Layers of Metagaming in League of Legends

Normally when I play league I use /mute all to disable the chat at ~1:40 in every game (and for reasons I won't immediately launch into, reccomend you do the same). But last week I was playing a bit on a smurf, and for the same reason you wouldn't close your eyes in a zoo, didn't mute all. That might have been a good thing because I saw, I think, a nice example of players imputing levels of meaning on the game. Some screenshots:

according to the meta, vel gets blue so he can spam without going oom

but graves takes it anyways to assert dominance

First, what league players themselves call "the meta". The meta is generally understood as the right way to play the game. Is the meta the best way to play the game, or what players think is the best way to play the game? Let's not get bogged down with philosophical questions though. For our purposes here, the meta would say to give vel blue. Blue buff is a jungle monster, which can be slain by champions to give gold and xp. But blue also gives a mana regen and cdr buff, so it's particularly useful on ability focused, mana hungry midlaners (like velkoz). This may vary from region to region-I've heard in KR mid gets the second blue buff or afks, it might be less strict in NA. But at the level of play in this game it's understood that 17 minutes in vel should get blue, he just needs it as a champion a lot more than graves at that point in the game. And if graves is playing on this level, he understands this stuff, why does he take blue for himself?

So second, graves takes blue as part of a meta conversation going on in and about the game concerning player skill. Specifically, his taking the blue is an assertion that he is the one 1v9 carrying us shitters (his teammates). Because he is so well aware of the what league players know as the meta, he's able to use the meanings the community accepts about in game decisions to make a further point about how he is better than velkoz. He essentially says "I would give you blue here if you were a good player, but I'm not meaning you aren't. If I gave you blue you would probably just do nothing with it or die and give it, so even though your champion makes better use of it than mine I'm taking it because I'm better than you". I should note that the conversation about who was playing well on our team and who was not was also going on a lot in this game outside of this one incident.

By using our shared understandings about the in game meta to argue in another meta conversation about skill he can make a more forceful point than he could with mere words. For one thing, taking blue has immediate and lasting consequences in the game, so in a sense it's putting your money where your mouth is. But also, and I don't have a screenshot of this, the act of taking blue is itself a sort of contest because whoever last hits it gets the buff, and I think it got down to ~60 hp (basically one hit from dying) right before vel got in range, so the act of securing it for himself is itself a way of saying he's better than vel.

Of course, graves also uses the chat to explain what he's doing, telling us he can't trust us because we're throwing so he's taking blue. But his use of chat to construct meaning is not mutually exclusive with his use of the metagame for the conversation about skill, and I would argue the chat serves to underline his taking blue.

Another interesting dynamic is that vel is a medium popular streamer (ll stylish), and how streamers interpret games sometimes seems to depend on how many people are watching them, though I don't think he was streaming that game. Regardless, he was also aware of the metagame as well as the conversation about who was carrying and disagreed (people tend to disproportionately believe they're the ones carrying, even when it's obviously the soraka who laned vs pyke draven without dying). So when he had a chance to fire back he took it:

graves died and vel killed his killer, giving him the blue and opening up a retort

Not quite as interesting because he doesn't really introduce any new objects into meta discussions, but the sarcastic "thx for the blue" is a reference to when graves took blue from him 2 minutes earlier. It implies graves is the one dying and losing us the game while vel is the one carrying. Graves, of course, can't have that, and blames vel for his death.

So, some reflections. The game can sustain at least two very strong metagames, one about how to play the game and another about who is good at the game. But personally, I don't believe human beings can do the same, or trying to keep all those levels in your head, even subconsciously, takes some of your focus. So that's why I think using /mute all helps you improve, as you're able to insulate yourself (somewhat) from the meta conversation about player skill and (some of) its harmful effects.

Also, these meta conversations probably happen more at higher levels of play. Newer players are simply not experienced enough to know what blue does, much less who should get it when. Then as people learn the meta they get better at league. But there's that second meta going on too, which may also be correlated with rank in the sense that higher players are more invested in the meta conversation about skill. League definitely shouts at you that you are or aren't playing well (which, again, I think makes muting everyone the healthy option).

If this wasn't already pretentious, let's make it so: Is it not somewhat excessive to derive such meaning from the petty mechanics of the game? How could they achieve effects of such scope?