Character development: after years of coaching league, Curtis realizes that people learn better if they're having fun.

Something I feel doesn't get mentioned often (by anyone) is that just because a champion is 'easy' or 'hard' mechanically doesn't mean it will be for you as an individual player. A good example of what I mean is when Ornn came out I could just do his ult because I'm good with timing, but I saw many others struggle to execute it. The degree to which it was challenging varied & I'd say the same thing about someone like Zoe; some people just have a knack for it. On the other side of this though, some people will not have a fluid connection to easier champions. I consider Alistar one of the hardest champions to execute (for me) but don't struggle with something like Azir. The way you connect to different champions, and how easily they flow for *you* I think is an extremely important thing to consider when picking champions & I personally think you're shooting yourself in the foot if you don't pick champions that you already have a head start on if you're looking for quicker results.

I’m disabled(muscle disorder with chronic pain) so I always play easy simple champs that don’t require high APM. Right now my core is Warwick/sett/garen mid and top(Warwick mid underrated). I’ve been experimenting with other toplaners but these are simple enough without being demanding. I picked up vex as a counter pick also for when melee is unplayable but prefer melee

I totally agree that if you’re not having fun you won’t improve. I was playing support and was no longer enjoying it so I switch to ADC and dropped a little LP at first but now I’ve climbed higher then my peak at support and I’m really enjoying trying to improve again.

Something I'd like to add from a top lane perspective is that when it comes to champ pools, class identity is incredibly important in figuring out what champions to play. For example, I main Fiora 100% and love her to death, but I also play Camille, Irelia, Shen, Jax, and I'm trying to learn Gwen a little to have a topside AP threat. Personally, that's too many champions for me so I'm only actively playing 3-4 of them. But what's important to note is that all of these champions have very similar identities: Gwen is quite similar to Fiora in gameplay while Camille, Irelia, and Jax are all stereotypical divers (and Shen is more peel oriented but can definitely dive the backline and do loads of damage). Even more importantly, all of these champs are auto attack based so learning the melee auto attack trading pattern translates to improved performance on all of them. Sure, many of these champs are mechanically quite complex, but their reference points are all quite similar which makes them more palatable to learn as a group of champions. Compare that to a top lane champ pool consisting of Gragas, Teemo, and Yorick. The overall shared skillset of these champs is pretty small and so training on one champion doesn't necessarily translate to improved performance or understanding on the others. I have no idea if what I'm saying is worth anything, but just something I wanted to add to the overall conversation :)

Love this vid Curtis, all of our perspectives change over time and it is refreshing for you to share yours.

Hi Curtis and the rest of this wonderful community! I've recently gotten back into ranked after failing previous times through years before as a result of feeling like I had no talent for the game. I've definitely learned through your videos and the BBC that I was not respecting the difficulty of the game and was letting myself get demotivated after seeing friends who were learning at a much faster rate than I was. I've overcome a lot of the anxiety I had back then and have learned that I have to study and put more time into things to learn them in comparison to others. I'm currently in Bronze, but I am motivated to prove that I can become a proficient player through hard work , effort, and continual self-discovery. I apologize for the long rant before the question! I just wanted to give some background since I believe it could be relevant. I chose mid as my position and made a champion pool of Leblanc as my primary champion and Tristana as a secondary since I chose Bottom as my secondary role and wanted to have an AD champion as a secondary. I noticed Leblanc is fairly mechanically intensive, along with having a fairly high reference point on your graph, and I am wondering if it's okay to be learning the game through a champion like Leblanc at this early of a stage. I know there's no clear-cut answer, and there's a lot of factors that can come into account. Mainly, I'm just worried that I will potentially develop bad habits and ruin my ability to play her at higher ranks in the future. I appreciate any thoughts and/or advice anyone in the community might have. Keep up the great videos, coach! They've helped me become extremely excited about learning league!

Great concepts! I "unstuck" myself playing zilean mid only. Even though i was winning a lot these games felt so boring. I´d rather stay stuck forever than play another game on zilean lol

Hi, coach. Would you consider completing that chart and posting it in Twitter or something? I got really interested in it and would love to see it in full form. Cheers from Brazil!

