the same level of passion throughout the world. Of course, we're seeing disparities in the games watched depending on the countries, but League of Legends draws in viewers from almost every region of the world.

If you consider this from the “artistic” viewpoint, League of Legends has the potential to reach more people than anything or anyone before. Videogames are worldwide, eSports are worldwide, and League of Legends tops the scores in both those fields in terms of active players and viewership. It is also a game that is designed as a “durable” thing and not a “one-time” story like many “artistic” videogames. So, potentially, its music, drawings and short animated movies (one can dream of an extended movie of the Shurima past,) can reach hundreds of million of people and try to touch their inner sense of “art.” I've rarely seen a single product or person get on this level.

When I consider cultural phenomenon, which billions of people might know or have heard of, there's truly just a few things that stay on my mind: Michael Jackson, Star Wars, Mario, Banksy... and you can be sure that such pieces of culture will go down in history. Can League of Legends do so?

History is being made here, kid.

As we all know, history is written by the winners, and as successful as League of Legends might be today, you can't avoid the possibility of the product drowning in the mud with the course of the years. It's really hard nowadays for a cultural phenomenon to stay away from the potentially insane amounts of money that can be made. The Lord of the Rings franchise might have gone too far, for example, in the minds of many. If Peter Jackson stopped with the first trilogy, it would 100% have gone down in history as a “masterpiece.” The Hobbit trilogy, though, will never do that, and for a lot of people, it stands as a stain on the glory of the first movies.

Nevertheless, those things happen every time. You can see how people tried to make money after Michael Jackson's death, surfing on his popularity and drawing his legacy into the mud. But for such a phenomenon, it will not matter: Michael Jackson is one of the greatest musical artist of the modern times and will probably be remembered as such for ages.

Can League of Legends reach that point? I believe so. They might not produce real art, but they surely can produce massive entertainment and offer a cultural content close to the most popular traditional sports in the world. Moreover, they share a worldwide popularity that almost only videogames can reach. They were the pioneers of “mainstream” eSports and will be going down into history as much as the first eSports games and tournaments like the period described in the wonderful Smash Bros documentary when a bunch of high school geeks created the basis of what is today one of the most popular eSports scenes.

It's weird to think about kids learning about League of Legends in school and it will surely not happen anytime soon. By going down into history, you have to wither first and I don't think Riot is ready to let its franchise die this soon. But do you believe too that it has the potential? Or do you simply believe it will be overwritten by the global eSports phenomenon? I always will want to show my future kids what I played when I was little (Zelda, Smash, ChronoTrigger, Warcraft, etc.) I always thought it would be fun to see them come back to me and talk about videogames they learned about during their school days. 

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by Louis "Guichex" Lemeillet

Week 6 LPL Preview

Two of the Best Teams in the World are about to take each other on! 

After a break because of the Lunar New Year, the LPL is back with twelve matches. Here's a preview of a few games that you might find interesting to watch. The games start at 06.00 AM CEST 00.00AM EST.

by Michael "Tribble" Godani

February 27

Vici Gaming (3-3-4) vs Energy Pacemaker(0-6-2)

This will be the first game of the week. There are a few interesting aspects about this matchup:

Vici Gaming has picked up two World Champions in Mata (support) and Dandy (jungle), but the team itself hasn't really been performing as was expected. They are starting to play better as a team and for the team itself we hope that this will result in a easy 2-0 win over EP.

Energy Pacemaker is still waiting for their first win of a series in this Spring Split but it will be very hard for them to realize this against this VG team who is growing by the week in strength and teamplay.

EP did manage to go into the break with a split against M3, let’s see if this has given them some more confidence to jump into this match against the inconsistent performance of VG.

LGD Gaming(5-3-2) vs Gamtee(1-4-5)

LGD, home of the team that might have the biggest toplane 'problem' of any team worldwide. With Acorn and Flame in the toplane, LGD can swap out players without getting weaker by doing so.  Although LGD might be higher placed at this point in the standings, Gamtee has split their session with OMG which means they are not to be taken lightly.

