Blue side isn’t OP – if anything, red side is better

Just because T1 and RNG are great at playing the game doesn’t mean everything they say is gospel.

Sir Alex Ferguson thought David Moyes should take over from him. Alphari thinks Divine Sunderer is Gangplank’s best first item. People who are good at something often have blindspots that are made up for by their ability.

Blue side is not OP, you just can’t draft properly.

Ever played against a counterpick in top lane?

In what world is Ahri an uncounterable champion, to the point that having a counterpick elsewhere is less powerful than the countered Ahri?

Seriously think about that for a second. You get to see the Ahri and draft a counterpick, and that’s more important than an actual counterpick? The same goes for any champ, by the way, but Ahri has been a consistent first pick from good teams.

Gwen, Wukong, Kaisa, whoever it is – these champions are not uncounterable. Just because you don’t want to play or learn the counters doesn’t mean that picking them is unpunishable.

Any toplaner will tell you the pain of having to blind pick top and taking the punishment that comes with it. Every toplaner has been smacked with the Malphite into their AD carry pick, the Fiora into their Ornn, Riven into their squishy top champs. It’s hell on earth.

Somehow, though, that’s worse than getting to blind pick somewhere else. I don’t understand.

Gwen is immune! (to counterpicks)

Red side is the only time you can guarantee a winning match-up for your best player, or even just a complete counterpick to the entire enemy team. A Veigar into dive comps, a Malphite into heavy AD comps, Anivia into low range comps or Yuumi into teams who can’t dive bot – you can’t get those game-deciding picks on blue side because you can get smashed by the final pick.

Unless the blind pick champion you get is release Aphelios/Samira or Bjergsen’s Zilean in NA, that can’t be worth the draft advantage of being able to see the whole enemy team before picking your counter.

Do you know how much I would pay to have fifth pick every game in solo queue? You can win the game in champ select with a last pick, and you can’t win it in champ select with a first pick. It’s as simple as that.

It’s a lack of invention and innovation from pro teams that leads to them thinking that just picking the most ‘OP’ champion is better than counterpicks. You’re not trying hard enough to counter the meta champions if you think they are uncounterable.

If anything, red side is more powerful than blue if both teams draft even vaguely competently. We saw that finally someone had figured out that Lissandra outclasses Ahri, and the teams kept picking it blind with Lissandra up.

Those are the guys you’re listening to on this. Think for a second if that makes any sense.

You can win the game in champ select with a last pick, and you can’t win it in champ select with a first pick.