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Please change the Meta, it causes toxicity!

Glaukunur·2/13/2020, 11:08:13 PM·23 votes·10,410 views

TL;DR Im a crying adc who plays greyscreen-simuator atm I am not a native speaker, so pleasy focus on the content, not the language

Why am I even writing?

I started playing LoL in 2014 after buying my first computer being able to handle the game, and ever since, I really enjoyed playing the game... Untill this season. Never in all those years of playing i experienced such a toxic community, that high amount of tilt, flame, blame, spam-pings and also ragequit or troll. I think in about 80% of all my games, at least one player is abusing chat to annoy his teammates before minute 6 ends. And I think this changed at the end of S2019!

Apart from my own experience, my friends have experienced the same behavior even in games we did not play together, the forum is loaded with threats about how unfun to play this game become. So let´s just assume that there is a REAL increasment of toxicity in LoL the last 6 months. And I blame the Meta out of my experience _ I don´t have data to prove, or to make good assumptions, because i couldn´t find them fast, and did not wanted to do hours of reasearch to get exactly what I want to look at._

So as a first step I want to look at why I am unhappy witht the current status of the game:

  • So obviously either me or my teammates get flamed really often. The amount of blaming for the game increased imensly. But only one type of flame. Personal insult, deathwishes, illnesses and curses I can barely see these days. So teams get really mental about the game.

  • Furthermore I don´t feel like i have any impact on the game - yes, I am a crying adc main. But there are a few adcs which are playable right now, but there is something wrong with them I will recall later. But overall I don´t feel like being able to make a change in the fight - it´s all about when a fight starts. The acual "fight" is almost always a burst or a oneshot lasting not longer than 3 seconds of which you are most of the time CCed.

What I think is the problem of the current Meta: The gameplay feels not rewarding for some reasons - you farm up, do good CSing, try trading with the enemies a little bit, but it´s mostly irrelevant, you really struggle making you game work and you do good. You play consistent and are about to get a small lead... then you do one wrong step get killed or so, and you are too much behind. Gamechanging action happen in a too short time, and I think assasins cause this. They have to wait for a good moment to be successfull. So every engage is about, do you onecombo the enemy, if not, he will do.

There is a missing of real fights - all you see is oneshots And this causes a lack of a rewarding tention, of a real fight where you have to change your positioning while sill attacking, where you can work together, ping in a fight for whom to focus, just doing a diffrence by using your mind in the fight... the way the fight startet is the result of the fight.

So almost every role got some problems in the current state of the game: Caused by a domination of assasins (or better, champion who kill you in one combo in a short amount of time < 3sec)

  • Tanks: Assasins have high burst, but rather low dps over a long time, so a tank is either not tanky enought to survive the burst, or he is OP cause there is no consitant damage to pressure him. So you are either super OP when ahead or no champion when behind.

  • Fighters: Tend to be rather good, because some of them got actual burst potential, but their playstile is not the one of a fighter. At least those who are played (Lee Sin, Irelia, Renekton, ...) others like poppy are not seen these days.

  • Mages: Are good if they have burst like LeBlanc, Katarina, Syndra and so on. Controlmages with continues damage aren´t in a good position.

  • Marksman: Appart from MissFortune, Aphelios and Senna they are rather bad right now. So why are these 3 good?! Ahhhh - they have burst and oneshot potential.

  • Supporter: The champs are generall usefull, but it makes no fun, playing with someone on a lane who is mostly irrelevant because he is dead (yes, i play greyscreensimulator atm)

So as a result of the fast games, and short important action, tention for every role is created:

  • Toplane: OK, not for toplaners, as far as i know. It´s an Island.

  • Jungle: You are super dependant from your team. A losing midlane means no possibility to have pressure in jungle. A losing botlane and you can´t go in fight in bottom river, you can´t do dragon, and so on. But also your team is super dependant from your earlygame, cause you are the first one who get´s level 2 and level 3. You are super tentioned and important, so you get flamed for the smallest mistakes, and even for those who aren´t mistakes.

  • Midlane: You need to assists your jungler, your sidelanes, and perform well on your own lane. But you are also dependant on your jungler. Difficult situation

  • Adc: Don´t even bother -- you are useless.

  • Support: Don´t even bother -- your adc is useless

What are some possibilites for a better Game?

