The Stupidest Metas That ACTUALLY Existed

Virtually every multiplayer game to ever exist has metas.
Some come and go, and have little effect on the community. But others are so ridiculous that they leave you wondering what the hell the developers were even thinking.
Here are some of the stupidest metas that actually existed.
Written by: Niall McCrossan (@niallmccrossan)
Edited by: Jason Durante
Hosted by: Danny Burke (@lurkeyburke)
Produced by: Brendan Fahey (@Drillbit_)
Footage courtesy of: pastebin.com/0...
Music used under license from Associated Production Music LLC (”APM”).
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[@LewAka]

Just a reminder that double shield was definitely still meta at the end of OW1, but it had gone on for such a long time that people just stopped running it.

[@CRAiCED.]

Hard agree. Remember in the last few months people in lobby would just go double shield if running whatever they wanted didn't work. Ball and hog became meta because nobody wanted to play boring double shield even though it was still the best comp

[@VVheeli]

People gripe about GOATS being too dominant for way too long, necessitating role queue. 2 years of dominance give or take a few months. Double Shield lasted just as long as GOATS, but was when OW had tiny numbers compared to the goats era. And arguably, it was legit why no one could be convinced to come back to OW.

[@erickim1739]

@@VVheeli Double shield definitely lasted wayyyy longer than GOATS did.

[@horizunu]

nah, ever since they nerfed both their shields to like 600 or 700 hp, other comps were more favorable since it was easier to burn both shields + general buffs to other heroes. end of ow 1 meta was ball zen core, hog was not must pick and cycled through dva, zar, or sig for hybrid poke as offtanks for the ball zen dive

[@ProvenOW]

I would argue its because people started running hog a bit more because he kept getting buffed to the point where he actually was really good into double shield. And then come overwatch 2 he just gets completely overlooked for half a season because of zarya and then boom hog meta for a month and a half.

[@hanslhansl]

They totally failed to convey why Blitz was so strong. The patch made it so that he could run with his shield in front of him instead of on his side (how it was previously and still is for other shield operators). That combined with his actual gadget, a giant flashlight mounted to his shield, basically a reusable flashbang to which he himself is immune, and his insanely low ads time was what made him terrifying. The speed buff was only the cherry on top.

[@kevinhenderson9165]

I strongly disagree. If you played on those test servers It was a completely new op. You were running through smokes at mach 12 and knifing 4 people a round. There was almost no counter play bc he could close the gap with no issue. Now that he is much slower, even if you are flashed you have time to spray or just turn and run away. ntm the nerf was only to speed, he still has all the things you mentioned. By your logic speed or not he would be an S+ tier op and we would still see him in pro when in fact we just rarely (if ever) do

[@hanslhansl]

@@kevinhenderson9165 If his shield wasn't covering his torso and head you could just shoot him while he is running at you. If he didn't have the flash you could easily knife him while he is running at you. It would be a 50/50 chance, whoever gets off the knife first wins the fight. The speed was nice to have but without the flash and the run-with-shield-up the increased speed would have been totally useless. As to why he isn't that strong now that he lost his speed: Firstly, he didn't only lose his speed, he also lost his fast ADS time as well as the insane hipfire (which I forgot to mention in my original comment) shields used to have back then. Secondly, we have seen several times that seemingly small changes can have a massive impact on an operator. Finka for example went from niche to meta-defining just because her gadget permanently healed. Also I never said that the speed change wasn't important for Blitz to become op. It just wasn't as crucial as the flash and run-with-shield-up. Without the speed buff and with the flash and running shield he is a mediocre operator but with the speed and without the flash and running shield he would be useless.

[@sixarmedpsycho_9]

Is this Valorant we're talking about?

[@Prosto-Ban]

@@sixarmedpsycho_9 bro you lacking

[@s0te]

there was also the insane accurate hip fire, it did miracles on those panic sprays blitz players did

[@samhageman3709]

I remember when the revolver came out on CS:GO. That thing was beyond busted. totally expected it to be in this video.

[@ForeverDayGreen]

I don't know if it was there for long enough to be a meta. Iirc the impact on pro play was minimal. I think the cs:go meta best fitting into this video would be the Aug meta where teams even considered not buying it because the risk of it being picked up was to big.

[@owl1736]

cz release was worse ngl

[@yoshimurahirihito]

Yeah r8 lasted less than 2 weeks. CZ or tec9 or UMP probs win this for cs

[@Gavolak]

Pocket awp was broken BUT the pocket AK was even worse cuz it made it into tournaments.

[@thelickpolice1210]

@@yoshimurahirihito r8 lasted less than 48hrs iirc and had zero influence on the game CZ was never a meta, it was definitely OP as a sidearm to the AWP and made eco rounds effectively non-existent, teams would force armor CZ's and have a solid shot at winning the round, but in the vast majority of cases you wouldn't play the CZ over a rifle, same with tec most players wouldn't play the UMP over rifles either, there were positions where the UMP was as strong as rifles and gave the double money bonus, so it made sense to go for the UMP over a rifle in some cases, but that's not a meta what however was a meta was the use of AUG/SG in the entirety of 2019, EVERYONE was running it, nobody played m4 or AK, it just didn't make sense given how much stronger the guns were for just $50 more than the main rifes and then the infamous m4a1-s death ray

[@fweiv]

goats. thats the video

[@fluffywolfo3663]

Had to be said lmao

[@Heckpup]

People always say Goats, I will never forget Moth. PEOPLE BE SLEEPING ON HOW TOXIC MOTH WAS

[@supresmeshbras2003]

@@Heckpup wait wait, what was the moth meta?

