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The inevitable Deathmatch in ranked.

BojoGangster··4 votes·661 views

I've been around for a while, since season 2 to be precise. I remember the old days when someone just got fed and snowballed so hard. It was really easy to close the game early, between 20-25 min, even without a Baron.

With the years the game plan has kept evolving, to the point where getting ahead yourself is not enough to win. Back in season 5 with the death timers reduce it started getting even harder to make decisions. It was no longer possible to kill the enemy at lv 3 and then call your jungler to push the tower and capture that objective before 8 min mark, since the enemy laner had enough time to walk back. In season 6 the death timers early got reduced even more, and now in S7 i don't even know what's the point of even killing someone early.

I've reached diamond every season after season 4, and i've kept my standing untill the end of s6. The basic strategy was always to abuse weak lanes, get the early towers, get that gold and allow other lanes to get ahead. I've always used ranged/melee champions with incredible sieging potential, wave clear and gank power. I always tend to capitalize and get the early objectives.

The strategy that has worked for 3 seasons, the most straightforward ''push for the win'' now is simply not applicable anymore. This game used to be about taking the nexus, demolishing the inhibs etc. But the changes in season 7, more than any other season changed the objective of the game. It's not about the objectives anymore. Now, i'm not the kind of guy that just goes to a lane and sits there till they push inhib. If I'm top and i win it i'd roam mid and take that too (i would rarely go bot cuz that gives time for the enemy laner to farm 2 waves and maybe take my tower and come back in the game). If i'm mid i would always go bot and push it and viceversa. If i'm jung i would try to punish earlygame toplaners with aggressive picks, take their tower, after that i would just sit bot. In the vast majority of my games all the tier 1 towers are demolished by 12 min mark and a lane is pushed to the inhib.

So you would ask, ''if you're so good at taking towers early, why aren't you closing the games?'' Because it is not possible anymore, regardless of how many objectives you get, SOMEONE on your team, yourself included, will get caught and die if they overextend. If someone is ahead then most likely they will have a bounty and they will reward the enemy a huge amount of gold. BUT THAT'S NOT ALL, they will also give a portion of that gold to every member on the map, EVEN IF they DID NOT participate in the kill. Now this is a HUGE ISSUE, i think if a laner is extremely ahead and he gets ganked and dies, the bounty should be to the killer only, NOT TO ALL OTHER LANERS. The problem is that, even if u do push a lead (let's assume you're top), and the other lanes are even, if you get ganked (let's say by mid and jung) and you die, the other 2 people (bot) will also get awarded. In an even matchup, that extra gold could mean completing your item faster and win.

Now, maybe it's not a huge issue if it happens once, but during a full lenght game, shutdowns happen REALLY OFTEN, and that gold is spread all over the map. Nothing too bad right? well, that's the whole issue. people who did nothing got rewarded gold. Basically a person that is ahead isn't exactly at an advantage because as soon as they die everyone on the enemy side will get awarded. That bonus gold from that tower that you got early for your team is now nullified since once you die the enemy gets almost an equal amount from a shut down. I'm not even making it up, as soon as you are punished for extending a bit, EVERYONE on the enemy team gets a reward. Do you think that's how it should be? A passive lane getting gold for doing nothing. The other issue i have is that they can shut you down multiple times. If you're somethign like 6/0 and you die 3 times in order to win the really close teamfights (and possibly a tower), all times that you die will result in a ''shutdown'' and the enemy will get A LOT of gold from it. It will probably be enough to compensate for the tower they lost.

Let's get to the bottom of the topic. The way gold is distributed in this patch is just awfull. Probably death timers being low early is still OKAYSH to reduce the snowball power of early game junglers, BUT THE WAY GOLD IS BEING GIVEN AWAY IS NOT. I don't see why a person who did nothing should be awarded shut down gold and win his lane after that with that bit of advantage. What did the gold distribution lead to? well, it's simple. If you push a significant lead and you die, you lose your lead. So you have to play smart and careful and not die. Being carefull means giving the enemy team more time, Which means they will get their items, eventually, and it will inevitably come down to the team deathmatch. I just can't help but notice that all the game has come down to is the teamfight. To win, you need to absolutely destroy the enemy team in a fight and then have enough members alive to push the nexus.

Pretty nice right? More teamwork oriented you'd say?
I don't think that nullifying EVERY ADVANTAGE that a person can get and leaving it to the last man standing fight is an aproach that many people appreciate. It could be exciting in silver elo, maybe, when people have equal chance to play their favorite champion and kill other guys and get killed and laugh it out. But when you get a little higher on the ladder, it gets really annoying how you can be 3/0 on a jungler by 8 min and not be able to push a loosing lane and close the game. You mustn't die absolutely or everyone on the enemy side will benefit from it. You must wait it out, punish the enemy and force teamfights when they have 1 dead or low member recalling. And in that teamfight someone will die too, you yourself might die, and if you judge that the positioning of your team is not good enough you don't even join your team and let them die, someone misses their ult, someone gets outplayed, someone greeds out etc etc etc.. . teamfight has too much random factors to it... but it is the only route towards the game closure.

