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I think League might have 3 years left

IAmWoralo··52 votes·14,577 views

This game is getting more and more out of touch with its fanbase and the balance that used to be at least somewhere to be found.

Right now, at least for me the game feels like a complete random event. Wait, hold on, before you say this is just another rant, hear me out. I started 4 seasons ago and I was terrible. I started Bronze and I had my fight my way out, after the first season of play I fought my way into silver, then gold and eventually I managed - through had work and dedication - to get to platinum 4. By maining Evelynn and solo carying games I finally got to Platinum 4 and I was so proud. At that point Evelynn was considered a weak and unpopulair champion. I managed to get there with a non-meta champion withy my own playstyle and it felt good.

Right now it seems like it's meta or fail or meta or fail. Games seem to be so random and yes this has been said before, probably since the very beginning of league, but right now I have a hard time climbing out of Gold 5 and why is that? Simple, whenever I play a game and any lane gets a lead the game is basicly done. I main jungle and try my best, but when the enemy is 0-2 before I hit level 3, it's almost always over. Now you can say that the odds of me becoming 2-0 is just a likely and yes that is obviously true by statistical measure, but I feel that the amount of influence I have on the game is diminished a thousandfold. If the enemy jax gets firstblood it feels as if I can't really turn the tables anymore, whereas in the past a good play or smart map control could make a difference now it doesn't seem to matter anymore, because damage simply outplays everything.

Getting stunned in the current meta/gameplay means death, not taking a big punch, not getting stunned equals death. In the past you could afford to make a mistake as support and get snared by Morgana, it might have cost you a flash or exhaust but your lived, now you can burn exhaust and flash and still end up dead. And that is because the damage is insane, but hey we've been saying that for the last 2 seasons and hell, who's listening?

In the past you could make a mistake or two in bronze and get away with it. In silver a mistake could be lethal but unless it was endgame it would not be gamechanging. In gold a single mistake would cost your team dearly and above gold every mistake was a big risk. But now, a single mistake in gold, whether it is you or your teammate and your game is done.

I'm sorry but I have lost all joy in this game as I have no feeling at all there isn't much of skill left in this game. In the past you had to be world class to go from Platinum to Master, now you have to be worldclass to go from Silver to Gold.. Or at least it feels this way. All random..

58 Comments

Disabled Support12 votes

I like this game but honestly whether or not I reach gold this season, I might uninstall and wait until midseason next season and pray that they fixed up the game.. I don't want to abandon this game after 7 years [sg-soraka] edit: if the game isn't at least a little bit more enjoyable, i'm just going to uninstall.. too much monkey business the past 2-3 years thats honestly making me a really toxic and stressed individual now

Mr Mochí4 votes

Try flex queue promos. I got in Silver III for solo queue, but I then did my flex queue promos and got Plat V. [zombie-brand-clap]

I won 6 out of 10 for Solo promos and 7 out of 10 for Flex promos

Ranked system is pretty busted.

Krully4 votes

its so dumb which is why im curious as to what calculations is going on there

Karakot4 votes

Meanwhile I won 9-1 in flex promos and got S4...

HaIlMonitor1 votes

Have you ever considered that you are just not gold material? You play champions that it doesnt really matter how good you play, but your team mates so you probably wont climb the ladder that fast anyways. I dont mean to be a total jerk, but because your not good enough to reach a rank is a dumb reason to quit the game... You don't want to improve, but that isn't on the state of the game.

Disabled Support4 votes

{quoted}

Have you ever considered that you are just not gold material? You play champions that it doesnt really matter how good you play, but your team mates so you probably wont climb the ladder that fast anyways. I dont mean to be a total jerk, but because your not good enough to reach a rank is a dumb reason to quit the game... You don't want to improve, but that isn't on the state of the game.

