It would seem, to me at least, that the newer players should have access to all the summoner spells so they can familiarize themselves with them, especially ones like Flash 
(Level 12), Ignite 
(Level 8), and Exhaust 
(Level 8).
Pvt Yong Tai16 votesBy opening up a few at a time, it allows new players to slowly familiarize themselves with the spells. Start with a small pool, and the player has only a few that he has to choose from, and every level or so he gets a new spell to familiarize himself with.
If you dump all the skills on him at once, it becomes a daunting task to test all of the spells yourself, and some players might just stick with the third or fourth skill they try.
That's from a game design perspective, anyway.
DrMemes1 votesBy opening up a few at a time, it allows new players to slowly familiarize themselves with the spells. Start with a small pool, and the player has only a few that he has to choose from, and every level or so he gets a new spell to familiarize himself with.
If you dump all the skills on him at once, it becomes a daunting task to test all of the spells yourself, and some players might just stick with the third or fourth skill they try.
That's from a game design perspective, anyway.
Then again there's this wonderful thing that devs created to help players called tooltip.
junglerboy161 votesReading a tooltip is never comparable to actually using the ability. I remember when I unlocked flash, I knew exactly what it was and how it worked, because I looked it up, but I still couldn't use it right until after my 10th game using it.
EmWtTxCTGL1 votesIt's still a lot to throw at you.
like jumping into a max level character on a mmo of a class you haven't played before. It's just a ton of shit and it takes a lot of work to figure out what you should be using and when.
it's much easier if you slowly acquire your skills and work them into your play style as they come.
Vellich0r2 votesif they were useful. Imagine playing an mmo where you had 12 abilities to unlock. the first 7 of those abilities allowed you to do things like do 1 damage per second when you dance in melee range of an enemy, while the 10th, 11th, and especially the 12th spell let you do things like use a basic attack (a necessary thing in most MMO type games), you would feel useless for the entire skill tree because you had to wait until the last three levels before you could perform even the most essential of things (because lets face it, flash has become absolutely essential in league of legends.) that doesn't let you slowly acquire skills and work them into your play style, it makes you slowly acquire levels so you can gain basic functionality for your character.
Kingsgrave3 votesStart them off with Exhaust, Flash, Teleport, Smite and Ignite then. Introduce all of the others over time.
ShadowNinetails1 votes"Oh cool I got a new summoner spell! Let me try it in my next game! Wait, you mean I'm going to get flamed by using this new spell? But if it's so useless, why are they giving it to me as an option to replace the first set of spells? Wait, you mean those first spells are the only useful ones? Then why do the rest of these exist? Why is it with every other game that gives you unlocks, this one gives you all the good stuff up front then has you work to unlock the shitty ones? Fuck this, I'm playing Hearthstone."
Vellich0r3 votes"why am i so useless?!?! i dont wanna grind through 12 levels just to feel like I am actually useful to my team -_-, forget this, I think I'll go play minecraft or something."
ShadowNinetails1 votesContrary to popular belief, Flash is not absolutely necessary to being a meaningful contributor to a team especially when not all of your enemies will have access to it either. Furthermore anyone who's ever played pretty much any video game in the past...20 years?...damn I'm old...knows the concept of a leveling system and knows that everything you'd need to be useful at max level isn't given to you at lvl 1. For how long it takes to unlock Flash here compared to how long it takes to get a decent sized backpack in Borderlands where you're not leaving half your loot on the battlefield and then feeling jipped because you know that would've given you enough money for that awesome shield that's only going to be available for 2 more hours, I'd say League's level system is pretty front-loaded.
Vellich0r2 votesi used exaggeration, but it is essential. What is annie without flash tibbers? how about pantheon jungle without his level two cheese gank? mord with out his flash roll face on keyboard to do damage? all of these champions are too a strong degree made less useful by the lack of flash in early levels.
