Boards›Esports

Gameplay at World's - a Single Patch

Solan Stonewhip·10/13/2014, 6:49:58 PM·1 votes·943 views

So, world's this year has been interesting. the group stages was awesome this year. like last year, in some ways it was far more interesting than the quarter's or the semi's - because anything can happen - while there's only really been a single upset in the quarters (omg over NWS) i don't count EDG's loss to SHRC because that was very feasible and edg didn't show up very well all tournament long.

so generally, a great set of games. my issue, is that they played the whole of the tournament (which, as Monte pointed out, is essentially a condensed version of Champions) on a single patch.

we're currently playing 4 patches later than they are. maokai, nidalee, alistar - the meta has shifted. and while the games have been very entertaining and the semi's certainly showed a wider diversity of picks.

i can't help but be slightly disappointed that all of worlds was played on a single patch. part of the competitive scene is seeing how teams adapt to the ever changing meta - a meta made more chaotic by the changing patches. now i'm not suggesting that the whole of worlds should have kept up with the patches. but it would have been nice - at least more entertaining to have the quarters and/or the semi's on a different patch from the group stage. just to add a bit more spice to the flavor of competition. does anyone else feel the same? or is it just me?

3 Comments

Siachi10/13/2014, 7:05:38 PM2 votes

I'm almost certain that the reason most of these competitions DON'T keep up with the patch and stay on the same patch is to keep things consistent: The last thing people want is all this strategy and training that the pros were working on for weeks, even months, become completely irrelevant because a champ was overbuffed and warps the game around them. ESPECIALLY if it were to happen during the final stages of the tournament.

Yeah there are definitely strong choices on the patch that World's is being played on (Zilean, Alistar, and Maokai's ban rates attest to that), but at least the teams were given enough time to practice with and play around those strong picks, and ban them if necessary.

Deep Terror Nami10/13/2014, 7:02:56 PM1 votes

Do you not understand the benefit to the pros playing, that the game doesn't wildly change in the middle of their most important series? Not only are there clear benefits, new patches almost always introduce new bugs; some of which in the recent patches have been game breaking.

GameofThrawns10/13/2014, 7:21:42 PM1 votes

It might be more entertaining for some viewers, but it really screws up the teams. The purpose of these patches is so that teams can properly strategize ahead of time without having to worry, "Oh, what happens when X becomes OP or UP in next patch?" and "Oh, what happens if that champ becomes buggy?"