It depends, I like to choose a support based on the ADC early game play, if the ADC is squishy, let's say for example Ezreal
, I'm more likely to pick Soraka
or Sona
to sustain him on lane. But, if you have a more sustainable ADC, you can pick a more aggressive support like Leona
, Nunu
or Zyra
.
Another thing to observe is the synergy of Support/ADC level, Leona
has her Q,W and E ready by level 3, which can combo really good with Graves
, where in this level he's really great. We could also mention some good combos like Ashe
and Janna
, due to the synergy of Janna's Shield and Ashe's crit, and Ashe's slow with Janna's slow.
Besides, picking a champion that you enjoy playing, which will also help in your performance, you could ask the ADC which support he enjoys to play with, if he has any preference and you feel his preference is useful, you could pick it too.
I found the League Support Suggester, a recommendation software to provide the best support for your current needs.
I've also found the following chart which really helps me when to choose a good support for my ADC, I usually pick one of the three recommended:
Each season lasts approximately a year, and ends with the season's World Championship (WC). The World Championship usually occurs around early October (the Season 2 WC started on October 4, 2012[1] and the season 3 WC started on September 15, 2013[2]). The Season 2 WC had 12 teams participating; the Season 3 WC had 14 teams participating.
Each competitive region of League of Legends were given a certain number of teams they could send to the WC. For the Season 3 WC the distribution was as follows:
- Southeast Asia: 1 team
- Europe: 3 teams
- Taiwan / Hong Kong / Macau: 1 team
- North America: 3 teams
- South Korea: 3 teams
- Mainland China: 2 teams
- International Wildcard*: 1 team
Two notes on this: The International Wildcard was a tournament between regions that did not yet have a large competitive scene (Brazil, Oceania, Lithuania, and Turkey) to send one team to the WC.
In addition, South Korea earned an extra spot up from their originally intended 2 spots by winning the All-Stars challenge in Shanghai, a tournament where each region sent 5 of their best players to compete in an tournament.
Each region selected their teams individually by the governing body of the competitive scene in that region. The structure of how each region decided to select which teams went to the WC is different.
North America and Europe
The North American League of Legends competitive scene is ran by Riot Games. It consists of two leagues: the League Championship Series (LCS) and the North American Challenger Series (NACS).
The LCS is a competition between 10 teams as of 2015 (formerly 8). It consists of two splits, each which in turn consist of a Regular Season and the Playoffs. Here is the basic structure of a single season of the LCS, using North America 2014[3] as an example:
- Spring Split:
- Spring Promotion (December 6, 2013 - December 22, 2013)
- Spring Round Robin (January 17, 2014 - April 6, 2014)
- Spring Playoffs (April 18, 2014 - April 20, 2014)
- Summer Split:
- Summer Promotion
- Summer Round Robin
- Summer Playoffs
Promotion Series
The Promotion Series decides which teams play in the Round Robin. The top 4 or 5 teams of the previous split stay in the Round Robin no matter what. The bottom 3 or 4 teams, decided by the Playoffs of the previous split, play against the top 3 or 4 teams of the NACS. The winning teams are seeded into the LCS Round Robin, whereas the losing teams are seeded into the NACS.
Round Robin
The Round Robin lasts approximately 11 weeks. Across these 11 weeks, each of the 8 teams will play 4 matches against each of the other teams- 28 matches for each team. The record of wins to losses for each team is recorded. At the end of the 11 weeks, the teams are ranked according to their win-loss record.
Playoffs
The top 6 teams participate in the Playoffs. The top 2 teams (based on the win-loss record) are given a bye to the semifinals. Here's an example of the playoff bracket layout.
The European LCS is ran the same way.
The top 3 teams of the Summer Playoffs are then sent to the WC.
Best Answer
For starters, in order to play Draft Mode you need to own 20 champions.
In casual draft (normal, ranked solo/duo and flex), the phases are:
And in tournament draft (used in pro-league):
1. Pick intent
Each player may choose (or not) to display the champion they intend to pick.
2. Banning
When a champion is banned, it is excluded from the match (no team may be able to pick them).
In casual draft:
In tournament draft:
3. Picking
Each turn, one or two summoners will pick a champion. The player who banned first, will also pick first.
In casual draft:
In tournament draft:
4. Swapping
This is where you can swap the champion you picked with your teammate's.
Now, to understand the purpose for each phase
The pick intent phase is to let your teammates know what champion you're going to play. Solo wise, ideal to let players know that you're going to pick an often banned champion. Furthermore however, this would help others plan ahead and consider better banning/picking options, into a defiant team composition.
During the banning phase, you'll want to ban the champions that troubles not only for you, but for the entire team. In other words, champions that can drastically dominate teamfights or that are simply unbalanced (op), are often banned for the purposes of not let the enemy team use them.
Note that if you can't find a specific champion for banning, it means none of the enemy summoners own them.
Now, say that you want to pick Irelia for example, but since the enemy chose her first, you can't anymore. The trade or swap phase exists to prevent that.
Say you're the last pick, but you want to pick Irelia. You can tell to one of your teammates to pick her for you, and he does, you may pick the one for your teammate (e.g. Viktor).
Chat preview:
After the pick phase, you'll trade Viktor to get your Irelia.
This also works for when someone in your team isn't sure about which champion the enemy will pick after that someone's turn, just to not get hardly countered during lane phase (i.e.: If, after picking Irelia, the enemy picks Pantheon, Irelia will probably get in hell of a trouble).