What we can hope for is for both teams to bring out their A game. In that case, I think that LGD will come out on top because of their strong ADC in IMP and incredibly talented toplane.

Team WE(0-6-3) vs King(2-6-2)

This will be a game where we can see if King has turned that 2-0 defeat by OMG into a positive vibe after giving them a real battle in the second game that series.

Assassin’s Azir looking incredibly strong that game together with Skye’s Rumble.

King can, if they win, climb a few spots and leave the bottom part of the standings.

Team We has been struggling. With only 3 ties and no wins they are on the bottom of the standings together with Energy Pacemaker. Spirit might be able to pull off something but it will be really hard for Team WE if King brings out the same amount of aggression and gameplay that they did in Game 2 versus OMG.

Edward Gaming(9-1-0) vs OMG(6-0-4)

EDG vs OMG. The first day of Week 6 will be concluded with two of the three current Chinese powerhouses of the Chinese League of Legends scene, or should we say two of the best teams in the world at this point? I’ll let you decide that.

EDG already dropped a set to newcomer Snake, who are currently sharing second place with OMG, and are really not going to want to drop another set to them. With Pawn and Deft, EDG has brought out the SSW gameplay that we all adored during Worlds 2014, strong rotations, incredible picks and tons of sub 30 minute stomps.

What can OMG do against such a team? First of all, OMG hasn't dropped a set although they did tie four of their series. The biggest problem that OMG will have against EDG is that, if they happen to win the first game, they shouldn't become sloppy or cocky in the second one. This kind of behavior has cost them several wins and also recently against King they almost threw the second game because of their arrogant way of playing.

Bottom line is that this game is the MUST SEE for any League of Legend fan, whether you are a LCS or LCK fan. Two of the best teams in the world will take each other on and I cannot wait to see this!

Click here to see the LPL schedule for the rest of the week!

The games are watchable on the following links:

English broadcast - http://www.twitch.tv/riotgames

Chinese broadcast - http://star.longzhu.tv/lpl

3 Players to Watch in the 2015 EU Challenger Series!

By Anel “Musinlol” Musinovic
Origen, Gamers2, Dignitas EU (Former SKP), Reason Gaming, mouzesports & LowLandLions get ready to face off in the 2015 EU Challenger Series. Players to watch are starring, Sencux, Hiiva & Morsú.

Chres “Sencux” Larsen

Dignitas EU - Midlane

Sencux has previously played for Reason Gaming & 4EverZenzyg, with their famous intro song. Less notably, he has also been playing a lot of LANS in Denmark, which went decently well for him. If you don’t know Sencux so far, you are potentially about to, he has been playing great lately.

They have lost their jungler Obvious because SKP at the time were not willing to buy him out, which lead to him going to Gamers2 and taking Beansu with him a day before the first qualifier games. They were left without a jungler or toplane so Sencux reached out to Wunderwear, who is a toplaner he has played with on previous teams. He wanted a jungler that could fill out the shotcalling position which lead them to pick up Brokenshard and to round out the team they have with Crazycaps & Zytan.

Sencux himself is one of the best midlaners in the challenger series and compares himself to xPeke when he is on his game. Sencux is a good player and definitely on the road to become a great midlaner but if he matches up with xPeke he still has to prove himself. He thrives on playing assassin champs such as Zed, Ahri & Leblanc. He's also been playing champs as the likes of Lulu & Xerath in previous matches.

It will be a lot on Sencux's shoulders to carry Diginitas EU to victory, but he can be helped by his AD Carry, Crazycaps. Not saying that the other players are worse but I see these two being in a position to carry. Sadly they lost their first game unexpectedly in the EU Challenger Series to LowLandLions with great play from Morsú, despite Crazycaps racking up 13 kills and Sencux sitting at 5. They will be trying to regain their footing against Mouz (Previously n!fac).

Aleksi “Hiiva” Kaikkonen

Gamers2 - Support

Hiiva will be trying to overcome the giants Origen after failing once, but might have a cheesy strat prepared against them to surprise. The Finnish international is known for his Blitzcrank & Zyra play but can also play other supports. He can create some scenarios in the game with his interesting and potentially cheesy play, and who doesn't like to see a Blitzcrank.

