@Meddler Are any Pro Players used for help with balance changes?

They use the LCS matches in their decision making. Though I don't believe that the pro's themselves really drive that much impute.

But they can't rely entirely on the pro scene. Many Easier champions would be Overbearing in normals if they were buffed to be competitive in the LCS.

Not necessarily players themselves, but Riot since s5 has been big around making the game a professional sport. They will add in a few things every so often so address solo queue, but I truly see the game as a pro player's game rather than a community's. I honestly think to stop people from seeing their changes like this they will add in distractions like All Chat, or community featured creations, even adding in rewards and going far enough to put in a game mode rotation. But going back to your question and being simple, they haven't said they use pro-players to assess certain balance points, but they constantly will look at professional matches and try to find trends and what not to see what they should change for them. They will also look at champions underplayed and in pro play and try to keep them alive. Champions like Corki and Zed are good examples. On the other hand they will also look out for champions that they deem unhealthy or too prominent and destroy them so they aren't played, it won't necessarily be because they are broken, it will be mainly because they want variety. Champions like this would include Kalista and Olaf, both are good by kits, but were taken down number-wise out of pro-play.