Whenever I hear people complain about Riot's design decisions, I usually read people blame it on LCS. Why? I don't think LCS is a perfect championship, but shouldn't making more champions tournament viable be a good thing?
ScurvyNave5 votesI think its more of a case of the LCS dictating the game more than the regular player base that founded it. Some people believe that the LCS gets too much attention and focus and distracts riot from making the game a better experience for the casual player.
Examples include rushing patches or nerfing champions to make LCS more fair. Pretty much any time Riot takes long to solve an issue or update a game aspect people blame the LCS. Its odd but bound to happen when Riot has two groups to keep happy:
NoMonku3 votesI feel to a degree, it is true that RIOT does make nerfs based off of how LCS players play. I do feel, though, that it is fair for them to do that because they are playing said champions to a degree/level that I would never be able to manage. The reason why the individuals usually cry is because these nerfs basically make it impossible for them to be able to abuse that specific champions power anymore. The nerfs made it so that they aren't able to play the champion with the same ease as before and probably need to put in more time to be able to play at the same level as before, something they don't want to do. Usually the people who complain don't have an understanding of balance and champion design, so it is usually just howling in the night that gets frustrating to see, though some may make a good point(s) occasionally.
ScurvyNave1 votesTrue but I think the main issue with the LCS is how much focus it receives from Riot. As you said the nerfs done based on LCS play are usually justified and I have no issue with that. However, when Riot holds national tournaments in stages and cities across the world and spend so much time and advertisements hyping up the LCS when Azir's ultimate was still full of bugs kind of ticked me off.
I get it they want to make E-sports a legit thing but when normal gameplay suffers from it that's when I, and I think others as well, get annoyed. Just look at the lists of bugs, issues, and times live maintenance had to be performed after every patch this year and still the game isn't running as smoothly as ever (new rift lag and fps drops for example).
Also when people what the LCS they suddenly have the idea that by seeing pro gamers play they now know how to play at an LCS level and try to use strats, builds, and plays that aren't applicable or possible at their elo lvl.
Overall I think the LCS is an awesome tournament, I won't lie I watched Worlds till the NA and European teams lost and I lost interest. But, if Riot keeps shifting more focus and resources to the tournament scene I hope they don't forget about the casual players that helped make them a successful company in the first place.
NoMonku1 votesAs far as the champion bugs go, I can't excuse them. All I can say is that they most likely weren't intended, as who ever would put out work that they themselves know is shoddy and will be buggy without mentioning it first. I'm just guessing all their fixes to older bugs ended up creating newer problems that they didn't foresee; it happened a lot with Skyrim patches. The main difference between the games, though, is that skyrim is a single player game so while the bugs can be somewhat immersion breaking, you could still play. If it happens in LoL, you cause a negative scenario for you/opponent that isn't supposed to happen, so it is bad.
As for the casual player, I do agree that they shouldn't be forgotten. The problem I feel, though, is that a lot of the people who complain are ones who joined AFTER it gained popularity and they always seem to only care when their easy win card gets taken away. It is fair since it is their champion, but sometimes that champion NEEDS the nerf, but since they don't play enough they don't understand why it is happening. Some complaints are somewhat okay, like Talon getting his silence removed on his E, since I feel it was kind of a gray area as he isn't very viable anymore without it, but it didn't directly contribute to his nuking power, which was why it was removed I think. Others, though, like when Kha got his ult changed to having dmg reduction and trying to justify how it is "fair" that he has it, aren't imo.
ofart2 votesLCS is the highest level of LoL play and thus most indicative of objective champion viability and strength. If a champion does great in Solo Que (ex: Amumu, WW) but terrible in LCS, the most likely reason is that the champion is not as strong as you think and Solo Que teams aren't properly exploiting the weaknesses. Sometimes those weaknesses require more innovation to exploit (lane switching, deeper warding, 2--3 man invades at camps etc.) and until Solo Que teams decide to be more flexible, that will continue to be true. There is no reason for support and ADC to be bot every single ranked game for example.
Objectively, balance SHOULD be based on perfect play. That is the only level that indicates the true state of things. Being upset that X champion is a pubstomper is silly. Balancing to appease the lowest common denominator will just mean competitive play will have less variety and be less balanced. I'd rather have a game that is very balanced at the top than one that is objectively highly unbalanced but gives similar winrates at lower levels due to skillgap.
yellowbricks2 votesYeah, I really don't think riot should balance their game around the 0.000001% of people who play this game for 26 hours a day. I thought the whole point was to be more user friendly or something?
Also every excuse ever is "after worlds". They'll nerf Tristana after worlds, they'll nerf Lee Sin after worlds (hah yeah right), they'll be an actual functional company after worlds. God forbid the so called pros have to actually adapt to something, I thought they were so good they could adapt? Or just hold the patches back from the tournament server, there's no excuse to basically shut down all operation for months while these nerds battle each other.
Then they do other things during worlds, usually bullshit like shitting on a champion (like Cassiopeia) and then ignoring everything afterwards cuz "worlds guys hold on". Why the discrepency? Whereas lee sin and tristana do 600 damage and jump around like hyperactive children, Cassiopeia just stands there and poisons people, that's not what people want to watch, so she isn't allowed to be good.
League is basically turning into wrestling. It's all fake, and you got the few guys who are scripted to win every fight, and the guys who are told to throw every match, and if they don't, they'll get kneecapped for having the gall to take on the star children like Lee Sin.
Chromatic Eagle2 votesYeah, I really don't think riot should balance their game around the 0.000001% of people who play this game for 26 hours a day. I thought the whole point was to be more user friendly or something?
They're in this weird position of wanting to make learning the game easier, but also trying to make it more complex for higher skilled players.