There are a lot of things to love about League of Legends. It has a whole ton of variety (even within meta), it’s a game that relies pretty heavily on complete team synergy, and it takes a lot of work in order to get really good at it.
In last week's edition of OmegaLOL, we talked about smurfing in League of Legends. This week, we're going to get into why solo queue is amazing.
Woah, woah, woah. Hear us out.
In technically complicated mechanics-based games like League of Legends, there aren’t a whole lot of avenues for players to try out weird garbage (aka “brilliant strategies”) against equals. Which is were the beauty of the League of Legends' solo queue lives and breathes.
Before we get into the reason why cheesy strats are something that makes the life of League better, there is one basic we have to go over first.
What is Cheese?
We’re not talking dairy here. According to UrbanDictionary, the term “cheese” or “cheesed” has been used in short-hand for decades to describe all sorts of things. Most commonly, it’s tied to anger or frustration. In the world of gaming and social media, this expression of anger or “tilt” is what it’s used for.
“I’m cheesed,” is a common use of the term and ultimately breaks down to a pg-friendly way of expressing how pissed-off someone is. This can evolve, in no particular order or manner, if specific cheeses are used.
“Yo, did you die?”
“Yeah …”
“How Cheesed are you?”
“I’m full Gouda,”
In contrast to expressing your own emotions, the term Cheese or Cheesy can be used to describe something you’re doing. These specific cases (like our Cheesy Strats topic here today) are implying that the result of your actions will make someone angry or frustrated. A cheesy strat, in essence, is a strategic choice one can make that is intended to frustrate or confound other players by being something that one is either not prepared for, or is unable to counter due to mechanic limitations.
Sampler Plates
Everyone that plays League of Legends has, at one point, been so frustrated with their competition or confused about a possibility that they wanted to try something interesting that isn’t considered “normal”. The Neeko on-hit build that broke the champion came from trying something that shouldn't necessarily work or wasn't what was intended by design.
Because these picks or strategies are off-beat, they are considered “cheese strats” because there is almost no way that the end result doesn’t make the other team or your own team cheesed.
Unless you have a group of equal-tier friends on call that can fill all of the other spots on the rift, you’re going to need a place to try things out against real players. This is why solo or duo queue can either be heaven or a nightmare. Of course, there’s a notable downside. If you happen to be alongside or against these “tests” you will be the one getting cheesed.
You win some, you lose some.
Artisanal Fromage
While most people tend to test these kinds of oddball strategies in normal queue, it can be a strong play to jump into Ranked with your cheesy plans.
On the one hand, if it works, it’s most likely because most people aren’t ready to play against it. This could earn you some easy Elo du Fromage. The risk you run is that it doesn’t work, and you’re rightfully flamed in chat because you just had to see what an Annie is going to do against jungle camps.
Even though trying to find out if a LeBlanc Jungle with that blink/smite combo is as perfect in practice as it is in your head might be best suited for normal queue, there are some things that have evolved from playing cheese comps in ranked.
In the most recent weeks of pro-league play -- we’re talking about it showing up on championship match stages in the LEC and LCS -- a Sona and Taric bot-lane has become a potential lane but was born in cheesy ranked queues.
The Double Cheddar
While it is definitely seeing a lot of play in mainstage games today, it’s the TSM Academy team with Erik “Treatz” Wessen and Edward “Tactical” Ra in the bot-lane that made Sona and Taric popular amongst pros.
The dramatic double support composition works with an extremely heavy advantage to late game because of Sona’s buffs, crowd control, and potential magic damage. Pair this with Taric’s stuns, healing, shields, and an ultimate that stops damage and the entire composition is brilliantly cheesy.
As a duo, this strat is really easy to practice in any queue, but as the late-game success of the pair relies heavily on the complete teamwork of your squad, it’s a bit trickier to get going in normals. Ranked, on the other hand, gives everyone in your party a great incentive to work together and win games. This ultimatum makes it easier to convince your squad to team-up because your ranks are all on the line.
