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PETITION: Bring back Morello, someone who ACTUALLY knew what he was doing

Best Fiddle··306 votes·28,319 views

I've been around for 8 years on this game and whenever I heard this dude speak in those patch videos, he knew what he was talking about. He was honestly like the mechanic of this game. Had intelligent answers to everything and even when he didn't like what the community posted at times, he was STILL HERE FOR US.

I remember back on the original forums, when people wanted damage as supports, he was against the idea at first, but still communicated with us.

Funny how right as he left, the classic "Things went downhill as soon as X person left the Y company" very typical. Same shit happened with Diablo 3 as well.

Bring the man back and get rid of the below average IQ monkeys at HQ.

Edit: meant to say sucked instead of "ducked" auto correct....ffs

League before:

http://i64.tinypic.com/15nvb6d.jpg

League now:

http://i66.tinypic.com/352nfba.jpg

Edit: Here's a video back in the day, which shows the significance of "_he knew what he was talking about" _

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkdP-Xp0N6o

Update: Tweeted on Morello's twitter:

http://i68.tinypic.com/nqdy6x.jpg

Morello back in the day famously replying to the _"Irelia is a bad design" _ posts with nothing but straight forward and intelligent responses. Unfortunately, this also highlights the problem with today's responses. They aren't at the level they need to be:

http://i67.tinypic.com/2luaq7d.png

Heres an example of some players back in the day quitting. The difference was, you ACTUALLY had a RED (regardless of who it was) come in and show he CARED enough for the fanbase:

http://i67.tinypic.com/14b0zy9.jpg

Below was another post by Morello, responding to a similar subtopic (which relates to our problem today) which CLEARLY indicated that "Anything that makes a game harder makes it more competitive, and therefore, better." was complete BS. Ironic.

http://i67.tinypic.com/2z8nm14.png

Source: http://forums.na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=2362682&page=12#post27089931

160 Comments

Madsin25146 votes

I will take a bronze 5 that actually plays the game at this point.

Best Fiddle90 votes

{quoted}

I will take a bronze 5 that actually plays the game at this point.

What's sad is, that could actually work.

Spank the Fox36 votes

Hahaha this isn’t a circlejerk hehe xd

La Bello14 votes

[{quoted}](name=Best Fiddle,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=ZFUy0EoI,comment-id=00000000,timestamp=2018-07-12T04:30:40.099+0000)

What's sad is, that could actually work.

I got this strange fantasy in my head where the reason the balance in this game leaves so many people wanting is because the head honcho's in charge of coming up with buffs and implementing dont play the game near as much as the NEED to.

In my headcannon all of LoL's designers are like 30-50 year old Boomers who have a wife and kids + other hobbies going on their lives which doesn't give them enough time to just sit down and no-life LoL like a streamer or a much more dedicated whale player would.

In my headcannon the LoL designers play the game very sparingly and VERY casually (they might even be encouraged too!) thusly because of that they've dulled their edge and they only have a loose grasp of their game via data and talking to their playtest teams the ACTUAL D5+players who are actually qualified to be handling balance but are instead treated as expendable interns( tbh tho I wouldn't even mind if the designers were low ranked so long as their account showed they were puttin in the hours and an actual modicum of effort and interest in the game they have been tasked with taking care of.).

So the designers dont have time to sit down and earn Mastery7 on all 141 champions to develop that firsthand experience and deep knowledge about the in's and out's of all the champions in their game. The strengths,their weaknesses where the FUN of playing them comes from and where the UNFUN of playing AGAINST them comes from ect.

They dont understand any of this and they cant bothered because they gotta be a family man plus they've been with Riot for a long time so it wouldn't be fair to just give them the boot like they're a nobody because that would be unfair right? But therein lies the unfairness for the rest of the playerbase. Should a man unfit for a job get the job anyway because he's got a family to feed?

In other words Riot seems to be ran by Nepotism rather than Meritocracy which has begun directly affecting the game for the worse and even as people cry havoc non-stop in the forums nothing will change and everything will be brushed off as "well people always complain, its fine guys you're all doin great :)". the sweet little lies as the shelf-life of the game is all but accelerated.

again I'd like to point out that this is ENTIRELY speculation and I actually dont know anything about the personal lives of Rioters besides what they toss out on Twitter. This is just the way my brain has chosen to rational the past couple years of wonk balance. What a strange twist of fate where the video game designers themselves dont have time to play video game and the only voice of reason left in the balance department are the younger playtesters and interns. People who I feel like aren't taken seriously enough due to the inherent superiority complex of "My time @ Riot> Yours" any boss waves over new employee's.

