I was curious about what the community's perception was here.
Something I've noticed is that my games feel very one-sided. Either the enemy team snowballs or our team snowballs. Either we absolutely dominate them, or we get absolutely wrecked.
How about your games? When thinking about this, think about your games both before and after the S8 preseason patch hit. This isn't a question about preseason specifically.
Dreadlocks8 votesIt's pre-season so nothing is going to feel right.
Sun Wu Ryuumoku3 votesThis was like this even before this patch... preseason isn't an excuse.
Dreadlocks2 votesThen no, i don't feel the same lol.
Sun Wu Ryuumoku1 votesDon't det me wrong, its defintly worse atm than ever... But game was already snowbally and onesided most of time
a little shadow1 votesI don't think this was the case at all. Last season I felt like almost any game could be forced into late game if you had wave clear. It was actually frustrating to me because I felt like if I wasn't getting really fed then I wasn't going to be able to effectively use my lead to close out the game. Sure, I could use my lead to give myself an advantage fighting over objectives but actual snowball potential felt really low unless I was on certain champs like 
or 
but even then if the enemy team had enough wave clear/ won a team fight or two they were able to stall out until my fed assassin wasn't as useful.
Right now I think the game does have snowball potential. And I think that is a good thing. Earning a lead allows you to do more because of that lead. If you successfully continue to grow that lead then you should continuously get stronger. I think why games right now might feel like they are getting out of control too quickly is player perception and strategy. If you go in for a kill and get killed in return only doing 30% of the enemies health then the next time you fight it would make sense that you would get killed and only do 20% of their health. They got stronger and you didn't. A lot of people don't think like this. They think something along the lines of "if I play better next time then it will work" and they run in and give another kill until they are asking for ff's. It isn't that you need to just do better mechanics or that the enemy champion shouldn't gain such a big lead off of kills, it is that you need to adjust to the character who was already stronger then you and is now stronger then they were before. And if you don't I think you should lose.
Another big thing I think is contributing to this is a ton of people leaving ranked ques and playing in normals. A lot of people will have lower normal mmr's because they exclusively play ranked during season. I'm Gold 5 for example and in a recent game my teammates were: G5, S2, G4 and lvl30 While the enemy team was: P4 P4 P2 G5 G5. Obviously this game started out on a not so even playing field. The plat 2 kennen main playing into our gold 5 urgot who is a support main is obviously going to snowball the entire game if he gets a lead. That isn't bad game design. That isn't a problem. That is how it should work. The G5 Urgot shouldn't be able to keep making mistakes and not affect the rest of the game. If you mess up then there are consequences.
I personally hate when games get stalled out and the team that has a huge lead can't do anything with it and I am really happy about how the game feels right now. (Don't get me started on BE though :p)
Sun Wu Ryuumoku2 votesI don't think this was the case at all. Last season I felt like almost any game could be forced into late game if you had wave clear.
in last patchs of S7 they're was no late game... most of time was just a struggle, but u could already know who won at 10min. U can just look at complain of this board.
Sure, I could use my lead to give myself an advantage fighting over objectives but actual snowball potential felt really low unless I was on certain champs like or but even then if the enemy team had enough wave clear/ won a team fight or two they were able to stall out until my fed assassin wasn't as useful.
Assassins were trash during most of half of this season Oo During ardent meta. And as top it was even worse. I almost play only top, and i against tank u can't really snowball (unless ur opponnent is really really weaker than u)
I think why games right now might feel like they are getting out of control too quickly is player perception and strategy.
OP is a toplaner, when he say this its as toplane perception. As mid, jungler, supp & adc u can impact earlier. U don't even have to stomp hard, u just have to win ur lane, or make other lane won. As top laner u need to HARD stomp.
Game are more snowbally due to the change of xp, so if u die 1-2 times u are far behind ur opponent (its legit, if u ask me). From my exp its a big issue, as u can see ur bot lane getting chainkilled, and u are powerless if ur matchup is negative (as Wukong against an Aatrox or a Darius for exemple).
Another big thing I think is contributing to this is a ton of people leaving ranked ques and playing in normals. A lot of people will have lower normal mmr's because they exclusively play ranked during season. I'm Gold 5 for example and in a recent game my teammates were: G5, S2, G4 and lvl30 While the enemy team was: P4 P4 P2 G5 G5.
And thats why i can't take normal game experience seriously when some1 argue.