We’re not going to go into great detail regarding the comp and how to play it here (but we may in the future). All you really need to know is that, if properly built and scaled, Sona and Taric make their entire team unkillable at times during fights. Combined, they also have so much crowd-control it will quickly make your head hurt.
How to Counter Sona & Taric
On multiple occasions, we saw the Sona and Taric bot-lane completely destroy on the mainstage this past weekend. In contrast, we also saw two very good tactics to counter it.
Origen vs Fnatic - In an attempt to throw the ever-prepared Origen team off of their game, Fnatic busted out the Sona and Taric combination on what is arguably the strongest bot-lane (player-wise) in the LEC. Unfortunately for the “Always Fnatic” faithful, Origen was even prepared for that.
“It feels like they saw it coming,” said color caster Ender during the LEC Semifinals.
Specifically, the easiest way to deny the Sona and Taric lane from out-scaling everyone else on the rift is to deny them farm. To harass them. Or you just kill Sona a bunch. In order to do this easily, all Origen did was draft Blitzcrank, who is notoriously not a meta champion on the current patch.
The reason the Blitz pick works so well is that he has a safe pull. You see, Taric’s ultimate ability may be extremely overpowered in this particular scenario, but it’s also a proximity ability. This means that moving Sona away from her pal (with Blitzcrank’s grab) will take her far enough to keep her from receiving the invulnerability.
G2 Esports vs Origen - Just a day after they managed to counter Fnatic’s Sona and Taric bot-lane, Origen decided to play it during their biggest series of the year thus far. It is obviously something that a lot of teams are practicing right now. Though, their top-tier opponents in the eventual champions G2 had a plan in their back pocket for this exact play.
The second pro strategy for countering this cheese comp is to simply out-scale the Sona and Taric. To do this without much worry, G2 Esports drafted a funnel composition. This team structure is specifically designed to out-scale anything on one champion. You draft two supports for one lane, a normal ad-carry with a support for the other lane, and a strong solo-pusher on the third lane. Putting all of the resources in an ADC with 3 supports roaming around them on the map is a devastating snowball that is hard to stop.
??? #LEC pic.twitter.com/3ECbieRpIU
— lolesports (@lolesports) April 14, 2019
It isn’t perfect, the funnel comp, because it needs a lot of talented mechanical players to execute. It can be shut down if the ADC is starved out of relevance. However, you have to survive the early game and the extreme fromage in order to beat it, which is tricky to say the least.
Why Cheese Strats Are Important
You could pick apart League of Legends and discover a handful of very prominent reasons why things like cheese strategies and compositions are important.
The most crucial of them is the expulsion of boredom. Folks can play a lot of League of Legends, and if you’re going to play within the meta, it can quickly feel like that 140+ list of champions available in the game are now only 10-20. That’s a feelsbadman. Playing strange and cheesy picks can easily bring some excitement to your time on the rift.
Alternatively, cheesy and off-meta picks are part of the natural evolution of the meta (which stands for Most Effective Tactic Available). Just look at the cleverness of the Sona and Taric duo. Someone thought it might work, tried it, and it cheesed big time. Now, with more practice and some flushing out of the plan, it’s a viable option in bot-lane. Sure, it’s one that Riot Games might nerf (real soon too, if Reddit has their way), but it’s a ton of fun and makes team fighting in the mid-to-late game completely different.
To Cheese or Not to Cheese
Ultimately it’s up to you. Whether or not you want to dip into off-meta picks and try things that might be considered cheese is totally your call.
Obviously, doing something cheesy in situations where wins are very crucial, should be supported by practice and experience. In addition, players on both sides of the rift have the ability to ruin your fun, or get upset if you’re harming theirs, so it’s important to “feel the room” as it were before playing a cheese composition.
At the end of the day, the meta is what it is for a pretty good reason. While things may shift here and there with discoveries from players, it’s generally pretty stationery depending on the game patch.
Getting cheesed and playing cheesy strategies are always going to be a part of League of Legends. They always have been. Whether you partake in the cheese or just have to deal with it, it's going to stick around.
