maybe even earlier, late s6/early s7. from around that time Is when I started questioning their balance decisions. Not sure what had brought it on though I think what had intentionally made me question them was patch 6.13 where kindred got gutted. I waited for months for buffs but none came. When did you guys start questioning their balance?
edit: oh jesus, so many comments! scared me cause I forgot what I had posted o-o;
AquariusGine51 votesSame as you, around early/ mid season 7 something started feeling off. They became more arrogant, refused to listen to the playerbase, rarely communicated with players and made decisions solely based on profit and personal hunches. God FORBID Gangplank ever be weak in any meta because he's their golden child.
Examples:
How does Lux get an ultimate skin and new skin so close to the previous release date while Aurelion Sol has only two? Because Lux= $$$. Ahri=$$$
The heavy snowball meta where it isn't uncommon to see games go 1-17 or 10-33.
The skewed matchmaking where one team has 4 golds while the other has 4 diamonds. The most frustrating part is they NEVER ever comment on threads that discuss unfair matchmaking.
Buffs that break champions overnight. 
Nonetheless, they have done a few good things though such as finally giving Cassiopeia a skin after forever and reverting Rengar Q.
In terms of balance, I think people working on the balance team come and go all the time. Sadly, the current balance team have a different philosophy than the old ones (Morello etc). They are also more arrogant for some reason. League will start going downhill if they don't stop squabbling over who has the best idea for breaking the meta.
Have you seen the thread by MaliciousMetal on Mordekaiser? Certain champions are just forgotten because they have a small playerbase. 
wildfox9918 votes
- How does Lux get an ultimate skin and new skin so close to the previous release date while Aurelion Sol has only two? Because Lux= $$$. Ahri=$$$
while i agree about lux because she already had an ultimate and epic skin,this meme about ahri's skin is really getting annoying,she got arcade and SG skins because she was missing a leggendary skin (she only had 750rp skins) and there were a lot of fan arts
she have 8 skins,about 1 per year,and all other old champions have about this number of skins (if not more)
alistar 10 katarina 10 ** annie 11** amumu 8 gragas 10 kog maw 10 . . .
and yet i've never seen anyone complain when they got some skins,i understand ahri is so hated on these boards so everything is good for complaining about her,but at least let me say that it becomes annoying after you hear it for the 1000th time
Evil Bisex Plant4 voteswhile i agree about lux because she already had an ultimate and epic skin,this meme about ahri's skin is really getting annoying,she got arcade and SG skins because she was missing a leggendary skin (she only had 750rp skins) and there were a lot of fan arts
she have 8 skins,about 1 per year,and all other old champions have about this number of skins (if not more)
alistar 10 katarina 10 ** annie 11** amumu 8 gragas 10 kog maw 10 . . .
and yet i've never seen anyone complain when they got some skins,i understand ahri is so hated on these boards so everything is good for complaining about her,but at least let me say that it becomes annoying after you hear it for the 1000th time
The only meme about Ahri skins is what you just said. You are basically saying 8 skins are not that much LMAO, that's like double more than average. "Oh but her skins are only- Yeah, and other champs' skins are only not existing, why do we even complain, right? We should be glad, because that means that we'll get a legendary skin soon too, righ- oh, wait, no, that works only in Ahri's case!
wildfox996 votes[{quoted}](name=Evil Bisex Plant,realm=EUNE,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=TKBANlsh,comment-id=000100010001,timestamp=2018-01-29T22:04:29.125+0000)
The only meme about Ahri skins is what you just said. You are basically saying 8 skins are not that much LMAO, that's like double more than average. "Oh but her skins are only- Yeah, and other champs' skins are only not existing, why do we even complain, right? We should be glad, because that means that we'll get a legendary skin soon too, righ- oh, wait, no, that works only in Ahri's case!
pff,why i'm that masochist to answer such a random whine?
since reading is too hard (maybe because i'm not mother tongue so it's hard to understand) i'll say it again,she have more skin than others because she got relased before others,so if everyone gets skin (averagely) with the same frequency ofc she have more skin than newer champions,like older champions such as katarina have more skin than her,as i said she got about 1 skin per year which is not too much,plus making a skin concept for her character is way easier than many other champions
other champs are reciving their skins (thought it's riot business,if making a lux skin it's easier and make more profit,why they shouldn't do it?!?),but you can't expect illaoi,kayn or zoe having the same number of skins of a champion relased 7 years ago
Somebody Love Me10 voteswhile i agree about lux because she already had an ultimate and epic skin,this meme about ahri's skin is really getting annoying,she got arcade and SG skins because she was missing a leggendary skin (she only had 750rp skins) and there were a lot of fan arts
she have 8 skins,about 1 per year,and all other old champions have about this number of skins (if not more)
alistar 10 katarina 10 ** annie 11** amumu 8 gragas 10 kog maw 10 . . .
and yet i've never seen anyone complain when they got some skins,i understand ahri is so hated on these boards so everything is good for complaining about her,but at least let me say that it becomes annoying after you hear it for the 1000th time
Forgot to mention Draven, when he got Draven Draven and Beast Hunter within like 3 months of each other, and no one batted an eye. Or When Yi got Cosmic Blade and Sacred Sword within 6 months of each other, and it's okay, but god forbid Ahri get a skin per year. Hell, Jhin got two skins in one year, and people praised it.