I believe Hiiva can, with his strong ADC, Jebus, be the force for Gamers2 who is going to be carrying them to victory. His ADC was previously considered for the Gambit ADC spot, but after some problems it didn't work out. Hiiva and Gamers2 are definitely top 3 and will be facing LowlandLions tonight over at Riot Games.

Bram “Morsú” Knol

LowlandLions - Toplane

LowLandLions were written off totally but with a win against Dignitas EU, they have maybe brought themselves back. Morsú was the key to Victory with his great performance on Jax, his splitpush was just too much to handle for the Dignitas side. He will be trying to do the same in today's upcoming game against Dignitas EU again.

He is a player that is known for carrying in previous teams such as Team Coast Gold and tactics against teams with Morsú in them has always been "shutdown Morsú and win the game." He played in the Challenger Series previously but fell short just like Sencux. It can be problematic but shows the quality of the player. He likes to spiltpush often, and can bring out champions such as Fiora which is his main champion. He played it in the qualifiers to success despite coming up against a Jax. Look for this player to pick champions that can 1v1 in the toplane and try to find his way to victory from there.

To round off the article I would like to say that I have not put in Origen players for the sake of the article, because you could easily put in 3 Origen players in the list.

Making Picks and Bans Interesting

by Jerrod "Thousand Eyes" Steis

The first four weeks of the LCS are under wraps and this season has shown a huge improvement in the pick/ban phase from both the perspective of teams and from the overall balance of the game. Where we used to see the same bans and consequently the same picks throughout the season, we’re now seeing some mind games being played, leaving strong picks open in order to counter them. We’re also seeing a few stylistic choices being made depending on the team.

First off, if we want to look at how things have changed we have to make sure we understand where we came from. If we look at the statistics Kassadin was a permabanned champion in both NA and EU during the 2014 season. He was picked or banned in 92.2% and 98.2% of games respectively. Far and away he was the most feared champion all of Season 4. People just didn't know how to beat him. He could be shut down in lane and still scale incredibly well into the late game. In fact the closest champs to him in bans had 53 in NA (compared to 90) and 41 in EU (compared to 101).

Another group of consistent picks or bans was the trio of Evelynn, Elise and Lee Sin in jungle. Lee Sin was easily the number one jungle pick/ban, but while NA was more adamant about Elise, EU focused more on Evelynn. Regardless, no other jungler was even above 21% in either region. Meaning you saw one, or most likely two, of these three in almost every single game in Season 4. Other notable champions with high pick/ban ratios were Ziggs, Lucian, Thresh and Morgana.

When you look at the ADC position, Lucian was the clear dominant champion throughout the season. He was picked or banned in over 60% of games in both leagues. No other ADC stood the test of time like he did. Outside of Lucian we saw the other ADCs all get some time in the spotlight with Twitch and Kog’Maw getting the most of it.

Overall, if we look at the top 16 champions from both regions, enough to cover an entire pick/ban phase, we can see that these 16 champs were all selected in over 40% of the games over the entire season.

NA Pick/Ban

Champion	Bans	Picks	Wins	Losses	Win %	Picked/Banned in % of Games	Primary Role	Secondary Role
Elise	28	78	45	33	57.7	94.6	Jung
Kassadin	90	14	7	7	50	92.9	Mid	Top
Lulu	53	51	28	23	54.9	92.9	Mid	Top
Lee Sin	46	52	30	22	57.7	87.5	Jung
Thresh	15	60	30	30	50	67	Support
Braum	28	46	29	17	63	66.1	Support
Morgana	16	57	25	32	43.9	65.2	Support
Lucian	15	54	30	24	55.6	61.6	ADC
Yasuo	42	26	16	10	61.5	60.7	Mid
Evelynn	28	31	15	16	48.4	52.7	Jung
Kog'Maw	19	36	17	19	47.2	49.1	ADC
Ziggs	32	22	9	13	40.9	48.2	Mid
Jax	29	25	9	16	36	48.2	Top
Tristana	17	33	20	13	60.6	44.6	ADC	Mid
Twitch	20	27	13	14	48.1	42	ADC
Orianna	6	40	16	24	40	41.1	Mid