I personally hate when games get stalled out and the team that has a huge lead can't do anything with it and I am really happy about how the game feels right now. (Don't get me started on BE though :p)
my only issue atm, is toplane impact... and the levels of my mates (and f*cking afks). Honestly i don't care about BE, don't even understand all theses thread... the game have more issues than this.
a little shadow1 votes--"in last patchs of S7 they're was no late game... most of time was just a struggle, but u could already know who won at 10min. U can just look at complain of this board."
The main complaint I saw was about ardent and stale meta game that made late game team comps the best all the time. Get ardent > Get adc items > win games was the general idea that I saw people were really frustrated with.
--"Assassins were trash during most of half of this season Oo During ardent meta. And as top it was even worse. I almost play only top, and i against tank u can't really snowball (unless ur opponnent is really really weaker than u)"
_Assassin were bad _ because supports had so many ways to take away your one shot potential after they had items it made it really hard to do what you are supposed to later in the game. You couldn't snowball your lead you got early which was super frustrating. That is one of my main points. and were different because they are champs who can just dive you and delete you anyway if they get enough kills.
I play top and mid. Top lane I play Kennen, Akali, Riven, Fiora and Swain with the occasional Teemo or Garen for counter picks. It could be becuase of my playstyle but I definitely felt like I was more then able to carry. Funnily enough I had played mostly mid during last season but felt I could carry better through top so started playing it more. And top lane is what eventually got me into Gold.
--"OP is a toplaner, when he say this its as toplane perception. As mid, jungler, supp & adc u can impact earlier. U don't even have to stomp hard, u just have to win ur lane, or make other lane won. As top laner u need to HARD stomp.
Game are more snowbally due to the change of xp, so if u die 1-2 times u are far behind ur opponent (its legit, if u ask me). From my exp its a big issue, as u can see ur bot lane getting chainkilled, and u are powerless if your matchup is negative (as Wukong against an Aatrox or a Darius for exemple)."
So yeah as I just said I play top lane. I feel like I have a ton of pressure. Tp bot lane for a double kill at 6 is one of my favorite things to do. Sure mid and jg definitely can influence the map more but I never feel limited playing top. My most recent game played I played Akali top lane and lost lane to a teemo. I was 1-3. Roamed mid and got a double kill on enemy jg and mid and picked up double buff for myself. I went back thinking I would be able to fight teemo now and I died and gave him double buff. I lost my tower. Froze my lane near my tier 3 to deny him cs and did whatever I could around the map with roaming and tp plays. I ended the game 13-5-5. I didn't stomp lane and still had a huge impact on the map.
Xp can let an enemy snowball really well obviously but it is about working around that to win. If Darius gets fed then I am no longer going to fight Darius. I will focus on anything else I can do because it will probably be more worth my time and it won't make Darius harder to deal with when team fights start to happen. I don't have to stomp him I just have to mitigate the amount of damage he can cause while I try to do other things. If on top of that other lanes are losing it can be really hard to comeback and win but it doesn't mean it is impossible. You can roam mid, you can help invade enemy jg, tp bot next time you have a chance and get bot lane back in the game, maybe it works out you guys get first tower bot side and are able to pick up drag. I don't think it has to be GG though. When you look at statistic sites most champion match ups will be around 40-60% and that is because even when someone hard counters you in lane you can still win. AAtrox won't beat Wu 100% of the time and it isn't because Wu gets carried.
--"And that's why i can't take normal game experience seriously when some1 argue."
Yea I think it is bad matchmaking but I don't think it should write off what happened in game. Outside looking in we should lose that game 100% of the time. I went 9-1-3 as Ahri midlane and we won. Sure I had an autofilled toplaner but that doesn't mean the strategies I learned from that game won't be able to translate when Ranked comes back online. Some people don't take norms seriously at all but that doesn't mean I can't.
If that P4 Kennen had done some stupid build that only worked because his enemy laner wasn't up to par then he goes on about how it is the new best kennen build ever then that would be different.
--"my only issue atm, is toplane impact... and the levels of my mates (and f*cking afks). "
Yea I feel like I can't do enough in games a lot. I suggest trying champs that are designed to be more in a carry role and Look for ways to influence the map outside of winning lane. Maybe even try a different role if you feel like you aren't able to do enough in yours. AFK's and bad matchmaking does suck though, I can definitely agree with that.
P.S. How do you do the reformatting to put other users quotes in a separate box?
Sun Wu Ryuumoku1 votesTop lane I play Kennen, Akali, Riven, Fiora and Swain with the occasional Teemo or Garen for counter picks.
Jesus !!!! pray for ur soul !!!
So yeah as I just said I play top lane. I feel like I have a ton of pressure. Tp bot lane for a double kill at 6 is one of my favorite things to do.
