Balancing in the divisions
We all know the game is mainly using Diamond division players as a "neutral balance" area. It seems kinda funny that professional play is balanced around a lesser division's skill level. Why is it that professional play is the skill level that the game is ideally balanced for, but not balanced in? Secondly, Diamond division players significantly play a completely different game from Bronze division players. I get the thinking behind it, Diamond seems like a happy middle ground for pro and bronze, but is it really?
First off, let's look at some basic knowledge around balancing League of legends. When it comes to sheer population numbers, low ELO has the most hands down. But when we look at skill level per player, pro tier win out big time. So we're left with either the unskilled masses or the extreme competent few. Focusing solely on the competent few would be ideal in terms of true balance for a champion / META / item. However, the cost for that would be an unbalance for the unskilled masses, and the same case would happen vice versa. So to work around this, the current balance is around Diamond division . There are 8(9) divisions of ranking in LoL. They are:
- unranked,
- bronze,
- silver,
- gold,
- platinum,
- diamond,
- master,
- challenger, 9) (and by extension professional) So by balancing around the 6 place division, there tends to still be a bit of unbalance in the lower ELO range.
Now, what most players do not think about is that there are more than just your region when considering what is balanced and what is not. For example, what is balanced in Korea might not be in NA. So that needs to be taken into consideration as well. I believe this is a major part of why Diamond is chosen over Platinum in terms of what is the balanced middle ground. This was usually OK in past seasons, but season 6 is not like the other season.
Dynamic Queue changed the game's balancing algorithm. Back when there were 2 ranked queues, Solo/Duo Queue and Ranked Teams Queue, Diamond division was what seemed to be where most players were working as a collective team most of the time when compared to bronze, silver, or gold in which most players played the solo game. However, with dynamic queue heavily promoting team based play, most players hit that group mentality much earlier than Diamond. But how is this relevant? Working as a team, in any form, is better than going solo in League of Legends. And how well a champion synergises with another is a part of balancing. So team play is a direct component to balancing. However, the game has not seemed to have altered its balancing algorithm for this. Diamond still is the division for "ideal balance" even though what had set it apart is less of a factor now.
My idea is to lower the "balancing bar" to Platinum. Platinum is a true middle division (5 is closer to half than 6 is since there are 4 divisions lower and 4 divisions higher). It is both strong and weak at the same times in terms of skill level. Plus, it is the middle ground for premade ranks for team balancing as well. Games now at least have 1 duo, but mostly, they now have 2-3 premades. So teamwork is very present at all ranks, and the SOLO mindset is dying out with the absence of solo queue. By lowering the balance to Platinum division, we not only allow for more balanced champions / METAs / items in lower tiers while also not heavily affecting the Professional scene since they are more influenced by individual player skill than champions / METAs / items being balanced. This does not mean that they are not influenced, but they are less influenced since their elevated skills can semi-counter the imbalances.
