I think it's worth focusing on how Scarra discusses player perception of League:
During his discussion, and around the start of the eight minute mark, Scarra starts talking about how League has been generating negativity from within its community. Among his prime examples, he cites fellow players, namely fellow high-level players, content creators, and the League subreddit. He does not mention the Boards, arguably the most negative space of all. For quite some time, Riot and a handful of people on here had tried to employ a divide-and-conquer tactic against this space, attempting to convince people making complaints here that they were isolated, and only in a small minority in both numbers and opinions. Even as evidence mounted, this kind of tactic continued to be used, and while it didn't entirely convince people, many here were still willing to give Riot the benefit of the doubt. For those who still are in doubt, I invite them to go to the subreddit, and see for themselves: where once the space was dominated by pro highlights at all times of the year, as well as threads celebrating custom creations, promoting new creators, and so on, the space is now filled with complaints and criticism not that unlike the ones on Gameplay. A thread linking Scarra's video is at the very top, with near-universal agreement to what he says in the comments, while threads further down poke at subjects like Zoe, Ahri's charm, and Akali's champion spotlight in intense detail. Contrary to what certain people have been suggesting, even the largest and most representative among League communities is very much in sync with the Boards, as are its figureheads.
Point being, we've been lied to. Moreover, we've been lied to deliberately, and turned against each other in an attempt to obscure the facts on the matter. The truth here is that Gameplay isn't this pocket of delusion, but simply one out of the many League subcommunities out there, one that has picked up on the issues with the game and tried to bring them to Riot's attention. Even as a few Rioters have come in just recently to insinuate that damage creep is a hoax, we get wave after wave of analysis from the top tier of players in League confirming it. When players bring up the number of streamers that have left, and have those dismissed as isolated cases, Scarra himself brings up the fact that many among his own friends and colleagues have either left, or admitted that they only continue streaming League out of financial necessity. It is time we faced reality: League is not a popular game. It may still have many players left, but as Scarra pointed out, many of these players actively hate the game, and play only out of the investment they've put into it. Even then, that has not been strong enough to prevent many players from leaving, and its viewership from declining. The game is generating a lot of negative word-of-mouth, which is causing what little attention it continues to receive out of its own sphere to be very unattractive. The game is not gaining the success it is aiming for, as noted by the failure of Clash, and is certainly not generating player growth, in spite of its campaign to attract fresh blood. Instead of publicly acknowledging this, however, or even just remaining silent on the matter, Riot's response has been to divide and dismiss what has become fairly unified criticism against their decisions, using intentional deceit and outright propaganda.
To some extent, I don't blame whoever has to be in charge of that. League's development is such that Riot cannot allow themselves to enact any major changes before Worlds, which means we're all trapped with the game as it currently exists until then. Even though inaction will only generate further negativity and resentment, it is impossible to solve the game's current problems with minor changes. Because of this, it is understandable that one would try to mollify public opinion until the developers finally have a chance of making things right. The problem, however, is that the methods employed thus far have been unethical and disrespectful of players, as well as patently unsuccessful. Many among us still remember the fiasco that was Dynamic Queue, and Riot's ineffective attempts during that time to convince everyone that it was succeeding. It seems that Riot has doubled down on that strategy, as this season has seen a rise in dev posts that try to twist and misrepresent sloppily presented statistics in order to contradict the general consensus, each time to no avail. Moreover, League's development has been in trouble for some time, as this is by no means the first season to receive large amounts of complaints, but unlike most previous seasons, Season 8 has seen a rise in many of the factors players had pointed out as problems in its immediate predecessors, namely an increase in damage and snowballing. Season 8 may be League's lowest point not simply due to circumstance, but because it is the product of Riot actively trying to go against its own playerbase.
Because of this, I think Season 9 is going to be a major turning point for League one way or the other. This isn't to say that League is dying, or will die then, because it still has a large playerbase and enough capital to keep going for a good while, but it is a time that will determine whether Riot is willing or not to reconnect with its players. Much of this season's criticism can be boiled down to some very basic points: damage is too high, games are too snowbally, balance is too extreme, runes have too much impact. Addressing these conclusively would be a pristine opportunity for Riot to score a big popularity hit, regain some of its playerbase's respect and trust, and generate a ton of momentum for their new season, particularly since the devs are giving themselves much more time to work on a bigger update with the lack of balance work we're seeing in these recent patches. It may not solve all of League or Riot's problems, but would address many major pain points, and show to us all that Riot does listen after all. Should they fail in this, however, in spite of all the feedback given to them at all levels, through all platforms and media, and it will be clear evidence that they fundamentally do not have the players' best interests in mind, and are on a path to permanent decline.
I too would like to see a League that returns to a state where it can generate passion and enjoyment from its players, and encourage people to get together for fun. There are a lot of content creators I miss, and I'd like to see people like Sp4zie and Dyrus (especially Dyrus) go back to posting fun League content. It saddened me to see Dyrus go from intense sadness during his retirement video, to immense joy at returning to streaming, and back to boredom and frustration upon falling out of love with a game he played since the beginning. It saddens me to see someone as toxic as hashinshin become one of the major voices of this community, simply because he's one of the few older content creators who hasn't quit. It also saddens me to see someone like Scarra, who is still visibly passionate about League, talk about it with a palpable sense of finality. These are not the signs of a healthy game, yet there have been many seasons beforehand that were well-liked, even as they were being experienced then. Whatever strategy Riot has been following since Season 6 has been failing spectacularly, and it's time for them to admit their mistakes, and bring us back to a more sane environment. The future of League depends on it.
, damage everywhere - all of it caters to casual players who just want to roll their faces w/o any strategy and win on autopilots.Impossible for comeback games are very common.
Surrender at 15 was introduced for a reason.
They simply use league as money milk right now. It caters so much for Korean inet cafes and casuals it's sickening. Unfortunately nothing is going to be changed unless players leave in masses or simply boycott Riot and stop sinking money to them. Which is how likely to happen? Yeah not so much.
Game is in its worst it has been ever.
