The Three Champion Rule

For many players, there is a problem where they play either too many or too little champions, or only specialize in one role and underperform when they must play another. There are also those who are looking to get into ranked and don't know when the are ready to start climbing the ladder. This is where the "Three Champion Rule" comes in.

The Three Champion Rule is where you pick three champions to practice and perfect for all five roles, making a total of fifteen champions. While you should be fairly familiar with all champions and have an idea how they work, being proficient with three per role is a great starting ground and gives you a focus and goal to work towards.

 

Picking Your Champions

First of all, pick something you like to play. Playing a bunch of meta picks solely for that reason can mean a few things:

a) Your choices will get banned. It’s not bad if you happen to be a great Tristana main, but banking solely on that without a backup plan is going to make things difficult.

b) You don’t actually know how to play them and don’t necessarily like it either. 

Remember that a strong competitive or high-elo pick may not necessarily work out for you. Some champions require more communication or understanding of the game in order for a pick to be effective. Never feel like you have to stick to the Flavour of the Month to do well!

If you’re great at those champions already that’s okay! That being said, try out a bunch of champs so you have a small pool that can provide an answer for various team compositions. This also minimizes the chances that all of your options are picked or banned away from you.

Cater to your strengths while deciding which champions you want to excell at. If you know you need to work on your skillshots, picking Lee Sin for one of your junglers may not be a good idea at first. Once you improve in the area you need to you can open up your pool even more. You may absolutely love the lore, look, or abilities of a champion, but sometimes that does not translate into doing well with it. 

But I Hate Playing That Role!

I think most people have that one role they absolutely can not stand, and there’s a tendency to completely ignore it and hope you don't have to play it. While it certainly is not bad to stick with what you’re good at (it makes sense after all), there will inevitably come a time where you have to play the role you hate. If you are a midlaner, this will happen more often than not; it is probably the most popular role. It doesn’t mean you have to be an absolute expert at the position you hate, but does mean you have to have some degree of compitence with those champions. It makes it much easier on you to perform said role in an already stressful situation. 

Like any new champ, you probably shouldn’t jump into a ranked game to attempt to improve your dreaded position. Try a normal or teambuilder match. Once you have a fairly even win rate and feel like you are confident enough to perform under the pressure of ranked, then you should be good to go.

Of course, there’s the issue where there won’t be any champion for said role that you can enjoy. For example I dislike being marksman a lot. I’ve found that no matter who I try, there is absolutely no champion I like playing for that role. As such, I’ve found that using champions with a gentle learning curve over more complex ones has helped. I’m not going to be picking Draven if I have difficulties playing ad carry to begin with.

By all means stick to your favourite role as much as you can! Just make sure it's not the only thing you can do. You don't have to carry with it, but you do have to perform.

 

If Your Pick Isn’t Working

You may find what has worked for you before stops working. There are a few reasons why this may be the case:

a) Have you moved up the ladder recently? If so, maybe something that was fine at a lower rank won’t cut it in the next tier. Take the time to evaluate where mistakes are being made and how they are being punished by the enemy.

b) Are you just nervous and performing like it?

c) Does the current meta shut down your champion? What can you do to make your pick work in the current iteration of the game? Are there characters that weren’t popular before are a bad matchup for you now?

I sincerely believe that with enough practice no champion is so bad that you should never play it. If you love your champion, there are ways you can make it work again. Just take care that you aren't picking it into situations that make it way too difficult for you to be successful. If you still find you are having trouble, it may be time to learn a new champion for the time being.

 

Expand Your Horizons

While you don’t have to be an expert at every role or every champion, expanding the amount of champions you’re comfortable with will help with general game knowledge. Everyone has to start somewhere, and beginning with three champions gives you a manageable number to work with while still being flexible. League of Legends is a game that encourages constant learning, and branching out to more and more champions will improve how you play and react to others.