Best Fiddle5 votes

{quoted}

I got this strange fantasy in my head where the reason the balance in this game leaves so many people wanting is because the head honcho's in charge of coming up with buffs and implementing dont play the game near as much as the NEED to.

In my headcannon all of LoL's designers are like 30-50 year old Boomers who have a wife and kids + other hobbies going on their lives which doesn't give them enough time to just sit down and no-life LoL like a streamer or a much more dedicated whale player would.

In my headcannon the LoL designers play the game very sparingly and VERY casually (they might even be encouraged too!) thusly because of that they've dulled their edge and they only have a loose grasp of their game via data and talking to their playtest teams the ACTUAL D5+players who are actually qualified to be handling balance but are instead treated as expendable interns( tbh tho I wouldn't even mind if the designers were low ranked so long as their account showed they were puttin in the hours and an actual modicum of effort and interest in the game they have been tasked with taking care of.).

So the designers dont have time to sit down and earn Mastery7 on all 141 champions to develop that firsthand experience and deep knowledge about the in's and out's of all the champions in their game. The strengths,their weaknesses where the FUN of playing them comes from and where the UNFUN of playing AGAINST them comes from ect.

They dont understand any of this and they cant bothered because they gotta be a family man plus they've been with Riot for a long time so it wouldn't be fair to just give them the boot like they're a nobody because that would be unfair right? But therein lies the unfairness for the rest of the playerbase. Should a man unfit for a job get the job anyway because he's got a family to feed?

In other words Riot seems to be ran by Nepotism rather than Meritocracy which has begun directly affecting the game for the worse and even as people cry havoc non-stop in the forums nothing will change and everything will be brushed off as "well people always complain, its fine guys you're all doin great :)". the sweet little lies as the shelf-life of the game is all but accelerated.

again I'd like to point out that this is ENTIRELY speculation and I actually dont know anything about the personal lives of Rioters besides what they toss out on Twitter. This is just the way my brain has chosen to rational the past couple years of wonk balance. What a strange twist of fate where the video game designers themselves dont have time to play video game and the only voice of reason left in the balance department are the younger playtesters and interns. People who I feel like aren't taken seriously enough due to the inherent superiority complex of "My time @ Riot> Yours" any boss waves over new employee's.

I read what you wrote and let me start by saying I can understand from that point of view. The only problem(s) I have is, that we as a community think that they do in fact have the proper amount of time to even just put in single solitary post. At least that can put a lot of stressed out players at ease. Even just reading an honest retort, from any of them, would mean a lot to some of us and I think that's where the frustration lies mostly in. The silence itself, rather than the changes.

TwitchInMyPants33 votes

{quoted}

I will take a bronze 5 that actually plays the game at this point.

Lmfao

Ghostcrawler is going to hear shit like this the rest of his career. "You don't have to play a game in order to be a good designer for it" is one of the worst statements he's made. I don't think it's clear he hasn't played League but the implication being there is very damning.

the Anarchit3cht5 votes

It's not a wrong statement. You don't need to play the game or be good at it to understand what does and doesn't work. But GC has a terrible track record of ruining games.

Neptunia xoxo1 votes

[{quoted}](name=the Anarchit3cht,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=ZFUy0EoI,comment-id=000000020000,timestamp=2018-07-12T07:05:03.027+0000)

It's not a wrong statement. You don't need to play the game or be good at it to understand what does and doesn't work. But GC has a terrible track record of ruining games.

Actually Ghostcrawler did pretty well with Blizzard even though he was not really allowed to make major changes.

the Anarchit3cht30 votes

He ruined World of Warcraft. That's why he got fired. Even he if wasn't officially fired, he was fired. Most companies will allow you a peaceful resignation without firing you when you are doing a crappy job but not exactly doing anything wrong.

Neptunia xoxo7 votes

[{quoted}](name=the Anarchit3cht,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=ZFUy0EoI,comment-id=00000002000000010000,timestamp=2018-07-12T07:39:26.472+0000)

He ruined World of Warcraft. That's why he got fired. Even he if wasn't officially fired, he was fired. Most companies will allow you a peaceful resignation without firing you when you are doing a crappy job but not exactly doing anything wrong.

