Patch 4.10: What does it mean for the LCS Midlane?

by Reece "Sabrewolf" Dos-Santos

One thing it certainly means is that Nidalee’s 7/0 record in the NA LCS will either stay frozen or begin to pick up some losses. Nidalee’s human form numbers were hit across the board to provide some kind of counterplay and a bit more attractiveness to the cougar form.

The “keep throwing spears from the fog of war and one will hit eventually” gameplay was incredibly frustrating to watch and even more frustrating to play against. Where big damage should usually have some kind of drawback, spears were a guaranteed health bar eater with no positional setback. In the off chance that you were caught, all you needed was a few helpful teammates to wall you off and allow you to pounce away, heal yourself with Primal Surge’s unreasonably high healing output and throw some more.  But Riot were holding nothing back against the Bestial Huntress as her main source of sustain got hit as well. The changes to Athene’s Unholy Grail means it’s not always going to be a must have rushed item for AP mid laners anymore. With the magic resist levels halved and the mana regen lowered it will no longer heavily snowball the mid laner that buys it first, and opens the door to other items like Morellonomicon returning to the meta - especially with the added 5 AP bringing its AP up to 80.

But the Athene’s nerf and the nerfs to mana regen items also opens the door for a new breed of mid laners to reign supreme. Abyssal Sceptre’s 70 AP and 45 MR is now unrivaled if you are looking to pick up AP and MR, especially when factoring in that it lowers enemy MR by 20, meaning if the enemy mid laner decides to pick up Athene’s, you need only get close to them and it’s like they never even had it. The gap closing burst-assassin mid laners like Fizz, Kassadin, Katarina and Lissandra will benefit greatly from this and should look to disturb the current-meta mid laners like Ziggs, Nidalee and Orianna. I predict that Kayle, however, shall remain a highly-contested pick, as the indirect rise of Abyssal Scepter favours her already MR shredding style. With a Wit's End and an Abyssal Scepter under her belt, I don't see how any champion could withstand the huge amounts of MR shred she can dish out without simply bursting her before she gets to you.

But AP items aren’t the only things to change in patch 4.10.

The changes to the BF Sword line of items is a move to ensure that they are all just as equally viable as each other and that will have a huge baring on AD mid laners like Yasuo - who is already a highly-contested pick. With Mercurial Scimitar now providing 80 AD, it cannot be overlooked as a pickup that could benefit any ADC or AD mid laner who is up against a CC-heavy team comp. On top of this, while the loss of stacking upon Bloodthirster will be greatly missed, I believe the overheal shield will be a huge asset to champions like Yasuo, Zed and Talon who look to get into the middle of teamfights, chunk out damage, and live in the process. Yasuo in particular will undoubtedly benefit greatly from the Bloodthirster shield on top of his own passive shield which could only then be enhanced further by a Hexdrinker/Maw of the Malmortius shield, bringing Yasuo’s potential shield count up to three.

Last but not least, another change that will be greatly overlooked is the change to Leblanc’s Q, which will no longer silence, meaning that there is finally counter-play to Leblanc’s high damage output. This change is the best thing for her balance as she still retains her damage like Kassadin but doesn’t leave enemies completely helpless to reply. This leaves Malzahar, Talon and Viktor as the last three mid champs with the ability to silence. 

Runic Tournament: Summer Open

Registration:http://goo.gl/UbvZ95 
Rules: http://goo.gl/1QTTfm
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July 4th Weekend!

The Runic Summer Open is open to teams of all skill levels. There will be a maximum of 16 teams participating in this tournament. The tournament will have 5 best-of-two qualification rounds played across Friday and Saturday. At the conclusion of qualification round 5, the top 8 teams will advance to the quarter finals. The quarter and semi-finals will be best-of-three starting on Saturday night. Finals will be played in a best-of-five format on Sunday night.

Prizing will be the standard Riot prizing.

• 1st place team will be awarded 3200 RP and Triumphant Ryze
• 2nd place team will be awarded 2400 RP
• 3rd place team will be awarded 1600 RP
• 4th place team will be awarded 800 RP

Starts July 4 at 3pm eastern (8pm GMT)

If you have any questions or concerns, please email Runic Tournaments. 