ShadowNinetails4 votesAnnie is still one of the easiest mages to instagib anything foolish enough to stand in your way, Panth is still one of the best AD assassins you could pick for a dive comp and Morde is still a genius, millionaire, playboy, and philanthropist.
Thing is, if you're lvl 12 and not a smurf, Flash or no Flash isn't going to make a huge difference because you're unlikely to know how to use it effectively. Flash Tibbers isn't exactly in any of Annie's tooltips.
Kingsgrave2 votesIf they don't know how to use it effectively why not let them use it? Why limit their ability to try it out and get familiar with it both using it and going against it from the get-go rather than forcing them to wait 50 games?
Kingsgrave1 votesIf they cant handle it they shouldnt play.
ShadowNinetails1 votesNow that is not the kind of mentality you want to have with a playerbase of tens of millions. It's not even about making the game too easy or too hard, it's about dangling that little carrot in front of people's faces and keeping them interested in the game through their sense of discovery until other things in the game plant their hooks in more firmly and keeps them playing for 5 years.
With most video games you have a month or two where they're all you think about, but they wind up being replaced by something else. League can't thrive the way it does by relying on having "casual flings" with people, she needs a commitment. That means she needs to do what it takes to keep people engrossed after those first couple months so she can't give away all the goodies on the first date.
Kingsgrave2 votes121 Champions Runes Masteries
Why would 12 spells upfront be too much or too little for them? The fact that every single match will be different is captivating enough.
ShadowNinetails1 votesHow many of those 121 champions are they able to access upfront? 10. How many of those runes and masteries are they able to access upfront? 0.
If I dropped you into any given game and gave you 12 choices and said you can only pick 2 and each of them will drastically change what you're able to do, you're going to need a good amount of time to read through them and weigh your options. Too bad, you only have about 30 seconds. Now if I cut those choices down to 4, even if you think some of those choices would have been nice to have your decision making process is going to be much easier.
Try loading up a game like WoW, Rift, SWtoR, or FFXIV with a max level or even 1/2 level character and then sit someone in front of the keyboard that's never played an MMO before. Take a 600 card collection of Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, or MTG and tell someone who's never played a TCG before to make a deck with it. Hand someone a guitar with no musical experience and tell them to play Free Bird. Watch how they freeze. One of the most basic principals of game design is to not give the player everything at the start unless doing so is absolutely vital to a core aspect of the game. Why? To maintain intrigue through discovery and to fight off information overload. In solo experiences, it's common practice for the entire game to be a tutorial readying you for the final boss (Legend of Zelda, Metroid, God of War, Jak & Daxter). These games would not be the same if they just dropped you in with full builds.
Kingsgrave1 votesDota 2 does just fine giving you literally everything from the start.
Im at a huge strategic disadvantage if I don't have all the champions, masteries, runes and summoner spells yet Riot puts me against people that do on a regular basis. If all these spells and whatnot did nothing it would be fine since I wouldn't be in a worse off position for not having them. The only difference that should exist between a level 1 player and a level 30 player is game experience, not how many runes/masteries/champions they have.
If I was given all 12 spells, runes, masteries and characters I would just try whatever seemed interesting to me out every new game and go from there. I wouldn't "freeze" and I doubt most other people would either.
This idea that we have to string people along for over 100 hours of babysitting and handholding and not letting them experience the entirety of the content is really odd to me. Instead for some reason we just let them not have access to even a small percentage of the content forcing them to make critical mistakes in how to play the game.
I've played this game for over 3 years now, but when I started I waited until one of the characters I actually wanted to play was free and stopped when he wasnt until a friend of mine bought it for me. Why is a game that is all about playing your "Legend" or fantasy against others limit which one Im allowed to have? The only real reason is financially, there is nothing game design related behind it. All answers Ive seen from Riot are poorly constructed arguments about how they are afraid it would scare off new players. Yeah being able to look at a large grid of colorful and interesting characters and pick which ones I want to play is so scary right?
