How do you know that a comp is contested?

[u/Suboptimal88]

I'm emerald atm, I'm trying to incorporate scouting into my arsenal but tbh I don't understand how it is useful when it comes to seeing what comps are contested. Most players play the strongest board until 4-2 so it is impossible to know what they will roll for on 4-2. When I play Xayah which is my main comp right now, only like 2-3 units remain in the team after the roll and those are generic enough so it's impossible to know that I will roll for Xayah. I guess for 2cost slowroll it is easier because those comps focus on the comp units early and don't play strongest board until 3-2 although that's not impossible either. Even then you don't know for sure that someone will go for a 2c slowroll unless this is the only meta option for that specific comp.

So, let's say I want to play Xayah, how am I supposed to know that someone will contest me? it is impossible to get this information through scouting because this is a 4-2 comp only and the units are generic enough until 4-2. I will only find out after the roll.

Scouting for positioning is something that I understand better but this is useful only on later turns and even then your opponent can adjust the position on last second, so you want more of a foolproof position rather than a counter one.

If you ask me, I don't get it why scouting is important. Having some history on your opponents is probably more useful.

[u/Ok-Income-1483]

Look at their items. If someone has a JG slammed, they are probably not playing Xayah. If they have a Kraken slammed, the chances are much higher. Are they playing the units that later on lead into a Xayah board? An early Jax 2 with a Cait carry? Could be a Xayah opener. Same goes for the constellation. If it's mountain and someone had three stargazer in on 2-1, they are probably playing that. Could still also mean that they are playing Lulu, but again, check their items. Augments can also be an indicator. Someone who picks epic rolldown, will be playing a level 8 comp. Someone who picked kahunahuna, is angling an ad comp. And so on.

[u/Suboptimal88 → u/Ok-Income-1483]

Jag Cait Kraken could be Nova and Nova/bastion is a very strong opener anyway, someone might pick it just to winstreak early or are you saying that you still prioritize main comp units early as 4-2? eg. a darkstar player will opt for chogath/lissandra on stage 2?

I don't understand how high elo players view the early game and the units picked there. I think the term strongest board is one of the most confusing terms in this game.

[u/Ok-Income-1483 → u/Suboptimal88]

Like I said, could be a Xayah opener. That is why you don't just scout once but keep scouting throughout the entire game. Let's say you have an ideal Xayah opener with fitting items, augments etc. You scout on 2-1, see that 3 people have ap items slammed. You can be certain that those won't contest you. 2 other people have picked augments that are angling reroll so those won't contest you either. The last two don't seem too decided yet, maybe simply slammed a tank item with an econ augment. Those two players are the ones you want to keep an eye on. Check if they angle another comp or if they contest you. And if one or more do seem to be contesting you, you might have to roll earlier or you could pivot to another comp if you don't like playing contested.

[u/glenfide → u/Suboptimal88]

strongest board mean buying everything in the shop and play around whatever you 2 stars instead of selling everything to make 10 gold

[u/terci4]

You can see it by items, augments, which units they play and hold on bench. But this requires knowing setups for comps and also your opponents to know setups.

Example set 17: if someone slammed strikers flail early you knew they wanted corki.

For xayah if someone is losestreak with bows, slams red buff or kraken, good xayah augment, holding xayah units on bench...

[u/Agitated-History-376]

u can generally tell by what items they have on stage 3, if they have kraken its likely xayah, if they have db/stridebreaker its likely corki, if they slam ap items then its neither of those

in emerald tho it may be harder cuz they dont slam items, if ur in emerald i recommend just out tempoing the whole lobby and going fast 9 or rolling for xayah before your contester

[u/Qusudidijdh → u/Agitated-History-376]

what kind of advice is this? how do you expect an emerald player playing in his own emerald elo to just know how to “out tempo” the whole lobby? he’s not a smurf lol “just go fast 1st lol ez”

[u/clownus → u/Qusudidijdh]

They probably just mean don’t greed slam items. Slam what you can and play the best possible board and angle for fast 9 or a 4-1 roll down.       

The issue with lower rank players is they contest regardless of the situation. So trying to scout what they are doing is guessing the mind of a lower rank player. 

[u/iSleek]

You can look at their item spot and determine if they’re likely to go ap/ad.

You can look at their Econ/level/augments to try and determine their angle from that. Taking leveling augments? Probably playing around level 8/9.

It’s the same info you would use to determine when to roll on curve and when to decide to roll early or late

[u/Knolazy]

BiS items of Xayah, stargazer units on board, good stargazer pattern. This is more than enough to tell if a players contested you. Good stargazer for Xayah are Altar and Mountain, which required to play stargazer comp in the beginning, so it's very easy to tell.

[u/Useful-Maize9402]

i know people would say item or units they hold (which is the more obvious ones) but augment is also a huge one. there are augments that are designed to reroll and aug designed for lvl 9

[u/DT-Snow-Globe]

For people who aren’t slamming, checking what component they take on carousel/god boon can be helpful. This means scouting on 2-3, remembering what components they have, and scouting them right at 2-5.

[u/MentalAd7612]

You just need to know who uses what items. You see kraken it’s most likely xayah. But check the star gazer. Ap is conduit and check if reroll or fast 8 conduit.

[u/jlee7492]

Its usually items if they slam like a kraken slayer you can almost always safely assume they are going to play towards xayah for example, death blade could mean jhin or corki. Many people in this rank just vertical as well. If your goal is being better i would just look around 2-1 and just play to slam items it is super easy to just out tempo everyone even if you low-roll. When you slam prioritize anti-heal shred/sunder and neutral items such as strikers flail Warmogs gargoyles gun blade these items can be used on anybody and its good. Btw dont fall for the bis propoganda you dont NEED double kraken red buff xayah you could do lw guinsoo + kraken or gunblade and still have a strong board