Esports Memorabilia : The HOT Collectible of the Future.

by Jodi "PunkLit" McClure

Collectors love to imagine a magical scenario where they can go back in time and buy some incredibly rare piece of memorabilia. Baseball card enthusiasts might seek out an original Honus Wagner card. Football fans might purchase an original team jersey or a banner. Star Wars fans would ransack toy stores, buying out Luke Skywalker figures, mint and still in the box. And then, all these collectors would do something extremely important with those items, but I'll get to that in a minute. 

First, let's jump forward in time instead.

It's 2054, and a gray-haired man is sitting in a rocking chair outside his nursing home. Between his stiff, gnarled fingers, he clutches the gilded edges of a framed poster. To his side, his great grandchild stares through the glass in wonder. "It was signed by Reginald," the child says, his voice filled with the kind of reverence we reserve for uttering names like Ruth and DiMaggio. 

"I got that a week before he announced his retirement." The old man smiles at the memory. "It's worth half a million now, and I'm giving it to you." 

Lucky kid. 

Some people buy collectibles as an investment while others buy them for the pleasure of displaying them in their homes. Their value is based purely on what someone else is willing to pay for them, but generally, the rarer and more sought after the item is, the more it is worth. So what makes me think eSports memorabilia will grow in value? Let's take a look at some facts:

1. eSports' popularity is growing at a fantastic rate, and the more fans there are, the more demand there will be for fan items. When eSports explodes into the mainstream, demand for certain items (like early signed posters) will multiply tenfold. Also, the more popular pros become, the less interactive they can be with their fans, which will further limit supply.   

2. Right now, teams are small and there's not many of them. Rosters frequently change and evolve, making many team-signed items extremely unique. Seasons and splits further break up items (Like...Is it signed by the S3 Dignitas or the S4 Dignitas?) Because of player turnovers, oddities like a TSM poster showing Xpecial - but signed by Gleeb - are exactly the kinds of things that collectors love.

3. People wanting memorabilia of the most popular players will look to acquire their signatures on anything they can get. Players signed a TON of stuff the past four years, between the LCS, tournaments, conventions and personal appearances, so fans will believe these items to be obtainable and actively seek them out. Just like in other sports, a collector might want items from different points in a player's career. Perhaps a rookie card or a stand-out year.   

4. We already know the demographic that follows eSports has money to burn, and they are highly passionate about their teams. When eSports hits the mainstream, they're exactly the kind of guys who'll spend big bucks on these items JUST to have something to show off to their friends. It's not enough to tell all these new fans that you've been a long time CLG supporter. You've got to prove your devotion.

5. Sports memorabilia is the Number One most commonly traded collectible.  

The most important factor, though, is that human fault will be in play, and it's the reason certain items will become ridiculously valuable. Yes, players signed tons of stuff. But what will the average person do with that stuff? They'll take that poster home and stick it up on the wall in their computer room with a  push pin in each corner. And that poster will sit up there for years. Slowly, the paper will grow brittle and crack. Perhaps one corner will tear. The poster will be exposed to dust, smoke, and moisture, and over time it will yellow slightly. It may become creased. It may be folded. It may...eventually...be stowed away in a box and eaten up by mildew. Only a sparse few of those posters will be put in a frame under glass. And those are the ones that will be truly worth the big bucks. 

That Honus Wagner card our collectors went back in time for? That football jersey and the Star Wars figures? They're gonna treat those with kid gloves, ensuring that they are kept in immaculate condition until the future comes. They'll be framed or kept in dust free mylar bags, and they will never see a push pin or a damp basement.

So take care of your eSports memorabilia if you're lucky enough to get it. Time and interest will do the rest. Even now you can do a search on ebay and find people selling signed posters and other eSports items, which is a very good indicator that the interest is already there. Keep it in mint condition for a few dozen years and who knows...maybe someday you'll be that wealthy gray-haired old man!

Marketing & Esports : A Future Fairy Tale?

by Louis "Guichex" Lemeillet

Esports teams do basic marketing, but do they have the future in mind? Esports is gaining in popularity, with a viewership boasting over 70 million people. Gaming structures are faced with a swiftly-growing market and need to adapt very quickly, and that requires planning out their future.

Esports has huge potential because it represents a bridge between traditional sports and high technology. Moreover, a new game-breaking technology is on the verge of being achieved and commercialized and it brings new stakes both for high-tech industries and Esports.

To Infinity and Beyond

Across social media, we've seen teams offer merchandise like clothing and accessories, do giveaways for sponsors, and even participate in commercials. Tech companies and electronics conventions like CES are showing the world what could be the next big step concerning technology and computers. After bringing smartphones and tablets, it is time to bring something which could revolutionize our habits once again: flexible computers.