Tbh I don't care anymore I'm just beaten from no matter what I do I feel useless even in irl and I don't need this extra stress to drive me to do bad things [sg-soraka] I can't deal with it anymore

Power Cosmic2 votes

{quoted}

Tbh I don't care anymore I'm just beaten from no matter what I do I feel useless even in irl and I don't need this extra stress to drive me to do bad things [sg-soraka] I can't deal with it anymore

If you like the game, just play when you are in the right mood. That is what I do.

Guzergus7 votes

now you have to be worldclass to go from Silver to Gold..

Statistics show otherwise, gold and silver are the majority of people actually, except for probably high gold, which is still pretty achievable w/o any issues.

Hexs Fortune1 votes

{quoted}

Statistics show otherwise, gold and silver are the majority of people actually, except for probably high gold, which is still pretty achievable w/o any issues.

Most players are silver / bronze. Gold 1- 5 represents the top 20-35 percent of the playerbase

Guzergus1 votes

Which further proves my point. Playing better than 50% of players can't be considered a wordclass performance.

Mr Bob Boberson6 votes

Riot certainly doesn't seem to listen, maybe for a bit but eventually they'll just make another change no one asked for They nerfed ADCs and increased their item cost like they said, and not too long after they decreased all the item costs and went back on their word They give buffs to champs people have been saying need nerfs for years, and nerf ones that don't need it A lot of the balancing is just centered around what's popular and who makes them money It's ridiculous, other than balancing they do a great job in everything else but without balance the game isn't fun, The only reason I play it is because I don't care about winning and it doesn't make me angry when I play it

Carnicore5 votes

"Riot isn't doing exactly what I want them to do, the game must be doomed."

Towboat4211 votes

{quoted}

"Riot isn't doing exactly what I want them to do, the game must be doomed."

You can continue to deny there is a problem as the ship sinks, Just don't be surprised when you are at the bottom of the sea.

Wukongz5 votes

I used to love League. In fact it was my favorite game for a very long time, but this season killed it for me. Back in season 3 and 4, it wasn't as fatal if I didn't take the correct runes and masteries. Sure, it'd put me at a disadvantage, but it wasn't completely game altering. However, since they introduced "keystones" back in season 5 or 6, things changed. If you wanted to have an impact, you absolutely HAD to have the right keystone for your champ.

With season 8 they reworked runes and masteries and combined them in a new system, which made picking the wrong keystone rune pretty much a game-changing thing. I mained Karma and if I accidentally pick Phase Rush on her, it'd make me almost useless, compared to laning vs another shield support with Aery, for example.

It feels like runes and items decide how well I do. I remember old zyra with DFT, or old Graves and Yasuo with Warlords. How about release Thunderlods Decree picked on almost every champ, and Lux procing it with 1 spell? And everyone's favorite - item 3147 . It made the game feel more on auto-pilot for me.

That is the reason why I can't stand to play LoL anymore nowadays. Not to mention that it's been mostly summoner's rift for years with the occasional game mode popping up, that gets ruined by meta, where you lose the game if you don't pick the best combination of champs and items. I don't like to spend my time playing a game that's so heavily influenced by picking what's strongest for the current patch. And that's that.

LilxPaprika4 votes

a lot can happen in 3 years though. and likely other great mobas will hit the scene. i don't think it will be a bad game I think itll just be because people will want to switch it up and try new things

Impekkable18 votes

{quoted}

a lot can happen in 3 years though. and likely other great mobas will hit the scene. i don't think it will be a bad game I think itll just be because people will want to switch it up and try new things

Wrong. No one is developing new mobas. League is here to stay as the top moba, followed by Dota 2. Will the player base slowly decline over time? Probably. It's been declining in NA, but league is a massive game with a huge global audience. The numbers in the east, especially in China, dwarf any of the numbers in the west. League is here to stay for a long, long time.

