The Balance Team Does Not "Balance the Game Without Even Playing It"

I figured I'd try to finally put this to rest, because it's a really damaging misconception that leads to distrust and dismissal rather than helpful discussions.

First off, every single Rioter is encouraged to participate in Riot's internal playtests. These playtests happen every day, several times a day, because the designers need to try out a lot of different approaches when coming up with balance changes, champion tweaks, and new content. And I'm pretty sure that every one in the game-design department is basically required to participate. Seriously, playtesting is like game-design 101.

Second, the is a dedicated Playtest Team, filled with Master-Challenger players. I think they are well-known by now, but it's worth reiterating. They have some of the best players in the game, able to pick-up new champions/changes and push those design to their limits, in as short a time as is humanly possible. On top of that, they are trained to proficient in giving feedback: identifying problems, describing them in detail without any fluff or redundancy, and being aware of potential biases or gaps in understanding.

Third and most importantly, the designers themselves are regular players like the rest of us. It's basically a requirement to work at Riot that you have to be "passionate" about the game and it's players. So yes, they play the live game just as much as any other working adult. They experience the same frustrations and annoying trends as we do. They know what it's like to have their favorite champions fall in and out of meta. They share our struggles trying to grind to Gold/Diamond/etc. And regarding their skill-levels, suffice it to say that they have players of all ranks, and that it doesn't matter all that much in the first place since they have such a skilled playtest team and tons of data from all ELOs.

If you read all the way through, thanks for listening. Double thanks if you leave some civil discussion in the comments.

Edit: I forgot to say, none of this means you can't or shouldn't hold Riot accountable for terrible decisions. They are still fallible; everyone makes mistakes. (I miss old Aatrox.) Just don't blame it on them not playing the game, because that's just not true.

Edit 2: It's been pointed out that some of the Playtest Team are Plat or Diamond. Indeed, I forgot that Diamond players with good feedback skills are also welcome within the Team. As for the Plats, I believe some of them have neglected their solo queue rank after they joined the team, but they could get Diamond if they wanted, I swear. [citation required]