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“Meta” is a word that has become quite common in the League of Legends community. It is short for “metagaming,” a concept that predates League of Legends and even video games. While metagaming refers to outside information helping dictate in-game decisions, meta in League of Legends generally refers to the common strategy used by players at the time. The current meta, for example, is to have a ranged AD carry bottom with a 0 cs support assisting them, an AP carry mid, a high-sustain solo top and a jungler, with at least one of the last two being tanky.
Yet there is often much discourse in the League of Legends’ community over the meta and whether or not it is advantageous to follow. I hope to address both sides of the argument at the most basic levels in this blog to show the advantages of each.
Using the Meta
Most players follow the current meta and shun or criticize players in their games who attempt to break the meta. In most games, following the meta is the best choice. Why? A few simple reasons:
- Roles are well-defined: Simply by your character choice, you know where you are laning and what is expected of you in your lane and in the late game play. At the start of the game, you already know what approximate build you should follow.
- Practice makes perfect: With the same meta being so commonly used, people are also more practiced at the meta roles. As with anything, practices increases competence.
- Reduces necessary communication: Since the meta is so widely understood, it is unnecessary to community most intended actions before or during the game. Even summoners who do not speak the same language as the rest of their team can still be a team players.
Summary: Following the meta is great when working with people are unfamiliar with, because it sets easy to follow roles without much communications.
Breaking the Meta
With so many advantages to following the meta, breaking the meta is quite uncommon. However, just because it is uncommon does not mean it is a poor choice. When Europe countered the AD mid meta with Malphite mid, the American teams saw their carry completely shut down. Often it is the team who breaks or stretches the meta (M5, for example) finds themselves with an advantage.
- Roles are unknown: Not by your own team, of course, but the enemy team will often be unsure of what roles you will have, which means they may be late in realizing what appropriate counters are, starting at champion select and including item purchases.
- Freedom of movement: Lane changing is a common tactic seen in tournament games, but is rarely seen at the mid and lower ELOs due to following the laning meta. Changing lanes can shut down a champion after they have bought items to counter the previous laner as well as saving a lane before it is lost.
- New and unusual: Most teams are extremely practiced against the meta, so breaking the meta forces them to play against roles and champions they are not used to facing. Just stretching the meta and sending an uncommon champion to fulfill a meta role (such as AD Kennen bot) can throw off the enemy due to their lack of practice against that champion.
Summary: When playing with a premade team, stretching or breaking the meta is a great way to gain an advantage over your opponents.
+ Show Spoiler +Heee... this is the first blog I've written for Prodigy Gaming ( http://www.prodigygaming.net/ ) who recruited me for their Community Manager position! I really don't have a ton of time to commit to this, but they are still a pretty small community, so just expect more blogs now!
 
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Whiteout. My mistake.
Edit: also, the timing of this blog could have been more fortuitous.
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He's talking about the word not the prefix. You'd be suprised how many people think "metagame" originated in their videogame of choice.
edit: happy 420!
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Apologies for waylaying the thread. Onwards!
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why the hell did 4 people vote a 1 on this???? i gave it a 5, even though I know Riku has a boyfriend and she'll never fall for me 
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On February 08 2012 10:12 Roe wrote:
hi riku!
ohai!
>.>
Do you have any clue what is going on in the first three comments to this blog? They are confusing me and I'm not sure whether it's because two tests sizzled my brain today or I'm missing some context.
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I made an ill-considered comment on your use of the word 'metagaming' and then immediately regretted doing so.
On a more constructive note, this blog is giving me intense MOBA nostalgia.
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On February 08 2012 10:19 Roe wrote:why the hell did 4 people vote a 1 on this???? i gave it a 5, even though I know Riku has a boyfriend and she'll never fall for me
This blog was posted today:
http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?topic_id=309750
So, there's a lot of LoL hate that's bubbled up. That's probably the reason for some of it.
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Yea bit of a bad timing lol
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Caitlyn vayne top outrange all teh bruisers
Talon cho mid silence all the aps
Teemo bot blind all teh bot lanes, support nunu (attack speed slows)
Doo it!