This is very true, I've dumbed my pool down to Akshan, Twisted fate, and now looking for a complex champ (Between Sylas or Ekko since he got a great buff) but before I used to do Yasuo, Katarina and Zed lol it was brutal to keep up with their mechanics especially when I didn't play one of them for a couple of days

Great video. Would love to see a deep dive into lissandra much like you did with vex and galio. Your thought process and champion identity conversations are so insightful

I have been playing for almost a year, as an ADC first, during a few months, and then as a support. I tried multiple champs, again and again, and I felt just so bad. At some point, I found out that Zyra was very good to climb (I wasn't playing ranked but my duo was, and I thought that we might play together at some point). I found guides made by an OTP, they really helped me understand the champ. However, I was and still am bad at dealing damage (poke is still very easy with Zyra) and the champ felt somewhat wrong. I started to try again various champs, but my duo had decided to play ADC with me (main jungle) and he told me that I had to pick a pool with basically 1 engage, 1 enchanter and 1 mage, which I did. At that point, I felt useless on the game, whatever I was doing. My ADC was also commenting a lot on my every moves, and... I really lack confidence and self esteem, IG and IRL, so it was not helping. We talked and he diminished his comments. And I don't know why, I decided I wanted to try Milio. I had kind of an affinity with enchanters, but had never found any that "felt good", like I was actually useful. Milio is really expensive, I felt like it was a bet and a last resort situation. Turns out, I really liked him. I was bad, but it felt good. So I started to pick him exclusively, which is good since it's rare to see him. I started to become better, actually better. I saw posts on reddit saying the champ is bad, felt bad, questioned my choices, but it felt good to I kept playing him. Then, I started convincing lots of players that my boy is gold, and it felt amazing. Anyway, Milio is my special champ. I love hearing him say "You can do it, Milio!", it actually motivated me in game. I like running everywhere, even if I am too often missposed. I like helping everyone, sometimes more than they imagine. I love when enemies chase me around the whole map and never catch me because my shield gives me MS and my ball bump them. I started to get more assists (that I deserve) and die less. However, I had developed habits linked to the character and my playstyle. And as I looked at all the bad habits, I realized I needed to diversify my picks to keep getting better. I also wanted to feel more proactive, but my own habits prevented me from doing it with him. I kind of started to resent him for that (I know, weird). So, I started to go back on trying champs, very recently. I like enchanters, so I gave a second chance to a lot of champs. Milio has helped me to gain some confidence, and I can now better play other champs, even though I still have my flaws (a lot of flaws). It feels so good to try other champs. I have started with champs that remind me of Milio for various reasons. I have tried to play champs with skillshots as I'd like to play hookers one day, and found out that Milio's q has helped me in that way. I still haven't found exactly what I want to play, but Milio is my feel good choice (though I try to take him when his kit is going to shine more). I am currently not ready to play engage. I have tried more mage-y poky champs because I want to work on that, but engage... I have a big mental block: I am going to go everything wrong, have everybody get killed, etc. etc. I know you have to try to learn, but it is actually stressful to me, more than the game currently is for me. So, I just can't, and that's ok, as long as I am having fun! Nobody is going to read that, but it actually felt good to write it ☺️

Hey Curtis! Nice video and thanks for your thoughts on this one. I think there is an inherent trade-off between player identity and niche filling champ pool. If my playstyle is assassin, my champ pool will reflect that, but champs in this pool will share the weaknesses of assassins in general, meaning I can only compensate so much for the giant niche they are not filling. On the other side, if I have a small but diverse champ pool, say an assassin, a mage and a tank I minimized the niche, but can not exploit the benefits of my player identity. My 2 cents. Thanks for the video! (Ps. The graph was very illustrative, though I am wondering what negative mechanical complexity represents :P)

