Just like any other player of League of Legends, I played many games enough to know there has been a very popular form of team-compositions (team-comp) called "the meta". Generally, the most popular form of team-comps at a certain period of time is so-called "the meta of the time", or simply "the meta" for the contemporary one - which is:
Solo lanes and roles
1. Top : Tanky
2. Jungle : Tanky
3. Mid : AP Mage
A duo couple at bot of
4. ADC : Marksman, and
5. Supporter : CC holder AP-CC or Tanky-CC
Damage
6. A balance between AD and AP (physical and magic) damage
This description of meta is in fact observed from the view point of lane phase (about 15 - 20 first minutes of games). For later phases (in team fight), the meta goes: 1.5 or 2 tanks (1 full tank and 1 semi-tank, or 2 full tanks), 1 mage, 1 marksman, 1 supporter, and a balance between magic and physical damage.
The final point of the balance between AD and AP damage has not often been taken into account as a part of meta. However, this is very important since the balance doubles the complexity for the other team on finding the way to fight against it. More complexity they have to deal with, more chance they would fail, and more chance we would win. We must also remember that there is one more third kind of damage in League: true damage.
There is still an other factor contributing to the concept of meta: summoner spells. For the discussion about this, looking at the corresponding post: Summoner Spells: Which, How, and Why?!
4. ADC : Marksman, and
5. Supporter : CC holder AP-CC or Tanky-CC
Damage
6. A balance between AD and AP (physical and magic) damage
This description of meta is in fact observed from the view point of lane phase (about 15 - 20 first minutes of games). For later phases (in team fight), the meta goes: 1.5 or 2 tanks (1 full tank and 1 semi-tank, or 2 full tanks), 1 mage, 1 marksman, 1 supporter, and a balance between magic and physical damage.
The final point of the balance between AD and AP damage has not often been taken into account as a part of meta. However, this is very important since the balance doubles the complexity for the other team on finding the way to fight against it. More complexity they have to deal with, more chance they would fail, and more chance we would win. We must also remember that there is one more third kind of damage in League: true damage.
There is still an other factor contributing to the concept of meta: summoner spells. For the discussion about this, looking at the corresponding post: Summoner Spells: Which, How, and Why?!
Of course, meta can be changed, but let's talk about the flexibility of meta later; for now we must answer the question(s) what, why, and how does the meta dominate team-comps in League (at the present)? We have often answered the question(s) this way:
I. Conventional analyses
+) ADC is kinda weak early game at low levels, so it needs an other support to better collect power to become strong, that is why we should have the duo couple of ADC and supporter. This duo couple should go bot for better control of the Dragon, an important objective on the Rift.
+) Top should go tank since top lane is the most isolated lane, and the laner should be tanky enough to survive and farm.
+) Mid lane is kinda the safest lane since the distance to the outer turret is shortest. The mid is so left for AP mage for the best of a kinda weak solo laner at low levels.
+) Jungle is an equally important resource of power (gold and experience to level up) and can't be ignored, a jungler also need to have the ability of clearing jungle monsters to get power and helping team get ahead by ganking the other lanes as much as possible, so jungle should be kinda tanky for the best. The survival ability and sustainability of junglers should be the same as top laners.
But this is just an aspect of the problem; looking at it this way, the meta(s) seems to be definitely fixed and unable to be changed. And also it can't fully answer many questions like "why we need just 1 marksman and 1 mage while 2 tanks in team fight?! Why not 2 marksmen or 2 mages and 3 tanks?! Why not the marksman goes mid and left bot for the duo couple of mage and supporter instead?! etc." Let's look at the question(s) in a different way from the angle of common sense, by firstly talking about the map: Summoner's Rift, how and why it was born and designed?!
II. Common sense and pragmatic reasoning
Dating back to the availability of the accompanying map editors (StarEdit in StarCraft, Warcraft III World Editor in Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, and the like), so many different custom maps (modified maps or "mods") have been created by different modders (as well as much more would in the future). Among these, some were favored by huge numbers of players, and few were heavily dominate.
