[To Riot] What are you doing with League? [Sort of a worry/complaint post]

I've seen some of the changes you've all brought to League in the past year and a half. Some of it is really good, like a few small buffs to certain items or champions. You've definitely improved the jungle, though it needs more love. I also enjoy the new champions and champion reworks that require more thought, or that just sorely needed an update. Champs like Sion, Gnar, Ekko, Ashe, and even Braum...love that big tanky guy. Even the new Fiora and Gangplank updates are good and require more thought... all to improve on counterplay, right?

You rework the Black Cleaver into something much better. You add Righteous Glory, which I love. And then you go and nerf some of my favourite items, including Rod of Ages, Righteous Glory, and make Liandry's Torment nearly the must-have AP item for all AP champions. You changed up the entire AP collection. You weaken some useful tank items (RoA, RG), nerf a bunch of tanks, nerf assassins, lower crit chance % on a bunch of crit % items. Don't get me started on Ryze's rework..klunky kit. Veigar is a lot weaker now. Zilean's bombs are possibly even more annoying now than they were before, despite the counterplay.

And now you're going to add Zeke's Harbinger? While Zeke's Herald needed a buff, I agree, the ability to bind to an ally every minute, rapid charging stacks giving your ally (ADC...) 50% crit chance for 6 seconds? Really? Add an Infinity Edge and Stattik Shiv/Phantom Dancer, and they can 100% crit you for 6 seconds. Add attack speed and possibly range (Jinx...) and boom. Jinx didn't even need the extra Zeke's boost to do this, and now you're enabling this. Maybe it's not OP in pro play, but in regular play... you tell me what I'm supposed to do if they can basically 100% crit me every 20 or so seconds, for 6 seconds? Think of champs like Jinx (extra range, splash damage), Ashe (permaslow), and so forth.

It seems like the meta's shifting towards one-shot burst mages and one-shot ADC's... if I wanted a one-shot game, I'd play the broken mess that is DOTA2. How is that counterplay? I mean.. updating champions to be less one-shotty (Fiora), and then adding an item that basically encourages it?

And then there's champions like Azir, Bard, Kalista, and now Tahm Kench, that require far more communication, and are basically only really good at pro level. These are also some of the most recently released champions. When I saw the champion spotlights, and subsequently play said champion... Tahm Kench is a little too strong for a "support" tank. That passive on his ult.. why? Ekko was OP on release. Bard was only playable if you could adapt to his very different playstyle. Kalista relies a lot on her lane partner. Fiora's new rework seems like it's going to be OP as well, if you can proc her passive. Her ult seems a bit tooooo much, though. GP... I'm glad he's mostly the same. His E changed, which was his most useless skill anyway, but I'm hoping his barrels won't be too powerful.

I'm just...concerned... that League is strongly and steadily moving towards a pro-play-focused (PPF) model, kinda leaving the regular game behind. It's like unranked games aren't as important anymore, and the ultimate goal of everybody playing League should be to climb ranked ladders and eventually become pro. Some of us don't want that. I don't want to spend all my free time "training" to be a world championship League winner. I played basketball as a teen. Doesn't mean I had any intention or dreams of becoming a pro player. I just enjoyed it for a while. Same with League, I play it because I enjoy it. I rarely ever play ranked, because I don't want to. And yet I'm seeing this game get more and more PPF. Ranked should be an option, not an almost-mandatory goal, since that's what the game is built for.

I've already gotten somewhat bored with League. And if the game continues to really shift towards a PPF model, then I'll likely be playing it a lot less, and ideally I'd rather not play less.

I'm not going to argue. My point is.... Riot, please don't forget about us "normal" folk who don't play ranked or have any interest in playing ranked. Please keep the game fun for us, too.