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Can any other veteran player confirm?

Eedat··9 votes·1,006 views

That this season actually doesn't feel like the most snowbally season?

Now before I get downvoted into oblivion, hear me out.

There have actually been a lot of anti-snowball measures taken throughout the years. I'm going to point out a few off the top of my head, but there is probably more that I'm missing. Just a disclaimer, these are in no particular order

  • Vision. Before we had trinkets for free wards, you had to buy them. The team that was ahead could afford more of them. The support of the team that was ahead could buy an Oracles and just walk through the map which they had control of and take out all of your vision. The enemy team would then have absolute vision control while your team had none.

  • Dragon used to just straight up give gold to everyone on the enemy team.

  • Less first blood gold now

  • Teams now get global shut down gold

  • You now get free timers on epic monsters. In the past there wasnt even a notification if the enemy team took dragon or baron which means the team that is behind has absolutely no clue when its respawning unless they saw it getting killed. This means the ahead team has a huge advantage when the next one comes around

  • Heyday of super roam/gank heavy champs. These were the heydays for champs like LeeSin Zed Leblanc TwistedFate Nocturne who are very good at roaming and snowballing games

  • Turrets are actually stronger now then they were in earlier seasons

  • Riot has increased the bonus XP gain if you are under-leveled over the years

  • Jungle is a lot tougher now and camps don't respawn nearly as frequently

  • Cheesy strats like when laners would take a jungle camp at level 1, ding level 2, base, then tp top with extra pots and abuse your lane opponent with your level and items advantage were removed.

These are just off the top of my head. I'm sure I've missed quite a few more. I'm not the oldest player by any means, but I've been playing since season 3 and this season really doesn't feel as bad as others when it comes to snowballing to me. There have been sooooo many mechanics introduced to help prevent snowballing. How much is too much? Should we really be punishing players for performing well? Doesn't the team that played well deserve to have that advantage?

Just my 2 cents. Would love to hear from some older players if I just remember things wrong or if you agree

20 Comments

Jbels4 votes

I can confirm. I doubt many people here remember the ADC meta, which was also subsequently the Assassin meta as a result. Blood Thirster was the first item every ADC got, and the first ADC to get to it usually won, snowballing off of that stacking AD and Lifesteal it gave. Assassins were of course a requirement for every team, as they were the only champions capable of killing an ADC in a 1v1 / before the ADC could start punishing the enemy team. Oh yeah, there have definitely been more snowbally seasons than this. I will never forget 5 BT Riven. Ever.

2yordles1cupcake1 votes

[{quoted}](name=NMF Jbels,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=fx1Lnfjp,comment-id=0002,timestamp=2016-09-24T19:10:29.319+0000)

I can confirm. I doubt many people here remember the ADC meta, which was also subsequently the Assassin meta as a result. Blood Thirster was the first item every ADC got, and the first ADC to get to it usually won, snowballing off of that stacking AD and Lifesteal it gave. Assassins were of course a requirement for every team, as they were the only champions capable of killing an ADC in a 1v1 / before the ADC could start punishing the enemy team. Oh yeah, there have definitely been more snowbally seasons than this. I will never forget 5 BT Riven. Ever.

I'll take the adc lifesteal meta over the current crit/poke + keystone meta that's happening right now.

Jbels3 votes

{quoted}

I'll take the adc lifesteal meta over the current crit/poke + keystone meta that's happening right now.

From what I see most ADCs don't even build crit that quickly anymore, opting to stomp the early to mid game with flat armor penetration purchases, waiting until the 3rd or 4th item before even touching crit

WarlockLaw4 votes

I think the beginning of the season was extremely snowbally, more so than any other I remember. However now it doesn't feel too bad, with all the measures they've put in. That said, for most of this season I've felt like playing for the late game, as in any champ considered to have a weak early game and okay mid game and a strong af late game, has been really hard to do. I forget if it was season 4 or season 5, the two kind of blur together for me for whatever reason, we had an extremely stally meta. Champions like Ziggs and Xerath would just sit under their tower clearing any and all efforts to siege a tower until eventually one team or the other finally engages a 5v5. That was the opposite of snowballing and was basically just wait 40 minutes then teamfight.

LankPants1 votes

I forget if it was season 4 or season 5

Definitely 4

ZACKandATTACK3 votes

I've played since S4 and to me this season feels like almost every game is a stomp.

Amelie2 votes

I've been playing since early Season 2. While everything you listed is true, it doesn't mean the game isn't currently snowbally.

You don't take into consideration the ability to turtle in earlier seasons. You were literally able to play safe and farm yourself back into the game (anyone remember the summoner spell Fortify?). It's very nearly impossible to do so now because the games end much faster. Things like dragon used to only give gold; this wouldn't matter if you could turtle to late-game and everyone had their 5-6 items.

Oracles holders would clear wards, yes, but supports who were behind could dedicate their entire money pool into new wards, helping their team turtle and catch up, and still be ok. Now supports can place 3 wards, max. Your wards get cleared, or your sightstone is out of charges? Too bad, go back to base or try to help your team without the benefits of vision. Right now you can never have enough vision to safely turtle.

