A Concern with the "Hashinshin" Situation

So, not sure if you've all seen, but Surrender at 20, the new patch and more are all starting to move things towards improving bruisers. The new keystone in testing, some buffs to bruisers and some likely more on the way. This is likely due in large part to Hashinshin. For those who have lived under a rock are unaware, hashinshin is a diamond+ top-lane main with a love of dueling champs for 1v1 play. He's somewhat infamous but in recent times he's become sort of a rallying point for people who liked bruisers. (Hell, the Jax bugfix on the patch notes is dedicated to him.)

See, the thing is Hashinshin has been very vocal about Riot's balance (or lack thereof) around toplane. It's gotten so bad that he's lashed out, told Riot to kill themselves, dedicated entire videos to arguing about the state of the game on top lane, etc etc etc. But this isn't about Hashinshin. Rather, I want to point a lens at Riot and ask them this:

"Is this how you want us to get your attention?"

Hashinshin had to make at least 5+ hours of content, hit the front page of reddit and be extremely vocal against Riot to the point of wishing harm upon them. It took other Rioters not even in the same field to sit with Hash and talk him down. It took a figure in the community who was very divisive with a handful of questionable moments in his history to make you look into this.

What this tells me is that as much as Riot listens, it takes some serious screaming to get them to act. And I get it: You have patch cycles, you have work hours and you have a lot of things on your plate. But is this the type of message you want to send? That players have to go absolutely brutal on Riot to get them to act?

At the end of the day, Riot, I think you might need to consider when is the right time to step in because it seems like the only way to cause change is less about how well-measured your post is and rather how abrasive, sarcastic and loud your message can be.

#Follow-Up Edit

Just gonna be picking out some popular arguments/points people bring up...

This isn't new, Hashinshin just complained at the right time!

Hashinshin's points stretch back a lot farther than just a few weeks/last two months. However, it's only recently that he started getting traction because of his passion, anger and overall dismissal of Riot. If you go back to earlier videos, he's still sarcastic but much more measured/calmer. This isn't a new thing but these lined up very close to him being furious and things actually being changed. Could it be a coincidence? Sure, but this isn't exactly the only time Hashinshin has complained. It's just the first time something seems to have changed due to it.

Yeah right, <bruiser keystone/jax bug fix/bruiser changes, etc> were int he works for ages

Perhaps. That said, consider how Riot addressed the top lane: Top lane got it's own section in the patch notes and has been a steady, constant talking point for the past few months. Riot, also compared to other times in LoL's history, has rushed to fix this in comparison. So we have a few possibilities:

• The complaints/arguments/ranting about top lane caused Riot to act quicker.
• The new patch schedule coincided as it happened.
• Riot has always wanted to fix top lane.
• Timing just happened to be really good right when Hash got louder.
• Any combination/none of the above.

Again, I personally don't see it as a mere coincidence. And sure, I'll take a bullet and say maybe it's not as large as I assume it is. That said, Hash's words still resonated and put top lane in the forefront. Which was the main point.

I don't see how this matters. Riot just made a change that synched up.

Now pull back and think about it from someone who was in the dark on league. Johnny Noob, who hasn't played in months/years, sees a huge section on top lane. "Oh wow, I wonder why top lane is getting it's own section, maybe a rework or class patch?" He does digging. And you know who he'll find? Why good ol' Hashbrown of course.

Regardless of how you slice it, some level of impact was had by Hashinshin. And because of this, he was successful in bringing up top lane to others. So what does this tell the person who is reading this all? Well, it tells Johnny that Hashinshin going ballistic and becoming a crusader for top lane got results. So say Johnny wants his jungler to be viable or whatever campaign you could want. Who do you think will be his role model for what gets done?

That's the core issue I have: Regardless of how great or small the impact, Hash DID have an impact that likely provoked change or sped it up internally. And is his style of argument the thing Riot wants to encourage?