[RANT] The Professional Mentality and the State of the Game

So recently I've been seeing a lot of threads on the front page complaining about aspects of the game and all the "Where is solo q?" complaints, and after a while it's kind of annoying when I want to read a quality post about something original and all I see is a bunch of complaints. To all the people posting in Story, Art, & Sound and Memes & Games, I'd like to thank you. You guys are the only reason I still check the boards on a daily basis. You guys supply me with some revitalizing content to read and sometimes give me a nice laugh or conversation with my fellow summoners.

However, to those of you who post in Gameplay, I'm growing ashamed of you all. All I ever see from you guys is complaining about how Riot is going about the game even though they put a lot of hard work and dedication into keeping a game like League of Legends as amazing as it is. Let's tackle a few of the common complaints in order: Balance, game quality, and solo queue.

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#Balance

TL;DR: Balancing the game isn't as easy as you think. There are many aspects of the game that need to be taken into consideration before Riot can apply a nerf, buff or tweak to a champion. Taking these aspects into consideration can take anywhere between two patches up to half of a season.

First off, I'd like you all to understand how hard it is to balance a game like League of Legends. Any change Riot makes on one champion will effect the meta in some way. For example, people complain about Zed because he's currently the strongest assassin and completely ignore the fact that other assassins are strong as well. If Riot nerfs Zed, it can have one of two effects, or both: One, champions like Akali and Fizz start getting more play, and/or two, champions countered by Zed like Ahri, Lux, and Syndra will get more play. Another example, when Riot buffed AD Carries, it brought assassins into the meta. When assassins started getting more play, it brought more tanks into the meta. Now we have a meta of AD Carries, assassins, and tanks. Now if Riot nerfs one of them, it'll effect the meta entirely. Let's say Riot nerfs AD Carries; assassins will fall out of the meta, and with the fall of assassins, tanks will fall out of the meta. Let's say due to AD Carries getting nerfed, Riot buffs fighters. This will bring mobile champions and kite mages back into the meta. Whatever change Riot makes to a champion or type of champion, it will effect the entire meta.

Now some of you may be wondering how this is a problem. If the problem is just one class of champions being dominant, why not just make all champions equally dominant? Well, that's quite impossible. No matter what, one class will be dominant to another which will cause another class to be in the meta to counter that class which will cause another class to be in the meta to counter the class countering the dominant class. Not only that, but Riot has 129 champions in the game, which causes extreme difficulty in Riot deciding what they're going to do for the next step. Not only does Riot have to think of what to do to nerf dominant champions, but they have to think about how nerfing that/those champion(s) is going to make other champions stronger and make sure that the nerfs to that/those champion(s) doesn't cause another champion to be as strong as the champion(s) they were nerfing. With 129 champions in the game, that makes Riot's job extremely difficult. "If we nerf Zed's laning phase, it'll bring out low mobility mages with a weak laning phase like Orianna and Anivia. Orianna's in a pretty balanced state, but Anivia's damage is already extremely high, so we're probably going to need to lower the damage on her at the same time as nerfing Zed. However, if we nerf Anivia it might cause Ryze to come back into meta or Lissandra to dominate the meta, so we'll need to keep tabs on those champions to see how the nerfs to Anivia affect the game."

Notice that last part: "...we'll need to keep tabs on those champions to see how the nerfs to Anivia affect the game." This is a frequent reason on why a champion comes into meta and dominates it for an extended period of time. When Riot nerfs a champion, it brings the champions they counter into the meta. Howbeit, Riot can't predict how badly they're going to dominate the meta if they even do at all when looking at the nerfs on paper, so they have to keep watch. Then, whenever they see that the champion is causing problems, they have to repeat the process listed above to decide what to do next. This process can take anywhere between a couple patches to even half a season (never forget Season 3 Kassadin). This is why the meta shifts so often; whenever you nerf or buff an item or a champion it causes hidden nerfs or buffs to occur across the board.