ModCaptainMårvelous8 votes

{quoted}

Wrong. No one is developing new mobas. League is here to stay as the top moba, followed by Dota 2. Will the player base slowly decline over time? Probably. It's been declining in NA, but league is a massive game with a huge global audience. The numbers in the east, especially in China, dwarf any of the numbers in the west. League is here to stay for a long, long time.

This is pretty on-point but it extends well beyond League.

DOTA, HotS and SMITE really aren't getting new players. DOTA2's playerbase (at least according to steam charts) has largely been pretty static, save for the playerbase leap when TI happens...which I'd imagine happens for League around worlds as well. It's not a perfect metric but MOBAs aren't the juggernauts they used to be.

What we're seeing is a repeat of the MMO genre where the playerbase for a variety of games will slowly bleed out as they're not the "it" thing anymore. Of course this doesn't mean "game ded lol". WoW is still around and just came off one of the more popular expansions which lead to the fastest/highest selling expac of WoW's lifetime. It just means the games will likely dip down to not be the most popular thing....which we kind of see now as Fortnite and the BR genre capture a new, young audience the same way League captured a new, young audience in 2009 or so.

Anyways, it probably won't be as popular in 3 years (Even if they literally reverted any change players wanted) but it'll still be around and with a pretty good playerbase.

DrCyanide6 votes

I think how dead it is will depend on what region you're in. By the rough numbers I've been able to gather, it looks like EUW lost 28% of it's players between last year and this year, and EUNE lost 24%. Three more years with losses like that and the EU regions will feel like a ghost town. With the OP being in EUW, it's very likely things seem more bleak for the game for them than it does for us in NA.

ModCaptainMårvelous3 votes

{quoted}

I think how dead it is will depend on what region you're in. By the rough numbers I've been able to gather, it looks like EUW lost 28% of it's players between last year and this year, and EUNE lost 24%. Three more years with losses like that and the EU regions will feel like a ghost town. With the OP being in EUW, it's very likely things seem more bleak for the game for them than it does for us in NA.

Problem there is that you have to assume (if that stat is true anyways, considering it's all conjecture) that those players are all quitting for the same reason and the ones who haven't quit will follow suite.

I actually think the main exodus we're seeing these days isn't so much "GAME SUX I LEABE NOW GG" but rather the exodus of the casual playerbase. League was one of (and still very much is) the biggest games of all time. It also appealed to an incredibly casual playerbase, as much as people may attest otherwise. The problem with casuals is that the moment you're not the social game, they start leaving. Which means that most of the people ditching are those who don't have friends who play anymore, those who are older and can't devote 3-4 hours a day to play a few games and those who are probably upset with how the game is going.

With most games, such as WoW, there is that initial mass exodus of players. Cata-to-MoP saw a drop from the peak of 12 mil in wrath to the dip into...I think ti was between 8-to-4 million worldwide. It had a spike in WoD, then fell again, then rose back up pretty high for Legion. (And it' apparently dipping again due to some BFA problems). Point is, you're incorrectly assuming that the game will always be in freefall, if it is. We're eventually just going to see less and less players leave until you're left with the people who earnestly love League for what it is no matter what or just play for fun occasionally.

DrCyanide3 votes

Yes, there will always be the die hard fans. The question is how many are die hard fans of the current and future versions of League of Legends.

I was about as die hard a fan as there could be. I developed my own LoL stat site so I could track improvement like I wanted, went to Riot's HQ for a few days for a competition, was very interested in the lore, was always watching Surrender@20, played several games a day, and of course was on the Boards all the time.

And then, after years, I got burn out. I figured no big deal, "I'll pick it up again later." But when I tried to pick it up again I just couldn't. The game frankly wasn't as enjoyable as when I'd left, and after giving it a few weeks I realized in its current state League was a time waster more than it was a game.

Part of me hopes that next season will improve the game, so I stick around to keep an eye on changes, but the League I loved is already dead. When I think about people I know IRL from my friends list who dropped off before me, there's a lot more people in that boat than you give credit.

