User blog comment:Rapacious/Guide to how not to be an asshole in LoL Part 1/@comment-3325853-20110330213259

I have my doubts about you since you labeled Kog as "ap nuke" which is just not at all accurate.

But to be honest...the tank in and of itself isn't as important as Initiation. Initiation is what tankless teams often lack. They're all squishies and maybe not much CC so they can't get in there and go. But if I have a team that's Ashe, Renekton, Lux, Kennen, and jungling Yi...I'm really not too worried. We have great solos in Ashe/Renekton, a solid duo that can also roam/gank well, and a solid jungler. When it's time for team fights, we have excellent poking harass with Volley, Lucent Singularity, and Alpha Strike. If they try to initiate a fight on us, that person is at risk of getting stunned by either Ashe or Renekton or getting snared by Lux. If Ashe gets a good arrow on one of them or Renekton gets in to get a stun, we can focus that person down instantly. Once a full team fight breaks out, we can kite well with slows from Lux and Ashe...Kennen can stun their entire team if they fully commit. If we have a couple of exhausts (we should), then it's even better. We don't have a tank, but we have good initiation...so we can win.

Sometimes "just pick a tank" doesn't necessarily yield great results anyway. People play them horribly...pick Rammus and stack armor against a heavy-magic team. Or they pick Malphite and ult super far from team and his teammates can't follow in. Malphite is a great example to be honest...his ult is amazing, but it's really not necessarily what you want to lead in with. If he ults, your team is far away and can't get in there to start damaging. You'd much rather have him go in second. If someone can run in there, initiate a fight, the other team is in a terrible position where they can't easily commit on that person because as soon as they do, Malphite will ult all of them. That's why Ashe is so good...if you arrow someone and go on them, their team has to let that person die or try to help...if they try to help, Malphite unstoppables them all and your team crushes them. It's not because Malphite is a tank, but because you had good initiation.