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What is Riot's answer to the declining league community?

ßulbåsaur·6/16/2016, 3:24:46 PM·50 votes·10,377 views

Many people are leaving league, especially us old league players. I started playing in Season 2 and I continued to play league for fun late into Season 5(I still play league it's just not fun anymore). I got Plat after climbing from Bronze in 2 Seasons of ranked. What made me, and many other league players, grind ranked? As an ADC (Vayne) main nothing felt better than outplaying bot lane. Nothing felt better than being the "underdog". Where you would be a little bitch and farm up knowing as an ADC your late game is strong and if your mechanics are good you will get some flashy plays. This is similar for other roles also, people love to play the game because you can easily carry your team or at least take some weight off if your mechanically good, it's more of a solo game. Riot decided to change that, they decided that Macro(Game Sense) > Micro(Mechanics). This seems amazing for the eSport scene where teams need to show they are more coordinated as a team rather than show the mechanics of each player. However it is not all that good in Solo Queue, where people play the game to have some flashy plays here and there. It's not all about get your first 2 items and group mid, that just shows your strong as a team. For this you need to have trust in your Solo Queue team, something I will never have. I always have the mentality that whether we win or lose this game it's all on me and my micro plays. What Riot needs to realize is that the viewers of the eSport scene need to enjoy playing the game itself not just watching the professional games. I can easily change that Micro play mentality and transition to the new meta. I have been doing that for the past 3 years, but now I don't find it worthwhile. If i have to change the reason i enjoyed the game, why should I play the game? I can also as easily just move on to a new game.

185 Comments

SeekerofSilence6/16/2016, 3:31:11 PM33 votes

Riot noticed their community stopped growing. What do they do? Turn towards the casual player. Because people will bring their friends into the game that way.

However, in doing so Riot turned their back on a lot of players who came purely for the competitive integrity that ranked held, one which was better than many other games out there.

I agree fully, being stomped by a premade that is better at macro than your team is frustrating. Personally I enjoyed SoloQ, and I didn't even find it that toxic. That's coming from a relatively new player, as I started playing in season 5.

jaymc11306/16/2016, 3:43:15 PM22 votes

Riot still thinks it has 32 million players. Apparently since I have 16 accounts now I am 16 players all by myself.

The company is a joke. The short answer? Riot aint doing shit about it. This was intended all along. They made this game a cash grab, its been successful, and its designed to make a quick buck in the time it exists before dying. That's all.

Flaherty6/16/2016, 3:36:17 PM12 votes

I would like to see official statistics that show a decrease in the number of players, just because you and some people you know stopped playing doesn't mean that's the general trend everywhere. League has seen substantial growth even in the last couple of years, so I would honestly be surprised if there was any significant decrease in its player base in recent times even with the drastic changes this season.

coeurloyal6/16/2016, 3:47:55 PM8 votes

I'm not sure what led you to believe that the League community is declining short of personal outlook, but I highly doubt that's a factual statement. League has only been growing in international exposure, and I'm willing to bet that that exposure has led to huge growths.

That being said, League was never intended to be a solo game; it was always based on team play and macro choices. That statement proved to be true even before League existed. I played a ton of the original DOTA in WC3, and team play always trumped mechanics. Riot never changed that---they only encouraged it. You're asking for the game to be something that it was never meant to be and telling the dev that they're doing it wrong. You're also implying that the majority of players don't enjoy playing in a macro-oriented game, which is wholly arguable.

If you legitimately don't enjoy the more macro-oriented playstyle being encouraged in this game, then you should probably do as you say and move on to another game with more micro-oriented goals. however, I think it's naive to claim that League was ever focused on micro-oriented play, because that's absolutely false. There is no such thing as a team-based game/sport that promotes individual play over teamwork.

BluePolarizer6/16/2016, 4:45:26 PM6 votes

Ironically there's not really solo macro play either.

You can't get premades to listen to you if you have good decisionmaking.

I used to pride myself on my macro: when, where and how we contest objectives, what to do in situations and how to close out games or stay in them. And if I got fed or got good engages/picks, solos would listen to me. But now you can be 10-1-5 and the premades will still not listen to you, still feed, and there's literally nothing you can do about it, since they won't listen to a random over their buddy Mike.

Sammystorm6/16/2016, 5:57:33 PM1 votes

Wait what makes you think the community is getting smaller?