I REMEMBER when double lanes used to be meta and jungling without smite was pro and now flash is becoming obsolete to some junglers.

The funny thing is, since everyone adheres to the meta, you walk into games knowing your opponents strategy. If you're feeling evil, it'd be really easy to take a five-man premade, strategize ahead of time, and play "counter-meta." Unless your opponents are able to react and adapt quickly, knowing your enemy's strategy is really kind of a crazy advantage.

Yea, but what is there that you can do that's so counter-meta? What strategy do you have that's better than the current meta early, mid, and late game?

Currently, there's a tweak in the meta that involves swapping top and bottom lanes to create a 2v1 in both lanes, but this isn't really a new meta. It's just trying to exploit a different set of matchups that one team feels works better for them.

Double jungle is idea that could potentially work, but it means you need an ADC that can hold their own in a 2v1 lane (there aren't enough of these champs for this to work really), and your 2 junglers need to be consistently farming the enemy jungle. There are a number of problems with this, and it's quite dangerous. Good players playing the current meta will just ward. The solo ADC in the 2v1 lane will get shut down, and the junglers will be at high risk every time they try farming across the river.

Their AP/bruiser/AD move lane to match/counter yours. Taduh, old meta is restored

I don't understand people's problems with the meta.

I can't remember the last time someone decided that football was boring and they should play with two quarterbacks to 'change it up because it was boring.'

AP Xin, Breaking the meta.

Perhaps not, but formations without a quarterback aren't unheard of. To be fair, this evolution certainly wasn't born of boredom, but rather an attempt to challenge the football meta, so to speak. The idea behind any gimmick play or formation is to take short-term confusion and uncertainty (perhaps extra yardage gained due to the disruption created in the defense) and hope that it confers a long-term advantage (points on the scoreboard).

Back to LoL. While many seem to feel strongly that the current meta is the best way to play the game long-term, I'd make the argument that strict adherence to the bruiser top, ap mid, jungler, adc/support bot lane formula has the potential to put a team at a disadvantage.

Even if we assume that the current meta is optimal in terms of distributing cs/kills and balancing the laning and teamfighting phases of the game, isn't it possible that knowing the other team's likely approach to the match confers an advantage to the team willing to deviate from it? In short, isn't it possible that playing "sub-optimally" (i.e. 1-3-1 or some other similarly alien formation) for a short period could be disruptive enough to the other team that the efficiency sacrificed could be more than made up for in disruption to the opposing team's coordination?

in LoL for the average player, the champions that are viable without ragers/leavers (before game) to meet the established meta are so limited. It is to the point where every game is practically predictable. Don't get me wrong, I love LoL, I have a dota2 beta that i play almost as much (though I probably play LoL more because more of my friends have access to it) and I find that there are more viable characters in dota. Realistically there is seldom a "bad" hero or "low tier" hero in dota. Whereas in LoL, there are definitely lower tier characters that if you choose (against someone with similar skill) will just not perform well.

I know we don't like to compare dota to LoL here, but i'm just trying to express how a game of this sort can be more versatile rather than have a clear cut meta with a limited amount of viable champions.

The meta won't change until Season 3 starts, new items are implemented, and the jungle is changed. Changes from Riot are what cause meta changes. We lowly players can't change the meta. Trying to do is, as stated, gimmicky, and will only work in the short term.

Haven't you guys played blind pick before, where no one follows the meta? If the enemy chooses all tanks it can usually cause problems for a adc who can't kill them. Lots of health, defense, and attack usually beats out a weakling support champ sent bottom to do nothing but stun enemy champs....