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Watching LCS/LCK really highlights some of the problems in this game

xJLx MCHammer··2 votes·443 views

In my opinion, games shouldn't always be balanced solely for the top 1% but if you observe games played at the top 1%, you can see all kinds of bad designs in games. No, it's not just League of Legend. Starcraft 2 at one point (when it was popular) had an entire pro league tournament end in less than 4 hours of actually game time because of game design. Players couldn't concede at 7-8 min of the game because of how cemented the rock-paper-scissor meta was

Watching LCS and LCK this weekend shows glaring problems that Riot has continuously ignored for various reason like wanting their games to end quicker. We all remember 60+ minute games with no action other than clearing wards. So Riot went out of their way to make games quicker by doing small changed over time that are becoming a problem.

  1. Tower are SO weak right now. Just this week in LCK (SKT vs LZ), a Kalista was diving a mid laner.... took 4 shots, lost a total of measly 25% at 14ish minutes. Even the Caster was saying, something along the lines of "yeah, we should not be seeing a Kalista tower diver a lane to just farm". Towers are pathetically weak that it's considered hard to outplay a 2v3 under your own turret. Just today, a caster on LCS (TSM vs DIG) was congratulating the bot lane for being able to outplayed a 3 man tower dive at 15ish min. It just goes to show you how weak towers are.

  2. Constant buffs to Support items like ardent instead of legitimate nerfs. The intention is to give supports play making but this has only given ADC champion even more power early and mid game to either survive to thrive when by design they shouldn't be doing well early game.

  3. Baron SUCKS! Riot wants games to end quicker sot at 20 minutes, two people can solo it. Late game, certain champions can solo the Baron or even the Elder Dragon. This is even quicker if you get lucky with a few dragons. These are supposed to be team objectives

  4. Refusal to nerf certain champion in fear of making games longer. They rather buff a item or champion rather than nerf another champion. Overtime this creates a powercreep. For example, Instead of nerfing, say a problematic champion like Trist to being in line with the other ADC's, they have been buffing other champions like Sivir in small doses. Make no mistake, they will nerf certain champion that are problematic in terms of game length, like Azir, Ziggs, Viktor who were able to extend games.

And Riot with all the wisdom has tried to do idiotic band-aids. Instead of addressing the problem, they have done things like rework item 1054 hoping this enables champion to survive more in lane so that games does not end AS quickly as they have a few patches ago. So now you have a late game meta in a game that is designed by Riot to end early. You now have champions who are hitting late game spikes at 20 minutes; you can now witness all lanes picking late game champions Chogath Zac Cassiopeia KogMaw Thresh and artificially survive with a item 1054 which has prolonged the game length. Once Doran's shield is nerfed or (more likely) other items are buffed to match it, you will see game length drop even more. Even the LCK caster had to make a statement in SKT vs LZ that we are in meta with late game picks

1 Comments

PixelPicksTW1 votes
  1. The TSM vs. DIG 2v3 outplay was not at all due to turret aggro, it was due to rageblade stacking on DoubleLift's Kog'Maw (if DIG went under turret AT ALL, they only took one shot). Turrets are meant to keep waves from pushing into excess, not to one-shot the enemy team. If a Kalista can turret dive someone that early and only lose 25% HP, it is a problem with the matchup, not turrets.
  2. The buffs to support items were an attempt to shift focus from tank supports to utility supports (which can be seen with Rakan being a frequent LCS pick and Janna being the top Ranked Support currently). ADC's main presence is in the late game, but that doesn't mean their early and mid game is useless (or even bad). Simply put, the buff to support items isn't a flaw in the game because it doesn't cause a problem.
  3. Baron is still incredibly useful (and has been for a very long time now), able to win or lose games depending on the plays taken around it. In normal play, it isn't taken as much as in competitive play. While your reasoning says that players would take Baron if it was more relevant to the team, I counter with the statement that Baron is relevant to the teams that take it. Those teams that take Baron often tend to make use of the buff. Very few champions can solo the Baron, and the point is that it is such a highly desired buff that it shouldn't get soloed because teams focus their attention there. (Baron has a passive that lowers MR, a design made so that a team was encouraged to win a fight before taking it, not taking it with the risk of being picked off)
  4. Their refusal to nerf isn't out of fear of long games. Often times, it is because it is unwarranted. Champions like Tristanna have a very weak early-game presence, and are thus pushed out by early-game ADC's (like Xayah). A main reason they are buffing ADC's instead of nerfing them is due to the current tank meta. Riot wanted to create engaging tank items, and as such created such a versatile item set that tanks became incredibly useful. Rather than rewind all of their work, Riot has decided to give a small bump to the damage-dealers. (Also, Viktor hasn't been nerfed to oblivion, he was played in LCS)
  5. A late-game meta is not a problem. Late game metas simply mean that teams must make calculated decisions early to ensure their success later on. Late game is incredibly important, and having teams based around it is perfectly normal. (Games are averaging about 30 min playtime, about which time most people have finished most if not all of their items. 20 min is not early game {albeit a short end time})

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