Discussion: Champion Difficulty and you

IP Masquerena·9/7/2019, 1:57:18 PM·1 votes·1,558 views

So, a lot of people seem to think that the idea that the way you have to balance stuff to be good in yolo que and bad in pro play is to just remove stuff that makes it hard to play BUT keep the same power level. Some even said that all champs should have the same skill ceiling, just different skill floors.

But my question for this discussion is: WHY?

Now, to explain, I'm not asking why is it bad/good to balance only around pro play, both of these have good arguments, the question more specifically is: why should everything be easy to play so lil' Jimmy from Plastic 12 can stomp with it?

Some champions should require actual skill (not just quick reflexes, looking at you, Hasa-respawn) and also be rewarded for it. Recently, most challenger analysts I've seen making tier lists call Irelia balanced because almost all her match-ups are actually skill match-ups (and players cry it's not fair for her to have options to win any lane, but yet, they also complain that "it's not fun to be counterpicked and have no options"), some harder than others, true, but if the Irelia player is good enough, she can win those lanes via positioning, wave management, calculated aggression, etc.

Champions like those will get nerfed because of the pros as those guys actually are able to play the champs at their full potential, they will be nerfed to a point where they will still be rewarding to play, but won't be so oppressive when mastered, but than brings the yolo que problem, where many players simply lack the skill to play the champion properly, so those champs will have bad win rates, they aren't stuff that you can "pick up and play", you got Zed, Garen, Yi, Feedamere, Foodyr, and others for that, but lil' Jimmy is crying because he wants to play and stomp with such champions without putting in the effort to learn those champs properly. But, why should he be allowed?

All I'm seeing when reading such comments of "make it playable in solo que", almost all of the champs nerfed by pro play are still playable in solo que, but they need a lot more skill from the player than others, yet they are still playable and you can find success if you put in the time. But no-one is talking on the "why", the "why should the champ be easy to play?"

So let's change that, why should/shouldn't every champ be easy to play in yolo que?

3 Comments

Smyrage9/7/2019, 2:53:55 PM1 votes

It's a complicated matter. Quite a few champions were designed with proper teamplay in mind, therefore those champs can be quite oppressive in coordinated play, but zero use in an uncoordinated solo queue match. We know that picking for example Kalista without a premade support is just trolling, especially if the support takes a mage or an enchanter, which renders her R quite impractical. Another matter is the mechanical intensity. Champs like Garen are extremely hard to balance without making him a must pick in low elo, because in high level play he can't perform well because of his simple kit. My opinion is simply that if you main such champions, you either need to play the game really good, or just simply learn a more complex champion, whose kit is actually useful in more situations.

preternatural9/7/2019, 9:47:24 PM1 votes

you know teh lol community, they like the idea of these types of champions until they have to face them.