It's funny, because Ezreal and Ahri got their past two skins together: Arcade and Star Guardian, but the boards bitched about Ahri, but not a single word was mentioned about Ezreal, unless it was by me.
ninjaroxas7 votesI'm still upset that lux got that lunar revel skin other someone like tailyah(might be slightly biased)
It Hertz When IP7 votesNot gonna lie, sometimes I forget Taliyah exists.
revliledpembroke8 votesThe balance team is not the skins team. The Lux/Ahri skins have nothing to do with buffing Nunu and breaking him.
And, side note, why wouldn't they make skins for the champs most likely to make them money? That's, you know, how they have money to pay people to make new skins.
DeusVult5 votesChamp skins have nothing to do with balance or the balance team, but rather Riot marketing and art teams.
big boi edri12 votes
- How does Lux get an ultimate skin and new skin so close to the previous release date while Aurelion Sol has only two? Because Lux= $$$. Ahri=$$$
That has nothing to do with balance?
- The heavy snowball meta where it isn't uncommon to see games go 1-17 or 10-33.
That actually is uncommon, you just remember it better because it was either great or awful.
- The skewed matchmaking where one team has 4 golds while the other has 4 diamonds. The most frustrating part is they NEVER ever comment on threads that discuss unfair matchmaking.
That isn't a thing, you're full of shit.
- Buffs that break champions overnight.
Not a fan of those either.
Nonetheless, they have done a few good things though such as finally giving Cassiopeia a skin after forever and reverting Rengar Q.
Neither of those are the balance team?
In terms of balance, I think people working on the balance team come and go all the time. Sadly, the current balance team have a different philosophy than the old ones (Morello etc). They are also more arrogant for some reason. League will start going downhill if they don't stop squabbling over who has the best idea for breaking the meta.
No, it's probably more posts like these that make them come off as "arrogant" because they ignore them. I mean you made 1 point about balance in reply to a post about the balance team. What makes things worse? You got 21 upvotes when you've clearly gone off on an irrelevant tangent. Fuck, if I worked at Riot I'd hate to shift through a topic full of shit posting like this.
Have you seen the thread by MaliciousMetal on Mordekaiser? Certain champions are just forgotten because they have a small playerbase.
Again, half of those don't concern balance, the other half could possibly be worked on.
TLDR; Your post is irrelevant to the topic being discussed, and to the rest of the boards: quit upvoting shit.
Flawless Fetus4 votesThey've addressed matchmaking plenty of times. I'll fill you in since you, seemingly, missed it. Each queue has their own mmr. Someone being diamond in solo/duo has absolutely no effect on flex/normals. 4 diamonds vs 4 golds cannot happen, unless you're picking and choosing the mmrs. Lol. "I'm only silver but I just faced a diamond player in aram. WTF!" You're not silver in aram. He's not diamond in aram. Make sense?
AFilthyCaitMain42 votesAfter they buffed lethality last season, throwing the pretty balanced meta out the window
AirKingNeo7 votesNot sure, I'd say the Mage Update is when they started to lose and it just went exponentially worse from there.
Lil Homie busta31 votesJuggernaut Update.
From onwards was just clowfiesta.
Syrdon8 votesExactly. Before that, the balance team was doing an ok job, they sure fucked up sometimes but overall it was kinda good. Hell, they were even posting thoughts about reworking crit. But since the juggernauts they keep adding more and more binary mechanics (starting with the concept of juggernaut itself).
Also they just don't seem to see there is a problem with itemization and scaling in general.
General Esdeath 17 votesSeason 6 I questioned them.
Season 8 I just want them fired. I don't question them, I expect the worst choices, and they deliver so often.
GayFluffyUnicorn6 votesWow be careful they already wanted to ban me for harassment and deleted my posts. Thing is, the current design team has shown we cannot solve the current issues with them. They are not the answer.
Hey guys, top is shit, botlane is overpowered, runes are heavily imbalanced. Can you do something? hahAA look nunu is toptier again LUL Also supports get buffs and eh oh we want to make other champs viable botlane, time to fuck up the game even more hahAAA
LiveYiOrDieHard16 votesI started questioning their unbalancing team when they put the old hilariously broken black cleaver into the game. They fixed that particular item pretty quick but it's been going downhill ever since then.
