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Watching the season 3 worlds video made me realize how diverse the game used to be.

BluePolarizer·1/26/2017, 6:32:37 PM·13 votes·992 views

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PX_IQkeXq9g

Every pro on here is represented by their signature pick. In the video we see Kha'Zix, Zac, Gragas, Lux, Blitzcrank, Malphite, Kennen, Jarvan, Vayen, Ezreal, Janna, Jayce, Ryze, TF, and even Mordekaiser. In the intro thumb, we see Caitlyn/Thresh vs. Ezreal/Annie. And this was back in the Zed vs. Kassadin or Talon (when Kassadin was banned) assassin meta that was decried for "lack of diversity". If only they had known what would follow...

Right now what are the pro signature picks? Only meta stuff. Every pro is picking the same stuff, and the difference between meta champs and non-meta champs have never been bigger. Even in season 3, the biggest difference in win rates between champs was only 6%: 47% with urgot at the lowest, 53% with Amumu as the highest - even permabanned Kassadin only had a 52% win rate. And it was expected that a safe teamfighting tank would have the highest win rate, since it is a centerpiece of many comps. 47% Urgot was considered horrible back then and in need of major buffs. Back then, the top tier champions would only have the highest win rate in a single role, and same with the worst champions.

Now? The gap has gotten even BIGGER in plat+: there are 22, yes 22 champion/roles with a higher than 53% win rate, and a whopping 50 champion/roles below 48% win rate. http://champion.gg/statistics/#?sortBy=general.winPercent&order=descend

If you go by raw champion stats, the gap is still huge: 56% win rate on Kog, 41% win rate on Nidalee, 22 champions below a 46% win rate.

http://www.lolking.net/champions

The game is less diverse than season 3 despite more champions; the difference between top tier and low tier champions is bigger than season 3 despite measures for "diversity" and snowballing (winning a game off initial advantages) is even worse despite season 3 being considered a "snowball" meta with very punishing setbacks for losing lane.

9 Comments

Ahristocats1/27/2017, 12:45:42 PM4 votes

Where is Sona in your list? nerfed for solo queue low elo to be garbage right now unless you get a smurf to play in plat

Support also saw diversity, we had ELISE SUPPORT FUCKING WTF the only one that dominated the role was thresh due to his high base stats and lantern being op

i missBlitzcrank Leona being played in pro Galio was even played by alex ich

JustARivenMain1/26/2017, 10:53:02 PM4 votes

I always thought Zac was recent (S4 or S5) Idek anymore, I've been playing this game too damn long (since 09) and I've seen the differences between metas, and felt them. I thought mid S4 or S5 was most balanced, with only few champs or so being godlike. (I mean I didn't like the whole blind pick stuff but hey)

I just want it to go back to seeing more than just Cait/Vayne/Ez/Varus/Jhin on the botlane. Along with Zyra/Malz/Thresh/Brand....

Rockm Sockm1/26/2017, 8:56:32 PM2 votes

I started playing in S3 worlds.

All the posts on the boards were about how bad diversity was.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

xBushx1/27/2017, 2:26:09 PM1 votes

Kass...100% pick/ban lul

LankPants1/27/2017, 12:37:23 PM1 votes

Right now what are the pro signature picks? Only meta stuff.

Froggen has Anivia, I guess that's something.

EnjoytheSilence91/26/2017, 6:48:06 PM1 votes

Like the info.

deadlychuck1/27/2017, 1:12:33 PM1 votes

It's because riot has systematically removed all player identity from the game. It's hard to speak in specifics, but basically it came down to the fact that most every pick was still within a skill range of any other pick. As in there didn't exist any match ups which you had no capability to outplay the opponent. Even in the extreme cases you could still outplay a zed or kass, on most champions with varying degrees of difficulty. However, now too many champions have been allowed to choke-hold the game by providing no openings in their "ideal" play. It's no longer about outplaying the enemies, because too often even if played perfectly on your end, your success isn't dependent on you playing correctly, it's dependent on the enemy playing incorrectly. As they've been designed to have almost infinite potential.

I hate to promote another game in a way, but i have a friend who works on Paragon and he was talking to one of the head directors and he said he had a recent realization that there exist players who knowingly don't pick the best builds, because they don't want to play the character in that way. I think riot has forgotten this as a company. As a result, they've designed the game in a way which is optimized for people who are willing to sacrifice identity for success. Which is ironic, because those kind of players are the ones which you never had to worry about playing to begin with, as if the meta shifted, they'd be quick to jump onto the next big champion and play the shit out of them.

No one ever wants to admit to be this person, but they obviously exist either naturally in the player population, or as a result of the environment which riot has created in their game. I'm not completely opposed to the idea that riot is stuck in a feedback loop where they keep seeing a more significant portion of their player base demanding more of what they've been proving, not because it's a successful design, but rather due to a declining player base of unsatisfied players, they've become a larger portion of the community. After all, it's exactly what happened with world of warcraft. Blizzard made a mistake at one point, which either caused burn out or discontent with the game, the player base shrunk, but started providing proportionally more positive feedback, so they kept going with the same philosophy. Every mistake, if left to fester long enough will stop providing negative feedback. Yet you can't assume it's a sign that people have accepted and adjusted the changes, it could just as easily be the case that they've gotten fed up with the lack of response from the devs that they've given up on it ever being resolved and therefore quit playing. I'm not going to point the finger at ghost crawler, but i'm afraid he might carry a bad philosophy around with him. After all, i'm pretty sure wow has become more popular after an expansion was released without his influence on the game mechanics.