[@mete2519]

​@@supresmeshbras2003 a mercy hiding all fight to press q anf res 5 people instantly without counterplay

[@Heckpup]

@@supresmeshbras2003 When they first reworked Mercy and you could Rez, Ult Rez Rez and every fight took forever and at lower ranks you just can’t touch someone with the mobility of Mercy. It was miserable, Mercy had enough mobility you couldn’t even properly camp the bodies

[@Xhadp]

I'd also put Blackbeard Shield on this list. Going from completely indestructible to becoming a Paper Mache shield. While it didn't exactly define a meta since it was only one hero out of ten it definitely became a what were the developers thinking moment when you look at the then vs now.

[@goldenreaper8625]

All I can hear is the sound of those damn lmgs but I agree with this as well

[@SomePeopleCallMe]

Thanks, that's what I was about to say. That fucking thing literally had more HP than the whole enemy team combined. Nearly a decade later, I'm still pissed. How the fuck did they think 800HP was a reasonable amount??!

[@Tofilux]

the 800hp shield could survive a C4

[@BrazenBullXXX]

For real. It went from half a mag dump to kill a shield to sneezing on it would break it. What breaks my heart in RB6 though is only half the roster is viable as of the last few years so you run into the same problems match after match.

[@dillonoickle5841]

the thought of making a character immune to headshots essentially and giving them a trump card in a game all about peeking corners was some of the most questionable design choices ever put in a popular shooter.

[@pilotaddine]

bucky meta still haunts me

[@lxdixd]

most fun time to play the game dont @ me

[@kgregorius8550]

I am amazed no one call it the "the blitzkrieg meta". Seeing as he is German and fallow the idea of what a blitzkrieg is, plus the his name being blitz.

[@booradley6832]

@@C.A._Old Chances are the guy who developed it is actually a gun nut because that's how most shotguns get overpowered, people apply real life properties to game guns. A 12 gauge shotgun firing 00 buckshot fires 10 balls that are the same size as the bullets from a .38 revolver. It fires 10 of them, at once, with close enough to the same power behind them too. If someone hit you at 70 yards with a revolver and killed you, you'd think it was unlucky but not unreasonable. If someone threw 10 of them at you simultaneously in a slowly expanding circle? You're probably gonna die. People like their videogame shotguns to be useful up to 15 yards away and then do nothing, and that's the way they've been balanced for decades now. So when someone throws in a more realistic version it absolutely obliterates and goes against all expectations.

[@powerpulser5701]

Realistic Shotgun

[@mattmourad601]

surprised the R8 meta wasnt on here its been years and I still remember thinking holy sh*t this game is done for

[@joehicks929]

tbf r8 was like 2 days, utterly insane while it lasted but not as defining as others, arguably more stupid though i agree.

[@xcy7240]

I feel like it deserves a mention bcuz it was literally stronger than the awp and only cost 700, it was so funny tho literally everyone using r8 only and just 1 tapping everyone through anything too.

[@sungazercyan]

I love the R8 meta because that patch dropped the day after I FIRST got into CSGO so my formative memories were all about it even though it was such a short period

[@feluto7172]

the most fun 2 days we have had in cs tbh, still remember the cobble aces happening almost every game

[@soyboi8440]

Can't forget apex legends seer meta. Still meta but getting 10 damage, blinded, deafening noise, and canceled healing and abilities from 75 meters away was kinda insane.

[@Balto351]

Don't forget that you could also run at full speed or close to full speed while holding it. And his passive basically had a range that encompassed the whole map, meaning you could track anyone from any range. Ultimate was still strong, and did I mention that his Q was on a 15 second cooldown as opposed to 30? It's literally walking around getting free damage, and it was glorious. Changes over the seasons including Dressed To Kill have toned him down/added interesting elements to his kit. Definitely a character to remember. Took us out of the bubble meta.

[@aesir748]

Operation Chimera was soul crushing. Lion + and sort of explosive or blitz or jackal was an instant kill and Finkas ability combined with the lmg was a laser beam

[@uriyahgoldstein1641]

They missed the essence of the ha ha hi hi meta. Sniper's 3 charges of shrapnel was good and all, but what really mattered was Monkey King Bar. The item is a natural fit for Sniper and Troll Warlord, having both mini bashes and true strike on these heroes is insane. So as soon as they fixed Troll's passive not working properly and (as mentioned) buffed Shrapnel, the game just flooded with ranged perma-bashing monstrosities.

[@lainedonnelly8962]

I will never not love the zooming Blitz META 😂 I have so many fond memories of carefully droning out the site only to look over and see a team mate just sprinting towards the site like a bat out of hell and somehow nearly acing every round. Terrible for sure, but so funny when you benefit from it XD

[@damp2269]

Blitz main here and loved every second of out time in the sunlight. blitz is either god tier or trash so you take the god days with the bad ones.

[@dagroseren]

About shotguns in valorant, that's kinda how strong shotguns are in real life, imagine an expensive shotgun that did that, could be interesting to test, and maybe have as a smaller part of the meta.

[@Browniev2]

I would love to see Valorant add old weapons back into the game as a new model and more expensive.

[@radiantberserker8857]

The low amount of skill yet strong results would still make it a bad idea even with a high price

[@ClubSoda98]

The *dirty bubble meta* in smite was insane. Build full tank on characters that had high base damage and sustain and become unkillable while dealing far too much damage. This strategy was particularly broken on two gods, Thanatos and Ah Puch. The most interesting thing about the build on Ah Puch was that he was usually a bottom 3 character in the game, but with the dirty bubble meta, he was SS tier due to being unkillable but still having enough sustain that you force a trade in your favour.