Tanks should be a playable option again. This may can be done, by reducing the overall damage leves - yes, I think we need nerfs, not more and more buffs. Lethality should be changed in a less snowballing way. But tank items shouldn´t be overall buffed, otherwise, tanks will snowball, and have a unfun tank meta. Maybe an increase of some basestats would be a first good step.

I have no idea what to patch, but maybe the deciding factors of balancing need to be increased:

  1. The avarage time-to-kill (ttk) an enemy should stay in a healthy spot for every role and as a distribution for the team. Also the average time-to-die (ttd) of certain roles should be considered. An adc needs to die faster than a toplaner, but pls, make it a relevant amount of time. But it´s not a good game experience when you ttd as adc is below one second, no matter what enemy you are facing.

  2. The varianz in winrate depending on game-length is probaly already an important factor. But I think, shorter avarage games as a result of higher damage spikes is not healthy. On the other side, a too variant winrate depending on game-length (kassadin) is not good either.

  3. The ratio of CCed time to ttd should be in a good spot. If you get killed in 5 seconds but you are hard CCed the whole time, the meta is in a dangerous spot, if it´s not a special teamcomb. Of course this doesn´t apply to kills below one seconds, there cc is about irrelevant.

  4. Combine the listed factors, look for high variances, try new ones, don´t stick to simple winrates, because 50% winrate does not mean a balanced gameplay. It can be coinflip-level 0.5 as a result of "good" balaninc, but then it does not feel balanced.

Maybe i write complete shit, but I want League to change, because I barely like this game at the moment. I would also enjoy a YouTube-Series on how the Balance-team decides their changes. Maybe with some insight, players get less toxic about their work.

Please share your ideas on reasons for the toxicity. Do you experienced a rise of toxicity? What relevant factors in balancing should exist?

35 Comments

ProphetOfDraven2/14/2020, 5:52:27 AM9 votes

So almost every role got some problems in the current state of the game: Caused by a domination of assasins (or better, champion who kill you in one combo in a short amount of time < 3sec)

Tanks: Assasins have high burst, but rather low dps over a long time, so a tank is either not tanky enought to survive the burst, or he is OP cause there is no consitant damage to pressure him. So you are either super OP when ahead or no champion when behind.

Fighters: Tend to be rather good, because some of them got actual burst potential, but their playstile is not the one of a fighter. At least those who are played (Lee Sin, Irelia, Renekton, ...) others like poppy are not seen these days.

Mages: Are good if they have burst like LeBlanc, Katarina, Syndra and so on. Controlmages with continues damage aren´t in a good position.

Marksman: Appart from MissFortune, Aphelios and Senna they are rather bad right now. So why are these 3 good?! Ahhhh - they have burst and oneshot potential.

Supporter: The champs are generall usefull, but it makes no fun, playing with someone on a lane who is mostly irrelevant because he is dead (yes, i play greyscreensimulator atm)

Well you obviously have blatant adc favoritism, and it makes sense since you play that role. But understand this, ADC's are gigabroken, which forces other classes to be gigabroken in return to be able to keep adc's in line. What this game needs to go back to a functioning state is a complete rehaul of every single crit / on hit adc. Then afterwards we can lower the damages of the classes that are intended to counter them. Currently if an ADC doesnt get dived and instantly blown up they can mow through an entire team in seconds. Ideally ADC's need to become a caster like class that also has decent damage autos. IMO crit and / or AS should just be completely removed. In turn buff their AD ratios on abilities and slightly lower their cooldowns, in addition to replacement AD CDR items and more AD survivability options ( think stuff like zephyr ).

If ADC's don't put out insane DPS and instead just become a mid range AD caster class then there is no longer a necessity for assassins and burst mages to be so far out of line. Also this allows tanks to do their job of tanking damage.

aTinyKittenYAY2/14/2020, 4:58:37 AM4 votes

My personal theory on why more players are being toxic (and I could be wrong, just a theory) is that they have figured out the automatic reporting system.

I think it's pretty common knowledge these days what will get you chat restricted and what will get you banned.

Saying things like N word, homophobic slur, kys, etc. will get you banned so it's rare to see these types of insults anymore (at least for me).

Curse words in general like bitch will get you chat restricted.

Otherwise being toxic in a way that doesn't involve common phrases like "you are trash" or "uninstall" will yield no punishment. (Even those phrases may not in all cases).

