Esports BOYCOTT: Food for thought

DanyTargaryn·Jan 6, 2015·3 votes·1,018 views

Sure, League of Legends have some of the most, well um.. not the best of communities in the gaming world. Players tend to have a lot of discord about different things in the games whether it be from how the summoner code is, the lore of a champ or mechanics, players have been diversified in their opinions about these things. HOWEVER, there is one issue that I'm sure almost all players have come and unified with - that is the ESPORTS DIVERSIFICATION.

Riot, champion balances are very difficult - we know that. However, when so many players complain about champions like Zed, Lee Sin, etc. that are repetitively seen as unbalanced and as such, continually seen in the Esports meta, then that should be a red flag that there is something wrong already. I used to love watching the Esports competitive scene. But now, it's just the 'repetitive scene'. If you'll notice, less people watched the S4 championship than S3 even though S4 was hyped up with more things.

That gave me an idea. If in LCS, there's no diversified champion pool in esports, I'd rather not watch it. It's the same champ, same mechanics, same picks and bans. So what's the point? Sure, they are pros and are fun to watch. But that's like saying let's watch a game of 16 champions over and over with very good plays. It's meaningless. My point is maybe if more people read this, they will also be persuaded to find out that Esports have now become just a repetitive waste of time with flashy commentaries of same champions. And maybe if enough people don't give Esports the 'views' that it craves, it would stop being LC$ and actually become LCS. And maybe the champion balances would actually be fixed. LOL! Who are we kidding?

9 Comments

Evil JesterJan 6, 20152 votes

Although not entirely but partially yes, there is a reason why they are pro. They will do ANYTHING to win. They will use advance math, exploits, even look into the coding itself. They look for and find stuff that non competitive people wouldn't even think to look for because they don't want to win badly enough. The wiki may say that Veigar has a 80% AP ratio on his W, the enemy mid may also have an 80% ratio on their W aslo, but the coding reveals that Veigar actually 80.6 AP ratio. thats still a .6 more damage than the other midlaner.

is it a bug? developer oversight? who knows. but will highly competitive people use this to their advantage? You bet they will. rather its in ranked, LCS or normals.

Fact is, people who are just playing for fun, are not actively looking for stuff like this.

The pros are.

but at the same time, it's a game, and as a game it should be enjoyable around all who play it.

both competitive and those who play for fun.

DanyTargarynJan 6, 20151 votes

Thanks! This is a great opinion actually. But I do agree and disagree in some of your points.

For one, you are correct, pro players know a great deal more champs than we do. They exploit their loopholes as much as possible (remember Pantheon's ult before it was corrected). This is not really surprising because like you say, it is competitive. However, champs are being consistently used over and over. And if you noticed the majority of the significant changes in champions during every patch revolves around the competitive scene or recently new champions. But what about the different champions that have long been untouched? Because champs such as urgot aren't seen so much in the competitive scene, he's not been given priority for example. And it could go the other way around. For example, Zed and Lee plays are always great to watch. But looking at these champs compared to other champs in their respective roles, it doesn't seem very balanced. Perhaps if they worked less in doing so much competitive scene related changes, we'd actually make progress in diversifying the meta.

Evil JesterJan 7, 20151 votes

The thing with urgot though is he doesn't need tuning, he needs a complete relaunch like what Sion got. It's like making a new champion, it takes a while.

I agree lee sin is dominating right now in terms of priority pick but his win rate isn't much different than any other balanced champion at 46%-48% depending on what site tool you use. he is a very balanced choice. just because someone is picked often, does not always mean they are OP.

I think the thing is, Riot IS working on a lot of our issues, they just tend to keep quiet about a lot of it until they know they are ready to go into the release phase. I remember people saying that Riot abandoned Sion, then out of the blue they released the noxian behemoth with an almost complete rework.

if you google, lol wiki rework. and scroll half way down. they give you a list of upcoming reworks and updates they are doing.

http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Champion

N00BC8K3Jan 6, 20152 votes

I'm not sure if you know what this game is. It's a competitive MOBA that's played at a Pro level. In order for Riot to keep this game competitive and to maintain that level of play they have to make changes.

Do they take the Pros input over there player base? i'm sure they do. you also have to remember though these guys are Pro for a reason and more likely then not know more about this game then most.

DanyTargarynJan 6, 20151 votes

Maybe I didn't make myself clear enough so let me just clarify:

In order for Riot to keep this game competitive and to maintain that level of play they have to make changes.

That's what we mean. Riot should makes changes. Change is good. But if changing revolves only around champions that pro players play, then what's the point of the mass people that play this game for fun and want to have someone like Urgot or champions that are basically untouched to be played more?

You are also correct though. PRO players indeed know more about the game than the average joe WHICH is why we see the same champs over and over and over again. But even though we see Lee Sin repetitively in jungle, has something happened yet? Not really. Because pro players and the competitive scene has become priority over the people that actually plays the game.

SnakezennJan 6, 20152 votes

I do get where you are coming from but I also think that some of these champions like lee only truly come into their own when they are in the hands of a truly skilled/pro player. On the other hand I would be so happy if I never saw lucian or lee in the lcs again. I think the big thing that riot needs to do is to buff some of the older champions that are hardly ever played. So I would say I agree and disagree.

DanyTargarynJan 6, 20151 votes

^ Yes this makes a lot of sense to me. I also agree that riot needs to (not necessarily buff) but focus on older champions that are basically under so much dust in the corner. Thanks for the opinion btw. This is much appreciated feedback!

CynicattJan 6, 20151 votes

There will always be 10 or so champions that are the best. If they nerf Lee Sin and Thresh (which they should anyway), others will just rise to take their place and the scene will become repetative with the next top champions.

Having more champion diversity is a nice idea, but realistically it probably won't be a reality. It will just be sets of the few most OP champions over and over until those are nerfed and the next set rises to take their place.

DanyTargarynJan 6, 20151 votes

This is a good point (and very realistic in perspective). Although, you are probably right that champion diversity is difficult, I'm not erasing this possibility just yet. It's possible that from 10 champions there could be 30 incredible sets of champions etc. Maybe increasing this small elite champion pools is a good first step in diversifying. But even more so, I think Riot should give focus to what the people want instead of what the LCS pro people want.