Why are features that Riot implements rarely, if ever, straight forward?
While the latest ten ban system appears to be quite a bit, shall we say, different than the idea that the community imagined it just got me to thinking: Why is it that when Riot implements a system it can never be simple? It seems every thing they do is mired in some type of roundabout complexity, intentionally vague or straight up secretive.
10 bans
Why not have everyone ban seperately in the ban phase? Or one team bans then the other? Or use the pro-play method, you know, the pro scene that this game is largely balanced around? Sure, on one hand, I'm glad that we have "10 bans" to some degree, but the implementation of this feature seems deceptive. It could be "10 bans", it could be as few as five. My point is that the community has asked for ten bans for a couple of seasons now and has suggested numerous, simple ways for it to be utilized and it almost seems as though Riot chose the worst possible way to bring the feature into the mix.
I understand the counter arguments; time spent in champ select being at the forefront of the discussion, but saving time at the cost of the player frustration or fatigue with the system doesn't seem like an amazing trade off.
Rotating Game Modes
When the community talked about their desire for a rotating game mode set, many of us were hoping for a system similar to that done by other games. The idea was that each week or weekend you would go down a list of game modes and cycle through until you reached the end of the list and start again. So, for example, if you have 1) URF, 2) One-for-all, 3) Hexakill, 4) Nexus Siege, 5) Ascension, 6) Legend of the Poro King and 7) Definitely Not Dominion that you would go systematically down the list 1, 2, 3, 4... and then when you reached the end it would ROTATE and start anew, 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. If a new game mode was introduced you could just place it in there that week/weekend/patch and then return to the cycle.
Instead what we got was a non-ordered, weighted, game-mode feature that does the near opposite of rotation. Some game modes are over represented; such as Ascension, Legend of the Poro King and Nexus Siege, while others (and arguably the more popular modes) such as URF and One-For-All are almost never seen. In the case of URF it hasn't been in the RGM since the end of May 2016 (Not including ARURF because that, in my humble but accurate opinion, is a mere bastardization of the mode I love) and One-For-All has been out of the rotation for almost 8 months now.
Why not simply rotate them in that simple manner that many have suggested? Why complicate it?
Ranked Ladder & Elo
A long time ago... or at least back in Season 1... ranked/competitive play was a bit of a different animal. When you played ranked games you simply saw a number associated with your summoner name which was your Elo. This was a direct representation of where you stood on the ranked ladder. There wasn't a League Points system, it was simply a direct number that was your MMR. If you won then the number went up, if you lost then the number went down. The fluctuations depended upon a number of factors, but mostly how many games you had played and the quality of the opponents that you faced. It was simple, straight forward and not the least bit convoluted.
Now, we have a system that is overwhelmingly cluttered and ultimately complex for no reason. You're in Gold 5, 12 LP, but what does that really mean? Sometimes when you win, you'll get 25 LP, sometimes you'll get 13---this goes for your losses also, sometimes you lose 12, other times you will lose 26. Now, naturally the explanation is that "you will lose more LP than you gain if your hidden MMR is too high according to the system? Alternatively you will gain more LP than you lose if the system is trying to boost you to the MMR that the system believes you should be. What the actual fuck?
Why make the matchmaking system so convoluted? Why do players have to guess where they should be, what their actually MMR may be? Why not just tell them... wouldn't that be easier?
And what is with these divisions that you're placed into. Ahri's Mercenaries? What's the point of thses Leagues? No one, to this day, has ever been able to satisfactorally explain the purpose of this feature. Many have asked me about it and I go back to Season 1, but the only explanation I can offer is... "because Riot".
League Client Update
In many ways the new League client is dramatically improved over the Adobe Air predecessor. It is generally more organized, easy to use and displays everything you need while giving access to the stuff you want in a fairly direct way. Good job, Riot...
The problem: The Client is still incredibly buggy and on many computers has performance issues. Mine, for instance, runs perfectly unless I leave it open for 12 hours or so, at that point the audio begins to clip/stutter and gets worse with each subsequent game and use of any audio within the client. I've reported this numerous times over the last 6-7 months, but apparently it has fallen on deaf ears as the problem still persists. In addition, some of the features from the Legacy client are still not added to the new client. Why roll out an incomplete product? This just seems like a rushed move. Like many of hte other problems I've outlined, why not take the time to get the bugs worked out before doing a mandatory roll-out of the client?
I'm not unsympathetic, I know the old client had a lot of issues, but it's never good to solve a problem with a problem.
AUTO-FILL
I understand the need for auto-fill in high Elos to ensure that queue times don't get disproportionately out-of-whack. I suppose I'm having a hard time understanding why the need for this feature in Platinum and below. Queue dodges have gone up exponentially this season because of auto-fill and in-game health has declined (at least to a small degree) because of this feature. You can't tell me that forcing people to play roles for which they are less adept or accustom is going to have anything but a negative impact.
I bring this up in this thread because Riot has remained incredibly quiet on the topic---much as they were with regard to Dynamic Queue in season 6. While Riot is very quick to respond to more casual or trivial threads, they seem to be much less inclined to comment on the overall game health surrounding autofill. Why the secrecy? Why the silence?
Despite my many issues stated here, I think Riot does a good job in many areas and, despite the awful community, the game they have created is obviously incredible. I'm just not sure why there's so much secrecy and complexity in areas of the game, competitive ladder and communication where it need not be. It would just be nice if we knew our Elo, played the same game that the pros do (at least in the competitive/ranked mode) and had some open dialogue about overall game/community health rather than a few sprinkles mixed into the pile here and there on Reddit (which isn't even your own website).