[@Vinnini]

he bo jumpscare

[@paulsammuel1231]

He started my villain arc in smite 😂😂

[@tatro222]

Inting sion def should be on here. Having a person run it down 11 times while breaking every turret in the lane and solo winning the lane then becoming unkillable was alot of fun.

[@Melons987]

Reminds me of Tryndamere days when Cleanse was buffed to have a 2s CC immunity on it. Literally 2-3 weeks of both teams having Tryndamere because if your team did not you simply lost. There was nothing you could do to something who's ult was literally *too angry to die* and then any CC hits you just click 1 Summoner spell and now for at least 2 seconds you can get 2-4 kills with just a simple spin and auto-chop. I played Morgana so all I ever did was put Black Shield on our Tryndamere and root their carries or support and just hope enemy Tryn didn't see me.

[@myrocketbunny545]

In the "Overwatch clone" Paladins there was a Karn Meta... Karn is a Tank with a medium sized shield. He had a Battle shout to heal himself and near by allies. He had a Dash which grabs enemy's if he hits them, stuns them and throws them over his shoulder. His Ultimate grabs and stuns an enemy and you can hold them for some time or throw them away until they hit a wall (that is a insta kill on most maps if you throw them of the ledge). This over all wasn't the bad point. He had a talent you could choose that buffed the Battle shout to heal a lot more AND give everyone in range CC immunity. In Paladins there are a lot of moves that inflict some kind of CC (especially ultimates) and as a Karn you could press a key with 5 sec or so cool down to nullify all CC you're team could be hit by. I don't recall any ranked match that I lost playing Karn (he was baned most of the time to be fair). You could be the player with most damage, most kills, most heals and most damage taken... That was just stupid

[@allainch.7251]

Jankos thanking Riot so he doesn’t need to play Braum anymore was good 😂

[@user-uq9se1nx9q]

You can see the true happiness in his eyes

[@blitzcrank4840]

Who wouldn't be ? Playing Braum to funnel resources is like playing Sion into Jax in top lane but levels worse. You don't get any fun and practically exists only as a meatshield.

[@MrRukrio1]

i wanna give a shoutout to Splatoon 2 for having not only some of the best and healthiest metas during a brief period of rock paper scissors between Dualies, Brellas, and Blasters, but for also having one of the WORST. Splatoon 3 had a sample of it, but like, the whole of splatoon 2 wasn't about if you were good with your main weapon, worked well in the team setting, or otherwise good at the game. it was about the global specials, the worst offender being Ink Armor due to it effectively eating up one hit of damage, which can be a lot if you use blasters or chargers. Sting Ray effectively made Tower Control unplayable once overtime was achieved. Temta Missiles were even worse in that it's a fire and forget "move or die" and only mitigated by mentioned ink armor. if you must touch Splatoon 2 nowadays, do so for the story mode and octo expansion.

[@arkyudetoo9555]

Back in Dota 1 days, I knew someone who actually buys Lothars Edge for Rikimaru. I was laughing at the beginning and I was laughing even more when he won a game.

[@moaklerqt]

Ardent censer meta in League of Legends was a bigger problem and worse for the game than funneling I think. Literally every support had to rush this item and it ruined an entire Worlds meta iirc

[@Empmortakaten]

The ardent censer meta was absolute cancer.

[@slavchems4759]

it was cancer.. but was still watchable, since there was a lot of fight happening in one match during this meta, unlike gold funneling lol

[@chances7261]

I thought it was kinda fun. But I was playing ad at the time so that is prob why haha

[@jji7447]

I see your Arden Censor, and raise you a Banner of Command. It was very fun to play as a mage against magic-immune cannon-minions.

[@kalarse]

Incineroar in Pokemon VGC (19 specifically), over 85% usage in all teams, more than any restricted Pokemon

[@tdw7]

Greatsword on release in Brawlhalla was easily the most broken thing I have ever played against in a videogame

[@TheRealYgrek]

The biggest weapon in the game faster than a fricking scythe... Didn't expect a brawlhalla enjoyer here by the way

[@theotherjared9824]

The valorant bucky is among the most realistic depictions of a shotgun in video games. These things have deceptively long range, with the trade-off being the smaller ammo capacity and more frequent need to drop defenses and reload.

[@michaelmartin9052]

I was about mention that haha. It's ironic that a realistic shotgun depiction is overpowered.

[@michaelt5188]

yep the spread of shotgun shot is a lot narrower than non-gun owners think. even without a choke you're still looking at a decently tight spread at 25 yards. and that's not even considering slug rounds

[@val26874]

So only reason it's not op irl is is cqb pros get outnumbered?

[@connormoland]

I gotta say, y'all missed the perfect opportunity to talk about Revtane in Apex Legends. Right around the time Revenant released, Octane ended up getting a buff to his jump pad, allowing for a second jump after launching and a 15% buff in distance or height depending on if you were sliding or standing. Then, Revenant got buffed because his pick-rate was among the lowest of new-release legends at the time. This buff allowed Revenant to have unlimited range on his ultimate, which gave you "Death Protection;" basically, you get 100 health to do whatever you want with and when someone kills you, you just get sent back to the totem with your previous shields and 50 health. Running someone like Bloodhound or Crypto who can scan as your third combined with the already egregious audio issues Apex is known for, and it became a nightmare to try to counter. Teams would full send you with their free push because there was no punishment. If you even heard it coming, you barely had enough time to reset to take the second fight. It was used somewhat amount the Octane meta (most teams ran Gibby to mitigate the silent pad issue) but really shined in ranked, so much so that they actually nerfed Revenant to mitigate the strategy. People also figured out that you could take Wraith portal with death protection to be there basically instantly with your second push as well. Needless to say, Revenant got his heirloom, then they choke-slammed Revenant into the ground, made up for it slightly with a buffed passive, and then haven't touched him since.