Sure introducing someone to Yugioh by showing them literally every single card might be hard at first, but honestly they would grasp the idea of the game and what works and what doesn't in a much faster and more enjoyable manner than one who just goes pack by pack.
MOBAs are all about knowing everything about the characters, spells etc., and you do all this just by playing the game. Forcing the player to constantly think about what to try next, what to change and giving them a slew of new opponents constantly will honestly breed better players than introducing them to core concepts 1 at a time.
I can't tell you how many of the new League players I have helped struggled heavily at the start because they either couldn't play the character they wanted because they had to buy it, couldn't optimally lane because of lack of runes or masteries, couldn't do a certain strategy they wanted to try out because they didnt have the summoner spell etc.,
All of your examples, Zelda/WoW etc., are progression based games. Skill is entirely based on level and where you have progressed in the game and story. League and Dota or any other MOBAs are not progression based. League just forces a progression system onto players instead of using an actual MMR or rating system. The only progression in the game of League is farming and getting items and levels. Thats it. Its a game about playing several different characters in several different strategies. In a game that is all about picking a "Hero" you want to play and defeating others, why would we limit what strategic options people are allowed to use just because we are afraid its "too overwhelming"
Its that annoying concept that a lot of Nintendo games do where you cant do a certain move, sometimes even jumping, until you get to a certain point and its unlocked for you. Like you have to prove you are a rational human being in order to be taken seriously and allowed to actually play the game. I dont fucking understand this approach.
ShadowNinetails1 votesOk let's break this down into little chunks.
Im at a huge strategic disadvantage if I don't have all the champions, masteries, runes and summoner spells yet Riot puts me against people that do on a regular basis.
If you're lvl 1 going against lvl 12's, damn. Just....damn. Yeah there's a small amount of time when you're lvl 10 or 11 where you're commonly going against 12's, but unless you're a smurf and have been flagged as such you're likely going against people who, like you, don't really know how big a deal Flash is.
If I was given all 12 spells, runes, masteries and characters I would just try whatever seemed interesting to me out every new game and go from there. I wouldn't "freeze" and I doubt most other people would either.
This idea that we have to string people along for over 100 hours of babysitting and handholding and not letting them experience the entirety of the content is really odd to me. Instead for some reason we just let them not have access to even a small percentage of the content forcing them to make critical mistakes in how to play the game.
You overestimate yourself. You overestimate most people. I've introduced several people to League, from my 24 year old girlfriend to, more recently, my 8 year old niece. Both of them have watched me play numerous times and wanted to try so I sat them down in front of my computer for a co-op game with everybody and everything unlocked and they both yielded the same response: "Uh...what do I do?" I made an account for them, sat them down in front of the tutorial and said "do this, then we'll talk" yielded a much more promising "Oh. This isn't as hard as it looks when you do it." Playtesting has always shown that less is more when it comes to introducing people to a new game. Look at Mario and all the powerups he has in almost any of his games, then go to World 1-1 and see how many of them are in that first level.
I've played this game for over 3 years now, but when I started I waited until one of the characters I actually wanted to play was free and stopped when he wasnt until a friend of mine bought it for me. Why is a game that is all about playing your "Legend" or fantasy against others limit which one Im allowed to have? The only real reason is financially, there is nothing game design related behind it.
Out of curiosity, was that first champion someone like Lee, Kass, or Ori who require substantial game knowledge, mechanics, and synergy with your team to play optimally? Or was it someone like Garen, Ryze, or Ashe, simpler champions who are easy to learn and easy to learn the game through?
Sure introducing someone to Yugioh by showing them literally every single card might be hard at first, but
No buts. "Hard at first" means a lot of people walk away even if it's fun because it's hard (Ninja Gaiden, Super Meat Boy, Dark Souls). You know what? It would be faster to just watch these: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWFzFsHc75U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCPcn-Q5nKE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EitZRLt2G3w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVL4st0blGU (specifically the part about "irreducible complexity" at 4:09)
Just one more thing.
