I have no agency over this game anymore

I Do Not Recall·12/25/2017, 1:39:32 PM·152 votes·5,997 views

I've never gotten more S ranks and lost I've never had more trouble getting out of mid gold (diamond last season and plat all seasons before) I've never had more trouble beating silver level yasuos and katarinas and zeds I've never felt so dependent on what team mates matchmaking gives me I've never felt so impotent playing a defensive macro style for mid game I've never played so poorly and still won games just because i picked the right champion I've never played so well and lost because i picked the "wrong" champion.

What determines if i win or not? How i felt all previous seasons: 50% how well i played 40% how good my team mates were 10% what champion I picked

How I feel now: 50% how good my team mates are 40% what champion I pick 10% how well I actually play

Riot Help Me

86 Comments

Bloodrage Shadow12/25/2017, 4:44:54 PM64 votes

Better bot lane wins 90% of the time, but that's just from my experiences of playing in Plat. If your bot lane dies 5 minutes in with no jungle interference, you might as well ff15 because it's likely you aren't winning lol.

Ayanami3rd12/25/2017, 3:17:47 PM30 votes

Would say it's rather 60% about the team mates' skill. Everything else perfectly agreed.

When I began playing League at the start of S7, one of the aspects I loved most was the strategic component (objectives, rotations, wave management, timings etc.). This is all gone. Just totally gone. Summoner's Rift feels like a 3-lane ARAM now. Everyone throws their shit at the enemy, and the shit that eventually hits harder wins the game.

Barkley12/25/2017, 4:42:02 PM18 votes

I feel ya man. I've been going back and forth as to whether or not I'm just done with this game. Been playing since S1 and I'm beginning to think it might just be time to move on.

If the new season doesn't bring things back in line, my league days may be over. As you said yourself, there's just no strategy to it anymore. Its just a team deathmatch game where there happens to be some objectives standing in the way of you killing your opponent.

Elkington VI12/25/2017, 4:41:44 PM9 votes

It's basically comes down to champion picks and matchmaking. It's kind of always been that way to a certain point, but with how binary most games are these days it's just been exacerbated and now you have to play with those things in mind all the time. Defensive play is a part of strategy, but Riot has been steadily hitting it over the years to make games more exciting and this is the result.

Raiyza12/25/2017, 5:24:40 PM7 votes

You cannot solo carry this game anymore. If one out of your 5 man team makes one mistake, it's game over.

Yaskamasandwich12/25/2017, 10:09:51 PM7 votes

Going into grandpa mode and kept saying this vefore and I'll still keep saying forever. Fuck class power spikes. Back in my day the 6 item Sejuani, Olaf, or Jax had 10x more powerful late game than a 6 item Kog'maw, Vayne, or Twitch. Power spikes were dependant on kits not classes. Draven and Lucian were early game lane bullies and dropped off due to their kits. Quinn is the only Marksmen whom is a early game bully and drops off now.

Marksmen also had to strategize which items to get back then, as in buy a defensive item. Usually GA and it didn't give damage. That was enough however because Marksmen power budget was based on being protected by their teams. Only lane bullies like once again Draven and Lucian, with the exception of hyper carry Vayne, could duel. Even then Vayne had to becareful not to duel tanky champions with Thornmail while Draven's and Lucian's kits were designed to get past Thornmail. I feel like only Jhin has to becareful when it comes to dueling now, and Marksmen power budget is no longer based on teams protecting them. Which gave them even more power.

Bah Marksmen have been given too much power and say over the years. Basically the only late game carries now. Also having their early game buffed to avoid "ADC20k17". So now they are good early game, great mid game, god late game.

Canderous Ordo12/26/2017, 7:42:02 AM6 votes

I started playing in early 2010. I've been diamond multiple times, played thousands of games, hit the absolute top aram elo (queues times of 25 mins ftw), and i thought i'd continue to play this game for years to come. But I'm done now. This used to be a strategic game with laning and teamfights being expressions of skill with ample opportunity for outplays and meaningful interactions. The game has really evolved into something more resembling a brawler or even a fps with every fight being a clusterfuck decided mainly by who fired first and matchups. Almost every game boils down to champs picked and first blood and snowballing. Individual agency is mostly a relic of the past at this point. It just feels like you're spectating your own games when they snowball 50% of the time in your favor and 50% of the time they snowball against your team. Right now it feels like personal skill and strategy have minimal impact on outcomes, when a couple seasons ago they were paramount. Fun has just slowly melted away from LoL as the game has morphed into its current form. Maybe riot can fix the game some day but that just doesn't seem likely at this point. A shame since a good match of LoL in seasons past was among the best experiences in gaming.

Professor Ward12/25/2017, 4:46:16 PM6 votes

i main support and have no problem whatsoever with agency, if i do well my lane does well, if top feeds i keep em up vocally, make sure to encourage he plays safe. Try and shotcall midgame to defer the lead to my other teamates and win the game with a fed adc and a 5/5 midlaner.

I literally have the role that excludes itself from agency, and end up with more pull than any player on my team with no more than 10k gold and some wards.

WolfChases12/25/2017, 7:10:25 PM5 votes

I feel the same, was platinum 3 as I recall, cant get out of gold 5 right now lol. There is literally nothinhg you can do anymore. My team either annihilates enemy team from level 1 or they annihilate us and theres almost no chance to comeback. Once one team gets the lead, its almost impossible to work around objectives. Cant contest a single drake, cant move anywhere from your part of the map. I win one game and lose one and so on and so on. Same goes for normals, its pretty much always a onesided rampage. If Riot does't change that, they should let us forfeit at 10 minutes.

