I have many reasons for both, but in the end i think calling is far better. It would be awesome if someone legitimate, like a riot employee or a ranked international team could lend support on either one.

Reasons for Pick order-
1-Very simple for people to understand
2-trolls will go this way no matter what(that leaves everyone else screwed)
3-there are no other reasons
Reasons for Calling-
1-far more organized(forces team interactions)
2-Makes you present in discussions
3- More chances to counter pick, and thus more thinking
4- It makes more sense in general.

Calls are more accepted as a convention, so if you don't want to rock the boat, don't be like "sorry I'm higher pick". You can say "can I please mid (or whatever), it's what I'm best at" or something like that and sometimes people will let you even if they called it.

IMO, talking with your team about who goes where is better, not necessarily who calls a certain role first, though. Smart teams will make sure that each role is filled with a person that can competently play that role. However, this rarely happens, and so pick order usually wins over.

Talking to your team is the best option. However, flexibility in your role is also good. I practiced every role (except support, which I am god awful at), even though I am 100% best at mid. So now, when queue pops, I simply paste in

"Anything but support, prefer mid please. Willing to trade."

I don't always get mid, but the team appreciates it, and you win more .

EDIT:This counteracts a lot of the "DON'T PLAY RANKED IF YOU CANT PLAY EVERYTHING!" talk.

Pick order for me, i despise rush calling 0.5 secs after game starts.

Calling in ranked annoys the **** out of me, my mind always boggles when i see the last pick demand mid.

I actually have a little cut/paste thing i paste into chat whenever i play it, in saying that, communicating what you would LIKE is entirely different eg "Happy to play anything but jungle" etc etc.

Pick order is more fair. Sometimes you get what you want, sometimes you don't. Having a macro to copy and paste your desired role is not the right way to facilitate communication. It's the equivalent to calling shotgun. Yeah, in real life it's fun for something inconsequential - not for a team sport.

Pick order doesn't exclude team interaction. At higher ELOs, the first couple of picks trade so as not to get counterpicked. At lower ELOs, if pick order is followed, people pick what they want and you fill in.

Calling your role always turns into a pissing contest in which no one wants to back out of what they believe is their destiny to carry the game. If the last pick calls Mid or Top and I have pick priority, you're damn well sure I'm picking whatever I want unless he asks politely.

"Calling" in my eyes should be this - "I play Mid or Top best but I can fill in for whatever." This is what I say every game and I usually get what I want even if I'm last pick. Sometimes i have to play support or ADC, but I've won those games too. If someone just says "top" or "mid", they're not communicating anything so I won't give them their role.

So yeah, since 2 people pretty much said the right thing, try doing that

The two don't have to be mutually exclusive.

Every game I enter into in normal drafts, I always say, "I'm best at mid, jungle and top," and then try to work out positioning with the team. In general, I also advise that picking mid first is a bad idea, because you open yourself up to a world of counter-picks. As a result, I often suggest mid gets picked last (or second from last).

But if the player who wants to play mid picks first, there's nothing excluding the team from agreeing to let first pick grab the ADC or support or jungle or what have you, and then first and last picks swapping when the draft is done. In fact, that often works best, because counterpicking the jungle, support, or top is (generally) not as common as counterpicking mid or ADC.

In my own meandering experience, anyway.

I think it's stupid that a player gets a role just because they are a faster typer. If you take a position even though someone called they often rage but the truth is you have the exact same right as they do. Again, I don't see what typing speed has to do with a persons ability or desire to play a certain role