There would not be a meta.
The fact that Riot forces metas into the game at all just shows off how much they care about balance.
Oh, but no, we would never balance around the spotlight and make money off quick cash grab metas and FOTM champs, we put quality before everything else! Honest!
But, no one will admit that they've been conned for 8 years, so I will be called a conspiracy theorist or just flamed and downvoted for "making stuff up."
Apost1 votes"The primary purpose of a business is to maximize profits for its owners or stakeholders while maintaining corporate social responsibility."
Also I am not quite sure it's possible to have 130+ champions in perfect balance. I quite enjoy metas changing, keeps the game fresh.
Niyume2 votesSure, that's the point of a business. Yet uh, we're not robots, are we? People have, you know, morality and whatnot. It's called business ethics -- something that is sorely lacking these days.
Look at old Nintendo under Yamauchi and Iwata (new guy is shit); they had so many MASSIVELY profitable business proposals offered to them, and they wouldn't have hurt anything, but they said no because of their principles. They stuck to what they knew was right, and they wanted to put out something they could be proud of. There's a reason they're wildly successful.
And uh, if they can balance MMOs that have 30-40 class variations with 20-30+ abilities, tons of passives to choose from, and other modifiers... then they can sure as fucking hell balance a game where you have 2-4 buttons and preset ability interactions.
Apost2 votesI am not quite familiar with how MMOs work so I can't argue with that. Are they as competitive of a genre as MOBAs? Don't MMOs have premium items?
Also them being a different genre is not really providing much to the argument. It's kinda like saying "If Fifa 2017 is very good at this aspect why can't WRC 7 be as good"
And what is that "immoral and unethical" things Riot has done? I am generally pleased with Riot's decisions.
Niyume1 votesMOBAs pull almost all of their mechanics from MMOs, so the comparison is valid.
The MMOs with "premium items" are rightfully fucking deserted, and no one plays them, since they're shitty games. Funny how that works, when we have League right here.
But yes, MMOs are HIGHLY competitive, and have an entire ladder system and esports scene built around their PvP (which includes 2v2, 3v3 and 5v5 deathmatch style arenas, open world massive scale PvP, and more objective-based game-like PvP).
And let's see... unethical things Riot does...
Admit to keeping champs broken because they make money (Riot Fizz Enthusiast said they know Lee is broken, but they don't want to nerf him too hard since he brings in $$$$ at LC$. Funny thing is, that thread made people freak the fuck out, and now it's gone a year later with a weird gap in his posting history. Hmm.)
Admit to "balancing around the spotlight", particularly when talking about Sej way back when during S5. And uh, the other term for "balancing around the spotlight" is "cycling the FOTMs to milk money off them."
Lying left and right, making double standards all the time, etc. (For example, Riot states they hate braindead statchecks, and that's why they reworked Vlad and Morde's kits... yet how many braindead clickers do we have? Hmmm...)
Selling out to Tencent when they were ALREADY making absurd amounts of money.
Spending months to years to do what any professional team could do in a week or two (reworking champs, updating models, etc)
And that's just a few.
Shahamut1 votesNothing needed to play the game cost money.
There is a system in place that can award you with skins for champions, wards, and summoner icons, without paying any money.
You are never, at any point, forced to use real currency to be a competitive player.
Such a greedy company that RIOT is, giving away all that free stuff.
BerylCrab1 votesNah this is actually 100% accurate. The game is not balanced, and probably never will be sadly, which is why I will most likely be quitting after I see the "changes" for next season. In my mind I know it will just be another forced meta, where riot tells me which champions to play, but my heart wants to believe that maybe riot finally learned its lesson at this years worlds and will actually work towards real balance. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: why have 200 champions if only 20-30 every see play each season??
SassyRiolu1 votesIf you think it's possible to have perfect balance in a game such as league of legends, then you're disillusion.
BerylCrab1 votesIf you think it's possible to have perfect balance in a game such as league of legends, then you're disillusion.
If you think balance is the same thing as perfect balance you are using a straw man argument that isn't even very good. Perfection doesn't exsist in anything, it is a concept. nothing more. However, we can certainly do one hell of a lot better than "pick one of 3-4 champions for your role, if you don't you are trolling/inting" Riot could easily balance the game much, much, much, much better than they do. In it's current state you have champions sitting at a 2 out of 10 power level, while others are 12 out of 10. it is absurd.
SassyRiolu1 votesYou're exaggerating. If you're trying to tell me that only 3-4 champions are viable at a specific role at a time, then you are just flat out misinformed.
Let's use mid lane as an example, since it's a lane I'm very familiar with. Right now, if we apply your logic, every other champion other than Syndra, Orianna, Veigar and Malzahar will get you reported and flamed. Ok, so that's just, not true, at all in fact. There are many champions such as 
Viktor,
Xerath, 
Yasuo, 
Vel'koz,
Annie, 
Brand, Ect that you know, are also as good?
Chances are, you may be seeing those champions frequently because, they're popular champions that get picked up frequently. A lot of people like to main champions like Yasuo, Lee sin, Orianna, Vayne because they are the "Mainstream picks"
The game is mostly about mastery. Any champion can be godlike if you know how to play them. [slayer-pantheon-thumbs]
BerylCrab1 votesYou're exaggerating. If you're trying to tell me that only 3-4 champions are viable at a specific role at a time, then you are just flat out misinformed.
Let's use mid lane as an example, since it's a lane I'm very familiar with. Right now, if we apply your logic, every other champion other than Syndra, Orianna, Veigar and Malzahar will get you reported and flamed. Ok, so that's just, not true, at all in fact. There are many champions such as
Chances are, you may be seeing those champions frequently because, they're popular champions that get picked up frequently. A lot of people like to main champions like Yasuo, Lee sin, Orianna, Vayne because they are the "Mainstream picks"
The game is mostly about mastery. Any champion can be godlike if you know how to play them. [slayer-pantheon-thumbs]
HI, yeah, this simply isn't true. I dont care how "godlike" you are at playing lets say for an example, ashe. The fact that she has no escape makes her basically a troll pick at this point, no matter how good you are with her. At the same time, Galio and Sejuani are nearly impossible to do poorly on, you literally have to try to lose. but yeah, ur right, people should be able to play a brand new champion in ranked and do well the first week of release. that is clearly well balanced and lots of skill involved, since it takes less than a week to compete with people who have been playing their champions for years.
SassyRiolu1 votesDon't start changing the subject. New champions are something different entirely, since they need those first couple of weeks of op/up to be balanced.
BerylCrab1 votesDon't start changing the subject. New champions are something different entirely, since they need those first couple of weeks of op/up to be balanced.
no, they don't. Not if you value competitive balance. Not if you want your ranked queue to mean something other than "I followed the power list that riot set forth" Seriously if you think they need to release champions before they are ready, then halfassed try to balance them after the fact, you lack imagination and critical thought processes. This is precisely why you cant release a champion every month or two. If you want to release champions so quickly you HAVE to ENSURE they are underpowered and then slowly bring them up. Releasing a champion in an overpowered state is simply a cash grab by riot, one that while it may provide immediate revenue, is slowly killing this game.
Also, its not changing the subject, you were talking about being "godlike" on a champion, which isn't something that is achieved in 2-3 days on a brand new champion, unless that champion is too strong, and too easy to play.
Niyume2 votesPerfect? No. But getting some semblance of real balance would be very easy -- Riot just doesn't want to, because balance isn't lucrative in an F2P game.