So in essence the toxic community has evolved around the automated system and avoids cursing at you while still being extremely toxic.

I think that the automatic system is fundamentally broken.

For example we had a player harass our jg the entire game without cursing. Saying they are the worst jg in NA. Wood division, etc. We reported and nothing happened.

Another game I'll admit I said bitch but not directed at anyone in particular. Something along the context of "let's fight it out, ending quick is a bitch move" - this was in ARAM. I got chat restricted.. which I would be fine with if those who are toxic but don't curse were equally chat restricted.

FSRER2/14/2020, 2:52:11 PM4 votes

This is actualy a good and in depth thread. SEE RIOT, GAMEPLAY+ MATERIAL STILL EXSISTS And honestly, as a Toplane main, I have to agree on all your points and honestly, If a Rioter came up and adressed these problems like you did, it would restore some of my trust towards this company but you see....we care more about this game than they fucking do

I Smell Pizza2/14/2020, 11:47:05 AM2 votes

I never afked from a live game before, but this meta/ season I find myself doing that. I feel like they deleted my play style and once I get behind im so useless. I only play more games if I win now. One loss tilts me off the planet bc its so unfun to be behind right now

By The Elements2/15/2020, 5:27:28 AM2 votes

So true

  • Adc: Don´t even bother -- you are useless.

  • Support: Don´t even bother -- your adc is useless

frackphoneverifi2/14/2020, 8:33:48 PM2 votes

there does seem to be a correlation with how when the game gets less fun the toxicity rises.

hard one sided stomps with most games being nearly decided in 10 min before or just as lane phase ends... it is hardly rewarding or fun for either side.

sometimes it feels like i spend more time getting in a game then having actually having any meaningful gameplay in game.

GilxeN2/14/2020, 9:32:27 AM2 votes

Absolutely agree with all OP's statement.

Warmas2/15/2020, 12:57:21 PM1 votes

Dude you talk about how oneshotting, and low time-to-kill is the problem then say "toplane is ok, bruisers are good". The two statements contradict each other, bruisers are the dedicated class of having Damage over time and Damage mitigation over time. They are the role that requires the most for the fights to be longer, Conquerer is the greatest example, It is the waystone that needs most time in combat to be worth it and it is the dedicated bruiser keystone. Tanks are garbage too as the damage is so high even they get oneshotted.

Also an ADC main can't complain about getting CC-ed and dying along that time that's how there class works, you shouldn't get CC-ed having the extra range to position and sadly hyper mobility lately, but otherwise right that supports/mages got unreasonable CC time lately (probably to equal out assassin dmg). Also ADCs are very much not weak, they are getting picked on top/mid and bot in competitive for a reason.

All in all though you make a point, my guess is that the meta is so toxic because as with the low time to kill more deaths will occur, while especially from a toplane perspective you have to make several trades to lower hp, wait for enemy jungler to leave your side of the map while your ADC died 3 times because they walked into a hook at which point they don't even care anymore.

Inkling Commando2/14/2020, 9:40:45 AM1 votes

every meta causes toxicity. if it isn't adc's with too much damage it's mages that go top side throwing off tanks and bruisers.

myamia2/14/2020, 11:22:05 AM1 votes

it only does that when people are bad at the game.

Waaaarrrrgggghhh2/14/2020, 2:15:49 PM1 votes

its just not fair or fun when you fall behind.. turret plates, first blood tower, being denied farm, getting dived, feels like theres nothing you can do about it. Hence the current ultra high damage snowbally meta to basically shut out the other player from even playing the game, and that causes toxicity. Your opponent isnt just getting ahead, they are putting you behind, so much that you can't come back, or if you can it will be so difficult and take so long you might as well ff and go next.

Turn On2/15/2020, 4:55:26 AM1 votes

Games not rewarding. MM'ing is absolute trash and mmr is broken. People don't enjoy being forced into 50% win rate. Forced to play with 1-4 feeders, afk'rs, keyboard warriors in every game. Why can't they be all put into lower ranks instead of with people that try their hardest. People are angry that play this game and they have a right to be. The barrier between below gold and above gold is ridiculous. Coin toss to who gets the ape instead of rewarding the carries and try hards. The loser get's the power. Not the winner. That would infuriate anyone who tries their hardest to win at something.