Old School League

Hypothesis: I'm not the first to raise this suggestion, but I want to be the one to raise it in a simple and concise way - Maybe Riot should invert the meta for tank/bruiser/juggernaut and return to a style of play that was similar to the beta and season one style of game that made League of Legends popular in the first place: The nuker/carry meta that made it possible to consistently outplay opponents 1v1 during every phase of a match.

History/Perspective: Before kill streak rewards, huge health pools and armor bonuses forced the game to become a more team-centric game in every phase of the match, catching an opponent off-guard and getting one or two kills ahead set the tone for the match and rewarded aggressive and risky styles of play. People enjoyed this because the gratification was instant. Not only this, but the benefits of their quick wit and good decisions could be felt in every following minute of the match. Today, early victories average out over the length of the match and become more or less meaningless. At one time, many matches resembled those we see in LCS today: Shorter, more decisive, and more aggressive. The changes in the meta over the years have contributed to this long-haul style of match that insists that matches are only fair if the losing team is given every opportunity to come back and win at later and later phases of the match.

Main Point: The more rigid and team oriented this game is forced to become, the less fun each individual player will have doing what the meta demands they do to fulfill their role where snap decisions, aggression and luck accomplish less than trying to make it into the later phases of the match unscathed, whether one's team is in the lead or not. This being the case, this is a problem Riot ought to fix.

Supporting Ideas: To accomplish this, Riot could invert the meta. They could make tanks hard to kill early game and much softer targets as the match goes on. They could also remove kill streak rewards. This would cause a major shift in the incentives of the game: Early game kills would be extremely valuable, but so would early game tanks. In the laning phase of the game, you could all but win the match by getting a few kills -OR- you could all but lose the match by playing too aggressively and being caught by the tanks on the other team. The winner of the first phase of the game would have a much more decisive advantage to play from than they do today, which would not only feel more pleasant and epic to the victor but would reduce the amount of time the overall matches would take to complete. This cut-to-the-chase philosophy would inspire lots of early game fights and a focus on fighting to make a comeback rather than focusing on attrition and farming to stay in the match. Most importantly, individual players who get lucky or play their opportunities very well in this environment would have a much greater impact on the outcome of the game, even though multiple players on each team may experience this simultaneously. This would be refreshing and a nice callback to the original League of Legends experience.

Closing Thoughts / Post Scriptum: Of course the primary problem with all of this is that it will upset the fact that the game is balanced today around how players play in LCS and other higher levels of play. That's understandable and lamentable. However, LCS and Challenger queue will survive any meta changes because competitors will always want to win, as long as the game remains fun to watch and play for everyone else. What League of Legends cannot survive in the long-term is the game becoming less pleasant and less enjoyable for everyone else.

The reason why large audiences go from one multiplayer game to another over the decades (MUD's, Ragnarok, Ultima, Everquest, Unreal Tournament, WoW and now League) is partly because they lose the enchantment of a new thing, but also because older content that they enjoyed when they started playing is devalued or removed from the game. League of Legends has the potential of preserving all sorts of viable strategies of play that center around shorter more aggressive more 1v1 oriented fighting while still constantly adding tons of new and interesting characters that compliment and deepen the experience.

It's hard to predict the future but most major online games have about a 10 year life cycle, which means on the current course League of Legends has a 5 year run remaining at best without a serious sequel being released. However, with major adjustments back towards the individualistic gameplay and short aggressive matches that made the game the most played game of all time, League of Legends could be just as successful as it is today and still manage to stick around much longer than that. Everquest just released their 22nd expansion on November 18th, 2015, since their launch on March 16th, 1999. They have stuck to their formula, kept or improved things people liked about the game and done their best to constantly add new, fun and interesting things to do in the game for the long-timers. These are the people the game should be made for: The core fan base and veterans. Though they are not raking in the money like they were the first part of those long almost 17 years ago, they still have an extremely passionate player base who has ensured the game will remain successful. It was also a launching pad for two additional sequels, as well as lots of other games co-published by the original publishers, and a backstop for Sony Entertainment, one of the largest and most successful gaming companies on the planet. This is a pattern for success that both Tencent and Riot Games would be wise to take careful notice of and imitate now that their game is at the potential height of its popularity.

Really appreciate you reading this! Means a lot to me. Wish you lots of fun, in real life and online.

Sincerely, -S.M.S.