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The reason for all the random changes.

Eedat··22 votes·1,043 views

NOTE: I am not agreeing with the reason. I'm not saying it is a valid reason. I'm just stating it.

It's pretty obvious. It's all for Worlds. Think about it.

Azir : pick/ban in LCS, but poor SoloQ performance. Gets nerfed.

RekSai: pick/ban in LCS, below average in SoloQ. Gets nerfed.

Gragas: pick/ban in LCS, mediocre in SoloQ. Getting nerfs.

Kalista: becomes pick/ban in LCS if even close to viable in SoloQ

Ryze: pick/ban in LCS. Mediocre in SoloQ. Time for another rework.

Malzahar pick/ban in LCS, strong in SoloQ as well. Ok he probably deserved those tbh

Ashe: pick/ban in LCS, good in SoloQ. Getting nerfs, but probably deserves them

Nidalee: pick/ban in LCS. poor to mediocre in SoloQ. Gets nerfs.

Anyone noticing the trend? They're intentionally nerfing the pick/ban champions so it isnt the same 20 champions in every single game at Worlds.

The inverse is also true. Riot is also buffing champions (some have been buffed, others are currently buffed on PBE) that are currently fine in SoloQ, but seen as bad in the LCS.

Riven Jinx JayceVayne Veigar Thresh LeeSin and others that I can't think of off the top of my head

Notice the ones they're buffing champs that are ok, but can make #LC$BIGPLAYZ. Riven can make flashy plays and has a lot of outplay potential. Jinx can get one kill in a fight then run around going nuts. Jayce has flashy combos. Vayne has a lot of outplay potential and fancy footwork. Veigar has......ok maybe not so much Veig. Thresh has always been a #LC$BIGPLAYZ machine. What makes more hype than a big Lee Sin Insec kick?

With all of that being said, I cant wait for 2 patches from now where Riot can actually go back to balancing for real. Maybe something can finally be done about all these unwarranted buffs and nerfs. Maybe they can finally get to fixing some of these champs that were gutted and left to die too

I am kind of split though. One one hand it would be nice to see more than 20 champions at Worlds. On the other hand it is kind of BS that these changes have to affect millions of players' games for months. Although it's really not fair to people who enjoy to play but dont give a damn about competitive.

Overall I'll just be happy once we can get past the Worlds patch and can get back to normal.

29 Comments

Matezoide6 votes

Buffing/nerfing champions for LCS is good.

The game should be balanced around the level of play that is actually good instead of the Bronze-Silver trash like us. All they need to do is buff more LCS-weak champions more often and then we could have some actual variation in pro-games.

The game would be that much more balanced if they focused on giving high elo/pros a balanced game instead of picking favorites that make for an exciting game.

Very Hard Engage2 votes

{quoted}

Buffing/nerfing champions for LCS is good.

The game should be balanced around the level of play that is actually good instead of the Bronze-Silver trash like us. All they need to do is buff more LCS-weak champions more often and then we could have some actual variation in pro-games.

The game would be that much more balanced if they focused on giving high elo/pros a balanced game instead of picking favorites that make for an exciting game.

Hell, i used to think it was bullshit, dont get me wrong, but once you stop to think, it makes perfect sense. Thats the logic Dota 2 uses and on the last tournament we had more unique picks in the first 10 games than entire LoL tournaments. Different games, sure, and a lot of Dota chars are used as niche hard counters, so LoL will never reach that sheer variation since Riot hates hard-counters, but it would be a massive improvement regardless.

the main issue with buffing/nerfing around LCS, is that they divert attention from where its needed or give up on the big picture in the meantime. besides the 95% of players who cant play at that level and utilize the champion to their full potential anyway making the changes more harmful than good.

like a core issue here is that players are unhappy with matchmaking, ranking, new content, and rotating game mode. instead they put all their eggs into the LCS basket and they forget about the rest of the game until it ends.

Matezoide2 votes

It is one thing to nerf around LCS and ignore the game entirely though.

The problem is that Riot is flat out ignoring several parts of the game to focus on that Esports shit.

I would be fine with them focusing to balance the LCS, or at least least focus on the higher elos, but then they go around and tell us to fuck off.

Dynamic Que has been fucking the game for months now and Riot is obviously not going to change it. Rotating game mode is even shittier than i could predict. New content is a joke and they just keep giving skins to what is popular (Hello, new Ahri skin. It has been almost a whole year since you got one!). Hell, this goes to the official forum too. How long has it been since Facebook got stickers? Theres that chinese LoL website with tons of official stickers too. Meanwhile we are stuck with the same Jinx shit for months now after the fiasco that was the 2015 Harrowing.

(The Dota 2 comparasion was silly and i realised quite a bit after my post, which is why it was removed, so disregard that. A Dota hero having a 65% win-rate is vastly different than a LoL one reaching these numbers, for example.)

Wyrmblade1 votes

That means the champions that are good in soloqueue but bad in LCS would absolutely utterly shitstomp because they're even more good.