My two mains are Kog'Maw and Azir. I'm best at Kog'Maw, and I usually prefer him, but sometimes I want to play something more mentally stimulating so I swap in Azir. The two champions are different enough to keep me focused over the long run; I'm less likely to autopilot my games. One of the reasons I like Kog'Maw so much is because of how different his playstyle is depending on if you build AP or AD and what role you play him in; AP Kog mid moonlights as an artillery mage while AD Kog bot is a teamfight-focused hypercarry through and through. As for Azir, I just like how he can do a little bit of everything. He has mobility, self peel, burst, sustained DPS, waveclear, splitpush potential, late-game scaling, poke/lane bully capability, etc. He's also low key viable in the toplane if you ever get bored of mid. Also I'm addicted to attack speed so that's certainly a factor. I occasionally play Singed whenever I'm in the mood to commit some warcrimes.

I was a mid lane otp'ing a champ for a long time and it was mostly fine. However I started playing more top during the last year and immediately noticed I could not reliably do the same up there. I have a very vast champion pool that I'm very comfortable with now (around 15 champs) and a few tricks I've been following was to have a decent amount of easy champs to play, helps learning faster and prevents spending too much time building your pool. Have a decent amount of ap/ad/tanky champions for various situations. Learn champions that do not all get counterpicked by the same champions, and lastly get a few safe blind picks.

I stopped playing league almost 2 years ago but I'm still watching your videos every now and then. I love your approach at coaching and how you explain league concepts. Keep going

Went from hardstuck Plat 4 for around 5 years to Diamond 1 quickly in EUW using your material. Appreciate all your videos - accepting I was the issue with different aspects of my game, instead of blaming others for 'what they could of done' has fixed my mentalilty and given me a holistic view of the game to really build on what is going well and why + what is not and how it can be developed. Jumped from Diamond 4 to Diamond 1 in like 2 weeks, which really surprised me, considering my blockade at Plat 4 - all thanks to you!

As an ADC player, champ pools in bot lane can be pretty weird. As everything is pretty much ranged verses ranged, I pretty much choose a champ pool that works well with different types of supports or is just fairly generic. In my experience, Tristana is probably the most independent ADC as her great mobility and burst damage means that she has safely, damage, and wave clear that allows her to stay relevant in so many situations.

I've never agreed with the two tricking thing as it makes the game feel like a job. End of the day, it's a game. It's for fun. Love this character arc btw

I'm in the process of swapping from being a Jhin OTP to a midlaner, and I'm having a lot of fun ruining these diamond 3 games at the end of the season. Having a lot of fun with Hwei, Viktor, Ori, and Syndra, but my sense of roaming is beyond weak. You mentioned that having extremely similar champs isn't ideal, however. I'm unsure on what champions I should use to cover all of my bases, especially skills such as sidelane roams, punishing wave neutralizers (Talon/Lux), and helping out the jungler in the early 2v2s. What champion should I pick up? Right now I'm considering TF, Taliyah, and Vex, but I'm unsure on which one is worth learning for the long term. Also, your videos explaining the basics are really helping me get started with mid, and they're carrying the hell out of my notebook. Thanks for all you do.

A few months ago I began maining Shaco support and have gained over 400 lp with it. A huge part of climbing for me was the volume of games I became willing to play once I had a champ that was extremely fun for me. Before finding a fun main I struggled to play more than ~6 ranked games a week, and that volume makes gaining rank extremely slow, even at a very high win rate. My WR didn't really change, or even fell slightly, when I switched to Shaco. My game volume has increased massively though, and this has allowed me to climb at a pace that feels rewarding.

With the preseason changes and RoA coming back, I very much think TF will be meta again. I'd love to see you update your guide on him!

I feel lost in the game without you’re videos man Ty so much for uploding

I rose quickly back when I was trying to climb by a simple Hecarim jungle. Rush 6, gank when possible, R when my team is around me and I see somebody solo. Ideal? No. But good enough to get to low Diamond. Also even if you want to play more complex champs climbing, go for it. But it's always good to have a very simple champion. Not every time you play you're going to be 100%. Sometimes you want to play just for some fun and in a more relaxed way. Having a very simple champ can be a good idea. I love Malz mid on occasion. It's calming and low stress.

