Boards›Gameplay

Luck in League of Legends

SirChancelottt·11/24/2017, 1:26:59 AM·5 votes·1,489 views

Hi all! I'm an aspiring Game Designer and I've been doing some super in-depth game studies in my freetime and I came across a topic that I thought was interesting: luck in a competitve team-oriented game.

From the RNG of who you're matched against to critical strikes to elemental drakes, luck deffinitely exists in League of Legends. So what makes it different from games like Hearthstone, and what tools are we given to play around this fact? In short, I'm not entirely sure yet. But I do know that League of Legends thrives around the complex decisions that must be made using imperfect information. This is the essence to LoL's gameplay in my opinion.

Information is deffinitely important. This is why things like crit and elemental drakes work: you are given the information ahead of time and it is up to you to decide how to play from there. On the other hand, the newest champion Zoe seems approach the standard luck:skill ratio a little differently. Specifically her W and the way minions drop shards. In my opinion, I would like both players to be given the info on what the shards contain so both players are given more choices to make other than the standard flight or fight scenario. While this might take away some great moments from the Zoe player (both players at half hp, zoe gets hextech from minion and all-ins her opponent), I feel as if this would improve both player's experience.

In regards to other forms of luck in League of Legends, it becomes neccessary to say that in games, most of the time, "luck" is only present due to the lack of attention the player has paid to the situation. Which is why there are professional Poker and Hearthstone players around. League of Legends is incredibly complex and at higher levels of play, certain aspects of the game become much more important than others and the "perfect imbalance" [-Extra Credits, Youtube] concept is delivered masterfully. Even if I do still hate Teemo's guts. :)

Feel free to leave your own opinions and observations! I was thinking about this while I studied the core game design philosophies behind League if Legends and I felt like sharing those thoughts with you guys!

10 Comments

Ok sure but why11/24/2017, 3:31:02 AM2 votes

80% crit and only critting 20% of the time? Flashing in to last-hit someone only for him to level up right at that exact moment? Picking Udyr into a team of 5 people that can all dash away and cc you? Playing on Red Team? Getting camped in lane all game long? Getting the angry feeders whilst playing against plats? Playing Co-op vs. AI mode and having all five bots focus you and only you for the entirety of 7 consecutive games to everyone's astonishment?

Yeah, that's literally me and my life.

BUT, there are three elements to the game and not two: Skill, Luck, and Balance. Balance can get pretty gnarly in the rift, too.

Quepha11/24/2017, 1:54:40 AM2 votes

Your poll implies that luck is objectively bad and inversely related to skill, yet adaptation to varied situations is itself a skill and games of pure luck and chance are incredibly popular.

i cant move wtf11/24/2017, 3:56:40 AM2 votes

Why frame a Zoe salt thread as a research project?

redniwediS11/24/2017, 1:51:05 AM1 votes

To me it feels like the luck in League provides a path of least resistance for you when it is in your favor, but it doesn't feel like it makes winning impossible if it stands against you. The enemy team getting three infernal drakes is definitely a problem, but it's a problem that can still be overcome with proper coordination.

I'm not really sure how to view crit simply because of how long I've played games that have it as a mechanic, it just feels like a natural thing that luck has very little to do with. Sure it's still a chance, but it's a static chance that rarely seems to make or break a situation outside of games like D&D, where a critical success can happen. In League it's just bonus damage that you end up trying to maximize anyway.

deadlychuck11/24/2017, 6:39:44 AM1 votes

Want a luck based game of league? Play blind pick.

There's an overwhelming chance that the game will be decided at load screen because of team comps.

This is probably the worse aspect of luck to exist in league. While some small elements are ok to have large luck influences, you should try to avoid the influence of luck on aspects which are as large scope as something like champion select. This isn't me saying that riot should remove blind pick. This is me saying that riot shouldn't be designing the game in a way which makes your champion more an overwhelming aspect of the "strategy" of the game.

If the game is skill based, then champion select is not the location to express skill, and as a result should have as little influence over the game as possible. It's the most uninteresting part of the game. While it's interesting on an e-sport level to see what kind of tools the team will be taking into the match, on game design level it's an absolutely terrible decision.

Big Juice11/24/2017, 5:03:28 AM1 votes

i got gunblade level 3 from my w and just instant killed the guy at 60% health. Just remove the ability to get them from minions and shes still fun and nothing has really changed about her.

PhantomGG11/24/2017, 2:02:37 AM1 votes

I would like to add a third option

"not much luck, but the luck that happens against you really hurts"