My main issue is how top should win atm... Bot just have to win their lane (or not lose), Mid should roam bot to win, top should tp bot... But honestly i like how the way riot take... when they'll tune down damage, and adjust xp. I think (hope) ill be able to finish my first item without knowing the game is already is already lost.
You can roam mid, you can help invade enemy jg,
yeah... in case where opponent freeze for roaming. But for invade usualy ur jungle will invade during early when wave coming under u tower*[zombie-brand-facepalm]* Maybe its just plat junglers are really stupid atm (from watching world)... but i feel like they choose worst time to invade or gank, u can even pick them back x times they won't retreat XD
But yeah as Toplaner its not like u have nothing to do.
When you look at statistic sites most champion match ups will be around 40-60% and that is because even when someone hard counters you in lane you can still win. AAtrox won't beat Wu 100% of the time and it isn't because Wu gets carried.
yeah ofc... like yesterday i was against an Aatrox, as Wu, i didn't lost the lane (usualy its an easy lane for Aatrox)... but other ennemy lanes were fed af (mainly due to kha being overfed, and our evelynn didn't know about warding). Darius is easier to deal as Wukong than a Aatrox if u ask me... But atm with new runes, if u go away a bit to long your tower will fall fastly if they use demolish.
P.S. How do you do the reformatting to put other users quotes in a separate box?
copy the text u want to quote and use this ">" before the text
It Hertz When IP4 votesIt always seems like on AVERAGE the two teams are close, but there's always one lane that's just getting totally shit all over, and if the clear victor is an assassin or ADC, the game's basically over.
Lit Corn2 votesyou want 
to become an assassin or an adc after his VGU ? ! that would feel strange imo but hey ...
btw this joke was terribad pls kill me .
It Hertz When IP3 votesTook me longer than it should have to realize what you were saying.
Targon3 votesThe games I play are very one-sided most of the time. A few days ago I was playing a game where my team was Silver 3, Plat 3, Level 30, Gold 3, and Gold 3, while the enemy team was Diamond 5, Diamond 4, Diamond 5, Plat 5, Plat 2. We got stomped pretty hard since their team had the skill advantage and could then snowball out of control. I was the Silver 3 player and I felt like I couldn't do anything at all.
I could see matchmaking be difficult for players in higher elos but if the game can't find a somewhat even skill level between two teams for a silver player - the most abundant player, then there is a real problem.
Karunamon2 votesW.T.F!
How is that a fair matchup in any universe, real or imagined?!
Azadethe1 votesThat's Norms. Norms try to give you exposure to all elos. it helps set up new level 30's for high mmr play if they do well in the pre-optimized environment, and weed out those who belong in Silver/Bronze. If you carry a 60% win rate pre level 30 when going into ranked, and then win like 9/10 of your placements, You're very likely to get placed in Gold I-Plat V. If you go 40% and get 10/10 in placements, you might get Silver I/Gold V. if you go 40% and get 2/10 in placements, You're probably in Bronze.
Norms aren't the fairest skill wise, but they do teach people the skill curve if the player is paying attention rather than raging about inequality.
Starcraft243ver2 votesThat's Norms. Norms try to give you exposure to all elos.
Nope. Normals games have they own MMR that's all.
I'm high plat in ranked and i'm around silver in norms because the only time i play normal games is when i'm doing something else at the same time or if i want to try new champs.
There's no way I can express the same skill level in normals and in ranked games.
Azadethe2 votesThat's because your Norms score is old and adjusted. A new account gets mmr's of all kinds to be exposed to, because League hasn't established an MMR yet. Around level 18-22, you begin getting players of random MMR's.
If your account is old and has hundreds or thousands of games, League's calculations more properly average you out. If you only have 10 games, it's likely your average is less correlated with your record.
When I made this account in September, by October, I was gaining ~ 200 MMR per win. Now that it has over 300 games, I rarely even get an MMR boost. Sometimes I actually lose MMR for a win.
Starcraft243ver2 votesSometimes I actually lose MMR for a win.
I think you just proved you have no clue what you are talking about. All I can do is advice you to look at how the ELO rating works and end the conversation.
Karunamon2 votesYou can't lose MMR for a win - not on any rating system ever devised.
For that matter, you can't even see what your MMR actually is, only estimates provided by third party sites because Riot doesn't think we can handle that information.
Azadethe1 votesYou actually can. If your opponents /allies are vastly below your MMR and you win, your MMR can actually decrease. Your MMR calculation when calculating a win increase looks at the difficulty of the teams you are playing with. if you are rank 720k, and for some reason your teammates and opponents are rank 930k, you will lose MMR. And, in Silver, this match up happens often. You'll get your LP, but your overall MMR will drop by a few points.