Power Cosmic1 votes

{quoted}

Problem there is that you have to assume (if that stat is true anyways, considering it's all conjecture) that those players are all quitting for the same reason and the ones who haven't quit will follow suite.

I actually think the main exodus we're seeing these days isn't so much "GAME SUX I LEABE NOW GG" but rather the exodus of the casual playerbase. League was one of (and still very much is) the biggest games of all time. It also appealed to an incredibly casual playerbase, as much as people may attest otherwise. The problem with casuals is that the moment you're not the social game, they start leaving. Which means that most of the people ditching are those who don't have friends who play anymore, those who are older and can't devote 3-4 hours a day to play a few games and those who are probably upset with how the game is going.

With most games, such as WoW, there is that initial mass exodus of players. Cata-to-MoP saw a drop from the peak of 12 mil in wrath to the dip into...I think ti was between 8-to-4 million worldwide. It had a spike in WoD, then fell again, then rose back up pretty high for Legion. (And it' apparently dipping again due to some BFA problems). Point is, you're incorrectly assuming that the game will always be in freefall, if it is. We're eventually just going to see less and less players leave until you're left with the people who earnestly love League for what it is no matter what or just play for fun occasionally.

I agree. I think big growth, at least in the West, is unrealistic now. The game should hope to keep players happy to hold onto what they can, and hopefully new people join at a decent rate, to sort of breakeven. If the core is very disgruntled that is a bad thing since new people will never join at a pace to replace them. The cost of the empire is quite large, so the right now is just as important as the future.

There are a lot of reasons people leave. Most of them are out of Riots control. But some are definitely controllable (metas, champs, runes, competitive structure, marketing). The more people playing and active, the more new gamers likely to jump onboard.

GayFluffyUnicorn1 votes

EU is practically dead. Ranked at least. I never ever in the last years played frequently with the same people at around plat 3. Usually at d4+ you started to meet the same people from time to time especially at times where only a few people play. Now i play at noon to evening and get the same people in my games in fuckin plat 3.

Lovelle II2 votes

{quoted}

This is pretty on-point but it extends well beyond League.

DOTA, HotS and SMITE really aren't getting new players. DOTA2's playerbase (at least according to steam charts) has largely been pretty static, save for the playerbase leap when TI happens...which I'd imagine happens for League around worlds as well. It's not a perfect metric but MOBAs aren't the juggernauts they used to be.

What we're seeing is a repeat of the MMO genre where the playerbase for a variety of games will slowly bleed out as they're not the "it" thing anymore. Of course this doesn't mean "game ded lol". WoW is still around and just came off one of the more popular expansions which lead to the fastest/highest selling expac of WoW's lifetime. It just means the games will likely dip down to not be the most popular thing....which we kind of see now as Fortnite and the BR genre capture a new, young audience the same way League captured a new, young audience in 2009 or so.

Anyways, it probably won't be as popular in 3 years (Even if they literally reverted any change players wanted) but it'll still be around and with a pretty good playerbase.

It would be nice if Riot would bring all the alternative game modes back, especially Ascension and Dominion. It's hard to stay interested in LoL when all we have to choose from is SR, TT and ARAM, where nearly all games are won at champ select.

ModCaptainMårvelous3 votes

[{quoted}](name=Lovelle II,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=EX4L2JUu,comment-id=0000000000000001,timestamp=2018-10-17T03:18:26.425+0000)

It would be nice if Riot would bring all the alternative game modes back, especially Ascension and Dominion. It's hard to stay interested in LoL when all we have to choose from is SR, TT and ARAM, where nearly all games are won at champ select.

And....the queues you list wouldn't be?

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have Ascension back (Dom not so much but you do you). Even so, there was definitely a meta with these modes. A meta is an inevitable fact of life when you have people play with an experiment in these modes. Even in fun modes like URF and Odyssey, there are certainly metas that develop (Garen/Vlad/Fizz/Zed/Ryze or the 1 Malph/4 Yas combo).