This is a great video and exactly how I make my champion pool and suggest others make theirs. I just wasn't quite as good at explaining it as you are. Keep it up Coach Curtis!

As a gold level player, I seem to have done this subconciously having my 2 main "midlane" champions as Viktor/Vladimir and 2 Toplane champions (secondary role) in Vladimir and Renekton

Hello, Coach Curtis, what do You think about Syndra rework? Maybe little guide or video about her? :)

I think 12:50 is super important. I'm an FPS player first and foremost. I like high intensity, problem solving and split second decision making on the fly. I don't have an RTS or WoW background. Always found RTS looked daunting macrowise and boring in terms of what was happening on the screen mechanically. Thus, the problem I run into is I don't actually have the decade+ of muscle memory built up for camera control and tracking information the same as I do for executing combos and movement/in-the-moment threat assessment. The point I'm getting to is that many many players in the League community will look at mechanically simple champions that "only have one combo" and say it's simple, but the statement is relative in context of League. Purported ease of use is relative to the skill of the pilot. Simple doesn't mean objectively easy, and it also doesn't necessarily mean boring. A sword is simple, a sidearm in a shooter is simple, but how you use them can be very interesting. I always say "I like to blow stuff up". Meaning, I like something that does one thing very very well and the thrill of executing that perfectly to outplay someone (read: they saw me and blew up, or didn't see me and blew up). In League, I'm still trying to find what exactly translates to that. But currently I have had the most exhilerating moments with champions who yell "hold my beer" and jump directly into the fight, or blow up one specific person and then run away.

Really cool video. I would love to see more in depth looks at the chart and other roles (I play mostly top, supp, jg; poppy otp) I have been trying to expand my champ pool but no one plays tank/frontline usually so I have been stuck doing it. Ive tried Ornn, Shen, Maokai and Sejuani. Still looking for good tanks into my bad matchups, but maybe tanks just can't beat champs like Sett, GP and Illaoi easily. I struggle with mid but I might have to try Galio. I can play Malz at least lol. Thank you for your content. Gg

What is your thought process on champ pools for secondary roles? Is the quiyanna/or problem still present? I would really like to see more of what you think about how different is just right and not enough or too different. What I understand of it from this video is you would say try to pick from similar roles like assassin or mage, but when are they too similar?

I climbed really easily with Zyra + Lux sup and got soo close to my plat promos and fumbled the bag. I came to the conclusion that my champ pool was too limited, I kept finding myself unsure how to pick against enemy/for my team. Also stopped enjoying Zyra as she was my otp in a way. So, I took a break from ranked and decided I needed more knowledge of champions in general. I may have played the game for 9+ years, but when my fiance asked me "Can you describe to me every ability each champ has in this lobby?" I couldn't! I decided I was going to play all the supports and get some level of mastery on them, as well as adc. It's still a work in progress but norms/KZfaq have let me learn a lot and grow, I now feel very confident when making calls and theorising how matchups go for my lane. From giving myself the task of only playing champs I had no m7 on, I found that a lot of champs I had originally thought were hella boring are actually REALLY fun. I learned a bit about myself too. I learned that it's draining and hard trying to get used to new champions, but it can be very rewarding trying to be flexible. Eventually with time and concentration it gets easier. I feel reassured knowing that as long as I apply myself to the task at hand, eventually it'll get better.

It's funny how this video showed on my recommended page after I switched from peak d2 fiora otp to learning mages 22% wr bouncing from plat3 to emerald4 and I've never had more fun in my life despite losing almost every game

"Don't get too bogged down on the details" says the coach of a podcast that endlessly preaches "Get into the details!" 🤪 But in all seriousness, I was JUST thinking about MY champion pool and how to build a strong foundation as I start pushing for higher elo and this was EXACTLY what I needed. Thanks!

I ❤ that you’re the type of coach that can change his mind on certain beliefs when you encounter new information from other areas, e.g. Piano lessons.

This is what I've been doing something like this myself, it took a long time to figure out the champs I liked and wanted to put time into learning, but it was totally worth it. Now I always have a ~4 pool that I daily use, and some that often switch in/out.

