The basics of champion select - picking the champion that's best for you

Picking and banning

From the moment you enter a lobby you immediately face a choice of who to ban (if first pick) and who to play. Picking your champion is a key factor of the game and may decide whether you win or lose. When choosing your champion you need to consider the following factors:

- How many times have you played the champion you are about to lock in?
- Does it work with the team composition?
- Will you struggle playing this champion against your laning opponent?

The amount of times you've played the champion you are choosing is important in ranked games. If you are well versed with the champion, you will understand how that champion should be played and how you can maximise the champion's abilities to their best. For example, by taking Nasus you would have to know when to activate Nasus' Q (Siphoning Strike), the damage it does and when to time it with a basic attack. By using a basic attack and then activating Q you are able to get the second basic attack with the siphoning strike damage much quicker than if you were to basic attack twice or use the Q at the same time you used your basic attack. Although it seems small by knowing something like this, you are able to know when you can hit a minion and kill it; hitting the minion and leaving it with 5hp is always frustrating!

Althought I only mentioned Nasus, this does relate to all champs - knowing how the abilities work and the damage they do is always an advantage. 

Team composition. Last pick can be a privilege if you can get the lane you want - being able to look over the champions that have been previously locked allows you to consider your choices and decide which match up would be best against whatever champion you are laning against. Analyse the team you have. For example you may have three tanks and no main damage. Perhaps you dont have enough crowd control (cc) to get on the adc, or perhaps you don't have anything which can peel for the carries such as Janna for example. Picking a champion to fit the team composition can really help you win in the late game if you have a combo you can use to catch out your opponents.

Before you finally lock the champion you want, you need to look and see if you can choose a champion which would be much more efficient laning with. You don't want to end up picking a champion which abilities are countered by others. A classic example would be Jax and Aatrox. As Jax uses his stun it also blocks basic attacks - the main source of damage for Aatrox. Although there are ways to play around this, this makes laning as Aatrox incredibly hard, which could in turn lead to missed cs and perhaps a kill or two going to the enemy laner. A better choice against a Jax would be Malphite for example. If you have the chance to counter your opposing laner in the picking phase then it's to your advantage you take the chance to do so, this way you can win your lane.

However - countering is not that useful if you do not know the champion or how to play using the advantage. Although it gives you an edge in lane, knowing the abilities and how to counter the enemy champion with what you've got can be the real key. If you do not know how to play against the champion as a counter, then they may take advantage of that and win lane. Reading up on the match-ups before the game is always beneficial as it allows you to understand how to play the lane you are about to enter and how to get the most out of the first few minutes of the game.

 

Banning

This is usually the easiest part. If you are unsure who to ban you can either ask your team or you could look at who has been popular and who is usually banned.

As of February these are the bans which are chosen each game, for those unable to choose who to ban the graph below should give you a good idea as to who is usually banned. These statistics do a change a lot after nerfs and buffs are done to certain champions so you want to make sure you keep up to date on the champions. 

These are optional and if you struggle laning against a certain champion as something you are looking to play then there is nothing wrong with banning that specific champion if it means you can win the lane or game from it.