When last pick is your only pick

Red and square, showing signs of wear and weather, centered at the top of my screen, it reaches out to me. I respond rapidly before I can remind myself how much work I have left to finish: Play, PVP, Classic, Summoner's Rift, Ranked Solo/Duo. I wait, the deed is done. No great logistician nor any parent could possibly convince me that the next 40 minutes will be wasted. Suddenly a blast of sound, a choice given, ancient yet simple: accept or decline. No man or woman would back down from such an affront to their courage. “ACCEPT” I say (while also clicking the button), and I am instantly transported to the barracks from which to choose my champion.

The orange indicator appears informing me that I have the last pick in the game. Is all hope lost? Shall I abandon my dreams of winning or even having an enjoyable time?

If you are going to be playing ranked games in League of Legends, you need to prepare yourself. Map awareness, last hitting, and knowing your champion matchups are all good skills to have, but before you play a ranked game you need to ready yourself for a last pick scenario.

(Photo curtesy of gamebreaker.tv)

 
First rule: know your place. Look, everyone has to last pick at some point. You will not always be able to play the champions or roles that you want. When you are first pick you have your choice of the litter, when you are last pick your role is decided for you. Understand that this will happen and accept it. In my last article on Blade of the Ruined King I discussed why choice is so essential for the fun in this game. Therefore it is understandable that having that choice taken away from you means a certain level of enjoyment is lost. But this game is not about you individually, it is about the team effort, and in the end the desirable state of winning (in ranked games) inevitably outweighs the cost of not picking your favorite champion for this single game.

Second: have a backup. When a last pick says they cannot play X role, often times someone will get mad and say something along the lines of “why are you playing ranked games if you cant play all the roles?” these summoner's are out of line. You do need to know several roles, but I think the important number is three. Of course your main roll is an option, and feel free to mention what you prefer to play as. If you are friendly about it, you may find other players are sometimes willing to take one of your less desirable roles. But having two more roles that you can play decently and be relied upon to not feed your opponent with is enough.

(photo courtesy of gettherax.com) 

Third: one of those roles needs to be support. That means you have a main selection, a secondary fallback option, and then a support champ or possibly two that you can play. You have heard it said that knowing how to carry is what will get you out of “elo hell.” I wholeheartedly disagree as filling a required spot really is what will separate you from other low ranked players if you just jumped into ranked play. Also, having a support champion in your back pocket means that if you do land the last pick on the team then you are 98% guaranteed to have all roles covered in your ranked matches.

“Mid lane or feed” is no more a good way to win than randoming your champion selection. League of Legends requires teamwork and good communication as much as individually impressive play, and all of that starts in champion select. Do not underestimate how your actions at the very start will affect the final outcome.