Is Riot trying to alienate their player base?

People have been saying for a long time every time something new is introduced to the gaming world, this new thing will be the thing that kills League. Some say it genuinely, some say it as a joke, but the fact of the matter is, the only way this game will die is if the devs kill the game themselves, and I feel like that is what is happening right now.

When I was younger, I played a lot of Runescape. I played the hell out of it. Something new would get released, and it would be cool as hell. Something fresh in the game, something new to do. Overtime, the developers tried and experimented with new ideas to make the game more interesting and more fair, in a sense. Some of these changes really angered a large mass of the player base. Free trade was removed, everyone was furious. Wilderness was made safe, people hated it. HP was now in increments of 10 (now 100) instead of 1, Evolution of Combat. I can go on and on. These changes over time each alienated a portion of the player base, causing more and more people to leave the game, until finally, Jagex realized they screwed up and made servers for Old School Runescape.

I feel like this is what Riot is doing with their game now. Lately, I have been thinking a lot about the changes that we have seen since the start of pre-season and I honestly think that the overall changes have not made the game any more fun or "fresh", rather annoying and simply, not fun.

RUNES When new runes came out, I thought they were interesting, being a Jungle/ADC main. The more I played different roles, such as Top, the more I realized just how exclusive and controlling these runes were. It really seems like these runes have too much of an impact on the game and too many match ups are decided on Runes before the game even starts. When Keystone Masteries were first released, I wasn't much of a fan at all (League of Thunderlord's) but I sucked it up because there was something for everyone and the rest of the masteries didn't have a huge impact, same with the runes. They were just there to give a small edge. Also, there were so many options for masteries and runes, that every champ was included, because you could just give your self bonus stats that are relevant to your champ.

CHAMPION POOL This is probably my smallest concern involving the new changes, but I feel it is still relevant. I feel like the viable champion pool in this game has drastically been reduced. There is pretty much a in every game, picked or banned. I never see never played anymore. I can go on, but there is too many. Before the new season, I saw a very wide variety of champions played all the time, a few of these I played a lot myself.

ZOE AND KLEPTOMANCY While these aren't a big deal anymore, I feel like they should be mentioned because they did contribute to alienation of players during the time they were relevant. These things go together mostly for the RNG aspect, but I'll talk about each separately. Upon 's initial release, I did not like the champion at all. There was not one desirable thing about her. Personally, I did not like the champion, aesthetically, but that is not a big concern, I'm not a baby, I can get over it. As UberDanger best described her, she was too "Disney" in a mostly "Anime" game. Regardless of her looks, I hated her kit even more. She was designed to be a one-shot champion. If she could land a Sleep Trouble Bubble (E) you were pretty much as good as dead, because her Paddle Star! (Q) would do so much damage, on top of her passive and the damage from the bubble getting popped, there was a slim chance any half squishy champion would survive. In my opinion, that is just bad champ design. What's the counter-play? Don't get hit by a skill shot? Besides that, she took advantage of Summoner Spells, special spells that you save to get an advantage in a good, or bad situation, and not to be abused by, basically, any champion. I feel this gave her an unfair advantage in many situations that any other champion would have no way to get the same advantage, specifically, flashing away when you were almost dead. It's useless against her, because she will pick up your Flash shard and flash right after you. On top of all this, she had and RNG aspect to her, liked to her W passive. In a competitive setting, there is not place for RNG. Everything should be fairly calculated and predictable. This is why CS:GO removed random spray patterns, and why PUBG will never be a proper E-Sports game. Too much RNG. This is why Kleptomancy was mentioned earlier. It has a heavy RNG aspect to it that I believe makes the game unfair. Of course, these aren't an issue anymore, as they have been heavily nerfed, (RIP in peace ) but they still played a large part in alienating a portion of the player-base.

BOT LANE INFLUENCE Not much to be said about this, definitely the biggest complaint I hear from people. Other lanes simply do not have a big enough influence to compete with what bot lane has right now. The only lane that can maybe compete with that is Jungle, witch has made me resort to mostly playing Assassins if I want to have any hope of carrying a game if my bot lane gets behind. A friend (top main) told me its pretty BS that a 9/0 can't carry a game but the enemy 4/0 can. I honestly can't think of a one patch fix for this because I don't think there is one. This is something that needs to be worked on urgently instead of buffing .

JUNGLE CHANGES This is the straw that broke my back. These changes sound idiotic. Dueling Junglers and Junglers with specifially strong level 2 are going to be extremely strong with these changes. This completely messes up my pathing on some champions. This is what will happen when you pretty much force interactions this early into the game. Junglers with slow early clears with basically be getting screwed. In the games current state, reducing a Jungler's influence in the game will only cause bot lane's to increase. The fact the Jungler's can't be there as much to support their bot lane means that it will be easier for one team to snowball with out an enemy Jungler to keep them in check. This change will also most likely push the island that is top lane further away from shore. The Jungler will have to keep the pressure towards the bot side to make sure that the enemy bot lane doesn't get too far ahead, causing top lane to just be left alone. This change should not be made, and I urge it to not be put through with all the negative feedback I have been seeing in the community since it's reveal.

There are a couple more issues I can mention, but I am not writing an essay. I think Riot needs to take feedback from their community more seriously instead of only looking at high-elo and E-sports and saying, trust us, we are right. All they are doing is slowing killing off their player-base just like Runescape did as I mentioned earlier. I hope Riot will catch themselves and make some big changes before I have to starting watching DOTA 2 championships. Blegh, the thought makes my skin crawl. I hope to see some big changes come the mid season update, but honestly, I don't like playing the game any more. I really only play it with friends for ARAM, or special gamemodes, or to just completely screw around in normals playing Jungle or some stupid crap. There is no more motivation to play ranked, and it really feels like a chore. I really feel like the game simply isn't fun any more and I have a hard time finding people that will play the game with me. Everyone is moving over to other games because they simply don't find this one fun. MOBA's are supposed to be the most refreshing experience in gaming, but seeing every game, seeing people barely live from my ignite thanks to Triumph, and seeing my bot lane feed and losing the game after going 20/4/24 on gets really old really quickly. This game dies with it's player base, and right now, it's not looking so good. This is my Get Well soon card, hoping that maybe some can catch a case of common sense. This is not me trying to shit on Riot and call them idiots and telling them what they need to do, this is me giving some honest constructive feedback into what I think is going wrong with this game. Having seen this happen before, I would hate to see it happen again to arguably, one of the most successful video game to have ever been created.

OTHER THOUGHTS I haven't looked into this, but a friend told me there were plans to change the Ranking system. Add 2 more Ranks, and reducing the amount of divisions from 5 to 4. I agree with this because the skill difference between low and high Bronze is so much, and the same can be said for Diamond. I also heard they were planning on having an individual ranking system for each role you play. This is so stupid. Do not do this for the love of god. This removed people's incentives to try when they do not get their main role. All you have to do is increase LP gain when you get Autofilled and badda bing badda boom, people stop AFKing when they don't get their role. Also, the guidelines on the side of the page has quote that reads: " Every mistake is a lesson". lmao