Counterposters generally claim that a loss of MMR is just Op.GG not being accurate, but therein lies the rub: We haven't had a reliable leak of how MMR works in 12 years or so of League? If reliable websites cited for most game statistics don't have accurate formulas, then who does other than Riot? And if Riot has it, why hasn't an employee leaked it yet? In all likelihood they have.
Another question would be, Even if Op.gg is "inaccurate," how does their equation closely correlate with your ranks/performance enough to almost always reflect your actual performance bracket? If they don't have a trustworthy string, they wouldn't get close enough to do what they do.
AleksaTeemo3 votesWhen i win,its when i stall the game to the late game and barely win.Or i lose the game under 25 mins..
proud2bPL3 votesVery one sided.
The team who get's the usual couple of unskilled, feeding, trash, crying players is doomed. GG matchmaking.
Eedat2 votesMy games feel like a few people get fed and start deleting everything in their path until one fed carry deletes the other fed carry then they respawn and delete them back, etc
Okuma2 votesI've been quite lucky when playing as my games has been rather close =)
k wìx2 votesOn a bit of a losing streak, and it feels unnaturally bad, because my score is always rock solid, yet my teammates are feeding. Support main @ plat levels. Check my games - Getting an S in a losing game feels awful.
Not a single game has felt close, and its frustrating. Bout' ready to quit league, at least for awhile.
a little shadow1 votesSo I did check your games (Don't usually do this you literally told me to) and your 4th most recent game went for 35 minutes and the score was 35 kills to 34 kills. Isn't that the definition of a close game?
Your 5th game went on for 58 minutes and the kills were 57 to 66. You guys lost but still got 2 barons 2 dragons and 6 towers. That doesn't look one sided to me either.
Either way though if you aren't having fun you definitely should go play something else. You have no reason to play League if the game has became frustrating for you! I got really tilted right before season ended and took a little break, nothing wrong with that. Maybe after the dust has settled and there is a clear meta it might be a little less frustrating for you.
Azadethe2 votesPersonally I feel this is a loaded question. Games are even if people are playing to win, know their runes and tutorial taught basics. If they don't then it's a snowball. People who upvote this probably are in an elo full of people who don't care, don't learn, or give up too easy.
I do NOT feel like there is too much technical build issues, or OP champs that don't currently have a bug.
Ezreal's power is due to a bug, but Zed and Kayn seem to have both gained momentum in core game play.
Kayn's healing plus the new healing in runes just makes him an almost unkillable tank that does large chunk damage, and isn't hard to snowball with Electrocute. A team can shut him down, but there's a point in the game where he has no real counterplay.
Zed just snowballs off Duskblade's power, and has access to more mobility than any other champ when played right, even Yasuo (yasuo may be the king of short hops but he can't set a shadow back 1/3 of the map, and then ult/kill someone, back to a shadow, and be ready to cast a new shadow shortly after). Zed has counterplay, but it's just so "iffy" because he can react to cc better than almost any champ, simply by knowing where someone's going to cc, and deciding whether to stay, or to hop on the shadow, depending on if the other team is predicting the hop, or if they are trying to stun him where he stands. Unless it's an Instant Stun, he can usually get away.
Those are my only real issues, and probably not ones that are going to be fixed unless they go after Duskblade.
Karunamon1 votesI don't think you know what a loaded question is my dude - it's a simple yes/no, either you feel your games are mostly snowbally, mostly not snowbally, or somewhere in between.
To be perfectly honest I was expecting the "somewhere in between" option to get the most votes. Instead the curb stomp option is getting picked more than 4 to 1!
Azadethe1 votesSome games are snowballs, but it's not because of actual game mechanics, but rather the players playing them. The question was asked in the premise that the game is broken.
Karunamon1 votesThe question was asked in the premise that the game is broken.
? No it wasn't. The question is, verbatim:
When playing in any mode, do your games feel more one-sided for your or the enemy team, or do your games feel like close matches?
That's it. No implications of any kind were made.
UB3R 1337 H4X2 votesMost of my recent games have been great, honestly.
Almost always 30-40 minutes, comebacks are common enough and I almost never feel like FFing is worth it.
MoldyCheese11 votesI mean, its one sided because the preseason is typically time of unbalance and massive change, if youve played long enough you would know the S7 pre season was painfully jungle oriented with junglers using paths that allowed them to level so quickly that they controlled the game.