[@no.logic.0094]

That Revtane with Crypto was fucked up xD

[@AlterAce]

respect for the SF4 nod. if you played the game during that era you know Street Fighter at the time was basically defined by Yun lol

[@ryllian1]

Kinda surprising that Elena didnt see as much play in hindsight, considering how busted she was

[@eelias.]

killjoy moaning after being killed 😭

[@TriggerzConnors]

Honorable mention: The Phlogistinator in TF2 The Negev in CSGO And Leroy Smith in Tekken 7 (Day 1)

[@KorderoSPL]

the phlog is dumb but it isn't terribly op imo. you lose airblast, which is the most important tool of any decent pyro player

[@Gumballer92]

@@KorderoSPL And in-fact, They BUFFED the phlog after it.

[@koth_harvest_final]

phlog never did anything to highlander or 6s lol

[@kylemitchell2052]

the bucky meta sounds like The Valorant developers remembered how busted the model 1887 from MW2 from 09 was and thought "This is totally fine" and threw it into the game.

[@angquangnguyenthac2833]

It's basically just them making a realistic shotgun tho? Anyway, they should have lean even more into it and turn this shotgun into a scopeless sniper rifle. That would be a good balancing point tbh.

[@Kellexyz]

​@@angquangnguyenthac2833egh that would invalidate the snipers uses

[@angquangnguyenthac2833]

@@Kellexyz sniper has scopes tho?

[@joehicks929]

@@angquangnguyenthac2833 realism isnt relevant in a game about superhero's shooting each other. you balance to make the most fun game, not to be realistic, especially in a game like valorant lmao.

[@angquangnguyenthac2833]

@@joehicks929 I mean the idea of a sniper shotgun IS fun tho?

[@ZTheTinyTonTerror]

"Basically the entire point of Gold Funneling is to interact with the enemy team as little as possible, and just put all of your resources into a champion than can hard carry. And I feel like it's not fun to watch, it's not fun to play and it's especially not fun to play against." Yuumi:

[@pickledokra2963]

Who remembers the spaz + slug mod on BFBC2? That shit was a literal sniper

[@ricardoguillen3898]

Tank meta en league was the worst thing ever with assassin's that would 1 shot everyone and never die

[@rewp234]

To everyone spamming goats in the comments. Sure you may not like it but calling it a "stupid" meta is the worst take ever. Probably the most coordination and strategy intensive meta we've ever seen in OWL and with iconic moments like the Glad's King's Row fakeout on playoffs.

[@D3usExMachina]

Shout out to the Hearthstone players that had to sit through the Shudderwock meta. My jaws that bite...

[@seneschalorcberg1338]

My claws ATTACK!!!!

[@YunTaeGoO]

and shudderwock isnt even in the worst top 5 in hearthstone ...hearthstone truly had the worst metas overall ... so.much.bullshit

[@seneschalorcberg1338]

@@YunTaeGoO Turn 5 Rogue?

[@BIONICTHUMB]

As bad as the Blitz meta was I still think the tracking meta was the worst. Jackal scan, Lion pulse, Dokkebi calls all at once were hell, plus that was 3 out of 5 attacker roles already spoken for with no hard breacher or anti gadget meaning team comp variety was at an all time low. A lot of attackers like Fuze, Capitao, or Sledge were considered complete throw picks just because picking them meant either not bringing an essential role or not matching the meta

[@davidsiatatgaming]

csgo's aug week or pocket awp r8 or laser negev are some other examples you guys could have included

[@topias7436]

Yeah, but they were patched very quickly. R8 was op only for a few days I think

[@davidsiatatgaming]

@@topias7436 negev still is in a weird state, not as laser as it was but still kind of, and it's only 1700

[@topias7436]

Ehh, maybe. But its not meta at all

[@davidsiatatgaming]

@@topias7436 that's why the major where all pros played with aug and sg was a better example

[@thesitarplayer]

Surprised that the 3 support 3 tank meta in OW1 was not mentioned as that was what REALLY killed interest in OWL and ranked was insanely stagnant, even before Sigma and double shields came out.

[@tentaclefunk]

They did mention it, that's what GOATs was. They brought it up before Double Shield

[@saberwolf1054631]

Stun meta was even worse. Doom, mccree, roadhog, rein, brig, and ana was straight rage inducing

[@ocrgmsfyv8819]

I'm really surprised we don't have inting Sion with ZZ'rot portal and War Standart. He literally won games by running down one lane and there was no counter measure against him.

[@hughmanatee7626]

What did it for me was the Lion meta. Lion on release with Dokkaebi and Jackal didn't allow for any roaming. Your phone will be blasting while being pinged and having your silhouette in 4k. In a game where a headshot is a 1 shot - if you weren't on a Mute jammer you'd be fucked.

[@ballinglikebrainiac1892]