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On February 08 2012 10:27 Mr. Wiggles wrote:Show nested quote +On February 08 2012 10:19 Roe wrote:why the hell did 4 people vote a 1 on this???? i gave it a 5, even though I know Riku has a boyfriend and she'll never fall for me This blog was posted today: http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?topic_id=309750So, there's a lot of LoL hate that's bubbled up. That's probably the reason for some of it.
Ah, I see.
Well, I, for one, think SC2 requires a lot more skill. League has it's own challenges, but they are almost purely communication and coordination challenges between teammates, nothing like the micro and macro required in SC2. Hell, just look at the difference between upgrading. Buying most items late (except things like Warmogs and RoA) won't bite you in the butt while starting an upgrade late could be devastating.
In fact, I think that League of Legends is growing so quickly in popularity because it is more simple and, thus, the casual gamer can play without feeling overwhelmed and can watch streams and understand pretty easily what is going on.
As for the downvotes, there are a number of people on TL that instantly downvote every blog I write without even reading it. I don't mind, but I doubt the downvotes are just because of the current sigma against LoL here.
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On February 08 2012 10:36 Hidden_MotiveS wrote:
Caitlyn vayne top outrange all teh bruisers
Talon cho mid silence all the aps
Teemo bot blind all teh bot lanes, support nunu (attack speed slows)
Doo it!
I've gone Cho mid and made a Le Blanc cry. Everytime she switched with top, I'd just follow her there. Completely shut her down.
Haha, if it was only that simple for all of the lanes, though...
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Is there any stabilization in team compositions with the constant hero releases?
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Team comps change more frequently due to buffs, nerfs, and new discoveries at large tournaments than to new heros. The only two heros in the past few months that are used frequently in competitive play are ahri and graves.
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As a LoL player, I hate the entire community for spamming the word 'meta' to refer to everything or as a strawman to attack.
Also M5 never really broke standard lane assignments that often. They used AD Kennen bot, but it was an AD champion. Their biggest strengths were aggressive counterjungling on unprepared teams and coordination in teamfights in how quickly they followed on their CC chains.
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On February 08 2012 11:13 Dubzex wrote:
Is there any stabilization in team compositions with the constant hero releases?
Eh, moderate stabilization. New champions do switch it up, but they generally fit into already defined roles. Also, people still generally prefer to play champions they are more practiced at.
On February 08 2012 11:19 Hidden_MotiveS wrote:
Team comps change more frequently due to buffs, nerfs, and new discoveries at large tournaments than to new heroes. The only two heroes in the past few months that are used frequently in competitive play are ahri and graves.
^Very true.
On February 08 2012 11:33 Seiuchi wrote:
As a LoL player, I hate the entire community for spamming the word 'meta' to refer to everything or as a strawman to attack.
Also M5 never really broke standard lane assignments that often. They used AD Kennen bot, but it was an AD champion. Their biggest strengths were aggressive counterjungling on unprepared teams and coordination in teamfights in how quickly they followed on their CC chains.
I agree with that, which is why I called it "stretching the meta" instead of "breaking the meta" in reference to M5's AD Kennen. While having a ranged AD bot is within the meta, Kennen is not considered an AD carry, so using him as one is a stretch of the metagaming concept of playing Kennen as AP top or mid.
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Haha...looking up that Prodigy gaming website (having never heard of them before) I wanted to see who was on the team, only to be greeted by one player and a bunch of 'Pg.openspot'
I wasn't aware OpenSpot was so good he could fill 3-4 roles on a single team! Watch out IEM!!
Seriously though, the more pro teams the better. I'm assuming these guys are recruiting so best of luck to them. Also Riku use your connexxions to beat someone over the head (or get Serif to) about that damn stealth rework. It's worse knowing that Evelynn is almost done but Twitch and wards/oracles set them way back.
Edit: Oh I guess I only looked at one of the teams; there appear to be multiple. Oh well, what I said still applies...at least I thought it was funny. >.<
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On February 08 2012 11:38 Riku wrote:
I agree with that, which is why I called it "stretching the meta" instead of "breaking the meta" in reference to M5's AD Kennen. While having a ranged AD bot is within the meta, Kennen is not considered an AD carry, so using him as one is a stretch of the metagaming concept of playing Kennen as AP top or mid.
