Apparently, 27 million people play League on a daily basis.
Only the top 4.32% of players make it to Platinum 5. Exclude the boosted people and it's probably more around 3%.
With some quick math you'll realize they "balance" this game around 1.16 million people. Why? It makes zero sense to me.
Slythion2 votesbecause anything lower provides inconsistent data because no one is playing the game correctly (simply because their skill level isn't there)
Dovahkiin4161 votesThen exclude the very low MMR players, and balance around say Silver 1?
Make new players start out at Bronze 5 until they learn the game. Then they can climb.
Slythion1 voteser...even silver 1 is really bad. Like...I'd say even at Plat 2 the game is being played consistently well about 60% of the time
JQKAndrei2 votesSimple answer: because Plat+ is the elo where everyone knows all the champions and their abilities.
Basically in plat+ you can say you know all the "rules" of the game.
Dovahkiin4161 votesI get that, but it's still a very small minority of the players. It makes for a shitty experience in low elo where people can't deal with a Master Yi for example. Where in high level play he's completely useless most of the time.
JQKAndrei2 votesBut the fact that they can't deal with it is solely tied to the lack of knowledge of the game.
They can lose as Jax vs Yi because they don't know that Jax's counterstrike completely negates all his autoattacks, same thing goes with Shen.
You can't balance the game around players who have the tools to deal with certain champions but just don't use them.
Dovahkiin4161 votesThen they should exclude the very low MMR people and balance around Silver 1, unless you have high plat or diamond skills then it takes a lot to climb out of hell.
(Not saying Gold simply because of all the boosted animals)
SwiftKitten882 votesi made a thread about this a while back... and while i think "balancing around plat is fine" that does NOT mean "to hell with all other elos"
it means that that 50% win rate of a champ, should occur at around plat skill lvl. it does NOT mean that same champ is allowed to be at 50% in plat and have a 75% winrate in bronze and a 38% winrate in challenger.
you still need to keep the winrate with "acceptable limits" + or - 2-3%
it doesn't mean a champ is "fine" if they have a 50% winrate in plat and a 43% winrate in silver.
that is NOT fine
MLDzXnRRR1 votesThey don't balance only around platinum +. In the past we have seen nerfs to Yi, Katarina and so on - champions that are problem only in low elo.
Slythion1 votesthey actually do balance around plat+, but not exclusively. It's the elo range they almost always look at initially when making changes though
Zelorxon1 votesMmmmmmmmmmmmmh...
Weathered1 votesCompare it to football. Would you rather make rule changes based on the new tactics professional or college players discover and abuse, or change rules based on the numerous high school and below teams who discover new methods that work, but only some of the time and for certain people?
Aside from that, thank you for making me feel special about being in the 3%.
Dovahkiin4161 votesIn football they have different rule books for all level of play. From high school to professional.
Grimspeake1 votesThey nerfed blitz w because bronzies were getting crushed by him a while back. Guess what bronzies still complain
Jax Cramer1 votesYeah thats why they destroyed YI, Katarina and Akali. Never seen anyone at a decent elo cry about those...only Bronze and Silver kids.
Big Lincoln1 votesbecause nothing will appease low elo players who don't want to improve.
is trash at every elo and bronze will still qq about him, even if he gets nerfed even harder.
got gutted to appease trash players. None of his mechanics actually changed; he's still going to piss them all off, but he's just straight worse now.
it's not worth the effort
EndlessSorcerer1 votesYou have to balance around players who actually know how to play the game and use champions appropriately.
Otherwise, you will get abuse cases ruining higher tier play. For example, if Azir was balanced in the hands of a Silver player, he would be absolutely bloody broken in Diamond+ when somebody competent used him.
If a champion is strong in lower ranks (i.e. Bronze, Silver, Gold) but weaker in higher tiers of play, that generally means that sufficient counterplay exists to the champion but that lower tier players just don't know what it is or how to implement it.
Honestly, I'd be happier if they focused on Diamond+ for better competitive balancing.
Astôlfo1 votesSub-Plat players are shit at the game.
EndlessSorcerer1 votesAs a Platinum player, many of us are still horrible at the game.
Astôlfo1 votesWith the exception of boosters and the boostees, they're still a good deal better than sub-Plat. And balancing around only Dia+ would probably exclude too much. League balance is semi-competitive, but it is also semi-high tier casual-ish.