Play two or three champions per role, and closer to two below Diamond: a main you play most games, a second champion that does well against your main's worst matchups, and one safe blind pick, which is often the main itself. Experience pays. iTero puts the break-even point at around 20 games on a champion, and League of Graphs finds that players with 50 or more games on a champion win about three points more than that champion's average.
Why a small pool climbs
Every champion has its own power spikes, trades, combos and matchups. You learn them by playing games, and each new champion you take into ranked starts you over. By iTero's analysis, it takes around 20 games on a champion before you stop paying for the lack of experience. League of Graphs finds that players with 50 or more games on a champion win about three points above that champion's average.
A small pool also makes champ select simple. You don't have to decide between twelve champions under a timer; you have a main, an answer and a plan for when you pick first.
How many champions to play at your rank
This is our rule of thumb, not a rule from Riot or a measured cutoff. It follows one idea: add champions only as fast as the games around you start to punish a narrow pool.
| Rank | Champions per role | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Iron to Gold | 1 or 2 | Games here turn on mistakes far more than on the draft. More games on one champion removes more of them. |
| Platinum to Emerald | 2 or 3 | Opponents punish a bad matchup harder, and your main gets banned more often. |
| Diamond and up | 3 or more | Drafts get targeted, and you need answers to the strongest picks of each patch. |
Add one or two champions for a second role as well, for the games where you don't get your main role. They don't need to be your best champions, just ones you won't lose the lane on.
Three slots: main, second pick, blind pick
- Your main. The champion you play most. If it has fewer than about 20 games, you are still learning it; keep playing it before you add anything.
- A second pick that covers your main. Look at the three matchups your main loses most, and pick a champion that does well against them. Then you can counter pick in the games where your main would struggle. Our guide on how to counter pick has more on when that is worth it.
- A blind pick. For the games where you pick before your lane opponent. If your main holds up against most of the lane, it is your blind pick too. If not, see the best blind picks per role.
Champions that cover each other on patch 26.21
Our tier data lists, for every champion in a lane, the opponents it does worst against: at least 8 games in that matchup and a win rate below 50% after it is pulled toward 50%. Read the other way, those lists show who does well against those counters. For the two most played champions of each lane we looked for the champion that its counters struggle against most often. Made from 5,352 ranked games on patch 26.21.
| Lane | Main | Its hardest matchups | Second pick | Does well against |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top Lane |  Sett |  Urgot Tahm Kench Fiora |  Garen | Tahm Kench |
| Top Lane | Garen |  Yone Tryndamere Yorick | Sett | TryndamereYorick |
| Jungle |  Master Yi |  Shaco Rammus Warwick |  Briar | ShacoWarwick |
| Jungle |  Viego |  Evelynn Cho'Gath Lillia |  Wukong | Cho'Gath |
| Mid |  Ahri |  Lux Xerath Cassiopeia |  Katarina | Lux |
| Mid | Yone |  HweiXerath Yasuo | Katarina | Yasuo |
| ADC |  Miss Fortune |  Draven Twitch Jinx |  Vayne | Twitch |
| ADC |  Caitlyn |  Ezreal Xayah Varus | Jinx | EzrealVarus |
| Support | Lux |  NeekoTahm Kench Senna |  Leona | NeekoSenna |
| Support |  Seraphine |  ThreshLeonaXerath |  Zyra | LeonaXerath |
A pair from this table is a starting point, not an order. If you already play a champion that does well into your main's counters, keep that one: your games on it count for more than the average of everyone else's. Each champion links to its counter page, with every lane and matchup.
When to add or drop a champion
- Add one when your main is banned often enough that you keep falling back on champions you barely play, or when one matchup beats you again and again in your own games.
- Check after a patch. If your main gets hit hard, your second pick may carry you for a few weeks. That is a reason to have it ready, not to change your whole pool.
- Drop one you haven't played in weeks, or one whose win rate stays below your others over twenty or more games.
- Don't add one just because it climbed the tier list. A strong champion you have never played starts below the experience line above, and your main doesn't.
Per role
- Jungle: experience pays off most here, by iTero's numbers. Pick junglers with a similar clear and plan, so what you learn on one carries over.
- ADC: experience pays off least, so ADCs can follow the patch more freely. Your support shapes the lane as much as your pick.
- Support: one champion that starts fights and one that protects covers most bot lanes.
- Top: the most isolated lane. A bad matchup lasts a long time with little help, so the second pick matters most here.
- Mid: a safe waveclear mage next to a roaming or all-in champion gives you an answer to most drafts.
Your pool in champ select
A pool only helps if you use it at the right moment. LazyElo knows the champions you play, per role, and in champ select it suggests the one that fits this draft best, with the reasons: your win rate on it, the lane matchup and what your team still needs. When your lane opponent isn't known yet, it warns when a pick has clear counters. After a new patch it shows what changed for the champions in your pool. You still pick and lock in yourself.
For the opponents you meet most, the counter pages list their hardest matchups per lane, and the tier list shows how strong your pool is on this patch.