Bro your videos are the best I’m a Wild rift player but I watch your videos

16:23 +1 agree with having a core champion identity. Until you pointed out the concrete example, I hadn’t internalized it. I used to be split between diana and veigar, but after fully committing veigar I’ve been climbing a lot better. The philosophical approach you take is quite interesting, since most KZfaqrs just talk about technicals or decision making

Can you update prior guides? I know some of them the mindsets, concept, and generally the playstyle is still good but league has changed. Cassiopeia/Orianna are my picks.

At what elo would you say it's ok to not have a player identity? I feel like eventually you need to play different champs as you will miss out on some fundamentals by only playing a certain type of champ. For example if you only play melee assassins, you wont know how to punish people going for cs. Or if you play scaling mages, you wont know how to roam as well. Would you say masters+ is when you can play drastically different champions like zed/ori? Or would you wait until you get even higher?

how to choose a champ pool when you play almost equaly with any mage... i see or feel no difference playing ao sol, tf, vex, azir, ziggs, oriana, seraphine, morgana, lux, zoe, viktor, etc. they can release new mage today and i'm playing ranked to learn the champ and have almost the same results as playing a main,. the difference only shows up when i play some rankeds and analyze the statistics, but other then that, i realy feel no difference beteen mages in general.

"Lucian - You're an adc you know what to do." Me: a Lucian main with no idea what I'm doing hahaha.

How could he say that intro with a straight face staying serious lmao

Thanks a lot Curtis, as always everything you explain is fascinating and really helpful (: I wish you could give us details in an other video concerning the reference point complexity /mechanical complexity and the way you consider every mid champs. For example, I feel like Syndra and Orianna - wich I play a lot - have a very close champion identity, but maybe Syndra is more mechanically demanding and can play for ganks and skirmishes quite ok as, in another hand, Orianna really needs the game to be played around her spikes and wants to slow down the pace of the game and make it as structured as possible, wich is a skill in itself. Also, it would be absolutely lovely to get more informations from you about "player identity". For example, as a very skillshot oriented mage player and range/poke accustomed, the only assassin I feel comfortable with is Zed, probably because he pokes and gets a lot of reward from hiting Qs. Finally (I promise this is my last suggestion ^^), I would really love you to go deeper with the concept of "covering multiple bases". The champions I like to play are Orianna, Syndra, Zoe, Vel'Koz, Zed and Azir. I wonder - let's say for the next season - about picking Orianna as a scaling control mage, Zoe as an early/mid mage that plays more agressive and can roam or impact skirmishes, and maybe Vel'Koz as a pocket pick I feel comfortable with, but I'm really not sure about this. As a french, I hope my english is understandable (I did my best, litteraly). Have a great time coach, see you next time (;

After playing ahri for 6 years I switched to AP Varus mid..had a blast and rode him to plat! Won many games I felt I could Not have won on ahri.

My midlane champ pool (I’m a mechanics one trick, I can mechanically pull them all off well I just have dogshit macro 😂) Core: Katarina, Kayle Complementary: Yasuo, Zed Top lane pool: Core: Camille, Kayle Complementary: Fiora, Irelia

Can you explain more about player identity? Does it mean playing one type of champion like fighters? Or something else?

We have removed summoner names in legendary ranked wild rift and people are more focused on the game and type less.

Was not expecting to get an advice about why I "stuck" in my piano "journey" here, but it turned out to be very helpful, thanks)

My main pool right now is viktor zoe and yone. I like to have an ad pick, control mage, and a burst mage. For some reason Champs like zoe and yone took me maybe 10 games to get used to them and I feel extremely confident in lane with them. But the viktor took me weeks to be able to use but he's such a good blind pick compared to the others I feel like it was worth it. I feel like the agency and chaos I have with zoe is just unmatched and it really throws the enemy team off. One bubble on a carry through a wall has led me to so many victories. And the mispositioning is very high in my elo so I get a lot of free bubbles in lane and otherwise. I think it also helps zoe having such a low pick rate a lot of people are not comfortable in that match up. I've mainly been playing her recently. I put a large priority on enjoying my Champs when I main them. When they get stale I go learn another. I've been much stronger in matches knowing what they are trying to get out of the lane and when they aren't getting that.