Faceroll Tactics12/25/2017, 8:08:25 PM5 votes

Riot is turning League into poker

You draw a bot lane and if your bot beats theirs you win, if they don’t you lose.

It’s all chance, the only thing you have control over is your will to keep going.

FCJAAAAGOOOO12/26/2017, 3:10:07 AM4 votes

It actually has absolutely everything to do with the Support role. That may sound far-fetched so hear me out.

ADCs being strong skews the metagame somewhat. Supports actually flip it on its head by being changed over the past years from adding to the strength of teammates in general to amplifying the strength of a single teammate. Factor in damage creep and the meta's a perfect storm that perpetually creates games where single carries obliterate entire teams, meaning that in order to come back from that the other team needs to have a hard counter to said champion full stop.

There are no exceptions to the meta, no alternatives and no outplay potential there; have the champion that beats the enemy champion or lose. And because winning from snowballing is now so easy, multiple hypercarries on each team is a must in everything but pro play. ADC's are still relevant then because, really, each and every single one of them is now a hypercarry at this point.

League of Snowballs. Happy Winter everyone.

Shifue Draven12/26/2017, 3:32:45 AM4 votes

Honestly that is why i feel less inclined to log in. The new system has disenfranchised so many champs and play styles. Last season was so snowbally that if you where not bot lane you did not matter and now with all the extra damage it's worse. I understand it's a team game which is why i get so tired of people saying well solo carry etc. season 7 and so far what this season is looking it's not possible unless you're bot. Now champ picks are even more weighted and it's gotten to not be any fun to log in and play.

I worked on my game a lot this last season just for busted metas to curtail me cause i was always on the team that did not want to go ardent(which i still say it's bullshit to force teams into this box of play this or lose all champs and styles should be good at some point). But yeah it's boiled down to now it's either you pick the "right" champs and hope your team can play them or suffer. Then when you add that up every game has pretty much become a stomp one way or the other. As a jg and my two main jgs being strong so far i am bored in my role cause it feels like if my team has the right champs and they can play them i can get them ahead and do my job. But if my team has all the "wrong" picks i can't get them ahead hard enough. I don't even know what else to say.

Kaìju12/25/2017, 9:44:31 PM3 votes

As an ADC player who does better in teamfights, the meta feels bad for people like us too. If our support is bad, or their jungle camps bot, I can't get to my strength. I have to pick a carry I don't like to survive lane phase and that feels bad. My mechanics will be very solid, but I just don't matter early because support and jungle decide the lane, and the game is my fault if top loses somehow.

Ayanami3rd12/25/2017, 4:57:09 PM3 votes

Better bot does not win all the time. Let's say, you play your lane like 80% perfect, but all other teammates are barely average to outright behind (which can easily happen thanks to super snowball meta), the feed from other lanes just comes visiting you and completely ruin your lane and all your effort. This just tilts me as hell at the moment.

How to win in 2k18: You win one lane by just mindlessly fighting (screw cs/farming or objective awareness), rotate to the next lane, stomp it through, rotate to the last, and then you have snowballed enough that your enemies can surrender at 20~25.

FreshAsFebreze12/26/2017, 1:07:19 AM3 votes

Dont forget the Riot factor, riot has a big time influence on who wins starting with unbalanced matchmaking, behind the scenes buffing/nerfing not covered in patch notes and "Rito Love" given to certain champs.

MirrorU12/26/2017, 1:21:51 AM3 votes

You're right and what you're describing speaks to a lack of balance in the game. The way it works is if the game is balanced than any 5 champs in their relative right positions will do, but when a game is unbalanced it comes down to FIRST who has the most meta picks and THEN who can play better.

xxxDogmanxxx12/26/2017, 9:08:36 PM3 votes

The only thing common in 100% of all your games is you.

Camnopg12/26/2017, 5:32:46 AM2 votes

Calm down everyone- please realize that this is pre-season and RIOT is just testing stuff. Your responses do matter, so yes, keep them coming, but calm down. The pre-season will last until Mid January and they will listen to your responses and test the game to balance everything out. It's like this every pre-season.

Northmund12/26/2017, 4:45:48 PM2 votes

Played Jax in URF parody recently and felt so impactful, when 1v5 made a penta. I played well there, deserved it. Why can not i do the same in summoners rift :P All i feel in SR is wow look bot lane gave first blood and says: "we leavin boys". Not actually afk, but for the rest 20 mins he plays with dead inside not trying at all. So i ask: Why is this a team game when team mates are so unreliable (in ranked)

RankOneUganda12/27/2017, 5:52:04 AM2 votes

i had games where I litearllly stayed top. did nothing. we won at 20. i had 2 assists for over 20 kills.

I had a game I went 28/3. and lost.because my adc did 8k damage in a 42 minute game.

greekvandaL12/25/2017, 7:11:24 PM2 votes

that's the game bruv. There was a time i would pick Kha and win vs everysingle player up to diamond 3. Now some random low diamond monkey picks Sejuani and wins by default unless i make the enemy ragequit.

Skorch12/25/2017, 5:52:06 PM1 votes

I feel like part of issue is even though we are several weeks in there are still balances to change and metas to form, i still havent found a champ that was even bad after new runes. So because of that people dont even know what meta is, how they should play. Is the meta 4 man bot+turret+drag still? or is it cheese top? I say in 1 or so month metas will start forming and the overall craziness (not balance, that is always being changed) will start going down.