You can see manufacturers such as Samsung and LG talking about flexible phones like this one and praising their merits. It is a cool innovation, but the best part will come just a bit later. What can you do with a flexible screen and components? You can twist it at will and include it in objects you couldn't before like glasses, clothing and wristbands. With it, you reach the full potential of this new technology. Wearable computers. If you're curious enough, you can see plenty of stuff about Apple having some “secret facility” working on the new iWatch which will basically do what your smartphone is doing: email, music, agenda, etc. You also have Google Glass which does the same but with a little bit more virtual reality included. Maybe the next step is a Wi-Fi hat with a screen inside it. The possibilities are infinite.

Of course, not all of these technologies are available to the masses yet, but Esports is also not fully developed yet. And we can assume that, in some way, those two worlds will reach a new point at almost the same time, creating so many new possibilities for tech companies to advertise their new products.

One of the most effective marketing techniques at the moment is using brand ambassadors: whether they are movie stars, famous bloggers, or from a rich dynasty. It doesn't matter as long as they can wear or consume your products and give a good review; promoting them in whatever way possible. This kind of marketing relationship can bring very good image to the company if their values and personality are matching those of the ambassador. It is also long-lasting and so can bring a lot of profits to both parts.

A Bridge Between Esports and High-Technology

Where is the link with Esports ? Our favorite e-athletes can't really hope for sports companies to support them since they are not committed to any true physical effort; and they don't really need sportswear. What pro-players use daily is top-notch gaming devices which can help them reach a better performance. Nevertheless, they are considered, at least for the moment in some regions, as professional athletes and bring entertainment to millions of people who are also hardcore users of computers, gaming devices and every kind of technology.

Since that audience is most likely to adopt these new products, we represent, as Esports lovers, a great target for those companies. With the rise of Esports, they might have found the faces of the ones who will represent their company on the field.

If we project ourselves three or four years into the future, I truly believe Esports will have grown a lot more and every company will be taking a closer look at "this new thing.” Also, tech industries will release the first projects of their new “flexible devices” and they will want to boast them as much as possible. Trying to sign sponsorship contracts with some great multi-gaming company can bring fame and profits to both parts.

As a matter of fact, you can see that in Korea, where Esports is kind of a national thing, it is technology companies which sponsor the teams: SK Telecom and Samsung among others. I think at some point in the future, when Esports are acknowledged by everyone, we might see the same deal in our occidental countries. Imagine “Google Solo Mid” vs “Microsoft Cloud 9”. (I really hope we won't have those team names though.)

Whether or not Google and Apple would buy pro-gaming teams is a different matter. But what we can be sure of is: Esports powerhouses will be sponsored by one specific brand and they'll build long-lasting relationships by advertising their new products on the players while obtaining fame from the team results, in exchange for money.

Beware of Fairy Tales

Bringing tech companies, which represent a lot of devices every one of us is using on a daily basis and which represent what kids will consider “normal” in a near future, can bring further fame and importance to the Esports world. If you mix this with the “international future” of Esports, and by that I mean that they are shared worldwide and not only popular in one region, it could become something bigger we could ever imagine.

I may be over-reacting, but I think bringing such companies into the Esports market will at least bring our virtual sports onto the same level as big traditional sports such as soccer, football or baseball. Traditional sports will have sports companies more than Esports, but Esports can claim sponsorships from bigger companies. Such deals would bring further development to the Esports world and help gaming structures improve their infrastructures, their team salaries, their staff and their power.

On the other hand, such deals can bring tons of money to a quite new sector, and with it some disappointments. With an industry growing that fast and that big, everyone is playing with the balance between investments and rewards. For the moment, gaming structures are trying to court any advertising possible to upgrade their financial possibilities, but many problems could come arise from that. For example, you can see with the last Dr. Pepper marketing campaign with the European LCS teams, that they're selecting only one player to represent them, and not the whole team. So where does the money go? Towards the team or towards the player?

Lots of teams might try to take advantage of their players by “selling” them to whichever company offers money while not paying attention to the overall image of the person. Or players' egos might get in the way as they want to claim part of the money for their own personal benefit. Such moves would potentially slow down the industry as a whole and discourage big companies from investing as they could.