Right now I love playing sylas and Irelia. My mechanics are really good. I have a fairly good grasp of the game but i am only in silver. Is it really that bad to play a few more champs in low elo? (My mechanics are also good with LB, akali, ori and TF). It feels natural to play all of these champs (to the point where i dont think about it throughout the game). What issues do you think i will face? And if there is a recommendation on a 3rd i should really focus on? Im very hardstuck but i honestly dont think its my mechanics. Personally i think my biggest issue is putting games away. I feel like i hard win lane but i dont end the game fast enough to where i might get outscaled and so on. Any comment is appreciated :)

hey, could you make a complete table of mechanical and reference point for all the mid champs?

So, what is Belveth, Lux, Shyvana, Lissandra, Tristana, Kaisa and Lissandra in terms of champion pool on the graph?

Would Ahri and Zoe work together? Their identities seem to match being mages that look for picks with skillshots. Are they almost too similar though and are supposed to be played in the same situations?

Wow! I do this naturally and have felt guilty not being disciplined keeping to the same champion pool season by season. This was great to hear and confidence improving. Great video

The fun aspect is really important, I can really play tanks and mages very well, But I love assassins, and maybe i shouldnt go for assassins, but that what I like

Do you have any recommendations for an ekko main champ pool?

My current mid champ pool: Pantheon, Vex, Aurelion, and Ahri.. they are relatively fun to me and i used to one trick the old Asol so it was refreshing to experience this curiosity element by relearning the new kit even though it is not very complex i have a total of 210 games playing them and 59 winrate

I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to be taking away from this video. It was just randomly recommended to me, so I watched it, and really... Why should I care about having a bespoke champ pool? If I just play what I feel like at the time, I'll get experience just by playing the game. Swapping between different playstyles doesn't really bother me at all. I mean, even now, the only types of champions I feel genuinely uncomfortable on are AD assassins and AD bruisers. I do not like them, I cannot play them, and I am bad with them. As long as I'm not in top lane, that's not really an issue.

About the champion pool complexity graph: where do Irelia, Pantheon and Neeko land there?

This is why i your my favorite league tuber. Not only are you willing to admit when you were wrong but you expand on it and learn from it and help us from it

where would ziggs and neeko fall on the graph? i wanted to keep my pool to ahri, ziggs, and neeko, but i dont know where they lie and i dont want to have too many complex champs in my pool

Based on your advices what do you think if I play Syndra (reworked), Vladimir and Yone/Ekko (I'm not soldo n which melee should I grab)? I like these champs tho I'm a littlle worried because they all scaling mid-late game champs. P3 atm.

Idk if you’re still replying to comments or not, but I think I’m having some confliction. I have an identity. Mages are my shit. Twisted fate, Azir, and Ahri imo are the single most fun mages you could play. And as it happens the difficulty curve isn’t that bad imo. Twisted fate mechanically is probably one of the easiest mages to play. Azir is probably the hardest. Ahri is a good middle ground. She’s not that hard but she’s got two skill shots she relies on hitting. But I didn’t pick these champions because they cover weaknesses of eachother. In fact I’m not sure if they cover them at all, or if they all suffer the same problems. But they’re all mages and there’s a certain consistent “tempo” or “feel” that’s consistent amongst that class. But they all play very differently. I’m never bored playing these champions. If I’m not feeling mechanically inclined that day I pick twisted fate. If I’m playing out of my mind I pick azir. If it’s just an “ok” day, I play ahri. And sometimes I just feel like playing one “just because.” So I think I’ve got some of this concept down already. I’m just not sure I’m willing to adjust these champions to compensate for a weakness this pool might have.

Hello Curtis. While learning a small pool of similar champions might be best for climbing, is there a long term benefit to learning champions that exist on opposite ends of the spectrum? To use your chart, would two tricking Twisted Fate and Lucian lead to a better understanding of the game as a whole? Thank you.