League just forces a progression system onto players instead of using an actual MMR or rating system.
Umm...what? You said you've played for 3 years, so you were around when you could actually see your MMR for Ranked in client without relying on estimations from LoLKing or op.gg, right? Not sure exactly when it was hidden, but this used to also be available information for Normal queue as well. Every queue, even ARAM and Featured Game Modes, has an MMR system dictating who you're matched with and against. If you're getting matched with people at a higher level than you, it's because a) the matchmaker believes you're better than your current level implies b) the matchmaker believes those higher levels are worse than their level implies or most commonly c) both of the above.
Kingsgrave1 votesI'm not arguing against tutorials. If anything I wish the game better explained the actual game itself. If Riot had actual interactive tutorials that introduced you to actual scenarios and went "here is autoattacking, here is moving. Alright good? Okay now in this scenario autoattack this character until their health bar drops"
Rather than just "yeah heres Ashe. Build thornmail. Autoattack sometimes."
Honestly though, restricting the ability to have certain things just for the sake of introducing people slowly to the game is the wrong way to go about a MOBA. Its the most ideal scenario for a Platformer like Mario where you have to constantly face different mechanical tasks.
Limiting the amount of characters Im allowed to have is like having Yugioh taught to someone and then not letting them use any effect monsters until they understand the basic concepts. Why not just teach them effect monsters at the same time since its the most prevalent thing in the meta and in the game as a whole?
I learned this game by myself and had a few of the edges roughed out when I met friends that played it for longer than I had. I mostly learned however just by facing them head on rather than listening to advice.
I've dropped my 9 year old brother when he was 7 into League. I said, here play. I didn't tell him anything. I didn't tell him how to move or anything like that. The only thing I told him was about items and how they work. I let everything else flow naturally. Within like a week of playing it he was at the average skill level for a new player. I suppose it helped that I introduced him to every game like that, I just dropped him in and had him just play because thats the whole point of the game.
When I talked about MMR I was talking about an actual good metric and balance to it, not that it existed or was displayed or not. Their matchmaking algorithms and calculations are lacking at best especially at lower levels of play (like before level 30).
Even though we are both rather blunt, I've enjoyed this discussion somewhat. We obviously have different views on game design. I'm off the camp that the only differing factor between players should be experience and skill and everything else should be equal. Never liked trading card games, always liked the ones that give you all the cards right up front and let you do strategies right away. If Dota 2 had scaling and more fluid design philosophies I would probably play it over this game, but alas they don't.
If you want an example of a game that is probably the best at introducing players to the game over-time, I would suggest Shovel Knight. Its also radical as fuck.
Anyway, I would like the following to happen to League:
The odd thing about MOBAs is that you basically learn by being stomped and trying new things constantly. Not having everything makes the stomps feel worse and the learning after the stomp harder.
ShadowNinetails1 votesI'll agree that the current path for newcomers is pretty ridic and there should be more support to help smooth out the mountainous skill curve this genre has. The only problem is when do you take the training wheels off and say "The rest is up to you to learn"? It shouldn't be totally left to the player to find the Wikia or LoLKing or Leaguecraft to find information like "Does Teemo's E proc spell vamp?", but you can't go too far with it because the more you hand feed people stratagems like when to splitpush, when to rotate, where to ward or champion counters, the more people will become reliant on them which would lead to them becoming set in stone stratagems which would stifle strategic innovation. Yes teaching people all the current strats would make them better at the current meta faster, but it won't equip them with the knowledge of how to handle the next meta.