We must take into account the custom maps Aeon of Strife (AoS) by Aeon64 for StarCraft[1], Defense of the Ancients (DotA) by Eul (as a transformation of AoS for Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos)[2], and DotA: AllStars by Meian, Guinsoo, Neichus, and IceFrog (not just for Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne)[3]. These different maps (for different games) were created by different modders but with, and so inherited, so many characteristics of the same form: the map-form (the fundamental ideas, properties, characteristics, objectives, etc. on which the maps were built), and can be considered to belong to a unique family of the map-form only. In fact we, the players, favored the map-form (the family of the maps) rather than the individual maps themselves.
Pragmatically, the dominance in the number of people playing the maps is the strong indicator that the map-form is the best prototype to create great derivatives, the successors which would also be favored by huge numbers of players and people just like the predecessors. That would be the main reason why League (and Heroes of Newerth, and DotA, and the like) adopted the map-form for their own maps (like Summoner's Rift). In other words, they pragmatically adopted the map-form of the custom maps favored by almost players and transformed it into those of their own. This is simply a fact of pragmatism.
I. Conventional analyses
+) ADC is kinda weak early game at low levels, so it needs an other support to better collect power to become strong, that is why we should have the duo couple of ADC and supporter. This duo couple should go bot for better control of the Dragon, an important objective on the Rift.
+) Top should go tank since top lane is the most isolated lane, and the laner should be tanky enough to survive and farm.
+) Mid lane is kinda the safest lane since the distance to the outer turret is shortest. The mid is so left for AP mage for the best of a kinda weak solo laner at low levels.
+) Jungle is an equally important resource of power (gold and experience to level up) and can't be ignored, a jungler also need to have the ability of clearing jungle monsters to get power and helping team get ahead by ganking the other lanes as much as possible, so jungle should be kinda tanky for the best. The survival ability and sustainability of junglers should be the same as top laners.
But this is just an aspect of the problem; looking at it this way, the meta(s) seems to be definitely fixed and unable to be changed. And also it can't fully answer many questions like "why we need just 1 marksman and 1 mage while 2 tanks in team fight?! Why not 2 marksmen or 2 mages and 3 tanks?! Why not the marksman goes mid and left bot for the duo couple of mage and supporter instead?! etc." Let's look at the question(s) in a different way from the angle of common sense, by firstly talking about the map: Summoner's Rift, how and why it was born and designed?!
II. Common sense and pragmatic reasoning
Dating back to the availability of the accompanying map editors (StarEdit in StarCraft, Warcraft III World Editor in Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, and the like), so many different custom maps (modified maps or "mods") have been created by different modders (as well as much more would in the future). Among these, some were favored by huge numbers of players, and few were heavily dominate.
We must take into account the custom maps Aeon of Strife (AoS) by Aeon64 for StarCraft[1], Defense of the Ancients (DotA) by Eul (as a transformation of AoS for Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos)[2], and DotA: AllStars by Meian, Guinsoo, Neichus, and IceFrog (not just for Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne)[3]. These different maps (for different games) were created by different modders but with, and so inherited, so many characteristics of the same form: the map-form (the fundamental ideas, properties, characteristics, objectives, etc. on which the maps were built), and can be considered to belong to a unique family of the map-form only. In fact we, the players, favored the map-form (the family of the maps) rather than the individual maps themselves.
Pragmatically, the dominance in the number of people playing the maps is the strong indicator that the map-form is the best prototype to create great derivatives, the successors which would also be favored by huge numbers of players and people just like the predecessors. That would be the main reason why League (and Heroes of Newerth, and DotA, and the like) adopted the map-form for their own maps (like Summoner's Rift). In other words, they pragmatically adopted the map-form of the custom maps favored by almost players and transformed it into those of their own. This is simply a fact of pragmatism.
The same happened to the concept of meta in League: the form of teams, the composition of teams which is mostly favored by the community of players. Pragmatically, it is the best form for a team to have the highest chance of victory (50% in a fair and balance scene), at a certain period of time. This is also simply other matter of pragmatism, just like the map.
There is one more very important thing we must keep in mind: the time needed for the "chosen one" (the "chosen map-form" and the "chosen meta") to become the best is very long. Philosophically, this is kinda like the natural selection processes, through which human beings were "chosen" to dominate the world: millions of years. And the fact that the "chosen one" has been existing in such long periods of time without getting overcome and replaced is the most heavy evidence that no other else of the kind is better than it: it is the best, until then, just like the human beings.
III. Real life correlations
Finally, for a complete answer and to see how the meta works on team fights, let's consider the issues from the angle view of real war aspects: for a real war between two sides, what each needs on the battlefield?!