Wrong actually. Riot offered him more money and a higher ranking job compared to Blizzard and he took it. When he left is when the game started to go downhill because they gave people like Holinka the design power for PvP and class abilities. Ghostcrawler knew what he was talking about on world of warcraft even though some people liked to blame him for dumb changes even though he had no power over them he still brought a lot of good ideas for the game especially in wrath of the lich king xpac. Instead of circle jerking and memeing him you should do some research at least. I played WoW from prebc all the way until now iv been high end raiding and have been rank 1 multiple times in WoW iv seen what hes done and what hes talked about... he knew what he was doing.

the Anarchit3cht6 votes

[deleted]

Colonel J5 votes

[{quoted}](name=the Anarchit3cht,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=ZFUy0EoI,comment-id=0000000200000001000000000000,timestamp=2018-07-12T08:53:07.030+0000)

I've played wow ever since the release in 2004(i was 7) and i still play this day. ghost crawler ruined it. plain and simple. he ruins everything he touches. why do you think he doesn't make use of his marine science phd? because people with actual intelligence couldn't stand how fucking idiotic and retarded he is.

I play WoW and I say GC made the game better.

Now that that's out of the way, let's hear some actual arguments.

the Anarchit3cht20 votes

how about you, being the one person in the universe who thinks that, versus everyone else.

the Anarchit3cht6 votes

the correlation is easy to follow among ghost crawler rise and player decline.

Best Fiddle15 votes

[{quoted}](name=the Anarchit3cht,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=ZFUy0EoI,comment-id=000000020000,timestamp=2018-07-12T07:05:03.027+0000)

It's not a wrong statement. You don't need to play the game or be good at it to understand what does and doesn't work. But GC has a terrible track record of ruining games.

I don't think you understand. I think he meant "play" as in actually be in the game to test changes. Not the "I'm gonna school you ingame" play. It's only natural for any game designer to "play" the game to look for abnormalities.

the Anarchit3cht1 votes

They still don't have to. Thats' why they have entire teams of play testers. Its easy to see the data from updates and work from there. he doesn't need to play it in any sense. even without play testers, its easy to understand if i change x and it causes this, then that is either bad or good and i need to adapt accordingly. its not hard.

GayFluffyUnicorn18 votes

No it is not. Just one small example: Riot full r word games acting like oh graves has 50% winrate he is totally fine. Reality in this game is he is picked every fuckin game he is open and ruins it because after 25 buffs in a row, shocker, he is busted as all hell. But people who dont play nor understand their game look at this shit and say "oh its balance cuz numbers".

AirKingNeo9 votes

Former balance designer Rick literally hasn't played the game in 4 years based on his op.gg

I am not joking.

Athenes Lulu49 votes

I don't think Morello was "perfect" at balance in any shape or form. But over anything we have right now? Sure.

Best Fiddle34 votes

[{quoted}](name=Cancerous Lulu,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=ZFUy0EoI,comment-id=000d,timestamp=2018-07-12T10:52:26.775+0000)

I don't think Morello was "perfect" at balance in any shape or form. But over anything we have right now? Sure.

Yeah, he's not perfect, but I'm pretty sure he wouldn't stab us in the back with a item 3147

big boi edri20 votes

Or an Irelia

remakoro27 votes

nobody is perfect. But he surely was competent.

GayFluffyUnicorn11 votes

As some people said earlier, he knew what was bad for the game even if he didnt knew what would be good for it.

HungryAngry2SPP35 votes

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/d/da/Morellonomicon_item_old2.png/revision/latest?cb=20180220141723 Yeah Morello...was a nice item

ninjaroxas22 votes

I miss that icon

ZeroAgainst30 votes

idk it feels like there copying blizzard pushing shit down on us for there esports hence the shit changes

Śhunpo17 votes

{quoted}

idk it feels like there copying blizzard pushing shit down on us for there esports hence the shit changes

I mean.....GC is Riot's Design Director, so it's only natural that he wants to get back at Blizzard in his own way.

DNFVixen20 votes

I Hate GC

LadyNinjaFox18 votes

Ghostcrawler is like a viral infection he makes games he touches sick and bad, morello will be the vaccine to the sickness.

Fisher No Chains12 votes

Oh well, some champions hit by the nerf hammer back when he was the lead balance designer (or whatever it is called) rarely recovered and remained in the gutter for ages. Not that it was necessarily a terrible thing, but he’s not the “god balance designer” you’re drawing him to be.

If I could choose, I would take a bit of both Meddler and Morello. But that’s just because I am smart enough to understand that the problem itself is not Meddler at this point. It’s clear that someone at Riot/Tencent wants LCS to be the main League experience, so they’re forcing them to balance the game around the sport and not normal play.

TwitchInMyPants13 votes

[{quoted}](name=Fisher No Chains,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=ZFUy0EoI,comment-id=0004,timestamp=2018-07-12T06:57:49.205+0000)

Oh well, some champions hit by the nerf hammer back when he was the lead balance designer (or whatever it is called) rarely recovered and remained in the gutter for ages. Not that it was necessarily a terrible thing, but he’s not the “god balance designer” you’re drawing him to be.