EU Pick/Ban

Champion	Bans	Picks	Wins	Losses	Win %	Picked/Banned in % of Games	Primary Role	Secondary Role
Kassadin	101	9	7	2	77.8	98.2	Mid	Top
Lee Sin	28	69	34	35	49.3	86.6	Jung
Evelynn	38	47	24	23	51.1	75.9	Jung
Lucian	5	74	38	36	51.4	70.5	ADC
Elise	16	59	32	27	54.2	67	Jung
Ziggs	39	34	16	18	47.1	65.2	Mid
Thresh	11	61	33	28	54.1	64.3	Support
Morgana	16	49	32	17	65.3	58	Support
Jax	41	24	9	15	37.5	58	Top
Twisted Fate	40	23	11	12	47.8	56.3	Mid
Lulu	19	38	20	18	52.6	50.9	Mid	Top
Kayle	38	19	13	6	68.4	50.9	Top	Mid
Twitch	32	24	14	10	58.3	50	ADC
Yasuo	37	17	7	10	41.2	48.2	Mid
Orianna	25	23	10	13	43.5	42.9	Mid
Braum	14	31	14	17	45.2	40.2	Support

Combine this with the fact that both regions only had 2 of these 16 spots taken by champions unique to that region (Kog’Maw and Tristana in NA replaced by Twisted Fate and Kayle in EU). Throughout all of the meta changes that we saw covering the entire season, these 16 champs dominated the scene.

Now looking at this season, NA drops below 40% pick/ban at the 17th champion mark, Azir. This is already an improvement. Keep in mind this is before we see any large meta shifts to bring in other champions. It gets even better when you look at EU. To break below our 40% threshold we would have to go down to the 21st champion in the list which is Lulu.

Another stat to look at is the total number of champs played in both years. In the 2014 Summer Split we had 67 champions selected in the pick/ban phase. In the 2015 Spring Split we've already hit 49 in NA and 51 in EU. Diversity is most definitely up this year.

What I’d really love to go into more depth with, though, is the process of picks and bans and how that’s changed this year.

Last year we saw Kassadin permabanned through the entire season. This almost felt like one team was almost always down a ban, because you just could not let him through. He would be first picked by the blue side team immediately. Following that we would usually see bans go out towards the flavor of the month champions with no regard to personal preference. These champions were just strong in anyone’s hands.

Bans, in Riot’s mind for the professional scene, should be more used to handle champions that are strong in an individual player’s hands. We’ve actually seen this more often this split with champs like Rumble and Leblanc being banned out. These are champs that, while strong, are only ban worthy threats in the right hands. We’ve also, in relation to this, seen different opinions on what should be first picked when it is left open.

Extremely strong champions like Ahri, Maokai and Lissandra have ways to play around them through lane swaps or early ganks. Outside of maybe Gnar, almost every champ has some kind of a strategy or counterpick against them. Lissandra can get rocked by Kassadin or Irelia. Kassadin and Jax have a hard time dealing with lane swaps because they get starved out of gold and experience. The amount of, god forbid I use the buzzword, strategic diversity is really great this season compared to last and while things aren’t perfect Riot should be commended for what they have done.

It will be very interesting to see where things go from here once we get a strong meta shift. Now that there isn't a champion that is so strong they have to take a long overdue look at them (Kassadin), bans are much more wide open. Teams play around leaving things open like Gnar in order to try and counter them. They also focus bans more on champions that each team has shown strength with rather than overly powerful champs. Once J4 is brought back into line, or other junglers are brought up to his level, and Gnar is toned down as well, bans will function a lot more in Riot’s idea. Things are never going to be perfect, but we have seen a lot of more unique champions this season than we did four weeks into Season 4.

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 by Jerrod "Thousand Eyes" Steis