League of legends tanks in this season DO MORE DAMAGE THAN ADCs, MID, JG, ANYTHING IN THE GAME. they are impossible to kill and output more damage than any other role. Upvote if you agree. Heartsteal + titanic + sunfire and you are unkillable while also outdamaging everyone as a full tank. Heartsteal INFINITELY stacks your hp, MEANING SUNFIRE AND TITANIC HYDRA DAMAGE STACKS INFINITELY TOO. Its op on ANY CHAMPION. especially ones that have high natural defenses or cc like braum, tahm, rammus, galio or champs that infinitely stack hp like sion, or champs that scale off HP like zac or mundo. (ITS GOOD ON ANY CHAMPION, SUPPORTS BUILD IT, MIDLANERS BUILD IT, ADCS BUILD IT, TOP BUILDS IT.) Jerk offs protein, sorry, Jak'Sho, The Protean- makes you unkillable while also restoring your HP and dealing damage around you while being a rammus W as an item granting a 16% buff to all of your magic and armor... and YET AGAIN, an item built by midlaners, adcs, junglers, supports, top laners, (EVERY ROLE). These two items have made league of legends such a shit show, that you're better off building them as an assasin like akali or katarina, an adc like vayne or kogmaw, OR ANY POSITION FOR THAT MATTER simply because they are BETTER and allow you to do MORE DAMAGE and survive LONGER to output MORE CC... Worst meta I have ever experienced in my 12 years playing. riot is by far one of the worst companies for balancing. I could go on a whole 2 hour rant about how every position in the game, every champion in the game, is better off building these items.. DONT EVEN GET ME STARTED ON AURELION SOL HAVING AN ANIVIA ULT WITH AN EXECUTE AND PERMA SLOW. A VELKOZ ULT, A ONE PERSON BARD TUNNEL THAT TRAVELS OVER ALL TERRAIN, AND AN INFINITELLY STACKING- NON AVOIDABLE- GLOBAL ULTIMATE THATS ALSO A KNOCKUP?? yeah riot, thanks!

[@simonfurlenmeier9217]

Wow, a list where Overwatch still can shine.

[@Daniero1994]

Good thing you mentioned lane swap meta right at the end. That was nearly as atrocious as funneling meta. Lane swap eventually evolved to 2v0 meta because for top laner it was more beneficial to just abandon lane and duo jungle. So we'd get like 10-15min tier 2 turret down.

[@sungazercyan]

I feel like that made for a MUCH more boring viewing experience too. All I ever heard was how people couldn't watch the LCS at all because every match was the exact same and nothing interesting would happen for the majority of it

[@zhirotic]

i still remember how good sniper's (from Team Fortress 2) secondary slot the "Darwin's Danger Shield" was before the revamp because of its bullet resistance and additional health like when you fight sniper as a sniper you can't 1 shot him with a headshot like sniper's normal health were like 125 but with the DDS its 150 + 15% (bullet resistance) and with a normal headshot is like 150 minimum like a quick headshot. also i cannot forget spy's primary which is a revolver named "Ambassador" where he can headshot like a sniper at whatever distance he's in, although it's only 109 or something it's still broken but now they nerfed it with something like he only do less damage the farther away he's at the enemy. (sorry for bad english)

[@oof239]

How could you not mention the CS:GO’s R8 on release? I guess since it was only OP for like 2 days before the nerf, but still. Regardless, great video!

[@afterhoursvibes]

Or the Aug in 2019 or the CZ75 etc.

[@JustaRandomGuy890]

Because it didn’t affect pro play too much

[@ewytota2734]

wild west week was the best

[@V-O-V]

because it existed for a total of 3 days. It wasnt a meta

[@learntostrafe]

you obviously don't know what the word "meta" means

[@Melody_ow]

I would also argue that for overwatch, the 2020 playoffs comp zarya hog was the stupidest, just because both tanks should not work together at all, and yet they did, and dominated most traditional winston dva or brawl comps at the time

[@LocalCatgirl0689]

Smite’s meta at the time of uploading could totally have made this list. Despite being a MOBA, it had Overwatch-level ttk, where you’d either die in half a second or take ages to go down, with ZERO in between.

[@fernandesrfm3378]

A meta that was not mentioned in the video was a CSGO, Krieg meta, it was literally a nightmare to play against that weapon on the other side, the AK's practically disappeared from the game, the awpers were deleted in a blink of an eye, the cts trembled just from hear the noise of this demon but they cried with happiness when they saw one of them on the ground, dark times, but I even became an expert with this demon, you have to enjoy it while you can, today it is dead again with a much slower shot and accuracy worsened.

[@zacshnu5471]

Evan and Roy being the sources for the blitz buff is so funny to me

[@hardway4475]

Noob combo meta in Halo 2, particularly pre-patch. You used to be able to grab the plasma pistol through the back wall of the base on Beaver Creek while still inside, and they respawned SO fast. MLG switched to a No Duals weapon set largely to mitigate the Combo meta.

[@s.b.e._9692]

Dead hard, adrenalin, DS and Unbreakable.... Dbd was ruled by it for a loooooooonnnng time

[@adamhercik581]

"Sniper's Shrapnel ability was busted" shows Assassinate, doesn't even show Shrapnel.

[@redgribben7679]

Troll Warlord was also a huge problem in that patch, it wasn't just Sniper, he is just the one that is remembered.

[@HonestlyUnhinged]

This channel is just clueless about dota2 and is just recycling their old videos with a new narration

[@adamhercik581]

@@HonestlyUnhinged Depends on the video, but they completely dropped the ball in this one. They talked the OP Shrapnel but never explained why it was OP.

[@uriyahgoldstein1641]

They didn't even talk about MKB which was the real problem

[@ostentatious2470]

Wait chamber meta from valorant isn't included ? It was 1 year of hell and up until recent nerfs even pro teams were just forced to play chamber on every single map if they wanted to have a winning chance

[@Flatfootsy]

One of my least favorites of recent is the Retribution Paladin meta in Warcraft. They can press a button that makes you completely immune, then press their forehead on the keyboard and 100-0 every single enemy in 40 yards on top of dispelling every buff they had at the exact same time. There was something like 79% Retribution Paladins only on the ladder in every bracket of content PvP wise- you'd think Blizzard would address it early but no. It took almost a month of that.

[@fatguy4137]

League with all its Bugs, and Meta, it could make a 10 hour Video.

