@Riot, Games are Going too Long! Two Suggested Changes to Give Teams More Tools to Close out Games!

tl;dr Give teams more objectives to fight over in the mid-game to lessen the stalling and confusion currently happening in casual play.

As Riot noted in the patch 5.1 rundown, games are - on average - longer so far this season.

The main reasons were addressed in the patch run-down itself (For reference: Look to around 5:30 to see discussion on game-length, but I'll recap:

1. Dragon no longer gives global gold or experience. The buffs effectively serve as substitute for gold, but the buffs take much longer to ramp up than people currently think. The first dragon buff was nerfed to 6% increased AD and AP, but that actually takes a long time to kick in. If your ADC has IE at 15 mins, has 175 AD, and 1st dragon-buff - they'll get a game-changing 10 extra AD - and that's ONLY on your carries who are actually building straight damage. The buff is way less useful to your support, top-laner, and jungler than the global gold and experience was in the early game last season. Moreover, garnishing further dragons after the first gives very little benefit - the 2nd to 4th dragons give very few combat stats. Moreover the 2nd buff (15% increased damage to towers) is particularly useless as teams aren't likely to be sieging towers till they have baron - much later in the game. The extra gold would be way more useful to extend a lead. As it stands now, Dragon is more of an investment in the very late-game than a tool to extend a lead.

2. Inner Towers and Inhib Towers are MUCH, MUCH harder to take. As pointed out - at the 20-25 minute mark, teams literally have nothing to do. Without baron, it is really hard to crack into the inner-towers of the enemy base without getting a pick on multiple enemy players, out-rotating them (not in soloQ lololol), or just being absolutely massively ahead. Since teams can literally just retreat inside their base walls and try to farm to extend games and hope for a throw from the enemy team - that is just what they are doing.

In general, I really LIKE the changes in season 5 and the new hyper-focus on objectives! It makes the game seem more strategy-oriented instead of being about which team gets the most kills during lane-phase (it still is to degrees, but not as much). However, teams need more objectives to take and fight over during the mid-game. In season 4 it was simple, if your team was fed on kills, the global gold for dragon, and the global gold from outer towers - just grouping and pushing inner-towers was a great way to extend your lead in the mid-game! Now pushing inner-towers is just WAAAAAY too hard. So here is what I suggest to give teams with early-leads more power to extend those leads in the mid-game. Or, conversely, teams that are falling behind power to catapult themselves back into the game!

1. Introduce new Dragon Buffs and/or change their ordering. As it is right now Dragons 2-4 give basically zero combat stats and are purely about increasing your objective control. In organized play, this is great! But in casual play, kills usually lead to objectives and not the other way around. Teams need combat stats to push their leads in soloQ, and the current buffs just don't do that for them. Here are some suggested changes to dragon: A. Switch the 2nd and 4th Dragon Buffs. This ordering makes no sense to me. Getting 2nd dragon increases your damage to towers when sieging towers usually isn't possible until later in the game. Moreover, by the time you get 4th dragon, teams don't need more pushing power on minions because carries usually do enough damage at this point anyways! Switching the order would give teams more power to push more lanes in the mid-game and to pressure their opponents more. Making this buff second would also give a team with 2 dragons a way to take Baron easier - and thus push more objectives. This ordering makes WAY more sense. B. Introduce a % resistances buff to Dragon Buff 2-4. This would make it so dragon is more useful on people who AREN'T building straight damage and would give your team more combat stats to push a lead. C. Introduce a % bonus XP buff to Dragon Buff 1 or 2. Levels are just as valuable as gold. Giving teams extra experience after taking dragon would give them more combat stats to push a lead.

2. Make Baron easier to take at 20 minutes, but nerf it's gold, minion bonuses, and experience at this time too. Add scaling as necessary to maintain its power as an important late-game objective. The entirety of the new tower set-up revolves around Baron. Baron is extremely powerful for the team that has it, but as it is now, it is just too hard to take early (even with the nerfs). Instead of making it so that teams that get an early baron flat out win the game, I suggest making Baron more of mid-game objective (especially since Dragon is more of a late-game one with the stacking system). The idea follows as thus - right now Baron gives melee minions 75% damage reduction etc. Reduce this buff if Baron is taken at 20 minutes, but let it scale up if Baron isn't taken till later. For example - melee minions now have 40% damage reduction if Baron is taken at 20 minutes, but 80% damage reduction if taken at 45 minutes. This makes Baron an actual contestable and important objective in the mid-game, but doesn't force teams who can't contest Baron into overly oppressive situations. Moreover, a team that is behind could sneak an early Baron, and use it as a tool to get themselves back into the game!

So there you have it, my two suggestions to make games less stale in the mid-game and to give teams more tools to close out games. It's not about just straight buffing teams with early leads, but about tying the ability to extend those leads to objectives (so strategy and objective-oriented play is still necessary to win games). Right now teams have nothing to do in the mid-game - leading to throws and games that just get stalled out way too long. Teams need more things to fight over in the mid-game to keep games shorter, and to better hone in on the new strategic focus of season 5!

Let me know what you think about the current state of objectives, game-length, and game strategy in the comments! What do you think about my suggested changes? I especially like the change to Baron, it would be way more fun to see teams taking this at 20 to 25 minutes and using it in the mid-game! Do you have some changes of your own you recommend? Do you think objectives are fine as it is? Let's get some theory-crafting going!