Status on Japanese server? Please hear me out.

Eilynne·2/20/2016, 11:49:01 AM·27 votes·2,810 views

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?

18 Comments

BRBGTGBOWFLEX2/20/2016, 9:56:05 PM4 votes

Please understand!

ƒoes2/20/2016, 9:55:14 PM3 votes

Let us all please upvote this man so he gets noticed; we don't want anyone to have bad ping!

Zenthon Prime2/20/2016, 6:24:49 PM1 votes

The Japanese server went into closed beta rather recently. A month ago, maybe?

Also, if I remember correctly the server is supposed to launch in the spring. I'm not sure when though.

Oksanaandjoy2/21/2016, 4:21:22 PM1 votes

That's weird. I play on the US server from Cambodia. Your ping is much better than mine but I don't have any of the disconnect/drop out issues you describe. It's still very playable even if I am a split second behind.

Cerkoryn2/22/2016, 2:12:19 PM1 votes

I feel your pain man. I also live in Japan, and I was part of the closed beta here in fact. My ping was 200-220 since the move to Chicago, but I had gotten used to it by playing champions that weren't mechanically intensive. I even made it to Gold III I think in the pre-season with that ping. The Japan beta came out at the end of January I believe, and I started playing on that regularly. I instantly feel in love in Ezrael, and a couple other skillshot heavy champs. Actually, I think out of like 10 games I played on Ezrael on the Japan server beta, I only died like 4 or 5 times. Playing with 40 ping after being used to 200+ was insane. But they recently closed the beta and I haven't heard anything since on when it will be permanently released. I can't go back to playing on NA now either because it just feels so sluggish. I can't really play at all until they release the Japan server for good, and was hoping to find some answers if anyone knows about it.

Jorencice2/23/2016, 1:31:04 AM1 votes

Only if you tell Japan to give me a monster hunter frontier server.