[@booradley6832]

The Valorant Bucky thing is funny because its realistic. A 12 gauge shotgun firing 00 buckshot is doing the exact same thing as firing 10 rounds from a .38 revolver simultaneously and throwing them downfield in slowly expanding cone. The kill power on them does not start to drop once you exit 15 meters like most video games. If you manage to hit with them, you're gonna kill someone, the most capable defenses against them are projectile drop from being too far away and luck of the cone expanding too far and managing to miss you. So really, being over 100 yards away is your best chance of survival, an even that is a gamble. Then again, video games consider 50 yards to be "medium range" combat and 150 yards to be a "Sniper" so the scales are all screwed up to begin with.

[@Silversk3108]

LETS GOOO Bafael is amazing at explaining fighting games in deep

[@psych0CS2]

Heres some from other games: Modded brecci in bo3. Enough said. Proteus shotgun sniper in IW: literally gave the user aimbot. MW2019: Akimbo snakeshots. CSGO: Revolver pre patch, SG meta, AUG meta, that like 3 days where the deagle had scout jumpshot accuracy.

[@siniister710]

the prometheus lens in destiny and the OG charge rifle in apex were absolute laser shows.

[@bencampsall8563]

Overwatch also had a meta which made the game change entirely into the 2-2-2 comp in OW1. Goats. 4 tanks and 2 healers, this comp aimed to force 6 vs 1 fights and just snowball into winning most fights that happen. Rein, Dva, Zarya, Roadhog, Brig and Lucio. This was probably the worst meta I've seen in OW when I was playing

[@sungazercyan]

It's not esports per say but the worst meta I've played in was the Catchmoon meta in Warframe. Like Catchmoon alone was bad enough but just the fact that your primary weapon slot was functionally useless because of just how good secondary mods were in comparison and coupled with how absolutely busted Catchmoon was meant every single mission was just massive walls of particle effects. I guess a close second would be release patch gravimag; people essentially weren't running ANY weapons and just rolling with like a couple meta archguns that would out-dps everything in the game with virtually no downside.

[@WoodyWoodson1984]

You also could've added the Sheeva stomp meta in MK11. There was an extended period of time in 2020 or so where Sheeva was an absolute menace of a character to play against. And you only needed to use the same 2 buttons over and over again to make 95% of the playerbase's lives HELL. It completely disregarded all skill and just destroyed basically everyone. It had little to no counterplay and someone who has never even touched a controller could have wrecked players with over 1000 hours on the game. They eventually nerfed it when the degeneracy was displayed on Twitch Rivals where thousands of people who didn't even play MK11 saw how busted that shit was.

[@williamrigby6636]

when the SG and aug got buffed into the sky during that one patch in CS:GO and everyone was just using them over AK/M4. hated that shit

[@HeyMaruniko]

if this channel even covers TCG games meta, its gonna be a loooooooong list.

[@rugmaster2750]

I honestly kinda miss the right click Bucky. I’m not saying it didn’t need a nerf, they just nerfed it to the point of being useless in every situation. Even left click feeling like a coin toss in close range, so for eco rounds I just get a shorty and the results a basically the same. Felt like they kinda killed what made the Bucky unique. I’d like to see it not so broken but not so useless.

[@baseballdragon456]

Yeah, Bucky is now a left-click ONLY gun, the right click is pretty pointless. Maybe some scenario where they were just behind a corner and super low it would be alright? Even then tho…

[@cynthiahembree3957]

The bucky is literally the worst weapon in the game now. They didn't need to nerf it as much as they did. It went from a must buy second round to a weapon that isn't even viable most of the time. I understand it needed to be nerfed but they went too for.

[@isoxj1810]

I know im late but I would love to bring up the fact that Mega-Kangaskhan had all of VGC in a chokehold for all of Pokemon X and Y. Its ability to break sash, go plus 2, on one power up punch, and just do absurd damage. You know its bad when you have ti dedicate 1-2 slots of either a steel type of intimidate mon to have a chance. Even when running a steel type you still ran the risk of Kangaskhan running eq

[@foxxinrox]

Nobody actually likes pokemon.

[@seakaru]

Thought for sure I'd hear tank/Cinderhulk meta for league

[@immahamsteryogamer]

Paladins had a lot of hated metas. Before they reworked the card system, a lot of champions were broken. One example is Inara, who is supposed to be the tankest character in the game. Her primary fire was a staff that launched 3 stones. The legendary card, Wrath of Stagella, allowed her to one shot anything if she hit all 3. There was also pocket metas. Jenos's healing ability gave the targeted Ally a mark that heals over time. His talent, Luminary, made anyone with a mark deal 15% more weapon damage. Oh yeah, he also heals through walls. This got worse when Corvus was released. He could Mark 2 people indefinitely and give them movement speed and lifesteal. They also give them some healing when he heals someone no matter where they are. Also Corvus's dps is high at close range. Eventually they nerfed Luminary to 10%, which killed Jenos. They reworked it to an actual healing talent the next patch. Then there is Io. She had the unique mechanic of having a fox spirit named Luna a deployable that can cap the point and push. Goddess' Blessing also allowed her to give allies she heals 25% damage reduction (its single target heal). The goal of any team with Io was to win the point fight, put Luna on point in a position where the payload will spawn under her, and 5v5 the other team at their spawn until Luna pushed the payload. This lasted a long time because they didn't want to remove her unique mechanic, they instead nerfed Goddess' Blessing by 10%, and Luna's health several times, until they gave up balancing it, removed Luna cap, and reverted most of the nerfs. Shield metas in Paladins are rare because of an item that makes you deal more damage to them. Then Makoa got a card rework, that lowered the cooldown of his shield the more damage it took. It lead to an infinite shield meta. Makoa's is the most annoying, since its the only dome shield in the game. When he deployed it, your team would have to wait it out, since contesting them would put you at a disadvantage. A lot of Paladins players would not learn, and keep shooting the shield. This only became a big issue after the card was buffed. As soon as it did though, their feedback channel in the official Discord was filled with complaints about it. They nerfed it in the next patch. Right now, we are dealing with 2 supports being meta. One of them has been meta for at least 2 years now. First it was because of his healing and the CC with the talent, Deep Roots. He could Root 3 people with it. His ultimate has the strongest healing in the game and makes him CC immune. They killed deep roots, but they also made his ult cancelable, allowing him to only use 40% of his ultimate and get full value. With Morale Boost (item that increases your ult charge rate) it makes it feel like it's a cooldown with the power of an ultimate. We are still dealing with this. Idk if anyone will read this comment though after I spent 30 minutes typing it. Oh well.