Lovelle II2 votes

{quoted}

And....the queues you list wouldn't be?

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have Ascension back (Dom not so much but you do you). Even so, there was definitely a meta with these modes. A meta is an inevitable fact of life when you have people play with an experiment in these modes. Even in fun modes like URF and Odyssey, there are certainly metas that develop (Garen/Vlad/Fizz/Zed/Ryze or the 1 Malph/4 Yas combo).

The only champs that really struggle on both Dominion and Ascension are marksmen and champs with stack mechanics like Veigar/Sion/Nasus, but even they still work, while the only ban-worthy champs are arguably Kass/Kha'zix/Maokai/Shaco/Teemo. Compare that to 3v3/SR, where if you're not playing a meta champion, you've basically already lost before the game began (as well as there being a significantly larger ban-worthy pool). Ascension and Dominion are the best maps by far if you just want to queue up and play whoever you want (without fear of getting one-sided stomped on).

GayFluffyUnicorn2 votes

You really overestimate the eastern audience. They aren't as loyal as the westerns and they won't endure riots bullshit for years as we have.

Exin01 votes

{quoted}

Wrong. No one is developing new mobas. League is here to stay as the top moba, followed by Dota 2. Will the player base slowly decline over time? Probably. It's been declining in NA, but league is a massive game with a huge global audience. The numbers in the east, especially in China, dwarf any of the numbers in the west. League is here to stay for a long, long time.

yes but riot is pushing league from moba to deathmatch arena to cater battleroyale fanbase which can kill europe segment and they can end it if drop too low while asia will remain fine. they should remain unique with slower pace and strategy and deathmatch leave to others ....

CIayman2 votes

{quoted}

likely other great mobas will hit the scene

Probably not. The MOBA fad is done. Everything that wasn't HotS, Smite, DotA, or LoL have all failed

Spanked eGirl2 votes

{quoted}

a lot can happen in 3 years though. and likely other great mobas will hit the scene. i don't think it will be a bad game I think itll just be because people will want to switch it up and try new things

Other MOBAs have already been coming and going, though. Outside of DOTA 2, still no MOBA has any staying power. Heroes of the Storm literally only caters to Blizzard fans and forces specials down playerbase throats to get people to play the game and its still on the fairly low end of viewers/players.

League went through a spike of players and is declining back to a more regular amount, league's "low numbers" are numbers any developer would dream of having on a regular basis. Thats really all it is. Will it last forever? definitely not, but people are thinking its gonna be super fast because there are vocal minorities. I guarantee at least 50% of the current playerbase doesnt even know these complaints exist.

ZT Xperimentor1 votes

We've seen a lot happen in one year, it's how we've been going downhill XD

PowerSlave9934 votes

How we know that Riot seeks more audience and people?

  • They aren't first on twitch by viewers anymore = put missions where people must watch LCS,etc. So that they raise their popularity again.
  • They are making ads on Youtube again...

League will only stay alive because of their damned LCS and because 80% of population is literally Chinese + Korean server. As long as they profit from China, they don't care.

5050BS3 votes

Yep its why we have this shit we have now. Asian market like a vastly different game then EN market and they have a massively bigger market then we do. So its $$ that drives the game.

Its not a game for us anymore. Just there is no replacement.. Yet.

PowerSlave9931 votes

I rather play Hots, wow , dota 2 than this shit.

KFCeytron3 votes

LoL's longevity has nothing to do with how fun it is and everything to do with how much revenue it generates.

...Which is down 21% since last year.

I'm sure it'll rebound.

XL BENCH PRESS2 votes

I thought WoW was going to be dead a long time ago. But it's still going strong.

