How to Counter Pick in League of Legends

First of all, we need to understand the terminology.

Counter-picking in League of Legends is used in a variety of aspects in which they all are different.

There are 3 versions of counter-picking in LoL.

Let's get started and talk about the details of these versions while learning how to counter-pick in all ways:

Counter- Picking, Literally

In League of Legends, counter picking is not used by its actual definition by many users.

Yet it's important to know how to counter the opponents in the game, by its meaning.

Example:

Let's say you are facing a Vayne Top Lane.

If you were to pick Jax against her; you are countering Vayne's auto attacks with your E.

Therefore, Jax counters Vayne, as well as many auto attack based champions.

• Even while you are ‘’countering’’ the opponent, in this example matchup and in many other matchups, you often don't have the upper hand in the lane phase.

Countering is not identified by strength at all.

Counter picking, basically indicates that your champion has the ability to deny your opponent's skills or auto attacks.

Counter-Picking, by Denying Opponent Intent

Let's say you are facing a Draven, to counter pick by denying opponent intent in LoL, you have to ask yourself the following question:

• What does my opponent want to achieve?

In this example, the Draven obviously wants to get kills and snowball the game. Now that we know his intent is to slay us in the lane, here’s the next question:

• How can I prevent the enemy (Draven in this case) from achieving his intent (Getting Kills) ?

The answer to that in this scenario is: By having high movement speed, CC, or dash/blink ability champions that are able to escape Draven’s burst damage and kill potential.

• Statistically, these champions who deny the opponent's plan in the game have a higher win rate against the champion that they deny.

Counter Picking by Being Stronger

This is another topic that we have to mention for you to understand counter picking completely, now let's proceed with an example.

Let's say you are facing an Aurelion Sol, which has the intent to scale up.

Ask yourself the following question:

• Which champion that I can pick is better at executing the enemy's intent?

In this scenario, going for Kassadin would mean you ‘’scale’’ better than Aurelion Sol, in such examples; even if you are not literally counter picking, you are creating a situation in which you have the upper hand in the enemy's game plan, making your side way stronger therefore.

What to Pay Attention to While Counter Picking

• Don't forget, even if you counter the enemy champion literally; it may be an unpleasant game due to the fact that your champion is still weak against theirs.
• Make sure to focus on enemies that are the ‘’Win Conditions’’ of the enemy team while trying to counter the enemy's intent.
• Don't forget that counter picking by being stronger has risks of its own as League of Legends is a team game and even if you have the higher potential of achieving the shared intent with your opponent, you may end up behind due to different factors in the game.

Meeko

You are looking for a coach to tell you what's right and whatnot in your League of Legends grind both in-game and during the draft phase? Say no more! Meeko is here to assist you through everything, the application can be used through Discord and by downloading both.

Through Meeko, you will have information on:

• What you should pick to counter the enemy champion.
• Statistics of your and your opponent's champions.
• Meta Build options for your champion.
• Specific matchup analysis and tips and tricks regarding the lane phase or jungle pathing.

Blind Picking

Now even with all that we have spoken of about countering enemies, there is one thing that we have no control over which is the pick order.

As you might be forced to pick first or even in a better scenario you might still need to pick before you see your enemy laner.

• Pay attention to the following when that's the case:
• Pick a champion that has a win rate higher than %50.
• Try to counter the intent of other champions that the enemy has picked if you are not the first pick.
• Don't pick insanely weak early-game champions blind such as Kassadin and Kayle.
• Don't pick champions with one type of gameplay, as an example: Draven can only focus on snowballing, therefore going for first pick Draven would cause the entire enemy team to focus on countering your game plan.

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Conclusion

In reality, drafting properly and counter-picking are perfectly executed in 2 stages.

The first one is having the data on what is good against and what not through statistics apps and asking the questions that we have spoken of.

With those questions in mind and as long as you also have the information on who is strong against which champ, you will be able to counter pick properly and will achieve easy victories!