#Game Quality

TL;DR: The state of the game isn't the problem, it's you. The most important aspect of the game is the ability to adapt. In an ever-shifting meta, the ability to adapt determines the good players from the bad players. As well, the players complaining about the state of the game are typically low elo players, whilst the high elo players understand they need to adapt and are less prone to complaining.

When I say game quality, I'm mainly referring to the recent and frequent complaints of games ending by 27 minutes and being a complete snowball-fest, towers being to weak and death timers being so long. This is why a part of the thread's title is "The Professional Mentality". What is this mentality? Well, pretty much when Riot makes a change in the game, a player has to adapt to the change. The players who are able to adapt to any change Riot makes are the best players in the game. This is what professionals strive to do: Learn to adapt. They know that complaining will change nothing and accept the state of the game, then adapt to that state.

Fact of the matter is, the players complaining are the weaker players. I dare you to go down the Boards homepage and search every player that makes a thread complaining about the state of the game or balance. Most of them are below Gold or Unranked, occasionally one of them is Gold, and rarely do you see someone Platinum and above. As well, the ones that are Platinum and above post statistical evidence stating that there is a flaw in the game and not a flaw in their mindset or playstyle. They show mathematical reasoning and don't use win/pick/ban rate as their main argument. Meanwhile, those who are Gold and lower never have statistics and only post their personal opinion.

The problem isn't in the game, but the inability to adapt. If you want to have fun with the game and actually gain elo, learn to adapt to the state of the game. Otherwise, you'll rot in low elo and forever think that the problem is the game and not you (which it is you).

#Solo Queue

TL;DR: Solo queue isn't coming back and Riot's reason for their decision is completely acceptable. If you leave because Solo Queue isn't coming back, oh well, that's not Riot's problem. Riot doesn't care about the loss of a few individuals, especially considering the new player to leaving player ratio is high in favour of more new players to players leaving.

This is where I expect to get the most hate and downvotes from. Right now, Riot is not making any statements about where solo queue is and whether it's coming back or not, but chances are it's not coming back. I'm sure you've all already seen Riot's statement so I'm not going to go over it again. Now, as upsetting as this is, we're back in the "state of the game" setting. Aforementioned, you need to adapt. There are thousands of people climbing the elo ladder perfectly fine even with dynamic queue, myself included. Just because you're not climbing doesn't mean it's a flaw in the system.

If Riot doesn't want to bring back solo queue, that's their choice and their reasoning is perfectly acceptable. It's a similar reason to the reason they took out dominion; if Riot adds solo queue, dynamic queue will die and queue times in dynamic queue will be incredibly long due to the lack of play, and this isn't because dynamic queue is bad, it's because more people play ranked alone than with friends, especially in higher elos. Thus, the obvious choice would be solo queue. You may not like the choice, but it's the choice nonetheless and Riot is completely allowed to do so.

One last statement about the subject, Riot doesn't care about losing a few players when they have millions playing, so your complaint and threat to quit playing means nothing to them; and it's not just Riot, it's any gaming company and it's merely life. Not to mention the new player to leaving player ratio is highly in favor of new players. What do I mean by "it's merely life"? Well, let's say you cut a rose off of a rose bush. Does the rose bush die or lose its purpose just because that individual flower is gone? Not at all, and eventually it'll be replaced with another flower. This is true about you: You leaving means nothing and you will be replaced, that's the harsh truth. Making a thread about you leaving is honestly a waste of your time and makes no impact on the community whatsoever.

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So I hope that clears up a lot of the reasons Riot takes the actions they take and a few other concerns of the community. The purpose of this thread was not to insult or belittle, but to inform. If you made it all the way through, thank you for taking the time out of your day to read this. Upvote if you got something out of it, downvote if you didn't, or leave it neutral if you already knew the answers to the subjects listed in this thread; do not downvote just because I attacked your precious little solo q and gave you the harsh truth. If you did downvote because you didn't get anything out of it, please feel free to comment below with the problem you had and I'll try to clear it up or have a nice conversation with you about why you disagree with my statements, and if I turn your thoughts maybe I can get an upvote out of you.

I hope you enjoyed and thank you for reading! http://www.auplod.com/u/ouldap786e1.png