Why do pros play on a delayed patch?

2pudge1cup·12/20/2014, 1:15:25 PM·3 votes·2,168 views

Just something that's been swirling around in my head.

Riot has proven in the past that they are more than willing to restart matches over bug occurrences, so that's not a legit reason.

I don't really think practice is a valid argument since much of their practice is on ladder games that are on the most up-to-date patch.

Besides, I don't know about other people, but personally I have a hard time ever watching any game that isn't the exact same from what I've been playing. I especially love when they are thrown a new patch and have to adapt on the fly. When they are on a delayed patch it almost cheapens seeing a pro do anything because I'd already know said move was OP and was going to be nerfed the following patch cycle.

13 Comments

BloodDelmar12/20/2014, 1:33:35 PM2 votes

Because... pros aren't like you and me. They get free level 30 accounts with all champs unlocked, then Rito denies it.

TheHappyGinger12/20/2014, 2:16:44 PM2 votes

these guys are playing for well over $1,000,000

TheHappyGinger12/20/2014, 1:41:45 PM1 votes

They play in pre patches because its a tournament. They practice a comp's and strat's vs teams, and they dont play solo q when they are at lcs. they have the ability to play on a riot/pro server which is only for them for scrims and pre patches. this also only takes place when a patch happens while they are already in a current weekend of pro play

TheHappyGinger12/20/2014, 2:13:32 PM1 votes

these guys are playing for there life. this is more then a game for them. they adapted all the time, but lets just be in there spot. ok so we know we are facing dig this weekend. so we spend all week monday-friday getting a strat ready. then a patch goes through on the friday before we played. so we eake up and go to a tournament and they nurfed are strat. do we just say what ever because we are playing for are pay check. the patch would go through the next weekend and then change are current play to something better the day after the tournament

anonymous1196/18/2017, 11:14:37 PM1 votes

Riot has extremely frequently had to issue hotfixes to patches because of either gross imbalance or finding a new bug. The pro scene is by far the most visible showcase of LoL gameplay. Riot does not want people watching the potentially bugged and horribly imbalanced several days after a major new patch launches. I doubt the pros want to play on that either. Their system isn't perfect, but there are good reasons why they do it.

There is a lot of weird off topic discussion about free unlocked accounts and smurf accounts. Yes it has been confirmed that you can request a fully unlocked level 30 account from riot that started off in diamond 3. However, pretty much every single pro has many many smurf accounts that they play on for various reasons. Wildturtle once had some thing like 5 of the top 7 accounts in challenger. I personally played against dyrus when he was a pro a fairly large number of times on a sub level 30 account he was streaming with.