I can respect your views, I just feel like you're targeting newcomers who already have experience in MOBAs or other like genres who wouldn't be as daunted by the incredible amount of information they'd have to absorb and the rate they'd have to absorb it in like your brother while I (and Riot it seems) am targeting newcomers who have 0 relevant experience like my niece whose only prior experience with video games was Sonic Dash for her iPod (so of course she picked Rammus) or those who have 0 experience at all like my girlfriend who basically avoided video games like the plague for the first couple decades of her life. It's like when I learned chess, fencing, music, driving, and almost every other complex skill I've acquired in life: start small and pick up slightly slower than absolutely necessary even stating what should be obvious because it's better to ensure that you know the basics and have a solid foundation before moving on to more advanced things. Yes it's going to be restricting and yes it's probably going to suck and yes the student will most likely have thoughts of "But when do I get to the GOOD stuff?!" but it would be a disservice to follow their wishes and take them in too deep only for them to realize they don't actually know how to swim as well as they thought they did.
It's tough because the MOBA genre is still too new to have any real standards to it so it's still a lot of uncharted territory meaning the only comparisons one can really draw is from other genres' accomplishments and failings. I would rather League be easier for anyone to pick up even if it makes it more of a grind to level up a smurf because that's more conducive to growing a playerbase in my opinion.
Kingsgrave1 votesa MOBA is one hell of a game to introduce someone to as their first game. If its players like that, yeah the slow but methodical approach makes a lot more sense.
My brother's first games were Spyro 1, Kirby for the NES and Smash Bros.
Considering that MOBAs are entirely the byproduct of gamers wanting to make the gamiest game possible, the game becomes easier to grasp and learn the more experience you have with video games in general. League has a somewhat more forgiving design ideology, so its vastly more popular than Dota 2. League was my first MOBA, but I played quite a bit of TF2, WoW and Diablo before learning it.
I agree with your know the basics philosophy. An interactive tutorial is in my opinion the best way to introduce players to the concepts of the game, possibly even mandatory upon starting a new account, but I still stick strongly to the view that we should allow players to have everything from the getgo. Obviously Ive never been a fan of systems that slowly reward you over time upon showing progress. Shovel Knight is one of my favorite games because you have basically everything from the getgo and get special perks along the way, but you never need them to do well.
When I learned boxing I went slowly to learn the "mechanics" but my neighbor who taught me showed me each and every cool move I could possibly do and even used them on me when I had no idea how to do a jab, lol. I never felt cheated or babied because I wasn't allowed to have those moves or things, but I knew that I couldn't use them.
Heres 12 summoner spells and 121 Champions. Over time you will gain masteries and runes, but for now you start with the bread and butter. You can fool around with all of them and mix and match to see what works and what doesn't. If I don't get Flash until later and I suddenly get it, I have no real idea what it does and it may seem exciting but if I already know what Flash is I will get excited when I learn how to use it properly. Nobody likes waiting to get something. Everyone is okay with waiting to learn how to use something.
Kingsgrave1 votesIts Riot's fault that not all of the strategic options are equally valid or viable. Its not a valid excuse for them to limit when you should or shouldn't get them.
Cleanse is viable. Ghost can be viable. Barrier is pretty viable. Only one I can really think of is Clarity that isn't ever good to use. Maybe Revive.
Sure the 5 I listed are the bread and butter, but in a strategy/competitive game those options will always exist. Always. There will always be things in the game that the community has agreed is more efficient/better than other options and making people believe that Heal + Ghost on a top laner is a good idea by giving them those spells right away is more wrong than giving them the 5 most popular/best spells and then just giving them ones people don't like as much later.
Xonra6 votesBy opening up a few at a time, it allows new players to slowly familiarize themselves with the spells. Start with a small pool, and the player has only a few that he has to choose from, and every level or so he gets a new spell to familiarize himself with.
If you dump all the skills on him at once, it becomes a daunting task to test all of the spells yourself, and some players might just stick with the third or fourth skill they try.
That's from a game design perspective, anyway.
This is a good thought, and if this was true it would be one thing, the issue is most of the spells aren't actually used.
99 times out of 100 you will take flash, support will take exhaust, top will take teleport, jungle will take smite, and so on.
