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So about Riot and chinese market

Get Outscaled·12/11/2019, 8:32:30 PM·2 votes·2,096 views

Hello, I would like to ask you one thing that has been bothering me for a while. I have heard a lot of times that Riot is forcing fast paced gameplay because of chinese internet cafes and generally chinese community. I didn't like past 2 seasons and from all the frustration that League is not what it used to be, I automatically believed that opinion of Riot making it for china, Tencent things etc.

But now I am kinda not sure If it's actually true or not. Are there any sources? I absolutely adore the last 2 patches (9.23 and 9.24) and they are the big reason why I am confused If Riot actually balance the gameplay around china or not as those 2 patches actually buff the oposite of fast paced gameplay. I won't go through details as you can look at them yourselves so I will highlight something like: Braum getting big buff, less gold for tower plates, tower plates getting bigger defensive stats and Conqueror getting a bit nerfed.

I know these are not as huge but If Riot makes a few more patches like this, it would actually go against this "chinese market" thing and I would personally love it. So again I am asking you for your opinion on that topic and generally about the direction League is going because I am really confused.

League sure has changed a lot and I hated those changes ever since season 8 but these two last patches actually caught my eye and basically made my decision to either keep playing or stop playing even harder. For the last 3 months I have no idea what to do with League. On one side I don't enjoy it as much as I used to (not fan of aggressive fast paced meta) but on the other side I don't want to just throw away big part of my life and everything I have learned.

At this point when I try to stop playing League I feel really bad as it really has become the part of my life (especially watching eSport). The best case for me would be If Riot actually didn't balance the game around chinese community and these kind of patches continuing. I am sorry If I am talking too personal but this is the first time I feel like I need help from the community as it will be the one of the biggest decisions in my life. Next year I am finishing the high school and I need to be sure If I want to invest time into just going to work and tryharding League full time because wrong decision would make me waste time. For example bad case for me would be going full time tryharding League and Riot fu*king up the meta.

In case you didn't know, I don't play league as a casual but for competitive and I actually care about the eSport a lot. Thanks for reading through all this. I can elaborate on anything you want.

2 Comments

ModAcademy Kayn12/12/2019, 1:54:07 AM2 votes

No, they're not appealing to China, or any asian community. If you rewind back to the days of S4-S5, you'd have seen the complaints of people on the boards about games being too long. Go back further, and you'll hear the frustration of people having to deal with Ziggs and Anivia being able to fully halt any siege by clearing minions non-stop, stalling out the game. Hell, a bigger question, how many long games in League were already decided games? Just the systems of the time were just slow to end what was already a done game?

Even then, it's not simply just because of Systems or Meta in League that League has gotten faster. People have gotten naturally better at the game overtime. The rotations of winning lanes to influence other lanes was a rarity to see in old League, but just like Lee Sin's insec, nowadays this kinda skill has flowed throughout the community. We've optimized how to take our leads and influence the map, instead of what was relatively less efficient plays in the past. We've gotten better at snowballing, warding, objectives, wave management, that winning isn't as hard anymore. We know how to farm better than ever before!

So, no, I don't think that League has been changed to fit to a single market. People choose to blame the Asian market in lieu of realizing that games change over time, and blaming some foreign group instead of realizing that the game has moved past your tastes. Some could attribute League lasting 10 years, being due to the fact that it has constantly changed, for better or for worse. At the end of the day, I don't care. I like long games, but sometimes they're stressful. I appreciate short games, but sometimes they're unfulfilling.

What keeps me coming back however, game after game after game, is the fact that I enjoy playing League and it's champions. I don't care in what medium, as long as I am able to. Game length has never been, and will never, affect my enjoyment.