When it comes to ranked play in League of Legends, there are many common archetypes. From the leavers to the junglers that always invade, to the toxic ADCs who spam the question mark ping if anyone takes their kill, and the one guy who always picks off-meta champion choices—but one of them actually got to the Challenger rank doing just that.
A player by the name of Isaac “Pekin Woof” Marconis, a streamer and former competitive LCS player, climbed to Challenger while only playing off-meta picks. Lots of them were in the mid lane where he competed in from his time on teams like FlyQuest Academy, but they also led to some of the most surprising champion builds anyone could spot in mid. He went in-depth with an AMA on Reddit, revealing how he got to Challenger and what wacky stuff he tried out.
Now, as someone who had quit LoL ranked play around six years ago, one of my favorite things was to play off-meta picks. They usually had absolutely no reasonable path to success, like Twisted Fate full attack speed in Jungle, or Bard Jungle to portal my way into flanks. All of them had the tiniest aspect of making sense, but they never did when I got into the Rift. So, seeing a pro player and streamer do his version of that with a lot more intelligence behind the champion picks piqued my interest, along with plenty of fans on Reddit.
One of the most popular questions in the thread was which champions or builds he had never played before this climb. Some were ones even some of the most adventurous ranked players don’t know of, from full Lethality Poppy to full AP Nunu and Willump, both in the mid lane, no less. There weren’t any build guides linked to those comments, but it’s safe to say replicating them in your own ranked games might not go as well.
Alas, maybe they do, and the community finds a pick they can use in their own spare time to surprise their opponents and win games. Plus, going off of a personal favorite champion of mine, he even had a period of playing Bard Mid, to some success. That already increases my respect for him.
Pekin Woof already hit Challenger trying out plenty of different champions in off-meta places, like AP Kog’Maw or Warwick Mid, but whether you’re climbing to Challenger or just playing with friends, we can all take a lesson from his climb: you don’t need to be a meta slave to win, and you might get more fun out of it.