No one should ever actually take revive, clairvoyance, especially with the blue trinket, heal is good but clarity is kind of a waste of a spell with items that do the job better.
Getting used to using summoner spells you will get called a noob or troll (sadly by smurfs :S) in a few levels anyways seems counter productive.
ShadowNinetails1 votesRemember when you were new? Did you immediately now that Flash was the 99/100 spell? I know I loved Revive and Fortify way back when. Plus all the use cases for Flash are extremely reliant on having experience/skill with the game that a true lvl 12 most likely won't have. Giving all of the spells to you at lvl 1 would not only further exacerbate the already extreme information overload that new players are expected to pick up on extremely quickly, but gaining them over time contributes toward providing a sense of progression to retain those new players.
Vellich0r1 votespersonally when I was new all I could think is, "when am I going to get something that is actually decent" i kept seeing people with ignite dominate, and people with flash dominate, and I just sat there feeling useless.
ShadowNinetails1 votesFrom personal experience both when I was new and playing on smurfs now, Ignite isn't why people dominate. Not building Seraph's on Riven is why people dominate.
Then again, at least they remember items exist at all. It's legit sad to see your lane opponent still naked after 20 minutes because they never pushed "P".
jmaishere1 votesRIP fortify
Feathermane2 votesYeah, but why give new players the ones no one else uses? "Cool, I now know when to use Clarity! Time to forget all that or suffer abuse all day! What a cool design, it totally doesn't promote flaming." -_________-
Fluffymangusta2 votesBut the problem with clarity or such spells is they become a crutch, or don't help players become better. Revive basically tells players is ok to die, because they can just revive back, but the practical use of it is very limited short of taking it with Tp, and even like that I can only see that strat being useful on Sion and Karthus. Clarity just promotes bad mana management a crucial skill to learn. Maybe if these under utilized spells were changed to have some sort of extra or diffrent use. Perhaps Clarity would be better if it not just had an active but a passive mana and energy regen buff, thus allowing champs like ezreal or such to be able to do their job even better. You would give up the instant strength of heal or such for a over time buff because you can constantly spam or something.
ValuedCustomer2 votesYour argument makes no sense to me. Why should making all 12 summoner spells available be daunting and unacceptable from a novice point of view, when having all 150+ items available at the shop is the norm? The shop solves the accessibility problem with recommended items, the solution should be to have recommended summoner spells instead of level-locked summoner spells.
Pvt Yong Tai1 votesItems have a recommended page because each champion in the game has item choices that are inherently better than others. Item balance aside, you wouldn't build a Rabadon's on a Riven, or a Chalice on a Tryndamere.
Summoner spells in practice may feel the same way to the trained player, but summoner spells were never meant to be so imbalanced with one another. They were supposed to be open choices for everyone to pick what they felt was best for their playstyle.
I think a better fix than simply telling newbies that "this summ spell is best for this role and this champ" is to actually fix the summoner spells themselves so that each spell is balanced with one another. Spells like Clarity and Revive need a buff/rework so that they can actually compete with spells like Exhaust and Heal. I think I remember reading somewhere that they were working on a summ spell revamp, so hopefully we hear more on this topic soon (i.e. season 5)
Vellich0r1 votesespecially when the most essential spell in the game is also the last one to get unlocked. If you ever wanna elo stomp just use J$ because noone can escape your ult.
Kingsgrave2 votes150+ items 121 Champions Possibility of at least 5-10 new Champions exposed to them every single game Each Champion has at least 5 spells, some have more Multiple resource types Minions, Monsters, Turrets, Inhibs, Nexus, Brush, Walls, Cliffs etc.,
What is 12 spells on the top of that giant pile?
Drogmyre15 votesBecause the leveling system was designed to create as much cancer and ruin as many potential new players' experiences as inhumanly possible.
And is largely successful.
