Adding Features To Support Competitive Play & The Meta
#Introduction
For starters, this post leans more towards the game itself than towards balance. I originally started my adventures in League of Legends at the very end of Season 2 and I have seen much of the game change over the last few years. Each season the Masteries change, champions are constantly buffed & nurfed, and new foes and items are released onto the rift. With all of the changes over the years the game has been shaped, almost forced, into the style and meta present today. For example, in season two and three you could jungle nearly any champion successfully. Today however, a few seasons later, junglers have acquired their own unique position within the game having their own jungle items with updated monsters which make it difficult to perform well with any champion that is not meant for the role. The same could be said for all lanes as the changes (buffs / nurfs) to items have been pointed for specific roles instead of pools of champions. To put more simply, Riot is creating a meta but they are not enforcing it.
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#Problems With Strategic Diversity
Ever since the beginning of Season 5 Riot has constantly been going on and on about Strategic Diversity. Every single patch note champions and items have been 'tuned' to give them more options for item paths and play styles. Basically I believe that "Strategic Diversity" would amount to making every champion a viable pick. The problem with this however, is that every champion has been designed to follow very strict and specific roles. Skill factor aside, not every champion can Jungle as well as another champion and not every champion can match up to another in a solo lane. No matter how much you modify or adjust champions there simply cannot be a point where every champion can do everything. In short, Riot's design of League of Legends goes against itself as they make champions for very specific uses then try to expand their uses in ways that they shouldn't be used to appeal to its player base.
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#Creating A More Player Friendly Environment
In the current state of League of Legends players are able to select any champion they wish into any role they would like to play. As for me, I'm definitely not going to lie about the fact that I'm a huge hater of the standard League meta. I play the worst things that every ranked player cringes at from Attack Damage Nami in the Jungle to AP Sona as a Top laner. However from experience I can also be the first one to tell the entire community how much everyone hates the players like me out there who think they're creative and come into a game playing something that just doesn't work no matter how good you are. This is exactly why I am here today creating this post! Just because something CAN be done does not mean that it SHOULD be done. In this respect I feel Riot is letting their community down. By allowing players this "freedom" of selection in a role oriented environment the first key to the door of player hostility is unlocked. With things as they are, no one benefits, and everyone suffers. The only way to create a more friendly playing environment in League is for Riot to finally grab Alistar by the horns and enforce the meta that they've created.
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#Reinforcing The Meta, The Correct Way
The biggest first step to eliminating the majority of toxicity in League of Legends comes down to ROLE SELECTION. How many times have you queued into a Ranked Queue, Blind Pick, or Normal Draft game mode only to have some other player refuse to give you the role you would like? Champions have specified roles and as such players should not be left guessing what role they're going to get forced into either. Before actually entering the queues player NEED to have the option to select what role they are queuing for. The role they queue for should have a DIRECT IMPACT on the available champions and summoner spells that they can choose from in champion select. For example, if a player queues into Ranked Solo Queue as a Jungle he or she should be REQUIRED to take the Smite summoner spell at champion select. I personally believe that other Summoner Spells should be assigned to roles as well, however that's just my opinion on this matter. A new system should also be implemented for champion trading to allow players to request automatic trades ( to ensure that the other player cannot forget to trade you). When trading you select TRADE and upon teammate confirmation both players are forced to select the swamped roles which are then traded automatically upon the end of champion selection.
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#More Suggestions
In addition to what I have posted above I also have a few other suggestions tailored exclusively towards Ranked Solo Queue that would drastically improve both player behavior & performance. As a player of lower ELO I constantly see the struggle of my team and enemy teams with unprepared and often toxic players and I strongly believe that there are ways to help prevent negative attitudes and behavior which runs ever so rampant within the community.
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Require players to WIN a minimum amount of Normal games with each champion before unlocking the champion in Ranked Solo Queue.
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Often times players 'first time' champions in ranked play, while in a pre-made this might be fine, this more often than not tends to have disastrous results in solo queue. By requiring players to "unlock" champions for ranked play through winning Normal or Team Builder matches Riot can help set new or inexperienced players up for success in competitive play instead of flaming and failure.
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Not only should players have "unlocked" (not just own) 16 champions but they should also be required to have unlocked at least TWO champions for each pre-defined role (Marksman, Support, Jungle, Mid / Top).
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Gives players MORE TIME after Champion Select.
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10 seconds is not nearly enough time to trade champions with teammates and adjust runes and masteries for various situations. Much more time is needed after the last champion has been picked. There's so many times that I've needed to adjust my masteries for my unpredictable teammates and haven't been able to that I can no longer count. When I am first pick Top lane and my team has no Jungle, 10 seconds is simply not enough time to react to the situation at hand. Things like this cost teams games.
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#Conclusion
While I'm sure there are many who will disagree with what I've posted, from my experiences in League of Legends I firmly believe that Riot taking steps to help enforce meta driven game play will take League to a much healthier state as a whole. Champion Diversity feels too artificial to have any real value and I hope there are others out there who can agree with me. Champions are designed for specific roles and instead of basing League on playing whatever champion you want, wherever you want, I hope that Riot will someday understand that League is a game that requires whatever champion a player wants in the role that they are designed for.
If anyone has any other ideas, suggestions, or comments please do not hesitate to respond!
Thanks for reading, and take care. :)