See, this is where my hate for the community comes into place.
Talking about picking Kennen and then surprising your opponent by playing him AD is actual metagaming because you're countering established attitudes and conceptions.
But then since you use 'meta' to refer to standard gameplay as well NONE OF THIS MAKES SENSE said together.
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On February 08 2012 11:52 Seiuchi wrote:Show nested quote +On February 08 2012 11:38 Riku wrote:
I agree with that, which is why I called it "stretching the meta" instead of "breaking the meta" in reference to M5's AD Kennen. While having a ranged AD bot is within the meta, Kennen is not considered an AD carry, so using him as one is a stretch of the metagaming concept of playing Kennen as AP top or mid.
See, this is where my hate for the community comes into place. Talking about picking Kennen and then surprising your opponent by playing him AD is actual metagaming because you're countering established attitudes and conceptions. But then since you use 'meta' to refer to standard gameplay as well NONE OF THIS MAKES SENSE said together.
"Metagaming is a broad term usually used to define any strategy, action or method used in a game which transcends a prescribed ruleset, uses external factors to affect the game, or goes beyond the supposed limits or environment set by the game. Another definition refers to the game universe outside of the game itself."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metagaming
I believe both of our definitions are correct, but, please, hate as you will.
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Cool write up, i agree with what your saying on the topic!
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Riku are u online now?
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On February 08 2012 10:12 Roe wrote:
hi riku!
wow, said what i was about to say.
+ Show Spoiler +
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On February 08 2012 12:01 Riku wrote:Show nested quote +On February 08 2012 11:52 Seiuchi wrote:On February 08 2012 11:38 Riku wrote:
I agree with that, which is why I called it "stretching the meta" instead of "breaking the meta" in reference to M5's AD Kennen. While having a ranged AD bot is within the meta, Kennen is not considered an AD carry, so using him as one is a stretch of the metagaming concept of playing Kennen as AP top or mid.
See, this is where my hate for the community comes into place. Talking about picking Kennen and then surprising your opponent by playing him AD is actual metagaming because you're countering established attitudes and conceptions. But then since you use 'meta' to refer to standard gameplay as well NONE OF THIS MAKES SENSE said together. "Metagaming is a broad term usually used to define any strategy, action or method used in a game which transcends a prescribed ruleset, uses external factors to affect the game, or goes beyond the supposed limits or environment set by the game. Another definition refers to the game universe outside of the game itself." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MetagamingI believe both of our definitions are correct, but, please, hate as you will.
On the topic of metagame/metagaming, Chill wrote a giant post about it before, because he was mad:
http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?topic_id=130447
The only time I use the word metagame in a game of League, is when I first/second pick (before the enemy has picked a mid-laner) Kassadin for fun, and the enemy team sends a squishy AP mid instead of counter-picking, because it's the standard lane set-up. Then, as I get horribly fed, every time I kill the enemy, I yell 'METAGAME' (even though I'm misusing the word) into all-chat. That's about the only trolling I do, too. :3
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The meta can change a lot, it really depends on the game more than the players really. Dota meta changes so often it's hard to keep track even though it's been around for a lot longer, it just has so many more variables. LoL is a lot more rigid, and only certain things work because of game mechanics. Don't think it has anything to do with the players at all. If people want things to change they have to try a LOT harder, and often it will fail horribly the first time attempted.
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On February 08 2012 12:31 Hidden_MotiveS wrote:Riku are u online now?
Sorry, just had one class and running off to a meeting now. I'll probably be online later tonight, though I should be doing massive amounts of hw instead.
On February 08 2012 12:40 ReketSomething wrote:wow, said what i was about to say. + Show Spoiler +
Rofl, hello, there.
;D
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I should too.. apparently I have a lab tomorrow and another midterm thursday XD
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Breaking the meta is a gimmick, because every1 else figures out how to beat it, works as a surprise, or copies it, and it becomes a new meta.
Not playing within the meta also has some consequences. Because there is a jungler in LoL, you can break lane counters by picking a ganking jungler and actively ganking.
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Can't find u, just gonna go to bed.
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EPT
