The entire purpose of normal games, at least in my mind, is to learn to play the champions or builds I haven't nailed down 100%. If it was ranked, I'd make sure we have our tank/jungle/proper ap/ad mix etc, but in a normal I couldn't care less. If we lose, oh well, I'll learn more from a loss than I will from a 20 minute win anyway.

Now, I will play my best. I won't feed. I won't intentionally build my champion wrong, although I may experiment a bit beyond the forum recommended builds. But I am not going to play rammus just because we need a tank when the only reason I am playing a normal game is to perfect my ashe/yi/mf/whoever game.

I will say this though. If people are going to instalock, they have no right to whine when no one picks a tank.

Thank you Drakantus.... I think some people take normal games too seriously. I've had more than a couple games where people were *****ing like it was a ranked game or something.

Well it is really unfair to people who aren't level 30 yet and kind of want to actually play the game properly

As long as you don't pick a jungler when I already picked a jungler I don't care.

If I get even the slightest whiff that our team will play an awesome team then I'm more than happy to take their team comp suggestions, but other than that I work on the characters I need to get better with/what I actually wanted.

I usually pick my own character without regard for anyone else about 50% of the time on a normal game -- mostly because complying with flamers and ragers isn't generally worth it to me. I play for the fun.

At the very least I wait for a halfway decent team comp before I lock in.

If you explain it to people, the reasonable ones will likely try to accommodate your champ choice. And autolockers don't deserve anything.

I play ranked matches to win (granted I haven't started ranking the ladders in LoL, but my SC II history speaks for itself), and regular matches for fun. If I feel like playing a tank, a jungler or an AP character, I will play it.
If your complaint is about people that b**** that no one picked a Tank or jungler, specially in normal, I agree with you. I'll play with whatever the f*** I want to. I hate it when people think I'm playing the game for them. Sometimes I want to test a build, and I probably won't do so well, leading my team to failure. We lost, so what? Cry me a river. If you want to play to win, with people who will spam wards across the map and play with optimal teams, go ranked.

I have a select few I pick out and practice with for a week or month or how ever long of a time frame,
SO, i try to get one of each, AP/AD/Tank/whatever. Then I pick the one out of that small group i want to play. If someone gives me problems i offer to trade out for anyone on my short list of 4 people.
Simple!

And when i play ranked. I get my top 3 champs and offer to the team, whichever one they want me to play, Helps to build good synergy if people can plan out a little bit (even if only in their own head)