Matezoide1 votes

Not really. People will adapt. It isnt going to be a very smooth transition, but people will learn how to deal with the champs that are good for Solo-Que, especially since they will also have access to buffed champions as well.

THE RlVER KlNG1 votes

Kinda insensitive to call Bronze and Silver 'trash' if you ask me.

Marshbouy1 votes

we are. don't deny it

THE RlVER KlNG1 votes

With that kind of attitude, maybe.

Marshbouy1 votes

We could be better than trash. But compared to high elo players, we are currently trash

Marshbouy1 votes

We should have a mix. I don't want yi getting crazy powerful because he got some serious buffs for LCS. Pls no.

Marshbouy3 votes

I'm laughing constantly because the boards go from "omg no LCS variety" and "omg why is riot balancing around LCS" in about .2 seconds flat.

Dukues3 votes

I have no problem with them balancing around LCS / high elo.

Like its known Azir is op at high elo, but generally is not that great at lower elos since is skill requirement is so high. It doesn't make sense to balance the game around the population who cannot play a champion to its full potential.

Calabok2 votes

Nothin more to say for this argument is pointless

Eedat9 votes

What argument?

Very Hard Engage1 votes

{quoted}

They ain't random, chum. They do things for reasons. Maybe not ones you agree with but then you don't work for them. ..

Nothin more to say for this argument is pointless

in order for it to be an argument you first have to

  1. make a claim, say literally anything you want to one way or another, in this instance you are trying to say "the changes riot makes are not random" ok thats a fine point.

  2. support your claim with any shred of evidence. you left out this step. without this step i can say "Hitler was secretly a black man and wore makeup to conceal the fact." although untrue.

so TLDR - you didnt back up what you said, so therefore you had no argument.

the reason I have an argument here is because

  1. I made a claim, which was - you have no argument.

  2. I backed it up by pointing out throughout your whole sentence you gave no proof or support to your claim.

CeexSett3 votes

Stop humilliating him come on.

DunkinNoobs2 votes

I'm curious how exactly Gragas and Nidalee are poor to mediocre in Solo Q? In low elo maybe. In diamond and above? Those champs dominated and still do dominate. Throw Kindred and Reksai in there as well for that matter.

Kotex2 votes

But the thing is that didn't work last year, it wont work this year either. Theyre still going to end up playing these champs because thats what theyre familiar with and have spent the whole year playing.

Hayaishi22 votes

Why won't they buff champions that have never been good in the LCS? Jinx has dominated the LCS since her release, Vayne has had her spotlight aswell. Same with Lee Sin.

GULAG 4 U2 votes

Ryze is pick and ban in lcs? Honestly I play him and his ult is pretty shit, I win games without even using it, that shit is basically a crappy teleport. It's okay for ganking bot too.

bill844 votes

Old ryze

Jeddy0171 votes

Actually, his ult rank 1 is shit. Unless you're trying to pass a wall, you could just walk to where you would have ulted. At rank 2, it becomes pretty good to catch people off guard, rotate quickly with the team or use it as a decent escape if the enemy doesn't CC you.

GULAG 4 U1 votes

I guess yeah, It's good for escaping if you ult then hourglass.

AetherKingdom2 votes

grag mediocre in solo queue? rank?????/

Noblewind2 votes

The first 5 champs in the list are victims simply because they have game-changing utility in their kits for coordinated team play. Because of that, it will forever be:

If SoloQ strength = atleast semi strong, Pro Play strength = near 100% pick-ban

Calabok1 votes

They ain't random, chum. They do things for reasons. Maybe not ones you agree with but then you don't work for them. ..

Eedat10 votes

I know they're not random. This whole post is explaining that they're not random lol

Very Hard Engage1 votes

OP, dont forget. season 5 veigar support, literally seen as support, gutted 2 weeks later(patch 5.4) and stayed dumpstered for 4 straight patches until he rereached his 47% win rate in 5.8

Sire Hippington1 votes

Most of those are not only good in LCS, but overall if played well, gragas, reksai, ryze and nidalee all have well above average winrate for experienced players in plat+, ashe is currently the highest overall winrate with high popularity amongst adc, and malz had the highest winrate in serveral roles at once befor the nerfs. It's mostly Azir that not only needs exerienced, but exeptionally dedicated players to be great, and ideally a team working around him, and Kallista relys on her teammates like no other adc while haveing a huge sillcap for the player aswell, si she also needs the coordinated competetive neviroment to shine. for the buffs, yea, those are champs that are on the brink of viabillity in proplay, so they get small buffs to slightly shake up things for worls, thoough i'd supect most of them would have seen play atleast as pocket picks even without buffs...

It's more an actuall balanceing aorund the full potential off the champs rather than the average case, which imo is a good thing for a competetive game that claims to balance around the top ~10%(plat+) And it's not really supprising that the current patches are even more focused on pro play than usually, as riot specifically stated that the current patches are focused on worlds.

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