If I could choose, I would take a bit of both Meddler and Morello. But that’s just because I am smart enough to understand that the problem itself is not Meddler at this point. It’s clear that someone at Riot/Tencent wants LCS to be the main League experience, so they’re forcing them to balance the game around the sport and not normal play.

No but he did follow a set of standards as a design directer a lot better than Ghostcrawler. Things like "Olafing" and the Eve gutting happened because they valued counterplay. This current design team doesn't really seem to give a rats ass about it and the game is full of hard counters. There's good and bad things about both as design directors but Morello regularly engaged feedback and changed his mind on things. He was "nerf master suck town" but he responded to community backlash directly and famously during the "Nerf Irelia" meme days he did cut several nerfs he thought she needed. Meanwhile Ghostcrawler gives the whole community radio silence. Meddler is the only real voice we get from the design side of things and he's often dismissive of a lot of feedback.

Fisher No Chains4 votes

I think that at this point Meddler is just everyone’s scapegoat. I am not happy with how the game is right now (haven’t played a ranked match in more than a week and only playing urf/normals/ARAMs, and also playing way less than I used to), but we can’t blame every terrible decision on him.

Sure he’s a lead designer, but that’s doesn’t mean that he has the last word for every change in this game. We don’t know how Riot works for balance so we can’t really blame this shitfest on a single guy.

Infernape4 votes

The problem is he gets the flack for it because he's the only one on the balance team that communicates with the community on a regular basis. In terms of balance, unless it's a glaring issue (like 7.21 Galio) or an ability rework, we generally get radio silence from Riot.

Gramps695 votes

Couldn't agree more. I remember back in Season 2/3 when I was active on the boards a lot, you'd frequently see Morello in there mixing it up with us run of the mill players, explaining decisions, taking feedback/criticism, and giving open honest answers about what he thought about it. You used to be able to pull up the red tracker and see a post every half hour or so. Now you'll maybe get a red post every two to three days.

NA Darklarik10 votes

Yah looking back Morello really knew his stuff, he even had foresight of monsters like Irelia which was why he was nerfing her all the time.

Solidair39 votes

People complained about Morello ALL the time when he was in charge.

But rose-colored glasses, I suppose.

Best Fiddle19 votes

{quoted}

People complained about Morello ALL the time when he was in charge.

But rose-colored glasses, I suppose.

You're missing the point. People complained to almost every Riot member about something, but it's the WAY he handled the problems and engaged for change, that took the game on a route that was at least not as this bad.

Solidair319 votes

I mean, I guess. Meddler is pretty forthcoming with changes and is super open and honest. he literally makes a thread twice a week to engage with us.

People like to blame ghostcrawler, too, but honestly I think the problems the game is having right now is just due to the pretty massive systemic changes riot has made all piling up into one BIG issue.

They're going to get the balance right, it's just going to take some time due to the sheer volume of things that need to be addressed.

GayFluffyUnicorn20 votes

When are they getting something right? Four seasons now soon five where people say "oh they will get it right just wait". Just "wait". How long shall we wait? These guys in charge literally took over the most popular and most played game of all times and turned it into this garbage noone wants to play. Lost 4 million ranked players in the west, other numbers are not trackable unfortunately.

Raiyza9 votes

As much as I didn't like hearing the guy talk in those videos (his voice bugged me for some reason), yes, please bring him back. He knew how League was supposed to be.

UragirimonoX9 votes

We need everyone to spread out and leave a reminder in every comment to vote in this Morlleo POLL, do not let this post disappear like its just another noise complaint we gotta try, if riot wont keep the game alive then we gotta do it.

[slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

Marothennan8 votes

People gave Morello so much shit for being silver but he was doing a much better job than a certain guy that was plat for seasons (stuck gold now ? ) whose name I won't mention is doing now

DemoGuide7 votes

I would also like a guy who had successfully designed 2 mobas back. You know, Guinsoo, who made original dota and who made original league. I think this guy knows something about fun and engaging gameplay.

EasternBladeStar7 votes

If you've ever looked up Morello's profile in the social media, it's pretty obvious he's a smart guy. So no wonder (even post-mortem thought) that he did a good job while on the helm.

TyroneWatermelon6 votes

Morello is held captive in a dark basement and will never get out.

xXRaichopXx6 votes

Anyone but Ghostcrawler

PowerSlave9936 votes

He will never return. Riot doesn't need people who will make games last longer and balanced. GG ez

RainXBlade6 votes

#FireGhostcrawler

DNFVixen5 votes

Lets try to get this to get 1k votes!

DNFVixen5 votes

500 votes for wanting morello back hell ya!

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