Clockwork Mouse2 votes

Remember that Dark Souls still had a player base. And it doesn't update itself every other week

Leetri2 votes

People have said the same thing about World of Warcraft for years and that game's still going. League's obviously gonna be less popular, it's been out for almost 10 years, but it could probably go for another 10. Right now Fortnite is the go-to casual game, so people who only played League because it's "the popular game everyone plays" have moved on.

Śhunpo2 votes

WoW is pretty much dead in terms of its diehard audience.

TeCoolMage2 votes

at least it's a realistic estimation and not "league will die this year11!!!1!"

Or that fortnite will kill league xd oh god those were the days

Wilyum1 votes

Hey maybe it does maybe it doesn't have limited time left, even if it does I think they will maintain a playerbase in the East. Damage is too high I think which has to do a lot with the problems. They've begun to "Nerf" champions by buffing others rather than actually nerfing someone.

iDarkWind1 votes

I love how people act like that in the previous seasons such things as meta or even ridiculous unbalanced champions (like AP Yi used to exist or something(I didn't play at the mid, just heard of it)) never existed before. And ... "In the past you had to be world class to go from Platinum to Master, now you have to be worldclass to go from Silver to Gold.. Or at least it feels this way." No.

Disulfiram1 votes

{quoted}

whenever I play a game and any lane gets a lead the game is basicly done. I main jungle and try my best, but when the enemy is 0-2 before I hit level 3, it's almost always over.

Would making kill bounties an "over time" reward instead of an immediate one alleviate this problem? https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/y9EwUin0-kill-bounty-over-time-instead-of-immediately

Officially1 votes

To be fair, I believe that the player base is improving. I struggled much more trying to reach Diamond again this season compared to last season. There's a reason why players are able to have multiple accounts at the same/similar ranks. The skills learned translate throughout your games. Sure, there are some games that are actually unwinnable, but that happens and you have to move past that. I think JG has the largest impact in games right now. With good jungle tracking, you can easily invade, counter jungle, or counter gank the enemy jungler. Jungle is more game knowledge than mechanics. Every action should be met with thought. I found league to be much more tiring this season because I had to think much more than autopilot.

F Ù Ń1 votes

But here’s the thing. Riot is just one company that makes one game. They put in all their time into this game. The Art The lore, the characters, the champions, the world! Admit it, you play this game for the lore, and champions. This game, and universe has so much packed into it. Sure the base game is lacking, but watch a documentary on making new champs, and trust me, you will be interested

Mr Bob Boberson1 votes

If that were the case then you could just read the lore and watch the documentaries without having to play the game, I don't care if a game has little to no lore if the gameplay is fun then I'll play it, Which yes the gameplay is fun just not the balance and the only reason I bother with the game is because it doesn't make me angry anymore, Not because it's improved, Just because I somehow stopped caring

MutantVapes1 votes

Please excuse this randomness.. I just started playing a few months back, as did some of my friends. I believe LoL is just in a lull, not dying.

CHODES AND LOADS1 votes

people have been saying this shit for almost ten years now. every time the guy saying it thinks he really has some new shit figured out that nobody before him ever said. lmao

Cute Vegan Boy1 votes

The only way League will fully die is if a new MOBA that's on par comes out.

5050BS1 votes

In NA maybe. Asian seems to love the game and its direction.

Just means we need to find a new game and stop giving money to Riot.

This Popstar Kaisa skin is one of the things I think ruins the game and makes people blind to the stupidity of it.

Pay 15$ to MAYBE get the skin if you play matches. So unlike all the other skins you pay are not guaranteed the skin. WTF? Are people that stupid?

GBkiwi1 votes

Wish this game would be more about mechanics and skill , when I first started league I came from HON and it felt like casual mode - I was placed in gold in my promos and I didn’t even read my skills , I got mechanically sound from HON back in the days before skill shots had visual guides. Whenever I went back from league to hon - it would take me a few games to c/s property due to the difference

I also remember HON having higher mana costs so you had to budget your mana - these days in league unless your on a cass or something you don’t really need to budget your mana or even CD’a much

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