So my question to rito is, why did you change the game mechanics so drastically? It doesn't matter if u push anything, if u have objectives or not,if you're ahead or not, as long as you play for the deathmatch anything can happen and it can be anyones game. DO you think it's making people happier? Every single person who i have on my friend list and was master tier last season and played rankeds with me (i was d5-d3 previously before i took a break on june) now struggles getting past d2. Planning carefully, checking the jungle paths and what to push or what not doesn't matter at all. The game is just fight fight fight, make decisions on the spot, hope that the enemy Cooldowns are down (after 30 min mark it is VERY HARD to keep an eye on 5 people summoner spells) and yolo.

I think that what this season has done is improve the game for people who like to engage in fights and kill eachother (low elo) but has absolutely ruined it, even more than the last season, for higher elo.

7 Comments

Iabusemyminions2 votes

"I think that what this season has done is improve the game for people who like to engage in fights and kill eachother (low elo) but has absolutely ruined it, even more than the last season, for higher elo."

Actually it works that way in high elo too. You close out the game by hitting your mid-game two max item cap and then NEVER RETURNING TO BASE YOURSELF, just keep ganking them nonstop as a team, 5 Vs Less-than-five, because even though the death timers are low, 5 coordinated players can gank one of four opponents every wave.

With an emphasis on team fighting now, the only real problem here is mid-game siege champs are the best champs, and nothing else counts anymore.

You can tell it's this way every time you have to watch your team mate die, and realize you can't do anything but defend until ALL FIVE of you are alive again, over and over again.

BojoGangster2 votes

that's precisely what i mean, a high elo game (which has always been one sided > one guy gets fed early and his team relies on him, they push that lane and they close the game) now is nothing different than a game in, let's say, gold, where you just try to teamfight and the team that lucks out (i say luck cuz you cannot control the teamfight outcome by yourself, you need to rely on others too) pushes for the win.

Now don't get me wrong, games in diamond (actual diamond, not diamond 5) do get extended if an early team comp is facing a late team comp, and the early team does greedy calls. But if they do not, usually it's a really fast game.

I'm saying that, regardless of what you play, in this season, you have no other option but to fight the enemy team 5v5 at some point. You cannot finish the game before the ''early phase'' (1-2 item spike) is done. And trust me, it WAS DOABLE in the past.

6KEMBE4ORBA1 votes

You are right and at the same time wrong.

The culprit is:

Snowballing is out of control, one team gets lil ahead and/or flocks for clown fiestas in one lane at 6-10 min mark and risks everything which results in games being practically over by 15 min mark, 20 at most.

That's cause the game is way more straightforward/simple (in the bad sense), minimizing your options for what you can plan/do as a whole and especially while behind.

Also, the removal of green wards/minions changes which itself affects wave management/ and how that affects in a negative way early mid/midgame strategic choices and pushing/utilising advantages.

Now, 20/25 min mark is considered lategame cause Riot wants shorter matches, hence all the shitty continuous changes that add up and we see the results now.

You're right about the gold distribution, the 2 item spike and actually about everything except the reason of "cannot close out the game".

You cannot close out the game cause the best and only strategy to pave the way to push your advantage is to "deathmatch" as you said. All other strategic choices are diminished. Which also applies for the team behind.

In higher elo that disincentivize plays cause one little mistake can close out an even game.

Done251 votes

I can actually explain (what I assume) the logic behind the team wide gold on bounties to be.

Option A: All the gold goes to the person who killed them - They get a massive gold influx. Bounties would have to be lowered so as not to be so polarizing. Option B: Split in the same way that kill gold does now -The lion's share to the killer, and everything else split among the assisters. Supports and non-carry junglers might be forced to not participate so that top/mid/adc get as much gold as possible. Not as bad as option A, but a possible cause of team related issues. Option C: Current option. Everyone gets gold so that taking down a bounty always feels rewarding for everyone.

Option C is the most balanced and least problem causing option. Just imagine if, under option A or B, a hyper carry like Yi or Jinx claimed two bounties and suddenly jumped ahead of everyone else.

BojoGangster1 votes

If you have a huge bounty and someone shuts you down, in the past, all of the gold used to go to that person. Basically, you would need to pay attention to ONE ENEMY that got the gold and that is a potential thread. With the recent changes, the gold gets split among ALL ENEMIES, so you don't need to watch out for that one guy but for the whole enemy team. It is easier to manage one fed yi than having each enemy with an extra item (in the example you gave). The punishment you get is way bigger to the point having an early lead means nothing. One death and all enemy laners get rewarded. How is that fair?
The only thing you can do is wait for the enemy to make a mistake, which might not happen, and prolong the game to the later phase aka the teamfight.

Need Gold 4 Tent1 votes

As an unranked likely silver standard player, I did subconsciously notice a sort of benefit that came from my hobby of hunting down bounties. It was like somehow the teamfights started turning around gradually after each shut down, but never realized the bounty gold had such an effect. I thought that the tilted losing lane might have regained his confidence or something but turns out they probably just bought more items lol

Pierce The Veal1 votes

It's really annoying for me, and the highest I've been was gold for a bit. I don't olay much, so it takes me a long time to gain elo.

So I start ranking up, they change something, I don't like it, I quit. I come back next season without much time left and try to rise up, lose elo cause I need to learn the new tactics, then finally as I rise up, they change everything again. Rinse and repeat.

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