141 Champions...
... The same 20 to 30 champions played every game.
Maybe the champion balance team can get off their fat asses and do some work.
62 Comments
They are, did you not just see them buff a few weak champions in 6.19? Lol
I'm genuinely curious, how would you plan to get more champions to be more optimal than the rest? The way I see it, it doesn't matter how many champions there are in a game, there's always going to be a set of champions that are more efficient. 5 champions per team + 5 bans per team, 2 teams = 20. Add another 10 for diversity and team-specific strategy + another 5-10 for odd-ball picks that appear every once in a blue moon and there's your set of champions.
That equals anywhere from 30-40 champions played, with about 20 of them being seen the majority of the time. A larger amount of champions in the game just means a variety of different sets of 20 efficient champions for the meta.
So...how would you make it so there are 50 (or 1/3rd) of the champions in the game to be absolutely meta?
I think we need 10 ban/team now.
Just in my past 11 games i have seen 74 different champions. I honestly dont see how people only see "20" of the same champs because if i were to keep going even further through my match history i would see even more. Yes i have had a few very unpopular champs like ivern and rek'sai but even removing those two i have still seen 72 different champs which imo is a pretty good amount for there being a little over 130 champs in the game.
they are cant you tell? they buffed 
a champion that never gets played.
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The devs focus on Worlds this time of year, and they've explicitly stated that while every champion being viable is ideal, they prioritize a fun viewing experience over champion diversity. They think it would be better to have exciting games with flashy plays than allowing for boring, if viable, champions from all over the board grind the action to a halt.
... The same 20 to 30 champions played every game.
Few VERY obvious reasons for this, many of which have nothing to do with the balance team.
- League design is much more homogenous than a game like DOTA. (That's on the design team but most new releases have been filling weird niches like Pyke or Kayn)
- Balance that would be required to diversify the game is lambasted and hated here. (IE: Balancing around D+ good players rather than Iron Giants)
- People will always gravitate towards certain champions (Jinx could be a physical dumpster but people love her anyways).
- There will always been a pull towards champions at the top, even if the difference is minimal (52% vs. 53% win rate)
Many of league's champs are still a version of another champ - for example: why would anyone pick Vayne over Kaisa, if Kaisa is stonger... If both are thrash, they wouldn't be played at all, because they would be useless. Same can be said about tanks, juggernauts and some other ranged DPS, or assassins - Diana/Fizz/Kassa/Akali don't really have good utility and the one that is strong will be picked - Talon/Zed/Yasuo - Talon is most likely to be played the least, because he is the most conditional; Noc vs Rengar, Kha vs Shaco; Ekko is unreliable - so you play him only when he is buffed or can abuse items.
1zed 2darius 3yasuo 4vayne 5kaisa 6pyke 7lucian 8irelia 9graves 10jhin 11varus 12kayn 13akali 14master yi 15malzahar 16tresh 17 tristana 18 lulu 19 ezreal 20 xayah 21 rakan 22garen 23draven 24jax 25lee sin 26evelyn 27caitlyn 28kindred 29sejuani 30xin zhao.
Well once champions become more important than the items they buy then maybe
When I started playing there were 100 champions and around 60 were viable.
Awesome balance: with 40 champions more, the number of viable champions is lower than before.
It is inevitable that some (or most) champions become fodder. The more champions are added, the harder it is to manage balance. More champions = more work, meaning you need to hire more employees, and all of that breaks down at some point. Hence why Riot often puts champions on ice through big nerfs or by forgetting about them. I don't think Riot could sustain very good balance for 141 champions.
Some champions aren't preferred by players just based on theme. Riot could buff them to bring up play rate, but if no one buys their skins, why bother (from Riot's PoV)? Look how quickly Kai'Sa got a new skin. Her theme is definitely a big hit with players, and her play rate is very high. I can't fault Riot for making a skin for a popular champion, but I can fault them when they switch that order (that is, making a champion popular for a skin release).