League of legends - The next soccer
I was sitting and wondering, why are games getting shorter despite loud backlash from playerbase. Why does Riot seem to do things that hurt the game on purpose. Why every change they make is just a band aid on much bigger wound. And that wound is Riot pushing this game to become proper professional sport.
Games are getting shorter and shorter. Popular champions that used to scale into late game got rebalanced to fit in, while unpopular ones are completely ignored despite of their results, bad or good. This is only shows that they do not care about actual performance of respective elements of the game, only about the numbers. If popular champions are good, people are gonna watch. They are gonna try the game. They are gonna pick up their favorites player champion and buy the skins.
What is the end game of games getting shorter you ask? Well the reason is that veteran player base that has been more patient than new generation of players, is growing old. We can not play the game anymore, not because we do not want to. We can not anymore. And now you think they want to appeal new generations of players. However that is not the case.
The real reason why the games are getting shorter, is LCS. I am really convinced that Riots end game, is not to make game better for new generations. Their goal is to make League of legends new soccer. New game everyone is going to watch despite never playing it. New generations have much shorter attention span, they will not watch single LCS match that takes several hours. They want 90 minute format just like any proper professional sports game.
Why focus on LCS, when main income are the skins you ask? Think about it, how many soccer fans buy merchandise with their favorite team. How many fans are traveling around the world just to buy overpriced ticked during worlds? Sure, LCS itself does not bring that much money to Riot, but, if they dumb down the game enough(which is happening seasons after season) anyone would enjoy watching the game. Rules will become as simple as soccer. Red is bad, the less reds live the better. And what is the best thing about making game enjoyable to watch for anyone? Anyone can try it out. Old, young, newcomer, MOBA veteran. Anyone can just download the game and hop in. Play a few games, buy skin or two. Eventually forget about it until its worlds again.
League of legends no longer is game you can enjoy playing alone. There is little to no strategy going on anymore. You are supposed to play it with 4 other friends just like you were supposed to play soccer when you were young. Riot is even treating the rules like that. Jhin with rage blade was obviously over powered, and they disabled it. LCS is the real game. Rankeds and normals are just the playground. You no longer can feel good about your rank. It means nothing. Riots real competetive ladder is set differently. You might as well be challenger #1 and Riot would not care about your opinion. Because you are only playing on the playground.
Another example of this game becoming a soccer is the punishment system. Soccer is infamous for diving(pretending to be hurt in order to gain free penalty). While this is used in soccer to gain unfair advantage, Lol is slowly getting infested with trolls and intentional feeders. And system does not care. System only punishes people that might drive away new players. System only punishes people for toxic behaviour despite trying their best at winning the game. Feels->winning only means to me that Riot does not want the game to be competetive. Which makes no sense for MOBA but I digress.
My question is however, @Riot. Is this really working out in your favor? Are you really making more money than before? Can you turn this game into soccer before your player base dies out? Because frankly, I do not think you can.
Ps #1 for people telling me its called football. I dont care. This is NA board, Im gona call it what NA players call it. I couldnt care less about professional sports.
PS #2 for people discussing what is soccer and what is football, this brings me to the issue of short attention spans. Clearly should have wrote whole thing in single sentences and should have avoided the best comparison in sports because people are really getting so unsophisticated you cant even get your point across unless you can describe it in 3 words.
