Status on Japanese server? Please hear me out.
Firstly, I have been an avid league player since Season 2. I follow E-Sports, buy league products, and done my share (probably more than I should have) of financially supporting the game. I love this game, and it's the only game I have truly enjoyed playing in a while.
That being said, I live in Japan.
Until last August, I had a decent enough connection to the servers; somewhat higher steady ping (140-ish), and the occasional DDoS disconnection issues, but I'm not a pro, so it was completely tolerable. My favorite champions being squishies with lots of skillshots (I'm a Zyra main). There was a post a while back about a Rioter's sibling who had a similar issue here in Japan, which was somewhat solved by playing skillshot-less champions. In my experience, though, not only is this boring, but even those champions have these same in-game problems (though admittedly, maybe once or twice less per game).
Fast forward to October -- I've been patiently waiting for the constant 5-7 packeting lag spikes (where nothing happens until 5 seconds later, and suddenly I'm looking at a death screen), disconnects, and ping spikes to stop (around 3-6 per game, which usually results in me feeding). I assumed it was going to take some time to troubleshoot, but surely there would be some progress within a few months, or some information from Riot about it.
Now here I sit in February writing this. I am extremely sad. This game was one of the few and far between that I have really learned to love, but since the server was moved to Chicago, it's virtually unplayable for me. I can't play any modes other than AI, because I don't want to cause my team to be in a 4v5 -- so normals are out, and ranked is unthinkable. And as many other players know, AI isn't really League. It's really just a place to learn the game or hone your own mechanics, but that's only playing about 15% of the game. There is no teamwork required, no needing to use the mini map, no paying attention to timers, no challenge in counterjungling,... basically everything that makes league fun (for me).
I have a fiber-optic connection, top notch MSI, and no reason for these issues other than the move to Chicago.
It's been roughly half a year since the move, and I know several other players who also live in Japan, and have the same issues. I am aware there is a Japanese server in the works, but since finding out about it being in Beta on Surrender@20 months ago, I have heard nothing.
My posts have gotten no attention in the past, and I really don't expect that to change with this post, but I am still writing this in hopes that my patience and loyalty will not go ignored. I am well aware that Riot gives no definitive dates on anything, which is fine, but this server has been a rumor for 2 years, a few months of vague confirmation, and then nothing -- alienating a lot of loyal players like me, who love League, and are thoroughly disappointed by this current situation.
All I ask is something concrete to look forward to (e.g., Summer 2016), otherwise, I feel like I'm wasting my time hoping for it to come, and I may as well give up and move on to something else. I appreciate any attention this post gets. I'm starting to lose faith.
TLDR - Can we please have vague estimate about the Japan server?