Esports is growing at an explosive rate. Technology companies are on the brink of unveiling cool, innovative stuff. This may be destiny. The two industries will find a lot of common interest if they manage to create sponsorship contracts. The most important part of all this being: the first to hit is the first to win. Pro-gaming structures need to be aware of that fact, and need to decide on a precise marketing strategy oriented towards the future.

What are your feelings towards all of this ? Do you also think sponsorships between high-tech industries and pro-gaming structures might exist someday ? Feel free to leave your comments, everything is open to discussion! 

The Evolution of the Meta

by Jerrod "Thousand Eyes" Steis

So let’s talk about how the meta has evolved from the “standard” lane match-ups. We've seen a huge change from what we started with. The game has grown into a much more strategic, albeit predictable early phase until mid game. This is actually really limiting picks in some aspects. We’re going to look at everything from mid S3 until the most recent popular strategies. Following that I’ll give a bit of an opinion on each.

Originally, the pro scene followed what is usually seen in solo-queue. Top laners and bottom laners matching up against each other. The strengths of this rely almost solely on your ability to lane. If you had a strong lane ability you loved it, if you lost lane every game you were screwed. If we go way back, sustain lanes were really popular. They were safe and let teams focus on farming and getting champs that needed farm to their insane late game status. In this meta we saw the likes of Anivia, Ryze, Jax, Singed, Tristana and Vayne. All of these champs had insane late game scaling.

In the jungle and support, however, we had the exact opposite. In order to try and counter these champs you had to strike early and hard. Lee sin, Xin Zhao, and Jarvan IV were popular at the time. They could gank easily level 2, which was so popular it became routine to do. They hit lanes early and gave their laner an advantage that they could use to snowball faster and once one of the lanes got ahead they were usually able to take control and bully the other lanes out.

If we look at bottom lane synergy, we had supports who were usually champs with great utility and bad scaling, i.e. Sona, Thresh, Lulu (who had bad scaling at the time), Alistar. These champs had great base damage skills and little to no ability to scale. They were used to protect the late game scaling ADC. Late game these guys usually turned into CC bots, and because there were no support specific items at this time they usually built cheap tanky items that had some kind of active in order to help their team. And wards. Pretty much all of their income was spent on wards.

Pros/Cons

So what are the pros and cons of this meta? Let's look at a few different areas of it. The game usually started off with everyone going to their respective lanes. We had actual match-ups, and in-lane play was extremely important. Your ability to duel was key and usually determined how far ahead you were or how much you had to come back from. This was great for rewarding you, but it was a bit too steep, to the point that any small advantage you gave was almost impossible to come back from - and don't even start on a successful invade and what that would give you. 

Next, the meta was very team fight oriented. This made awesome dragon fights, and a lot of strategy focused around forcing the enemy into fighting for objectives. There seemed to be a lot of strategic positioning that had to be done here to compete.

Finally, late game saw some awesome plays because we saw a clear transition from early game power champs to champs that scale. We saw huge emphasis on protecting carries like Vayne and Tristana. This basically meant late game was a test of who could kill the other team's ADC first. ADC was the end-all be-all once they had two or three items and they became almost impossible to stop. For an ADC main, this was awesome. Anyone that played a tank usually hated this and teams came up with two ways to fight this. Assassins, and early-engage burst supports. Enter late Season 3 and Worlds.

Worlds 

When we got to later in Season 3 we saw a huge change in the picks of support and mid lane. Zed and Ahri were hotly contested picks because of their ability to bypass bulky tanks and deal huge burst damage to ADCs. Supports started swapping as well. From motherly protection supports that healed and buffed ADCs until they got items, to engage heavy CC machines that punished the enemy at any wrong step. This brought a more action packed early game as we saw kill lanes become the norm. Leona, Annie, and Thresh were the holy trio of supports all through Worlds.

A small note to make as well is that the increase in aggressive laning and assassins forced ADC players on to more mobile carries. This, in addition to buffs to Trinity Force, made Ezreal and Corki go-to picks. They had reliable abilities to reposition themselves and could still put out damage while they moved. All throughout this time the top lane meta shifted marginally. Jax and Singed were still notable picks with more late game carry types being favored over tanks, but this change was much more gradual.

