A Draft Pick Mentality

After playing a bunch of solo queue, I find a lot of games are decided in champion select. Emphasising on picks and counter picks, team composition, and getting everyone to play a role they're good at.

 

First things first

Usually when I enter a lobby, I try to be polite, greet everyone, and announce the roles I'm interested in playing. Normally this is a good way to get the lane you want to play. This is a team game, act like a team.

And I feel like it's worth mentioning, since some people don't know. Blue team always gets first pick, and purple team always gets second pick. This is important if you want to plan early game tactics. If you need a reminder, the words "your team" and "enemy team" are highlighted either blue or purple, according to the team.

Banning Phase

Banning Phase in solo queue is a lot of just banning what you see other people banning, clicking ban on things they hear are OP. Everything can be countered, a lot of things are strong, but everything is managable.

If you think a champion is strong, try to get it for your team. As blue team, you have the best chance at this. As blue team, refrain from outright banning a champion you think is really strong right now. Either try to first pick it for your team, or try to get purple team to ban it, allowing you room to ban something else, giving you more flexibility.

If you look at this graph of popular bans, taken from LoLking.net, I'd like to point out Malphite. He both wins a lot of top lane match ups, is a pretty safe jungler, and team fights very well. This makes him a very feared and saught after pick. But if you notice, he has more 4-6th bans than anyone else. People will often wait to ban him until their 3rd ban, in the hope that the enemy team will ban him first.

tldr: Mind games.

The Picks

A lot of people don't care about trading or team comp, they will just lock in. A lot of times people won't talk to you when you ask them what they want to play. It will happen all the time, and that's fine, just roll with it. Otherwise, figure out a way to get everyone to play a role they are comfortable with, and get solo laners late picks, or trades with the players who have the late picks(this is not easy to do, I suggest talking about picks and champion preference as early as during bans). This allows them the option to try to counter pick their lane opponent, and it can lead to really one sided lanes in your favor if you do it right.

Now it's time for you to pick. I think it's best to think about three factors.

1. Lane counters. You pick a champion that you think will win your lane. Killing your opponent, denying them gold and exp, and in general shutting them down can make it feel like it's a 4v5, allowing you to continue pushing your advantage long after laning phase is over.

2. Team Comp. This involves picking a champion based on what your team needs. Is your team 4 cc-heavy bruisers? Play someone with a lot of damage. Have a gank-heavy jungler? Pick a laner with burst and cc. Have strong team fight initiation? Maybe don't pick a poke champ. There are so many styles of play, so it helps if you're all on the same page.

3. Sticking what you're good with. Not sure if you can counter your opponent? Not sure what your team needs? Going the safe route works. If you know a champions ins and outs, you know their strengths and limits, it can work out better than trying to counterpick in a match up you're not comfortable with, or playing a champion you don't know as well, just because you want to fit in a team comp better.

So to conclude I'd just like to say, just think about it. Have a plan, think about why  you're picking that champ, and figure out for yourself what works.

Thanks for reading!

-Fox