Alright, let me tell you about this little project I got myself into recently, trying to wrap my head around League of Legends starting lineups. It wasn’t for any big reason, really. I just found myself watching a lot of pro games, you know, LEC, LCS, the big ones, and I started getting curious about why teams picked the champions they did right from the get-go.
Getting Started
So, first thing I did was just… watch. Sounds simple, right? But I mean really watch, with a notepad and pen next to me. At the start, it was just a mess of names. Every game seemed different, and I couldn’t really see much of a pattern. I’d jot down the five champs for each team, maybe who they were playing against.
After a few days of just passively noting things down, I realized I needed a bit more structure. Just writing names wasn’t cutting it. I needed to understand the roles and how they fit together. Who’s the tank? Who’s dealing the damage? Who’s the support helping out?
Digging In
My next step involved focusing more. Instead of trying to track everything, I started looking at specific combinations. Like, what support champion often showed up with a particular ADC? Or what kind of jungler paired well with a certain mid-laner?
I started keeping a rough tally. Nothing fancy, just marks on a page. For example:
- Engage Duo Bot: Saw a lot of Leona/Kai’Sa combos for a while. They just seemed to work well together for going all-in.
- Poke Comps: Then you’d see lineups with champs like Ziggs or Xerath, clearly meant to just chip away at the enemy from a distance.
- Team Fight Focus: Sometimes the whole lineup seemed built around one big fight later on, lots of area damage and control.
I wasn’t using any complicated websites or spreadsheets at first. Honestly, it was more about getting a feel for it myself, directly from watching the games. I’d pull up VODs if I missed a match, rewind the draft phase a few times. It took up a surprising amount of time, just observing and thinking about why they made those choices.
What I Noticed
The biggest thing I noticed? How fast things change. A new game patch comes out, and suddenly champions you saw all the time disappear, and new ones pop up. It felt like every couple of weeks, my notes were already getting outdated. It wasn’t just about patches either; teams would pick different starting lineups depending on who they were facing. If one team picked a heavy engage comp, the other might pick something to counter that, like champs who could disengage easily.
It also became clear that it wasn’t just about individual champions, but the synergy. How does the top laner help the jungler? Does the mid laner roam to help the bot lane? The whole starting five had to have some kind of plan, even if it was a simple one.
Wrapping Up
So, after spending a fair bit of time on this, did I become some kind of expert? Nah, not at all. League changes way too fast for that, and the pros have entire teams figuring this stuff out. But it was a fun exercise.
What I gained was a better appreciation for the drafting phase. Before, I mostly just waited for the game to start. Now, I actually watch the picks and bans with more interest, trying to guess what the strategy might be based on those starting lineups. It made watching the games a bit richer, you know? Seeing the plan unfold, or sometimes seeing it fall apart, based on those initial five champion choices. It’s complex stuff, always shifting, but kinda fascinating when you look closely.