My strengths are split pushing top lane, or as my team calls it “trolling afk farming” usually while I’m dunking my third or fourth tower

Problem is I don’t know champion identities or what champs cover another’s weakness lol

is a top side pool but would it be okay to play something like that Camille Dr.Mundo Choghat (bronze player) atm

I'm silver and don't know if these consepts are really important to the place I'm standing. Guess I have a bad pool due to the chart of complexity in video, I play Yone as core, and mostly Yone. Having a 55% Wingate on him and as midlane over 200 games ( I have limited time to play ) and playing swain or sylas when Yone either gets banned or picked. Is this wrong? Have to mention I play the other two in normals so I learn their mechanics and mathups as well.

rn my champ pool is akali and kassadin. i’m thinking of adding another champ and I was looking at Zed and yone. I think I have more fun with Zed so i’m gonna go with him

What if your player identity is assassins and enemy team has a lot of tanks or cc? Are you just screwed or you should have a random cassio in your pool?

I'm really sorry to say all i can think of while watching this is "stop trying to make 'Curt-dog' happen. It's not going to happen!"

What does make Sense for an Assassin Identity? I Play Akali and looking for a Good second Champ 😀

btw i dont get why you need a champ pool in the first place litteraly half your game you have to first pick, so you play your "blind pick" champ at least 50% of you games you have to learn ALL matchups for this champ, even bad ones. So you will eventually be better on this champ in an even matchup / poor team comp than other champs of your pool at the end you are better of picking that champ whatever and be an otp I don’t feel like playing multiple champs is strategically relevant ofc if you don’t have fun playing a single champ for 1000+ games, don’t do it. But there is so much things to learn in this game that putting effort into multiple champs is not efficient. Garen is low mechanics, low macro complexity champ, especially played with conqueror. Yet I one tricked it and kept improving on it. There is no cap to improving on a single champ. And yes many playing other champs feels more fun. But playing with good team mates and opponents feel even better. Because you are not allowed to do any less than your best performance when playing at your peak elo. I got master on garen and I feel like I still have lots of ways to improve. I have a smurf acc when I play karma supp only, and yeah, I reached gold 3, it’s cool. But playing a less fun champ in a highly competitive environment is much more stimulating than playing a fun champ where allies, enemies and yourself keep inting every game.

I'm a player that almost always plays mechanical simple champs. I play Sej, Maokai and Garen most of the time for top lane as the "core champ" but still managed to have fun in games. I usually utilize some rarely known details of these champs to get advantage and win game. The feeling from outsmarting opponents is no less than from mechanical outplays.

Curtis I was the perfect example of this this season -- I was a Fizz otp (Gold) but decided to try picking up a simpler mage to learn that style and cover Fizz's weaknesses, so I chose Anivia (COMPLETELY different game). I was in a little rut with Fizz at the time, so I started just onetricking Anivia. I did climb with her, but after 110 games, I realized I was still not connecting with the playstyle or having fun yet. I did decent with her, but it was inconsistent, and I was trying to force her into being a playstyle that she wasnt. I started to go on a bad loss streak where it just felt so 'unlucky' and didnt make sense to me. I felt like I was doing great in a lot of games, but I guess I wasnt connecting with the champ. Then I decided to pick Fizz back up after that long break, and immediately was reminded with what I love about League, about laning, what style I love, etc. And I remembered what was fun for me. Im still trying to figure out what other champ to main with Fizz-- I dont really like any of the other assassins as much... I do love Cassio and have like 250k mastery with her, she is an aggressive lane bully and duelist sorta like Fizz, but she is still a mage. What do you think? Ill just have to keep trying things. Thanks for the great video!

interesting points, looking at the complexity of the champs makes good sense, playr identity as well.

Amazing video, lots of things I could see myself in, I'm sure it'll be helpful

If my core 2 champions are Xerath and Cassio, what are good complementary champs to fill out my pool?

