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One Trick or Flex Pick?

Blogs > TrAiDoS
Post a Reply
TrAiDoS
Profile Blog Joined July 2011
Germany211 Posts
April 17 2025 17:44 GMT
#1
Hey there,

"Can you play anything else?"—a classic starter to the discussion about who gets to play which role in League of Legends. Specializing or flex picking are two extremes that impact your gaming performance. Here is what professional players do.

[DISCLAIMER]: The article is written for my weekly newsletter, and published on my website. A new episode comes out every Sunday (directly into your inbox and on my website).

See ya soon,
Christian

🎮 Gaming & Esports Performance Researcher | ✖️ https://x.com/TrAiDoS | 🌍 https://www.christian-staedter.com/ | 🕹️ Esports Freelancer - Admin 👨‍🏫 University Lecturer
Yurie
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
12037 Posts
Last Edited: 2025-04-17 20:44:25
April 17 2025 20:42 GMT
#2
Specializing is generally the best thing. It isn't something unique to e-sports. How often do you see the goalie being the best penalty taker in football? There is only so much practice time you can perform. Being 0.5% better at your task over the entire team multiplies compared to flexing which is only valuable when you don't have a stable roster.

It is why role picking is popular in games with random match making. But I guess you could see it as a skill total. With some roles having more value than others. You just want to maximize that equation in every team.
DarkPlasmaBall
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
United States45309 Posts
April 19 2025 00:01 GMT
#3
Being able to decently flex-pick in games is nice and fun in casual and group settings, so that people can rotate and try out different options. At the highest level of competition, however, it's unreasonable to expect most people to be perfect at multiple roles, since one needs to dedicate so much time and effort for each one.
"There is nothing more satisfying than looking at a crowd of people and helping them get what I love." ~Day[9] Daily #100
LUCKY_NOOB
Profile Blog Joined June 2013
Bulgaria1519 Posts
April 20 2025 11:14 GMT
#4
On April 18 2025 05:42 Yurie wrote:
Specializing is generally the best thing. It isn't something unique to e-sports. How often do you see the goalie being the best penalty taker in football? There is only so much practice time you can perform. Being 0.5% better at your task over the entire team multiplies compared to flexing which is only valuable when you don't have a stable roster.

It is why role picking is popular in games with random match making. But I guess you could see it as a skill total. With some roles having more value than others. You just want to maximize that equation in every team.


I'll give u it's not common but there are plenty of examples of goalkeepers being great at scoring as well.
I think it also has to do with the mentality and instincts of it all.

https://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/goalkeepers-who-took-penalties
ko-fi.com/luckynoob
josh Williams
Profile Joined April 2025
1 Post
Last Edited: 2025-04-27 09:59:57
April 27 2025 09:59 GMT
#5
Bot edit.

User was banned for this post.
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