Very cool write up. I would never see that banning Malz would be the proper choice there, but it makes perfect sense. I guess it comes down to experience, champ knowledge, and trial-and-error.

i love reading guides like this. well written, and explanatory without being overly gabby. i stopped playing ranked a long time ago, as i simply play for fun now. however, i did learn from your guide and the only problem i've found is that a lot of times when i play ranked there are those who say they don't own any tanks, don't jungle, or worse yet, the ones that refuse to respond to anything you ask during champ select. may be my fault for doing solo queue at my ~1300 level.

Team A doesn't have a ranged dps.

****ants u are blind

Urgot = range
Vayne = Range

so both team got Range DPS AD

Indeed they do not have a true ranged CARRY. They do have urgot, who's primary role is to shut down the enemy ranged DPS early and provide bulk + some damage output towards the late game, as well as isolating a single target. Combined with AoE stuns x 2, team A wants to soften up the enemy team with ranged pokes (Xerath, Urgot) and then get in there for the kill with Sona and Amumu ults. Urgot provides the initiation if the enemy is caught out of position, and amumu can do it by bandage.

Nasus benefits greatly in teamfights with this teamcomp due to multiple hard CCs, allowing him to get in the enemy's face and Q them to death. Xerath provides a bit of a conundrum to the enemy team: They don't want to get close to him, but they also don't want to have their life poked down to nil by his range. So long as the teams are of equal skill and no one gets stupidly fed, I see team A holding the advantage in teamfights, ASSUMING that QSSes are nabbed by Sona and Amumu to counter-initiate off of Galio's ult.

I would like to do this more often. Unfortunately, this assumes captains both have control over their team members and has the ability to counterpick to a specific champion on sight, which one can only do with experience... which I do not have unless I play the entire roster and own them.

And even then, I'm a poor AD save for a few examples (Ezreal) and a great AP in general. The only counters I've noticed so far are Kassadin, Talon, Brand, and Malzahar to all my usual champions. And a lot of people don't play Morgana, Katarina, or Ezreal against me.

I would disagree with your statement that Urgot is not a true ranged carry. While he may be the toughest and lowest damage ranged carry, he still has remarkable sustained damage output and poses a serious damage threat to softer targets and low DPS tanks/bruisers.

The best way to become a better player is to learn all the different play styles you can. Try playing Ashe and asking your friends or forum posters for advice. You could also try looking up a guide of leaguecraft or mobafire. I used to never play AD carries, but once I did I actually became a better tank because I learned more about how to protect and set up a carry's sustained damage. As I mentioned in the first part of my post, you're welcome to add me and get some 1 on 1 advice.

Anyone that wants to help me out a little with this or just play a few over all games I can say that I am able to fill almost any roll, I prefer Support champs.

Forgot to respond to this post. Counter-picking is just a matter of knowing characters' strengths and weaknesses. It's a skill that comes with experience and playing a variety of characters. I could, theoretically, compile a list of strengths and weaknesses that champions have and make a general counter pick guide based on those rather than specific champions.