Views: 1486 Some Clarification - What Is And What Isn't a Metagame Shift
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I see the term "meta" being thrown around far too much nowadays. Some people require clarification of what the term even means.
What is the current meta?
At the time of posting this blog post, it is -
Solo AP mid
Solo top (usually AP or Bruiser (tanky DPS) depending on comp (and usually where they're from, EU tends to pick more damagey options and tends to go for AP far more than the US, and the US usually goes for tanky DPS))
Jungler
AD and Support bot
Now, a great example of this would be using Rock Solid/Dignitas as an example. Take when they used Gangplank as a support. They did NOT change the meta. They kept to the standard support/AD bot, they just used a different support. It would be the same story if you used a Cho'Gath support, even though Cho isn't usually a support, in that game he's fulfilling the support role. The only exceptions would be if the "tankiness" changed, since that has a great impact on lanes and the game in general. For the most part everyone sticks to the same sort of thing, and even if an AP carry is sent top, it's (usually) the more tanky of the two.
A REAL metagame shift is if we saw, instead of a jungler, a roamer, or 2 top. Not if one team does it, one team doing it doesn't shift the meta, they just chose not to stick to the meta - TSM sent Udyr mid once to counter Annie, that didn't mean the whole metagame switched around them, they didn't really change their lineup either, they just switched two lanes, their original intentions were different. The only real big metagame shifts LoL has seen include sending AP mid rather than AD, sending AD bot with support, and there was a brief phase of roaming which didn't last long.
Anyway, most of you already knew this, just some don't.
What is the current meta?
At the time of posting this blog post, it is -
Solo AP mid
Solo top (usually AP or Bruiser (tanky DPS) depending on comp (and usually where they're from, EU tends to pick more damagey options and tends to go for AP far more than the US, and the US usually goes for tanky DPS))
Jungler
AD and Support bot
Now, a great example of this would be using Rock Solid/Dignitas as an example. Take when they used Gangplank as a support. They did NOT change the meta. They kept to the standard support/AD bot, they just used a different support. It would be the same story if you used a Cho'Gath support, even though Cho isn't usually a support, in that game he's fulfilling the support role. The only exceptions would be if the "tankiness" changed, since that has a great impact on lanes and the game in general. For the most part everyone sticks to the same sort of thing, and even if an AP carry is sent top, it's (usually) the more tanky of the two.
A REAL metagame shift is if we saw, instead of a jungler, a roamer, or 2 top. Not if one team does it, one team doing it doesn't shift the meta, they just chose not to stick to the meta - TSM sent Udyr mid once to counter Annie, that didn't mean the whole metagame switched around them, they didn't really change their lineup either, they just switched two lanes, their original intentions were different. The only real big metagame shifts LoL has seen include sending AP mid rather than AD, sending AD bot with support, and there was a brief phase of roaming which didn't last long.
Anyway, most of you already knew this, just some don't.
Actually I would say Dual AP & Bruiser top are two completely different metagames...
They're slightly different metagames, but they aren't metagame shifts.
The EU has a slightly different metagame than the US, that's about the extent of it. It's still solotop, and they are still (usually) relatively bulky or disruptive, too.