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What is the Meta?
For those unaware, the meta is a term coined to refer to the overall state of the game. Essentially, the meta establishes the standard for what and when decisions are made and how players should strategize in-game to increase the odds of winning.
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Why is the Meta Important?
The meta is incredibly important in ever-evolving games like League of Legends. In League of Legends, the entire game changes dramatically from year to year, and sometimes even patch to patch. Considering this ever-changing environment, it’s no wonder that players find it difficult to improve! Of course, with this changing landscape, the meta changes as well. Staying on top of the meta and using it to your advantage is vital to a player’s success. However, there’s just one problem. Using the meta to your advantage is not as simple as playing the meta! No, instead, you should know how to play in the meta.
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Why is Playing the Meta Wrong?
Simply playing the meta is terrible because it is standard surface-level thinking, and predictable. Playing the meta alone is not enough for you to climb in League of Legends because you need to understand why things are meta, what makes them suitable, and how they can be used or abused to your advantage! Improving is not about following a guide step by step and following the same cookie-cutter build in every game. It’s about critical thinking and learning from your mistakes. The rest of your gameplay must be consistent and controllable to do both of those things effectively. That way, any variation in your decision-making can be easily analyzed and refined for the future. This means playing the same Champions that fit your style and adapting how you play in each meta. Essentially, the meta should tell you how to play, not what to play!
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How to Play Against the Meta
First, to play against the meta, you need to have a firm grasp of what the meta is. While various online resources like YouTube videos can tell you what the meta is, it’s crucial to understand why those features have become meta by reviewing the patch notes. Patch notes tell you precisely what has changed from one patch to the next, and by comparing what the changes are with how it affects the game, you can understand what is good! When climbing in League of Legends, your plan for victory should be as simple as doing what will improve your chances of winning while simultaneously lowering the enemy’s chances of winning—not just improving your chances at winning. It may be complicated to understand, but it all boils down to making decisions that will push the game towards your win conditions while also pulling away from the enemies’. For example, if your team and the enemy team both have hyper-carry marksmen, instead of funneling your resources into yours, shut down the enemy hyper-carry while funneling resources into your carry!
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Conclusion
Overall, you should never think that playing the meta is all you need to do to climb. Instead, you should strategize around the concepts of what’s prevalent in the meta, and how your specific playstyle and Champion pool can thrive in that meta! Your unique playstyle is what will make the difference in your efforts climbing to new heights, not being the best at whatever the meta happens to be that game!
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