Genova Fearbane4 votesThe restricting of summoner spells is meant to combat smurfs, so they can't exploit the full utility of them since they know how to use them exponentially better than new players. By the time a smurf would reach the unrestricted level, it would become quite obvious they are a smurf, and be matched up with such.
Xonra3 votesthought this since I started playing in 2011 when there were a few other summoner spells there. Just seemed awkward.
The masteries giving a point as you level that makes sense, but I don't see the point of restricting summoner spells.
Then again there is a laundry list of failings with starting as a new player in LoL, such as that fail tutorial and so on.
Dreamspitter2 votesthought this since I started playing in 2011 when there were a few other summoner spells there. Just seemed awkward.
The masteries giving a point as you level that makes sense, but I don't see the point of restricting summoner spells.
Then again there is a laundry list of failings with starting as a new player in LoL, such as that fail tutorial and so on.
didnt they make a new tutorial?
Xonra2 votesthought this since I started playing in 2011 when there were a few other summoner spells there. Just seemed awkward.
The masteries giving a point as you level that makes sense, but I don't see the point of restricting summoner spells.
Then again there is a laundry list of failings with starting as a new player in LoL, such as that fail tutorial and so on.
didnt they make a new tutorial?
Nope. They just copy and pasted Ashe and her being told to buy thornmail to the howling abyss, then you can choose to do the "battle tutorial" which isn't actually a tutorial at all. It is just "go play a bot game" which you'd go and do anyways at that level.
Dreamspitter1 votesthought this since I started playing in 2011 when there were a few other summoner spells there. Just seemed awkward.
The masteries giving a point as you level that makes sense, but I don't see the point of restricting summoner spells.
Then again there is a laundry list of failings with starting as a new player in LoL, such as that fail tutorial and so on.
didnt they make a new tutorial?
Nope. They just copy and pasted Ashe and her being told to buy thornmail to the howling abyss, then you can choose to do the "battle tutorial" which isn't actually a tutorial at all. It is just "go play a bot game" which you'd go and do anyways at that level.
What about those intro bots?
AbodyHUN6661 votesI think you can find it in the tutorials, it hints you what you should be doing if you aren't doing it. The tips kind of pop up to try last hitting, destroy the first tower or go back to shop.
ModWulf Helhammer2 votesthats why they created intro bots, so their is more of a chance to build your skill up. Also, I'm pretty sure they redid the training match when they created intro bots as well
Wehrmacht Bunny2 votesIf they were to unrestrict summoner spells, it would suck greatly due to the smurf accounts.
Xonra5 votesIf they were to unrestrict summoner spells, it would suck greatly due to the smurf accounts.
Smurf accounts suck anyways. In most cases if you are smurfing it won't really matter if you have summoner spells, runes, or masteries because you have better mechanics and knowledge from playing much longer than an actual new player.
Leaving summoner spells restricted is kind of a cop out at that point because a smurf is gonna be far better regardless, so might as well let new players get used to them as soon as possible.
ShadowNinetails1 votesBut who's going to care about not getting Flash until lvl 12 except smurfs?
RenaiCirculation2 votesIt's probably to prevent smurfs from stomping actual new players even harder than they already do...
PigCheese1 votesyou only truly play like 3 games if that with new players before you mmr sores and you have to wait 30 min ques to get matched with other smurfs and many people just play bots or custom games to lvl up.
Quepha1 votesi dunno, why are summoner levels in the game to begin with?
JustMyBassCannon4 votesBecause they need a way to separate players who are still learning the game. The in-game tutorial can't possibly teach players everything they need to know, and players need a lot of game experience to be considered average. Grinding to 30 is effectively a tutorial (although it's recently plagued with a choice between vs AI or vs Smurfs).
EmWtTxCTGL1 votes"recently plagued"
It's been like this since league got huge.
AbodyHUN6661 votesthis way they simply tell players they can play ranked after they play X easy bots, Y games vs intermediates and Z games vs humans