(1) An "artillery force", of course. In perfect scenes, from a long distance, the artillery force just stands on one side and deals huge amount of damage to delete the enemies on the other side. The problem is, what if the enemy's artillery force is also that of strength?!
(2) We need an other force to protect ("peel") for our artillery force, to suffer and absorb the damage from the enemy to endure the fights and get advantages for our artillery force to do their jobs, to destroy the enemy's artillery force without getting slain, etc... That must be an "armored force".
(3) To ensure the forces work well, we need an other force to help them (communication and cooperation, food, medicine, fuel, etc.): "logistic force".
(4) In many cases, we can win the wars by pivoting the critical changes, by dealing a great blow to the enemy with just a minor lose, by destroying their vital facilities right on their back line and backyard. We need a "special force" to do this.
(5) For great leaders, in many wars, they may win without losing a single bullet (without any physical damage). By deploying a special kind of affairs which defeat the enemies in some "magical" ways by dealing some kind of "magic damage": "diplomatic affairs".
These forces enter the League under the forms of: (1) marksman, (2) tank, (3) supporter, (4) assassin, and (5) mage. Say, correspondingly from real wars, it may be the best for standard armies to have from 1.5 to 2 times of armored potential in relation to the artillery potential. Also, if one side simultaneously deploys both military campaigns and diplomatic affairs (both the kinds of physical damage and magic damage), the complexity for the enemy to deal with (and so the chance of the other side's victory) would be double, in comparison with just either of them (say, only military campaigns with physical damage).
For the role of fighter, a fighter can also be seen as a semi-tank or a semi-assassin depending on the particular cases of different champions and different games. The styles of this kind of champions - especially "true fighters", however, may play a vital role in the future meta(s) and future games (League's meta and League's games as well as other publishers' games and meta). I did extrapolate.
That should be one main of the reasons why the meta is the best form of team-comps to win a fight. Philosophically because there is no simulation better than those which simulate matter of the real life: "Grau, theurer Freund, ist alle Theorie, Und grün des Lebens goldner Baum."[4] The greatest games would be those that virtually simulate and reflect the Goethe's "Lebens goldner Baum".
IV. Conclusion
Each of the ways of considerations provides us a description of the concepts, distinct from the others, from different points of view, and together should give us the full and complete breakdown as well as fundamental concepts and basic understanding of the game. Which are most essential for us to enjoy the game the right way and to advance further, from my point of view.
Fundamental characteristics of meta[5]
1. Meta is relatively fixed
It can be changed slightly from games to games for different derivatives: top or jungle may go assassin or fighter or even mage (Kayle, Lulu, etc.), mid may go AD instead of AP, supporter may go tanky or not tanky.
The question is "why and how?" Answering this question(s) is very important for us to have clear ideas on how to chose the best champion for the team-comp of a particular game (at the "null phase" of a game: bans and picks). The very first idea is kinda simple: fulfill the missing pieces of your team-comps according to the meta[6]:
+) Your team has just had 1 tank: go tank or semi-tank
+) Your team seems to lack CC: go CC-holder
+) Your team seems to lack magic damage: go AP-champions
For example, many players picked Lulu or Kayle and went full AP at top. The secret is the team should have a true tank in jungle and tanky-CC holder supporter, and then Lulu's ult adds a hell amount of tank for the team and can be considered a semi-tank that way. The same for Kayle. The complexity is that, very often, you can't fulfill all the missing pieces completely:
+) You are not the last pick(s) and your team mates don't understand what to pick for the best (last pick is the best one to fulfill the missing pieces of your team-comp, that is why many players love to be last pick).
+) You want to pick Jayce to counter Nasus at top in lane phase, but your team needs (in later phases for team fights) more tank and AP like Maokai, Nautilus, Malphite, etc. since your mid was an AD already (Zed, Yasuo,...).
This point, how to pick the best champion for the team-comp of a particular game depends on your own knowledge and skills, how you "process" the game:
+) How deeply do you understand the meta (to change that of your own team, to counter their ones, etc.)
+) How many champions you mastered in your champion pool to be able to pick the one who can balance the lane phase tactics (countering, farming, roaming, etc.) and the later phases' strategies (team fights, split push, peeling, etc.)
