So by some strange miracle I had like 5 40+ minute games today...
Man I forgot how fun it was. We had some games where we turtled in base until we got some picks and won, had some games where the enemy team came back and won, but honestly I wasn't even mad at those losses. This season has almost been like a game of musical chairs with how improbable it is to hit a REAL late game (not talking about a Kog'Maw at 12 minutes...), first Assassins were literal gods and ended it instantly, then tanks were so overtuned they could get tanky off like 2 items while dealing carry levels of damage so the games ended, then there was a small pocket of time where mages were crazy but that was like one patch, then the Ardent buff came in and you guys know what happened next with the enchanter/hypercarry farce of a couple months.
I've been playing since season 1 and I'm not saying literally every game should be 40 minutes. In the past there were some stupid comeback mechanics that allowed teams who were up by 30 kills to suddenly lose favor and lose after 45+ minutes of being stupidly ahead, but we've gone way too far in the other direction. Right now the team who is ahead (and more realistically, the bottom lane or MAYBE jungler who is ahead) pretty much instantly wins the game before the 25 minute mark. League was at it's best when you had some shorter but still competitive games mixed in with 30, 40, and occasionally the 50 minute game where tensions were super high. I honestly can't even remember the last time I had a 50 minute game, but there used to be one about once a week or so. Again, not saying every game should stretch to 40+ minutes but I think it would be fair like 30% of the time, it's so fun and the strategy of the late game changes so much because death timers are longer and there aren't always objectives alive on the map anymore so you have to make your own strategy.
TL;DR, bring back longer games, Riot. I'm okay with short games, medium length games, and long length games, and I think League is the most fun when a variety of game lengths exist. Right now games end way too quickly and right when you're about to hit that mid or late game power spike fantasy, the enemy just surrenders and that's it or you are so snowballed you've taken all 3 of their inhibs before 25 minutes and have no choice but to end, and it's just frustrating to see that the actual strategy of the mid to late game is almost never felt anymore.