Gold player looking for a 2nd champ. Malzahar has been my only champ for awhile now. Would Vex be a good complimentary champ?

does anyone know a coach curtis or shok equivalent for adc? can't find anyone even remotely close to how much quality they put out.

Hi Curtis, what made you come to this realisation? Just curious mate. Great video!

Many people in different context use the term "fundamentals" loosely without a real explanation of what it means or "they" mean. Would be nice to hear your view. It could also give people a prioritized list of what to work on as they develop.

I have been maining Akshan and have no plans on stopping, but the more I get to know him the more I am aware of his weaknesses: His counters that force him to play passive during his strong laning phase and can prevent him from roaming as well, and very long games where he falls off. So I wanted a less complex, high scaling champ that can play passive if needed and be strong super late. I was thinking Vlad. Anyone got suggestions?

I started this video thinking, "I love viktor and I love cassio, I wonder if I can make a good pool with those two" >.>

I was thinking Viktor / Malz / Naafiri if i enjoy them would be a good pool. Then you hit me with the player identity. 😂

good shit coach love your work keep pumping vids and sessions

Wow amazing video. I do have a question. I am a support main, I feel very comfortable with engaging tanks should I only stick to engage champion for my identity. Even though supports have other important identities such as enchanter and mages which can complete a team comp. Is it better to stick with one identity or be well rounded in two identities as a support player?

I actually struggle more with simple champions than complex champions, because I like to have options to utilize. I used to be a normal game lee sin otp for my first two years, so I rarely have struggle with mechanics. Now I'm support main and my favorite champions are Rakan, Thresh, Bard and Renata.

Nice video, do you think as a g2 ori main who plans on learning syndra after I hit plat 4 I am better off just playing ori because both champs are really similar or do you think its okay to add syndra to my pool, I also considered adding ahri but I would prefer syndra.

Loved the video! Came here after listening to the latest episode of the podcast so was nice to hear more about the idea! Thanks to this video I’ve locked in playing assassins for the foreseeable! Yone and Talon for mid lane. As a low elo player (iron and in my first season of league) what things might you think about in my games? Thanks for the vids coach, they’re really helpful 🎉

Honestly I wish I watched this a bit earlier. I always wanted to have ad assassin (Viktor player) in my pool but just couldn't click with the role. Then Galio was popular and I immediately clicked with his indetity. Kinda makes sense now

You piqued my interest at "FUN & CURIOSITY". xD

Thanks coach for the amazing content I have a question As an Orianna main, which two champions can complement my weaknesses but can also help me keep a slightly similar player identity? And can an AD mid champ be one of the two or they doesn't really fit?

BBC listeners always get a preview of these videos!

Hey coach, what would u say about a champion pool, looking like Fizz, Sylas and then cycling 2 simple champs

Hey Curtis. You recommended playing only 3 Champs in Plat. So should i have 1 main and 2 complementarys / 2 Mains and 1 complementary then? I also have kind of a problem deciding what to choose. Espacially considering player identity. I was a katarina otp when she got reworked. I loved the rework and wanted still wanted to play her all the time, but she got permabanned after the rework. So I started playing viktor and he became my new main. Now kat and viktor are my 2 best champions by far. So for developing a player identity I guess I should decide for only one of them and pick other champions that match. But I don't really want to, because I like both... :D

hi Curtis, just some clarification please... when talking about identity and then covering multiple bases. how i understand it is obviously dont pick champs that are polar opposites. but why is ori viktor syndra an overlap, and "similar" (cuz of how they play in lane? or later in teamfights) and viktor cassio vex / ahri veigar vex is a spread? is it only cause of their playstyles? please clarify thanks Im thinking maybe pick each one if your team lacks something?

Breaking News: League player discovers "Fun" as a priority in-game.

I‘ve a question, where would you categorize kassadin in the diagram?

so i basically play yasuo and sylas all the time. when i get bored of them or in normals i play zoe, zed.. basically everyone lol (i played lots of normals a day this season so i know the basics of basically every champ) who would yall recommend to be my others? (also i have the most mastery on katarina which is more then 3 times my yasuo and sylas combined but i got tired of her being weak and stuff)