Now let's look at the game health at this time. In my opinion, the most notable thing of this meta was the power assassins and ADCs. The mid to late game team fights still revolved around killing the other team's carry, but now it was all about bursting them down before a fight really broke out or when they moved to a favorable position. Battles were won and lost based on single missteps. Even some supports had potential to knock people out of fights. This combined with how wards and gold income worked. As soon as a team got first blood or first dragon it was transitioned into complete vision control and instant burst kills on any team member that attempted to get it back.

Teams that knew how to play aggressive early waltzed over traditional late game teams. While games could last over forty minutes, you could easily see who was going to win as early as ten minutes in. Unless the team made massive mistakes, they just had to sit on their lead as soon as they earned it. Riot realized they had a lot of changes to make during the off-season.

Offseason/Vision Changes

Off-season started after Worlds ended, and Riot decided to take this time to make sweeping changes to vision and supports, as well as take a hit on the amount of damage ADCs could put out. Ever since it became part of the meta to have a player that relied on no definite gold income, they were immediately relegated to spending almost any money they earned on warding the map. Support was basically ward duty with some CC protection late game. Sightstone was a welcome change, but that alone wasn't enough. As long as it was possible, teams would funnel all warding onto whoever functioned best with little to no gold (read support).

Finally we get huge vision changes. Each champion can now only have up to three regular wards on the map at one time and one pink ward. Pink wards were no longer stealthed and took five hits to take out as opposed to three. Oracle's also was removed from the game. Riot just had no way to balance it. If they made it last until death, supports just played a bit safer or bought an extra one with their money. If it lasted for a specified amount of time they just fell straight back to buying an extra. With Oracle's in the game, there was no way to keep one team from completely controlling vision and, consequently, the game.

With this change, they also gave every summoner a specified slot for a trinket which was free and could be swapped at any point invoking a cooldown on the activated ability. The three trinkets made vision a bit easier for the team to spread out. There was no point in not using a free ward when it was up. This is huge because it was an indirect nerf to early gankers and assassins. Everyone had the ability to protect themselves now with some extra vision. Junglers were forced to stay in the jungle for a little longer, as was the intention. Masteries were also reworked to make penetration and other offensive-oriented abilities much further down the tree and considerably weaker, and defense got huge buffs.

Tower Pushing

For a little while things worked out as intended. Soon enough though players realized that with extra safety, they could play more aggressive. The best person to funnel gold into was still the ADC because they had more item dependency than any other position, and teams realized that with champions that could push early the best way to get a big spike of gold was to take towers fast.

What's the best way to shove? Run your ADC and support into the tanky melee champ that has no way to take on a ranged character at the start of the game. It forced them to try and get as much farm and experience under the tower as they could while trying not to die. The teams that prepared best for this had a top laner that was innately tanky with the new masteries, and could either sustain a lot of harass or clear waves quickly at early levels. Shyvana, Renekton and Dr. Mundo topped this list because of AoE damage early on and the ability to put out damage without building a lot of damage items. Sunfire Cape and Spirit Visage were extremely gold-efficient items that were key on these champs and were almost always first and second buys. Since hyper-tanks gained popularity, a new champ grew with them as well. Trundle.

Trundle has a kit that is made to counter tanks. Rushing a Blade of the Ruined King on him made his increased attack speed from his Frozen Domain insanely good at shredding HP-stacking top laners. Throw this on top of his Ultimate skill, Subjugate, which stole a percentage of health, armor and magic resist, and you had a perfect tank-buster to counter and split push any hyper-tank.

Riot saw the huge strength in the two previously mentioned items and nerfed them appropriately. Sunfire Cape had its passive scale with level rather than do a flat amount of damage, weakening its power spike when bought, and Spirit Visage had part of its cooldown reduction taken off and its price was increased. Sunfire fell out of favor in exchange for Randuin's Omen, and Spirit Visage became the niche item it was supposed to be on people who had a lot of self heal.

Mid lane saw new picks as well, since vision was no longer dominated by who was ahead. Players had to dominate the map rather than their opponent in order to get vision. Champs like Nidalee and Ziggs started seeing more play now. They used their immense range and damage to control minion waves and force the enemy away from objectives. Anyone who was seen making a rotation was poked out as they roamed.

Junglers realized that the only actual gank that was open because of the lane swaps was mid. Mid laners started warding harder and just generally playing safer. Jungling didn't gain enough gold to warrant just trying to farm, so the next best decision was to join their ADC and support and force the other team’s tower down as fast as possible. Eventually, the top laners joined in on this as well. They'd force down two towers and then back off.