[@Hawko1313]

oh, the dive kick dominance of SF4 was a good one. But in SFV there was a period where v-triggers that won the round of a single interaction where top dog. So players would simply poke and wait for their comeback factor wincon. Urien Aegis reflector setups so rediculous he looked like a glitched character/Balrog chaining unscaling dash punches that were always safe/Ibuki obscuring the screen with 50 mixups and 100% stun combos/akuma instantly winning neutral for free with a red fireball and activation leaving him mega buffed with an advancing forcefield of hits the opponent just has to deal with. they nerfed all activation combos by 20% next patch, and then went to town on some of the characters in particular. Akuma lost the ability to activate off a fireball, ibuki's bombs no longer let her juggle combo with normal buttons like they used to/ uriens reflector only became active on frame 5(it was frame 1 originally). It was a season dominated by insane v-trigger comebacks that made beating some characters counter productive, as hurting them gave them their wincon.

[@thikdikriky1559]

Sfv was really rough for a good part of its life. Even tho the last season of sfv was a great game (if you ignore Luke), I'm just really happy to never touch that game again.

[@icydude835]

Valorant Stinger, Astra, Chamber and Bucky metas were hell

[@ArcaneAzmadi]

The fact that Riot actually managed to top the Ardent Censer meta is frankly scary.

[@Z3r1c]

The charge rifle in apex on release gotta be the worse in BR

[@no.logic.0094]

Wingman on release with 12 bullets and you could kill a squad in less than 10 seconds, original hammerpoint+ disruptor rounds, Pathfinder original hitbox, Wraith hb... Apex has a lot of those xD

[@Pyroferric]

I def remember the bucky meta But bro that short Ares meta RUINED the game. Accuracy broken, it already does enough damage, fire rate is killer, it was just such a fricken broken gun! My entire 5 stack used it in 3 games and we won all of them EVEN getting a 13-0. Glad that got removed in like 3 days!

[@evannatteford1784]

there are at least 3 other choices I can think of off the top of my head for more busted Dota 2 metas than sniper lol also sniper is rarely actually considered a strong hero, he is lately but that isn't historically the case.

[@LilTuba]

Goats should definitely be on this list, did any of these other games have to rework their entire queuing system and essentially rework the game, partly contributing to them needing to make a sequel in order to fix the problem? Yea, I didn't think so...

[@danielaconceicao6396]

Ah yes the double shield + bastion + damage buff mercy meta

[@Jacob9815]

This needs to be talked about more tbh 😂

[@THEPURPLEHAZE1000]

Yo gold funneling wasn’t nearly as boring as the warmogs meta back in the day. Nothing better than watching you favorite mid rush warmogs on an assassin

[@IPaid4WinRAR]

For the league funnel strat: while kai'sa funnel was definitely a menace in proplay, this video def downplays how obnoxious master yi funnel was in solo queue. Yeah obviously if you ask a random player to funnel for you they'll tell you to piss off, but pretty much every smurf/booster duo abused the taric/yi start so hard. Not only did taric's ult synergize perfectly with yi, his e ability used to guarantee land on whoever yi alpha striked on. And the only way riot was able to stop this strat was with a bandaid fix that still is being used today (junglers get reduced gold from minions if they farm too much of them in the early game).

[@derbart1191]

which makes double shield even more stupid, is that they could've fixed it without going 5v5, but they didnt, because they wanted to keep the tanks, like they are but in Ow2 they went for 5v5 and changed some tanks like Orisa.

[@lazigoguyman4414]

The David Mitchell portrait in the back is awesome

[@aidanbehrens6518]

omg the spitfire meta in Apex in 2020. You literally just pointed at someone and they died. No recoil and with heavy rounds it was a nightmare.

[@myrocketbunny545]

The "Sultai Oko Food" Deck from Magic the Gathering... One card doing absolutely everything for three mana

[@ongxuwei]

I'm surprised ardent censer meta never made it in

[@ryanbolson23]

4:48 oh no, you’re telling me the attacking operators did a quick, concise, and coordinated push to siege the building and secure the objective?! What a shame in the SWAT simulator! It should be long cod rounds that are just gunfights where no utility is ever used!

[@NeZCheese]

Boltstaff meta in Vermintide 1. A homing missile that hits & kills 5 enemies per shot, uses health as ammo and has a chance to heal you per kill. Yeah. Shit was busted.

[@surfsuptofino]

dude talked about double shield but COMPLETELY DODGED GOATS

[@SarcasticSloth69]

wow I’m honestly surprised it’s not another “top ten times players cheated” video

[@Plaxer02]

as a Dota 2 Player i have to say that Sniper isn't the hero that we think about when we think about broken Meta. Most of the older players will think about Monkey King, he was so unbelievable busted at release that it was absolutely impossible to win against this hero. Recently there have been a lot of more bullshit broken stuff, much worse than Sniper back then. Primal Beast release and Lina Meta were super nasty and just super stupid.

