Little Reminder that Riot is not gearing this game towards LCS/Worlds Player Level...

... they are gearing it towards LCS/Worlds SPECTATORS. You know, the crowd that is also a massive minority when compared to the full playerbase.

You know, back in the day Esports was a nice little thing games had going for them, a scene mostly established itself as a side effect of the game being just that good. However, it is and was a niche. Riot made the severe misconception that now that they had such a boom in viewers they have managed to make esport "mainstream" or "casual". If a niche is a set perceptage of the entire playerbase, then obviously it looks like a fuckton of people when you have a massive playerbase like League has, even if they are a minorty.

However, League isn't really interesting to watch, mostly because Pros don't really make mistakes. So everyone skirts around each other carefully and then there are maybe one or two teamfights and then it's pretty much over, the score being laughably low when compared to normal ranked games. You mostly have a 45 minute match with some highlights. For some boring as hell, others take the time because the highlights are worth if for them.

And you know what? It was might have been boring as hell, but at least the game was more or less balanced. It's kinda the same thing with Chess Tournaments. Chess is also an extreme niche sport with a dedicated but extremly small fanbase. But none is stepping up and saying "we need more viewers and entertain them, so let's change some rules in the game", that would be madness. Yet Riot did exactly that.

And the biggest joke is that Riots changes to the game have not caused a single darn thing that they intended: SoloQ games are brutal stompfests, meanwhile the pros are even more scared to take risks because one mistake can cost them the entire game now. It's not a matter of X champ being buffed or Y champ being nerfed for worlds, it's because the very foundations of the game are sabotaged for the sake of viewer-numbers.

Remember when I said something about Esports being the result of a game being good, and not the driving reason for it's design? This is what has gone wrong. You cannot simply force the game to be something that it is not, just because you MIGHT gain viewers with it. I personally am not going to watch anything this fall - I mean, why should I give a shit anyway when five asians play against five asians again? (SPOILER: THE KOREAN TEAM WINS). And I'd like to claim that quite a lot of people who attend the events life do not because they care much of the esports, but with the event mostly being an expression of geek-dom. Like going to a concert of a band you like or something like that.

So Riot, PLEASE stop sabotaging the game for potential viewers you are mostly likely not going to get anyways. First of all your obligation lies with the massive majority that just WANTS TO PLAY YOUR GAME WITHOUT GIVING A SHIT ABOUT THE ESPORTS WHATSOEVER.

And to everyone reading: do yourself a favor and dont watch anything worlds related. Maybe Riot is so deep in their esports obesssion that only sinking numbers can wake them up again...