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Some thoughts on how Riot can fix Fantasy LCS issues

Ghostwing·1/21/2017, 9:32:14 PM·7 votes·799 views

So, the Lira situation is something most fantasy players aren´t new to. Let´s not start a rant, something like this was fairly common over the majority of splits. Instead i was thinking about some simple ways how Riot can actually fix the Fantasy situation. If you guys got any ideas, feel free to add/discuss.

a) Make it so that it actually looks like there is someone caring about Fantasy LCS. I´m sure most Fantasy players are not very happy with the almost 0 care- 0 communication- 0 effort impression we get from Riot. I get the feeling there is absolutely 0 people responsible for fantasy. Am i alone with that? Or are they all working on the new client? :P Also that impression can´t be right, because we sometimes get the rare Fantasy- site popup messages. Also the scores get fixed when they are wrong.

b) Talk to the players. A lot of the "different format leading to draft problems" situation could have been solved (relatively easy i assume) if either a) or b) were true. I mean, SOMEONE would have come up with the point average scoring. Maybe Riot is thinking that makes it to close to other draft sites systems. People won´t care for that one bit i think, because it balances out things. ^^

c) Talk to each other at Riot. I´m assuming here your Esports or w/e department knows about visa issues and such things at least 2-3 days before the games are actually played. Would it be that hard to send an Email/Memo "Hey, Fantasy guys, Player X might not play day/week Y, maybe give out a warning." Knowing something is better than being screwed without being able to do something about it, imo. If not that, make us able to swap players in such unlucky situations. Either with free pool agents, or just give out the points of their sub.

d) Maybe give players more than 1 week to plan. I know the time from Roster Lock to LCS start is a short span, but people need some time to find draft-dates, at least for active leagues. Maybe give us a week more/start a week later?

That´s all, now don´t get me wrong, i´m grateful we have Fantasy LCS and it´s still fun, i just think it could be even more fun. ^^

2 Comments

Pseudo Q1/22/2017, 11:23:37 AM1 votes

Last split it felt like there was a skeleton crew working the Fantasy section. I'd expect something similar for this one too.

With that in mind, I would assume that the Fantasy department doesn't get to call the shots - Big brother Rito sets the schedule and format for LCS matches, and Fantasy has to dream up new ways of making it work in Fantasyland.

So with the Fantasy skeletion crew at the mercy of the whims of Rito, they must have considered what their options were for this split with the time they were given (probably not much).

  • Do this 'average points' system that most people seem to be calling for.
  • Do 'nothing'.

Putting in a new scoring system, with a skeleton crew to develop and test it, and with little time, introduces a large amount of both project and product risk. This is an unattractive option.

Development logistics aside, the 'average points' system is not a complete solution for the schedule this split - Week 10 only exists in the EU schedule.

Although doing (what seems to be) nothing and painting it as an added level of complexity gives the impression of laziness, it's forcing everyone that cares to win into strategic trading throughout the split.

Initially, I was annoyed by the schedule and the impact it had on Fantasy this split. But now I'm happy with it, knowing that it encourages a more active level of competition.

I dont get much satisfaction from beating an afk Fantasy matchup, but it's worse to lose to one.