[@sw9rd]

the end meta of mkx was hell, it was almost exclusively smoke, tremor, acidic alien and predator

[@hipiticlivi7400]

Double shield meta was trash, but Sigma is a really fun character to play.

[@kgregorius8550]

I am amazed no one call it the "the blitzkrieg meta". Seeing as he is German and fallow the idea of what a blitzkrieg is, plus the his name being blitz.

[@vxxiii4160]

Don't forget the Wraith meta in Apex: disconnecting the moment they get downed.

[@philtkaswahl2124]

Ironically, that pre-nerf Bucky was likely closer to how far real shotguns could remain absolutely deadly.

[@michaelt5188]

here's to hoping nobody died doing a "shotgun challenge" thinking after 10 yards the spread becomes a pleasant powder fart

[@StonedSpagooter]

The fact that GOATS killed a whole franchise needs its own video

[@67mcpo]

Pretty sure in NRS games like Injustice 2 or MKX, it was Black Adam and Alien respectively. Mk11 was Liu at one point, where the top 3 at a specific tournament was just Liu Kang.

[@raosmith2600]

Bit of misinformation. Sniper is so rarely meta in Dota 2 xD He's usually considered one of the weaker heroes in competitive play and has had pretty atrocious winrates for almost as long as I can remember. He's just easy to win with against very inexperienced players. The hoho haha patch was one of the rare times he actually became a problem and he was far from the only problem hero in that patch.

[@StocksNShares]

Metas get patched these days before a work around is thought off. I remember when patches where almost no existent in games, when something was strong, there was always something to counter it (although that counter is probably not on peoples radar) Take the funnelling strat. Just go heavy cc comp as if you lock him down 100-0, then its a 4v5 with 2 of the 4 being supports. The bucky seemed broken, but vs shields it was not the best. (2 shot weapon at medium to long range, so phantom and shield counters, not vandal, fire-rate too slow) Overwatch I will give it its dues. The double shield. Pretty hard. The bastion was obviously the counter, but then why not reaper to assassinate the bastion. I never played dota, and 6 siege I have like 10 hours on maybe. So I won't comment on those. People just complain rather than use brains to problem solve. The hot fixes always kills the strat rather than making them harder to play, or less viable in some ways. For instance, -5 gold instead of 10 in funnelling. Tank shields reduced the health, or increased the cd. Valorant gutting the bucky so now a shorty feels better chance of kill than it, means it has no place in the game. I would rather see versatile balanced strategies, rather than, the comunity hated this (because its 10x stronger than it should be), so lets make it 20x weaker so no one does it. No, make it 9-11x weaker, to put it at a 1-1 playable state that is not overpowered. Id love to see more versatility in pro teams. Giving them options to play a comp, means more draft options. Rather than 3 characters from each role being played every game, as now all that matter is 4th drake and infernal. There is not skill expression on different champs. Its all the meta stuff as there is only 2 ways to play the game "correctly" right now. Early comp stack drakes. Late comp scale for 4th dragon fight.

[@krypticavalanch]

the problem comes when the counter REQUIRES certain characters, team cooperation in an online shooter and stuff of a similar nature. most games are changed for players rather pros. if the defence against a strategy is non existant for a group of strangers playing together, it will probs nerfed. if a stategy is too strong it dissolves player base ie less money.

[@StocksNShares]

@@krypticavalanch Don't you remember watching a pro match in league season 1-5 and not knowing what champs where going to be picked. You could guess, but with so many comps that where viable, the team had options, and every team had strengths personally within those viable team comps. Now people are just calling champs 90% of the time correct as its just boring, same thing over and over again. That is the issue, it is stale. Rather than balance, they remove.

[@0071slipknot]

I think another honorable mention is Ardent meta. I've been an ADC main since 2012 and the role has been boring because of how useless it's been for a while but during Ardent meta it was the most boring shit ever because you just buy relic to funnel gold to support, get overheal so you never die in lane and just afk farm and whoever finishes ardent first just wins the game

[@xcy7240]

Adc is actually very strong rn and this is coming from an ad main.

[@0071slipknot]

@@xcy7240 The biggest problem that I've had with adc for many years now is that, while other roles can play many champs and they're viable, adcs always have like 2-3 choices at a time for what's strong and everything else is trash so the role just gets stale until the meta shifts and you get 3 new champs to play (if you care about climbing)

[@0071slipknot]

@@xcy7240 Like I remember the meta of Lethality Jhin vs Lethality Varus every single game, or xayah rakan vs samira nautilus every game. During these metas in grandmaster/challenger elo I played like 10 games in over 300 that wasn't these 2 bot lanes vs each other

[@neodragon8338]

Honorable mention: The game Paladins. They made a character especially designed to have auto-aim. It made an already dying game die 5 times as easy as it should.

[@MadIIMike]

Remember the Black Cleaver Meta in LoL where the armor pen wasn't unique and everyone just stacked black cleavers to deal true damage?

[@Nubsta5]

Sunfire Garen (or any char) was comically easy to play and *very* successful for a good while. Was it meta? Hard to say since the game was still young. (I think Ashe/Ezreal mid had just started to taper off by then).

[@NewDave]

The shotguns and target finder LMG's in CoD BO2 😂

[@83RhalataShera]

You guys didn't explain why the "Sniper" meta was so annoying, all you said was that shrapnel was buffed, no mention of how it was used, no mention of Mask of Madness being busted, no mention of the at the time relatively recently introduced come back mechanics playing into Sniper's great high ground defense. You also didn't mention that Troll Warlord was as much if not even more obnoxious to play against IN THE SAME PATCH.