Pre-season went Almost Exactly as it was supposed to. So why all the hate?

Pre-Season has just started, and I think the game is in it's best state it's been for a while, most games are really close even if they end at roughly the same time, they don't feel rushed, just exciting. This post is not to say the game can't be improved from where it is but for all the posts saying that this pre-season was a failure and the usual the balance teams need firing because they don't like the changes, but riot did just what they set-out to do and this was coming for a while.

Laning Phase:

> Turrets will much more rarely fall from 100% to 0% early game after one gank or recall attempt. Players that lane aggressively and take risks in the early game are rewarded. Bad matchups don’t feel like a surrendered lane. You may be pushed under turret, but you’ll have more time to CS safely before your turret falls. Lane matchups are less influenced by success or failure in other lanes and you have more time to outplay your opponent in an even matchup early game. Players should be a little more likely to leave lane phase having completed their first item.

Those were riots goals for an improved laning phase taken directly from their own posts, people have been complaining throughout the year that the lane phase was too short and that turrets were too weak and in dire need for some buffs.

1. Turrets pre 14 minutes do take quite a bit longer to fall because they are a lot tankier with the plating system and the gold although i agree is giving too much is necessary for people to try and play more agressively and force more interactions leaning into point 2.
2. Players that play take risks early and play agressively are rewarded with turret platings, but playing agressively is a lot harder now because of the massive damage buffs to turrets making diving a much more calculated play and a lot riskier.
3. Before in a bad matchup you would die once or twice due to matchup and he would take your tower at 8 minutes and roam causing a ridiculous snowball, but now even if he kills you once or twice you still have until around 14 minutes to farm up and give you other lanes the freedom of trying to win without too much interference(yes i know jglers can still gank but so can the other so it cancels out).
4. This is essentially the same point as 3 in saying that it gives you other lanes a chance to get a lead even if one is behind because roaming generally leads to you laner coming back by grabbing turret platings another plus to the plating system.
5. After their first item or two the laning phase is over and the teamfights actually start which i have to say has happened due to the laning phase ending at 14 minutes for all.

Runes:

> Players can take the runes they want without feeling restricted by path style bonuses, better supporting creative (Glacial Augment Jax?) and strategic (double MR shards vs Rumble top) decision making. Slightly reduce early-game damage potency via 1 enforced defensive stat choice.

1. I fell like this was accomplished although the defensive stat runes are slightly too weak but that can be easily changed, the stat runes do feel like a nice change when playing against a counterpick. It does enable better decision making.
2. I can't speak too much on this one as I havn't seen any statistics on this.
3. Dark harvest: I feel like I had to mention this because it is the main point of concern this preseason and seems like the big thing people hate, which is weird because it is weaker now just more champion can use it and is only really frustrating when multiple people use it. Honestly i'd rather have old darkharvest and this is the only pre-season change i just don't understand because i remember that back when they first tried out they meant to make it an execute rune similar to pyke ult but their testers found it way too toxic to be in the game so it is strange that they would do a full 180 and go back to that. Although if this is the only think people hate about the pre-season changes i'd call it pretty successful.

Comebacks:

>Make the path to staging a comeback clearer for the team that’s fallen behind More accurately assign bounty levels to account for leads that don't come solely from champ kills Make the system more forgiving when you're playing well on the losing team

1. The bounty in the scoreboard is a really nice quality of life change and does give the losing team a clear way to comeback.
2. This change was seen as controversial because it was seen as punishing someone for playing well but that could be said for the bounty system as whole when it should really be seen as rewarding someone for killing someone that is ahead of them, people that have a massive farm lead because they are playing champions like yasuo, yorick, cass ect who clear waves really easily should give a reward when killed even if they went dead even cause they just farmed it out and have a massive gold lead.
3. This was done through two ways, first it was with the cap of 1000 g so that when your ahead you don't give the winning team too much gold and send them in a further lead, and the second is with the change where your bounty doesn't change mid fight so if you hard carry a fight and get a triple-quadra it won't be accounted for, meanwhile if the winning team gets a multi kill it generally is pretty much over at that point.

For the last part where riot talks about decided games ending faster i think it's safe to say that it has been achieved.

To conclude Riot achieved everything they set out to do and i find the laning phase and turrets make the game a lot more enjoyable to play, and most my games are actually really close because of the longer laning phase giving most champions a chance to get in the game. Aside from the dark harvest change i don't see anything too wrong with these changes.