After this, the top laner would go back to the lane that was shoved and freeze the wave while they caught up, after giving up their farm to shove. This stagnated the game for about 10 minutes or so and the team that had stayed bot lane would usually get a free dragon at this time. It’s important to note that dragon’s gold value was changed from a static value to a growing value as the game progressed, relative to the average level of each player. So an early dragon’s value dropped significantly from its previous value, but it was still worth grabbing.

Carry Top Laners

Riot attempted to fix the lane swaps that were happening at the pro level. In fact, they were only happening at the pro level. They gave buffs to the defenses of the top turrets. This is the first time that they really enforced a meta. Before they had always claimed that any team strategy was viable and never claimed that one way was the correct way to play. But this was a direct attempt to force ADCs back into the bottom lane. It took Riot a few patches before they were able to get a number that they were comfortable with. Even now it’s pretty easy to say that they were unsuccessful in their attempts to fix the problem because while they may have stopped fast pushes on towers, teams still lane swap almost every game.

Since lanes were getting frozen deep in enemy territory, champions had the ability to free farm for an extended time. Any team that tried to still pressure that deep into their enemies lane would be promptly taken out as soon as they showed themselves. This was actually the end of Dr.Mundo as a meta champion. He was played mostly because of his decent wave clear and ability to scale off the strength of the strong items of the time. With nerfs to his items and the strength of his early wave clear no longer needed, he faded out of picks.

Since top laners could free farm for a long time, top lane players started picking up champions that scaled well with gold. Shyvana still worked well, but some new picks were Jax, Ryze, etc. Defensive masteries were still substantial at this point, so anyone who could put at least nine points into defense was strong. Plus, getting free farm to scale meant later on in the game they’d be more impactful in objective fights. Also, mobility was usually a must on these champs to get in and get out of sticky situations.

Summoner Spell Changes

Amidst all of this, the summoner spell Heal was bolstered to give more health and a move speed buff. This became the preferred summoner spell of safe mid lane players and ADCs over Barrier, because of the ability to reposition in addition to the extra effective health it brought. It was also a nerf to assassins because they no longer had an easy way to burst down ADCs. Barrier was already starting this and heal buffs were a final nail in the coffin. Since assassins fell off, ADCs that had fewer escapes but consequently more damage could be played. Twitch saw a rise to popularity due to his hard carry team fight role and the strength and synergy he had with Blade of the Ruined King. After Twitch, we saw Kog'Maw start being selected as well.

Alongside the heal buffs was a buff to Teleport - lowering the cooldown significantly when it was used on turrets. This meant weak, early laners now had a way to handle their weakest point in the game. If you got chunked out, you could just back to base, buy and teleport back. For a little while we went back to a standard meta. Then teams began trying to funnel whatever gold they could into their ADC because of how hard these popular ADCs would scale. Lane swaps were back, and there was little to no reason not to do them. Dragon wasn't worth as much gold, and that was the reason that you kept your bottom lane near it - so you could have more players to contest it.

ADCs started freezing the lanes rather than pushing early because of the changes to how towers took damage. They took as long as possible to take the tower in order to keep the top laner starved for farm. Top laners started roaming with the jungler in order to actually gain experience until they could safely farm. This led to three-man ganks on mid laners because of supports roaming as well. Since the early game has become so much less intense and more strategic, we've seen much more late game oriented compositions, including many "protect the carry" teams. Mids are choosing higher utility champions that can give their team buffs and either peel or put out sustained damage. 

Conclusion

In a way, we've come full circle back to early to mid Season 3. In all honesty, this is the kind of meta that I prefer - mages and late game tanks and ADCs. It’s a very strategic game compared to mid Season 3 though. Rather than trying to get ahead and snowball, you take your time to get guaranteed gold by farming. Once you’re able to get some gold onto your carrys, you move down to force objectives and use your sieging-power or team fight potential to take them or force them off. The game has evolved in ways, but it’s always been somewhat related to the game of Rock, Paper, Scissors. Squishy constant damage beats tanks who beat assassins who beat squishy constant damage. This isn't an end-all be-all, but it’s a great way to try and predict counters and how the meta will evolve. I think eventually we’ll see more assassins come back that can take out ADCs like Kog'Maw and Twitch, or maybe a way to counter their freeze in the top lane with another ranged character like Kennen. Teams will always find ways to counter what’s popular and that, in turn, will become popular. That’s how metas work.