MorganFreemanBot7 votesI started questioning their unbalancing team when they put the old hilariously broken black cleaver into the game. They fixed that particular item pretty quick but it's been going downhill ever since then.
So.... S3 preseason?
WalkingInACircle16 votesI lost any respect or expectation for them to eventually fix things during preseason. Also reading Dev quick thoughts, shows an over focus on statistics and little in depth understanding of champion/game design.
GayFluffyUnicorn4 votesThat's what they've always done tho. Surprisingly, rioter comments on reddit as well as gameplay thoughts and all that crap often read like Trump tweets: Looking at our numbers and you can believe us our numbers are the best numbers ,no other numbers are as good as our numbers, toplane seems pretty fine. Hashinshin is fake news! Other numbers are fake news!
AMYS GRAVE14 votesI've been questioning their balance since late S5 with the juggernaut update, although feral flare 2.0 showed they don't learn from their mistakes so there's that....
hobojoefp12 votesAfter my DFG got taken away because ADCs wanted to live, now everytime I see a fed twitch Penta Kill I die a little inside.
Moonfall Saber11 votesThe introduction of devourer after feral flare was a fail.
inFamous Zion11 votesRiot buffs Ninja Tabi - 'We are looking to shift this tank meta' Riot nerfs Black Cleaver - 'We are aware that tanks deal the most damage and we are looking into it' Riot removes Fervor - 'We are looking into it' Riot reworks mages and assassins due to being unhealthy for a game - "Adds Kayn and Zoe" Riot adds Aftershock for tanks while there is no fervor - 'Adds a tank that can by items on lane ,Ornn' Riot buffs every old champion, before realizing they are overpowered after it and they rework it. etc.
My mind is blown that company of this magnitude needs years, months before they actually realize something is either too broken or too weak. After watching every LCS caster asking pro players about the state of Zoe, it came to me. They actually need a confirmation about how broken her damage is. Holy shit they didn't realize this themselves. Pre-season has lasted how long? 2 months? Testing so much and still no fervor on sight. How is this not a priority? How can you even start a season before actually finishing your work for once of balancing. I'd love to know as every other player what elo are in the Riot balance team. I'm 100% sure that they have no idea what they are doing and just release it the way they want while saying 'Let's see how goes with the players'. You can't test it yourselves? And even after 2,3 months of milions of games testing by players, you still aren't gonna do anything about it? Everything started going downhill with who ever got hired in a balance team at season 6 (the start of it). After seeing tanks dealing the most damage in the game over and over while being unkillable, i knew the game was becoming '''meh''' . And who the hell nerfs assassins and reworks mages, just a little before adding a freaking assassin who can go through walls and outside of the map and kill you without even entering the map. And all of this has happened while buffing Lethality once again. What the f???. I honestly demand a balance team to show themselves.
Mephisto310 votesOn average, the game is very balanced. Folks just complain about individual issues with certain champs ("individual" as in: they cannot play around it and they assume that whatever playstyle THEY chose always has to work in all situations).
Further, people forget one thing (although, in all fairness, the ranking system encourages people to forget): LOL is and will always be a team game - champions are balanced (and have to be balanced) around their impact in TEAM situations.
In addition, the game has stages, and champions do well in different stages for each game. For (a super simple) example, if you get an all damage, all early team comp, and you lose against triple tank with Veigar and Tristana because the game goes to 50 minutes, that does NOT mean the game is "unbalanced". It means you did not play to your TEAM's victory condition.
Thinking that every individual player with whatever champ they "master" should be able to solo-carry themselves to Challenger divisions is WRONG. It is a myth spread by those who got lucky and got there, and people believe it and now call the game "unbalanced" because they feel they have mastered a champion, but still there are situations when they can do shit.
And yes, there are also different "metas" - playing Katarina all the time works well sometimes (assassin, carry, squishy meta), and it doesnt work well at other times (tank meta). That's how it is.
Moonfall Saber26 votesThe game is balanced??? What. People have been complaining about marksman since they were reworked at the beginning of season 6. The game still hasent bounced back. Then the addition of runes reforged removed all defensive runes. For instance I used to run scaling runes so I had 27 armor and magic resist at level 18. However now I have no bonus defense. This adds a crazy ammount of damage creep and the reason the game is so wacky right now.
GayFluffyUnicorn9 votesDon't forget mages dealing true damage 15 minutes into the game because removing mr on everyone+giving more mpen was the change we needed.
