If they did, this game would be very different. It would probably be closer to the day and age where it was drawing in players faster than it was losing but I am willing to bet people are now leaving faster than new people are joining. And what do they keep doing? Nerfing things and making games quicker and quicker and quicker. Making things weaker, damage higher, and the matchmaking.....holy.
You...do NOT want this place's balance. As much as this place thinks it knows what it is talking about, it very VERY clearly doesn't.
We complained about crit and ADC's spiking too early Riot nerfed crit and increased costs
We complained about sheilding being stronk Riot is gutting their durations
We complained about bruisers sucking Riot adds conqueror
We complained about rengar and LB feeling clunky Riot reverted them
We complained about adc sustain Riot reduced FF heal
We complained about lvl 3 ganks before laners could reach it Riot nerfed jungle xp
We complained about damage Riot is adding damage reductiom items for tanks
We complained about solocarrying being harder Riot changed shutdown mechanic
http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/256/183/9d5.png
this post would make so much more sense if u just replaced "your opinion" words in the title... with "balance".
Nice covered "lol is dieing" thread.[zombie-brand-mindblown]
No offense, and I don't mean to sound like a white knight..... but..
Riot/Tencent have always been balancing the game around a 25 minute average game. You can go back to Season 4 and they literally had descriptions of each game type in the loader, and Summoner's rifts' Estimated Game time was listed as 20-30 minutes. So no. Games haven't got shorter.
I don't know enough to really guestimate which way League is trending player wise atm, because of several things; a) players getting banned/making new accounts skews friend list participation and b) Queue times are shorter, meaning the game still has significant demand.
I generally agree that Riot/Tencent's tendency to change the game so often during an open season hardly feels like an E-Sport. People always having to adjust to new changes seems to be the real objective of being able to rank up. Those who are inept at adaptation fall behind. Those who grasp all the ramifications of new changes climb and generally feel better about their gaming experience.
It's a gifted insight tbh, because some players will tunnel into a specific play style, and then a patch comes along that favors them, and then they climb a bit, learn a bit, and feel better about themselves.
However, that's not the general feeling of the community. Most players are inept to adapt at all. They give up on champs they once loved, and try to randomize their picks going into the future, which just makes their KDAs and MMRs worse. They get more toxic, and care less about winning than they do about being miserable.
Now..... further discussion on these points.
The game still lasts 25 minutes. It just feels like it went by in the blink of an eye.
You could be Faker level Mechanically, but if you aren't adaptive, you aren't going to be anywhere near his elo.
There's a reason he's not trying to pull 20/0 Le Blanc games. He knows that in her current scaling, he's better off playing with a team and using her as an HP harass button than a killer. He goes in, gets out, and sets up better odds for his teammates. In Season 4, He would have went for the kills himself.
That's kind of where I am on my champ roster. I know I'm not a Masters level player. But, I'm Adaptive, I know when I can and cannot kill someone, and all I try to do is change the odds of fights, and then get out.
That's why I run move speed 
rather than Aery or Comet. My Goal isn't to 20/10 Zyra. my Goal is to set up and feed my teammates a lot of those kills/save them from death, and then get my squishy butt out of there, and end up 8/1/20
will turn out to be an very important example of what I just described with Zyra and Faker's Leblanc. The reason Pyke isn't doing well win rate wise has nothing to do with his kit's potential. What it does have to do with: Players misinterpreting that potential.
The VAST majority of good Pyke players are not using his entire kit. They are just.... getting really good at using Q. He isn't built to go Q >E and them gamble on a W to run away. His HP gets popped often if he does that. You'll find yourself winning more with Pyke if you just casually keep your entire kit available to get out, rather than using it to go in.
And then there's the people who ignore the rest of his kit and then just stay in W as much as they can waiting for an R moment. That's what a lot of people do.... on a lot of champions. They don't try to enrich their ability to play their whole skill kit, because they have bad experiences with it, and then just .... let the game go by them while they're waiting for the right opportunity to use one skill.
Once people realize Pyke is not an all in champion, he'll be fine. He'll pull better than anyone in the game, set up more kills, and generally become a game tyrant like a well played LeBlanc or Zoe is..... not by kill hogging at the expense of deaths...... but by constantly creating situations where you chip a little off here..... a little off there.. and your team takes the hint.
(I'm playing Pyke in both Jungle and Support, so I'm getting a more enriching knowledge of him than just one play style. As a jungler you have a tendency to get addicted to E. As a Support, you have no choice but to Q. If you combine the two methodologies, you can create a monster who can counter a team full of Pyke Counters. I just S+'d vs 
earlier tonight....with 15/5/14.... and literally every champ on that team hard counters Pyke. I killed Kayn while he was in walls.... even though my team was feeding him)