+) What is your pick order and how good your team mates look like to cooperate?!
This is the kind of questions we can't have a fixed answer(s) for every player, the answers all depend on your knowledge and skills on playing League, and will eventually decide how far you will and can advance on playing League. All of what you need to and are able to do is simply "do your best".
2. Meta is not unique in time
Metas always evolve and gradually change in time, but that process takes a very long time and accumulates numerous tiny changes and mutations, just like the natural selection processes.
In League, players always find more and more new ways to fight against the others: better ways to counter the opponents in lane phase or later game phases in team fights, new builds, new playstyles, etc. mutations are created through the process and gradually make the current meta get overcome and replaced.
Exaples on the mutations which may be (or may not be) taking part in the meta change: kinda tanky AP mid Vladimir, Ryze, Swain,...; AP mage top Lulu, Kayle,...; AD mid Zed, Yasuo, Talon,...; changes in items (the borns of Devourer, Sterak's Gate, Dead Man's Plate,... the changes on Raduin, Frozen Heart,... at patch 5.18-5.20); new champions: Ekko for tank or AP, Kindred for jungle or ADC,...; Fizz' nerf and buff and changes; etc.
3. Players are those who create and change the meta(s): as a community, not as separate individuals
+) Meta reflects the ways of playing games: it belongs to the [community of] players rather than the publishers. The borns and changes are just like how a school of fishes determines the next steps of their movement in the ocean.
+) Publishers (Riot Games for League) have great advantages in investigation of meta via their huge amount of information of the games, and can deal a great blow to the meta through changes in game codes, which will finally be modified and fixed by the community.
There is one more very important thing we must keep in mind: the time needed for the "chosen one" (the "chosen map-form" and the "chosen meta") to become the best is very long. Philosophically, this is kinda like the natural selection processes, through which human beings were "chosen" to dominate the world: millions of years. And the fact that the "chosen one" has been existing in such long periods of time without getting overcome and replaced is the most heavy evidence that no other else of the kind is better than it: it is the best, until then, just like the human beings.
III. Real life correlations
Finally, for a complete answer and to see how the meta works on team fights, let's consider the issues from the angle view of real war aspects: for a real war between two sides, what each needs on the battlefield?!
(1) An "artillery force", of course. In perfect scenes, from a long distance, the artillery force just stands on one side and deals huge amount of damage to delete the enemies on the other side. The problem is, what if the enemy's artillery force is also that of strength?!
(2) We need an other force to protect ("peel") for our artillery force, to suffer and absorb the damage from the enemy to endure the fights and get advantages for our artillery force to do their jobs, to destroy the enemy's artillery force without getting slain, etc... That must be an "armored force".
(3) To ensure the forces work well, we need an other force to help them (communication and cooperation, food, medicine, fuel, etc.): "logistic force".
(4) In many cases, we can win the wars by pivoting the critical changes, by dealing a great blow to the enemy with just a minor lose, by destroying their vital facilities right on their back line and backyard. We need a "special force" to do this.
(5) For great leaders, in many wars, they may win without losing a single bullet (without any physical damage). By deploying a special kind of affairs which defeat the enemies in some "magical" ways by dealing some kind of "magic damage": "diplomatic affairs".
These forces enter the League under the forms of: (1) marksman, (2) tank, (3) supporter, (4) assassin, and (5) mage. Say, correspondingly from real wars, it may be the best for standard armies to have from 1.5 to 2 times of armored potential in relation to the artillery potential. Also, if one side simultaneously deploys both military campaigns and diplomatic affairs (both the kinds of physical damage and magic damage), the complexity for the enemy to deal with (and so the chance of the other side's victory) would be double, in comparison with just either of them (say, only military campaigns with physical damage).
For the role of fighter, a fighter can also be seen as a semi-tank or a semi-assassin depending on the particular cases of different champions and different games. The styles of this kind of champions - especially "true fighters", however, may play a vital role in the future meta(s) and future games (League's meta and League's games as well as other publishers' games and meta). I did extrapolate.
That should be one main of the reasons why the meta is the best form of team-comps to win a fight. Philosophically because there is no simulation better than those which simulate matter of the real life: "Grau, theurer Freund, ist alle Theorie, Und grün des Lebens goldner Baum."[4] The greatest games would be those that virtually simulate and reflect the Goethe's "Lebens goldner Baum".