Moonfall Saber4 votesyea that too 
= 0 defenses left
VonToothskie4 votes[{quoted}](name=Moonfall Saber,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=TKBANlsh,comment-id=0003000000010001,timestamp=2018-01-29T21:30:19.057+0000)
yea that too
i mean, really? .... like, really really? there really isnt any defense?
MorganFreemanBot8 votesOn average, the game is very balanced. Folks just complain about individual issues with certain champs ("individual" as in: they cannot play around it and they assume that whatever playstyle THEY chose always has to work in all situations).
Further, people forget one thing (although, in all fairness, the ranking system encourages people to forget): LOL is and will always be a team game - champions are balanced (and have to be balanced) around their impact in TEAM situations.
In addition, the game has stages, and champions do well in different stages for each game. For (a super simple) example, if you get an all damage, all early team comp, and you lose against triple tank with Veigar and Tristana because the game goes to 50 minutes, that does NOT mean the game is "unbalanced". It means you did not play to your TEAM's victory condition.
Thinking that every individual player with whatever champ they "master" should be able to solo-carry themselves to Challenger divisions is WRONG. It is a myth spread by those who got lucky and got there, and people believe it and now call the game "unbalanced" because they feel they have mastered a champion, but still there are situations when they can do shit.
And yes, there are also different "metas" - playing Katarina all the time works well sometimes (assassin, carry, squishy meta), and it doesnt work well at other times (tank meta). That's how it is.
More people need to grasp these points.
NoDragonsPlz6 votesWhen all else fails, use DOTA2's logic and just make everything OP.
Salson9 votesStart of S7 and the insane pressure Junglers have since then. Then they overbuffed Bot to compensate and broke the game in pieces.
KennysDreamGirl9 votesi dont like adcs being pretty much the only factor in if you win games
DoktorKaiser9 votesSince late season 5 it feels like every decision is getting worse and worse to the point where I don't even play league any more after 7 and a half years. At least it saves me time so thanks I guess...
Sora Omo8 votesI came around to League from the beginning of the Tank meta and before the Ardentcensor meta and don't get me started on the Galio buffs. For a new player, this was SO HARD to keep playing with but I think Riot's balancing team just needs to keep in mind "If it ain't broke don't fix it"- Everyone's grandma. Riot stop making your grandma sad by ignoring her wisdom and ruining the lives of players think before you act and never forget your grandma's words.
OP Garen Support8 votesfor me it was MYMD Mid Year Mage Downgrade
Oxyrotten7 votesSeason 5 when melee and tops got shit on by the balance and design teams.
avatarkai7 voteswhen they buffed yi 3 times and still are gonna do it again next patch
D4M2X07 votesi never questioned them until they said we're getting soloQ just to shut us up and gave us dynamicQ instead a few months later. now i take notice of all the nonsense they say and the stuff they do/dont do.
i hate how when they buff a champ they go overboard and when they finally nerf a champ after 9 months of being meta they dont nerf the core problem. like please just fucking gut twitch already, nerf hes range, make hes stealth last 4 seconds, just gut him...
Pinkaj6 votesI'm with you on this. Something just doesn't feel right about the game.
Zone of Endless6 votesit started to become questionable when they started their class update tbh
Somebody Love Me6 votesLate season 6, when flat armor pen started getting abused, I started having less fun with the game. The assassin rework kinda hurt, but I was content, to a point.
Then I started questioning them when they buffed lelthality early last season, the first time, since that ruined the peace I had found. Since then, the game has gotten less fun over time, and every balance patch hurts to read because they never fix the actual problems. They either create more, or just dodge the initial issue completely by hitting some side point.
ÈvilMorty6 votesMy faith left when they nerffed volibear when he wasnt even that strong more of a effective pocket pick but allowed monsters like lee and shyv to run around for another year before nerfs
Abibyama5 votesthey have been questionable since the beginning of league
Infernape4 votesIt's a toss up between 7.21 Galio, the Ardent Cancer Censer meta, the Tank Update, the Janna changes that were meant to be a nerf but made her much more broken.
Ryrynounet4 votesI started questioning balance at the adc update, or when they created ardent cancer
PaffWasTaken4 votesAfter ADC class update when they decided that champs like 
and 
were ok being auto-wins
Thilmer4 votesThe Juggernauts Patch.
They caused a total mayhem in game balance, so everyone saw the World Championship with Gangplank and Mordekaiser permabanned and Fiora and Darius permapicked. After seen that level of clownfiesta (in professional playing, no less), they announced that they were very happy with the upgrade (?) and that they were going to make more of those "massive random bullshit changes" in the future (?!).
And the balance has gone downhill since then.
. I haven't touched the game in a month because of how much I dislike the current state of the game, but apparently the same exact thing just happened with nunu.