Karunamon4 votesIt's been like that for me since the start of the previous season, to be honest. Preseason is always crazyville, but S8 didn't start the curb-stomp phenomenon.
Sun Wu Ryuumoku1 votesI mean, its one sided because the preseason is typically time of unbalance and massive change,
Nah, its one sided due to the xp change
bàn1 votesI mean, its one sided because the preseason is typically time of unbalance and massive change, if youve played long enough you would know the S7 pre season was painfully jungle oriented with junglers using paths that allowed them to level so quickly that they controlled the game.
games were very one sided last season too
Anzila1 votesI've had games last over 20 minutes since the patch, but that's only been because people are enjoying trolling their team. Refusing to surrender when you're down 5-27 in kills, 1-7 in towers, 0-3 in dragons, 0-1 Herald, 0-1 Baron is either pretty deluded or massively overconfident about their premade skills. Does feel like it's much more just single carry doing things though, more along the lines of DotA than HotS,
Azadethe4 votesI can win a 5/27. Anyone can. Sometimes the 5/27 is the result of poor teamwork and then someone rallies the team, and gets them to focus on the right opponent carry, shut him down, tilt him, and then the game recovers to 38/32. About the only time Drakes pretty much secure a 27/5 is when they are 3X infernal. If it's not, don't give up. Farm. Get defensive and warded. And then coordinate to cc the right people, and kill them, and then focus on the 2-3 who were riding the carry's coattails.
Danni Chimes3 votesI've had games last over 20 minutes since the patch, but that's only been because people are enjoying trolling their team. Refusing to surrender when you're down 5-27 in kills, 1-7 in towers, 0-3 in dragons, 0-1 Herald, 0-1 Baron is either pretty deluded or massively overconfident about their premade skills. Does feel like it's much more just single carry doing things though, more along the lines of DotA than HotS,
Yea this mentality of giving up is wild.
I once won a match where we literally had 0 turrets of the enemies. They were at our Nexus turrets. We aced them and marched down mid and eventually ended up winning that match. I'm not saying it can happen every time, because that honestly requires the entire team to be in on the effort which, let's be honest, doesn't usually ever happen.
YuGiHo1 votesMOST GAMES FOR ME ARE ONE SIDED. THE GAMES THAT FEEL EVEN ARE THE ONES WHERE SAY OUR MID IS FED BUT THEIR TOP IS FED SO THERE IS SOMEONE STRONG ON BOTH TEAMS BUT NO LANE GOES EVEN ANYMORE NOT EVEN THE JUNGLER.
Provengreil1 votesI realize you probably accidentally tapped caps...but seriously, don't type in all caps.
Raije1 votesMost games have 7-10 snowball champs. Wait till things balance out a bit and it'll be as good as it ever was.
Recon12121 votesLeague has turned into a game that focuses on th first 5 mins and anything past late game where everyone has full build.
The Space Cowboy1 votesAt least 66% one aides but I stall the games my team is loosing and turn them into close calls maybe 1/2 of the time. So that lowers it to 33% one sided.
Nasuuna1 votesmy games have been over by 6 minutes lately.
Usually cause im 7-0 on lucian
Meep Man1 votesFairly even except when every lane feeds, upon which we probably should lose.
Escheton1 votesOne sided. Mostly decided by who gets Tristana/Kat/Zed/Udyr/Ezreal/Vayne
Edge of Night1 votesdefenitely has to do with the lack of early resistances and new runes bringing a lot of early power. My games on average are a significant amount shorter to the point that most are decided before hitting the 20 minute mark.
It's a shame since i feel like i have less controll over the game with the game snowballing out of control so easily
deepfriedchicken1 votestemo enjoys eatin shroms
Remlap12231 votesThey're better than all of last season, but that's not saying much. The overwhelming majority of my games are still decided within the first 15 minutes, although I will say that games are starting to go longer now, which is a step in the right direction I guess. This is the least broken preseason we've had since Season 5, which is saying something.
YepYeah1 votesThe exact reason I will play less 90% less than I do, which is too much to begin with.
This seems to happen all to often. I win a lot of stomp-one-sided games, get promoted, OH YEAH! Then I get matched with people who die once every two minutes. I dont want to have to be SO GOOD that I single handedly win every game. Otherwise Id play some last man standing.
In the lower elos I think the matchmaking is actually planned this way. To keep people playing. Money, Sad,
Kitten of Evil1 votesIt's even seeped over to ARAM. My games have been garbage lately, because it's basically impossible to beat a team where 3 AD-dealers use Press the Attack, especially if they have even a single front-liner.