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Well everybody is posting this video to explain why RIOT balances that way

KaisadiIIa·2/21/2015, 4:13:28 AM·40 votes·3,023 views

Maybe I'm the only one that realized that RIOT is doing exactly the opposite to what this video talks about. This video explains that "cyclical imbalance" requires:

  • Champions to not excel at everything no matter how good you are, and always having answers to everything: Well, RIOT is doing the opposite, they want champions to be able to counter everything and react to everything as long as the player is good enough (what they call now "counterplay"), and every new champion brings more overloaded kits that is very good at almost everything.
  • When a champion or strategy gets popular, you don't touch it and you let the players look for counters and figure out new strategies: Again, RIOT is doing exactly the opposite: as fast as something gets popular, they insta-nerf it. I still don't know how so many people think that champions like Syndra are "suddenly" op when they have been the same for 3 years. RIOT is confusing "X champion excels AT THE CURRENT META" with "X champion is OP".

47 Comments

GloriousKaiser2/21/2015, 4:26:33 AM20 votes

Except for the fact that the cyclical imbalance happens on a very warped scale. The very 20 top champions stay in that position for a while. If counters were available, they would have been picked already. The counters however don't have the tools or abilities to strategize against the top 20 types of champions therefore creating a stagnant meta.

Also, even when cyclical imbalance happened throughout the history of League. Who was always relevant? Who always was picked and was thought to be the most necessary part of the team? That's right the ADC.

I mention ADC because it was the balanced aspect of LoL. The one who needed protecting but would end up closing out your game as long as you kept him rolling ahead. Sure there were other methods to the madness but the optimal play style of the game permanently ensured pretty much forever now that ADC is bot with a support and so it goes. Stagnant meta, never shifting. The Balanced aspect is terribly imbalanced.

Riot now tends to nerf counters and doesn't cyclically balance so much as they do whack-a-mole things that happen to break meta. Riot is trying too much to sustain the current meta which IMO is extremely unhealthy. Both the meta and what they're doing to keep it alive.

Ðucktales2/21/2015, 4:34:40 AM7 votes

this is why we cant have what you want. this is the team at riot 100% imo.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yYzsdBzzho)

Remlap12232/21/2015, 7:08:22 AM6 votes

Well needless to say Extra Credits shouldn't be taken seriously. They are factually incorrect most of the time. Not only that, perfect imbalance perfect only in theory, much like Communism and deep fried double bacon cheeseburgers.

IcyPepper2/21/2015, 4:26:56 AM6 votes

bruiser top mage/assassin/basically any nuke mid duelist/bruiser/cc jungle support/adc bot

If you don't follow what's "allowed" in the meta, you instantly get raged at.

I don't like it. :/

Talamare2/21/2015, 5:25:39 AM3 votes

Riot isn't "enforcing" the meta

They are sculpting it. They are specifically creating a meta they want to see. If you do not fit into their image, if players try to place a champion in their perfectly crafted meta. They will remove that champion.

Major Sparkles2/21/2015, 4:15:46 AM2 votes

I agree.

Kaipop2/21/2015, 1:49:19 PM2 votes

they just change things that don't need to be changed... for example they keep nerfing sona

The MechE2/21/2015, 3:32:31 PM2 votes

The new champions don't excel at everything though. The problem is that the item system covers weaknesses that shouldn't be cover-able though.

They could learn from Heroes of The Storm.

Borbland2/21/2015, 3:50:52 PM1 votes

It's not a problem of balance or imbalance. It's just a (strategy) game gets boring fast if no new content is added.

LoL would be still very fun even at full balance, cause of 120 champions and regulary new content comming out.

You rarely have the exact 5 same champions vs the 5 same champions, so each game feals fresh, except when stuff like Lee Sin or Zed becomes dominant, then it gets boring cause it's starts getting the same.

Spacesuit Spiff2/21/2015, 5:11:59 PM1 votes

We don't actually get cycles of FoTM arising from this, we get it from the patches. You get people playing the OP stuff, and maybe 10% start playing counters to those, and nobody's going to bother to learn the counters to the counters because they're all just copying their picks from LCS anyway.

I have seen ONE possible example of what the video talks about, and it's the most inane thing ever: pink ward placement. For the past year, the prevailing wisdom was "pink one of the little river bushes", so by now most people know to check that bush. Hence, savvy people will start pinking something else. Foxdrop made a video recommending hiding it in the enemy red jungle now, so if that catches on that'll be the spot people check, and we'll keep getting cycles like this.

Why is it only the pink wards that can have a cyclical meta? Because they aren't changed every patch, unlike the lanes.

Mandang02/21/2015, 9:06:05 PM1 votes

Everyone jerks it to this video, but they fail to realize that it's not the most applicable here (for the reasons you've listed, among others).

Also, the imbalances they speak of in the video are very different in nature than the imbalances people complain about in league.

Boulderox2/21/2015, 9:34:16 PM1 votes

Except you hit a wall in certain scenarios, champion A has a lot of damage and mobility, ok what counters them, hard cc, and damage. but if you can't reach them for that you need mobility too, so you need mobility to counter mobility so you can apply cc and damage. Ahri with her q speed up and r get out of jail free card without a stun, now every laner vs needs = mobility and/or a quck hard stun to stop her.

Mobility is the reason why i think the game is imbalanced, if you have no mobility, you DON'T get play, thats why 4 adcs are fought and banned over, back in season 4 it was lucian vs tristana, or jinx, or corki. all have a get out of jail card (jinx has a slow and hard stun which imo makes up for the dash/jump and a MS steroid on kill or assist). And the only way to beat them is to play the champ that does the same thing, but can do better than the other. Which is a huge problem i find with the game.

The idea of true balance will never happen and i know that as there is no way you can put 120+ champs at the same level of play. But making champs STOP being so damn mobile and able to run away does not make the game fun, just annoying. If i plan and catch out a nidalee, she should not be able to hop over a wall without busting flash. She was on uneven fields, was ambushed and got away without any reprocusions as that skill is just a cooldown.