Quality versus Quanity: Mastering a Champ versus a Large Champ Pool

There are over 110 champions to choose from in League of Legends with newcomers being added all the time. This post is a comparison of summoners who choose to master one champion and play that champion religiously and summoners who take the path of a deeper champion pool, learning many champs but not particularly mastering any of them. Both paths have their own benefits and downfalls.

A One Trick Pony

We’ve all seen them. They usually have some catchy name related to a favorite champion. You can count on them having 200+ ranked games on that champion. Novelty accounts are the standouts of the one-trick-pony group of sommoners. These particular people choose one champion and learn them inside and out. They are usually masters of their champion, knowing every viable build, combo, and fact about them. These summoners don’t need to have novelty accounts to exhibit this type of dedication though. Choosing to dedicate your time to one champion comes both with benefits and downfalls.

In regards to the benefits, possessing an acute mastery of a particular champ can grant you a great edge over your opponent who is coming down his lane with a champion he has played only a handful of times. You know every nook and cranny of your champion’s kit while your opponent may not even have his skill order concreted in his head. You should also have a build path for every occasion the game may throw at you because you have seen and experienced all possibilities while playing your champion.

Unfortunately for the one-trick-pony, the game is incredibly balanced. Every champion has its weakness and when you choose to only play one particular champion, your opponents will have a much easier time countering you with certain champions that outperform your chosen champion. A one-trick-pony also runs the risk of seeing the champion that they dedicated themselves to be banned, rendering them incapable of performing on a high level by forcing them onto a champion they may not be as familiar with.

Jack of All Trades

On the other side of the spectrum, we have the majority of summoners who choose to learn a few champions for each role in order to broaden their versatility. In my honest opinion, this is the most efficient strategy in the long run, despite the fun prospect of rolling over opponents with one champion. This would be the only downfall in my eyes when it comes to choosing to learn a handful of champions over just mastering one. You will have difficulty reaching the level of play on the same champ as somebody who has completely mastered that champion inside and out.

The countless benefits of broadening your champions pool are, in my eyes, what sets it above its countertype of a one-trick-pony. There is no guarantee, in a ranked solo Q game, that you will end up playing the position that you prefer. Pick order is randomized and you cannot rely on your teammates above you to let you have a certain pick if they also want it. No worries though. If you’ve dabbled in the lanes learning different champions, you will have no problem filling the role that your team needs, giving you a much better chance to win than instalocking a champ regardless of your team's input.

Understandably, everyone will not be the best at all five of the roles. But with the possibility of your teammates disregarding your claims of poor play in a certain position, you might as well save everyone the trouble and have at least one go to champion for each role if you are called upon to play it! Better safe than sorry, and you become a more valuable asset to the team and a larger threat to your opponent because of you unpredictability and versatility!