This season still feels snowbally. They made it a LITTLE better from when it first started, but it still feels like if you fall behind, you will never catch up (unless the enemy makes that mistake). Surrendering is much more common. People get frustrated much faster. Comebacks don't happen often. This is what I've personally noticed this season.

Banana Nations2 votes

I feel like the ability to turtle without any risks is extremely unhealthy for the game though, remember when ziggs and xerath were in proplay and every game lasted 45+ minutes. Also if turtling could be done safer early game champs would be rendered useless by champs such as anivia ziggs and

  1. xerath.
Amelie1 votes

I agree with you there (and I wouldn't want to see that kind of turtling come back), but it did limit the snowballing potential, which was the only point I was making.

Irelia Bot2 votes

The single biggest issue I have is the influx of formerly bronze and silver players in gold and plat due to DQ who make those easy to punish mistakes or overly aggressive plays which in turn makes games snowball faster has not helped in the slightest.

Not saying they can't play at that level but they are more likely to screw up.

Tyto Mors1 votes

agreed, generally people in dynamic have some form of voice com, so they can instant do something when you fuck up. this is why im proud of my solo emblem and getting gold 1 without relying on premade. that and i tend to lose when im in premade.

LankPants2 votes

League feels like it's in a middle ground state in regards to snowballing to me. It's more snowbally than late S5, S4 and S2 but far less than S3 and early S5 and 6. I don't mind it but I personally prefer slower metas, I personally enjoyed the game the most when metas were more stally and that probably stems from playing in S2 which had a very enjoyable slow meta, similar to the late S5 Cinderhulk meta.

2yordles1cupcake1 votes

Turrets are actually stronger now then they were in earlier seasons

Stop reading after this. When the opposing team with a jinx can make it to the nexus within 15 min of the game, turrets are a joke.

https://youtu.be/kTewx3x6Dps?t=23m6s

Less snowbally my butt.

Eedat2 votes

Still doesnt change the fact that they're stronger now and it was even easier to take them down in earlier seasons

Mistress Shyvana1 votes

I still question why make bot lane turrets weaker than the rest.

l Helios l3 votes

We just had changes to turrets a few weeks ago that made non-bot lane turrets stronger, but they also adjusted the health and fortification % reduction to be higher, but not last as long. Every tower also gives less gold, minus the first turret bonus.

BTW, you realize that

  1. Your clip is heavily out of date; pretty sure that was at least spring when that game happened and the patch for the turret changes was 6.15
  2. You're talking about Jinx, aka the premier tower-taking ADC.
  3. They stomped them that game. Might as well have been playing a team of slivers.

Edit: there isn't even a jinx in that game so what the fuck are you talking about?

2yordles1cupcake1 votes

{quoted}

We just had changes to turrets a few weeks ago that made non-bot lane turrets stronger, but they also adjusted the health and fortification % reduction to be higher, but not last as long. Every tower also gives less gold, minus the first turret bonus.

BTW, you realize that

  1. Your clip is heavily out of date; pretty sure that was at least spring when that game happened and the patch for the turret changes was 6.15
  2. You're talking about Jinx, aka the premier tower-taking ADC.
  3. They stomped them that game. Might as well have been playing a team of slivers.

Edit: there isn't even a jinx in that game so what the fuck are you talking about?

Outdated? OP is referring to the season, not 1 patch. The game didn't end at 15 so clearly I wasn't linking jinx to the video. Not to mention this so called stomping = snowballing.

Cant see how anyone can defend this season's turrets and snowballing when these new dragon buffs and buffed Baron buff contradicts your arguments.

l Helios l1 votes

Outdated because the turrets were changed after this video was made, so the current environment does not mirror the situation before that.

BLACK REALM GOD1 votes

matches are decided at 15 minutes by experienced teams now. 10 minutes if the losing team is extremely unskilled or unable to keep their composure. objective value + high damage item progression has caused it to be that way. i think season 2 was the best to be honest. the only thing about season 2 were the assassins. season 1 was still hard for most players because the game was new and such so it's not the best season to choose for comparison. if the match drags on until 40-50 minutes it's due to greed for kills. especially if a team has 2 mountain or infernal drakes or herald. after 20 if the winning team grabs baron there's no reason why they should not be able to snowball into the opponents base. zzrot ensures that. herald in a game with a true jungler can be taken at the very moment it spawns and so can drake. bloodrazer on a lifesteal build will let you heal through the damage as long as you have an armor building buddy to take the blows every now and then. the 400 team global gold for first tower also adds to the snowball effect, but it can be used to counter a lane from snowballing if another lane is ahead on the losing team.

that being said i feel like the game is starting to get to a point where everything feels unique and that's good. that's probably what you're feeling as well. maybe not. i cant speak for you.

Banana Nations1 votes

Ive been playing since early season 3 and season 6 has been my favorite season so far. Only complaint I had were the insane diamond queue times which while they are still long they have been improved to where they were last season. Zed was the only assassin I can think of that was pick ban this entire season and he wasn't even that great if you weren't good at him

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