Just got casually 1v5'd by Darius, no big deal + other thoughts.

I understand the dictionary definition of "juggernaut", but I think Riot took it a bit too far. Thematically, it literally makes no sense for Darius to even have a heal on his Q. By the way, Riot, when are you fixing the bug with Darius R? You know, the one where it goes off even if you flash or dash out of it and are 600 units away when the axe comes down?

Also, why does his R have 460 range? Four hundred and sixty. You know how long Lucian's auto-attack range is? 500. Five hundred. Teemo's model is a roughly 100x100 box. You cannot even put half a Teemo between Lucian's max auto-attack range and the range of Darius's point-and-click ulti. Not even half a single little yordle. Who at Riot thought it was a good idea to give his ult more range than Flash (425 units)? By the way, champion designers, you do understand that if he Flashes, Darius can get an effective range of 885 on his ult, right? You get that? You understand that this is effectively the same range as Ahri's standing Q (880 units)?

I, among others, strongly suspect that Riot is purposefully pushing the meta around and not allowing things to settle and balance themselves out because they want to keep the game "fresh" and "new" and "interesting. What happened to the Riot of Season 2, who didn't even want to acknowledge that a meta existed? How can you possibly claim to be dedicated to "competitive integrity" when every single game of solo queue, the same six bans come out: Darius, Garen, Fiora, Skarner, Mordekaiser + Sated Devourer jungler and/or Vayne. Heaven forbid that either team captain drops one of these bans and doesn't blue side first pick it.

I want to take your game seriously, Riot. I really do. I want to play it competitively, I want to get better at it. But it's honestly extremely difficult for me to hold back ridiculing laughter when you handle Sandbox Mode the way you did, or replays, or updating your client. It's difficult for me to take this game seriously and in a competitive manner when blatantly overpowered, transparently meta-shifting changes are rolled out into the game as if they were okay. Do you honestly expect me to believe that you just couldn't field test them? Maybe I could forgive on-release LeBlanc for being so broken she had to be Day 2 hotfix nerfed---that was a long time ago and you were new. But you've been around for 6 years. Six years you've worked on the same game without updating the client, without giving us replays or a sandbox mode (standard staples in literally every other esport), and you still think it's okay to push out things like the Juggernauts, like Cinderhulk, like Kalista---the list could go on forever.

You need to shape up, Riot Games. You need to understand that you're not just running a business; you're a game developer. You need to get rid of bad workflow practices (like top-down champion design). You need to strenuously and thoroughly test new releases to make sure they don't immediately break the game, and that if they do shift the meta, they do so in a healthy way with counterplay included. You need to modernise your game and your client, and you need to stop pretending that your game is the only esport out there and you're blazing new trails. Perhaps in terms of exponential growth in a very short period of time, you've broken new ground and reached new heights---great. But treat your game like a proper esport and develop it properly. Balance it properly. Give your players the game you like to pretend they deserve, don't just talk about it and throw buzzwords at us. Don't outright lie to us as you've done in the past.

This game has the potential to be great, to be fun, to be competitive, but the malpractice of Riot Games is holding it back, and I can't be the only one tired of that fact.