IV. Conclusion
Each of the ways of considerations provides us a description of the concepts, distinct from the others, from different points of view, and together should give us the full and complete breakdown as well as fundamental concepts and basic understanding of the game. Which are most essential for us to enjoy the game the right way and to advance further, from my point of view.
Fundamental characteristics of meta[5]
1. Meta is relatively fixed
It can be changed slightly from games to games for different derivatives: top or jungle may go assassin or fighter or even mage (Kayle, Lulu, etc.), mid may go AD instead of AP, supporter may go tanky or not tanky.
The question is "why and how?" Answering this question(s) is very important for us to have clear ideas on how to chose the best champion for the team-comp of a particular game (at the "null phase" of a game: bans and picks). The very first idea is kinda simple: fulfill the missing pieces of your team-comps according to the meta[6]:
+) Your team has just had 1 tank: go tank or semi-tank
+) Your team seems to lack CC: go CC-holder
+) Your team seems to lack magic damage: go AP-champions
For example, many players picked Lulu or Kayle and went full AP at top. The secret is the team should have a true tank in jungle and tanky-CC holder supporter, and then Lulu's ult adds a hell amount of tank for the team and can be considered a semi-tank that way. The same for Kayle. The complexity is that, very often, you can't fulfill all the missing pieces completely:
+) You are not the last pick(s) and your team mates don't understand what to pick for the best (last pick is the best one to fulfill the missing pieces of your team-comp, that is why many players love to be last pick).
+) You want to pick Jayce to counter Nasus at top in lane phase, but your team needs (in later phases for team fights) more tank and AP like Maokai, Nautilus, Malphite, etc. since your mid was an AD already (Zed, Yasuo,...).
This point, how to pick the best champion for the team-comp of a particular game depends on your own knowledge and skills, how you "process" the game:
+) How deeply do you understand the meta (to change that of your own team, to counter their ones, etc.)
+) How many champions you mastered in your champion pool to be able to pick the one who can balance the lane phase tactics (countering, farming, roaming, etc.) and the later phases' strategies (team fights, split push, peeling, etc.)
+) What is your pick order and how good your team mates look like to cooperate?!
This is the kind of questions we can't have a fixed answer(s) for every player, the answers all depend on your knowledge and skills on playing League, and will eventually decide how far you will and can advance on playing League. All of what you need to and are able to do is simply "do your best".
2. Meta is not unique in time
Metas always evolve and gradually change in time, but that process takes a very long time and accumulates numerous tiny changes and mutations, just like the natural selection processes.
In League, players always find more and more new ways to fight against the others: better ways to counter the opponents in lane phase or later game phases in team fights, new builds, new playstyles, etc. mutations are created through the process and gradually make the current meta get overcome and replaced.
Exaples on the mutations which may be (or may not be) taking part in the meta change: kinda tanky AP mid Vladimir, Ryze, Swain,...; AP mage top Lulu, Kayle,...; AD mid Zed, Yasuo, Talon,...; changes in items (the borns of Devourer, Sterak's Gate, Dead Man's Plate,... the changes on Raduin, Frozen Heart,... at patch 5.18-5.20); new champions: Ekko for tank or AP, Kindred for jungle or ADC,...; Fizz' nerf and buff and changes; etc.
3. Players are those who create and change the meta(s): as a community, not as separate individuals
+) Meta reflects the ways of playing games: it belongs to the [community of] players rather than the publishers. The borns and changes are just like how a school of fishes determines the next steps of their movement in the ocean.
+) Publishers (Riot Games for League) have great advantages in investigation of meta via their huge amount of information of the games, and can deal a great blow to the meta through changes in game codes, which will finally be modified and fixed by the community.
This post was completed
There would be just minor adjustments if any on this post
The Silencekeeper
References
[1][2][3] Wikipedia.org
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiplayer_online_battle_arena
[4] "The grey, dear friend, is all the theories. And green: the golden tree of life." (Goethe)
For more morals of my own from League, check the following post: Morals of the League
[5] For my further suggestions on meta(s), check the following post: Summoner Spell: Which, How, and Why?!
[6] For the complete ideas of mine on how to pick the best champions in the null phase of bans and picks, looking at the corresponding post: The 'null phase' of a game: bans and pics. How?!
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