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Quality over quantity

Rykagnar·10/13/2017, 3:40:54 AM·2 votes·405 views

League has become a fast paced game where most games are determined within 10 minutes of the match. Pushes for more snowballing in games has become increasingly evident with each patch. Games consist of three outcomes - stomping, getting stomped, or intense, late-game focused matches where every decision counts. The first two outcomes are the most frequent in League matches.

I'm a long time player of League, for what that background information is worth. I started playing the game casually back in mid Season 2 on a friends account. Later, I started this account back in Season 3. As one could imagine, this game has really grown on me. I've had to adapt to lots of metas, champion changes, item changes, and in some cases, map changes. I've been riding the wave of change, when it reached its most broken stages, and also when things were somewhat balanced.

But Season 7 has been a very unique one, and a very overwhelming one at that. At the beginning of the season, memes floated around about how ADC was the worst role in the game. Now, near the end of the season, it's labeled as the most broken role in the game. Part of the reason these memes of how broken ADCs, and other roles, came to be, is because of snowballing.

Everything is based on who can play the best during laning phase. If you slip up, overextend just a bit, and the jungler gets a double kill, you could easily lose first tower around 7 minutes. If you forget to ward, you could be surprised by an unexpected roam and die, putting you behind and in a state where it's one hell of a rocky climb to catch up. It doesn't matter if you are the best player in League - every player makes mistakes, and these mistakes can be detrimental to the entire match. If you give someone a single early kill, it could easily ruin the entire game.

I just feel as though matches have lost the quality they once had. I remember the times where you might die a few times, or perhaps, lose a few teammates in an invade. You didn't automatically stress out, start flaming everyone and saying "ff@15" in the chat. Why? Because you knew you could come back from it. But these days, the moment you die, it could easily lead to a depressing Defeat screen in the next 20 minutes. I miss the times where you would rotate from lane to lane, shoving waves and then looking for picks or good spots to ambush from. It was intense, but thrilling. It was 40 minutes into the game, and every action mattered. It felt like hunting. Chasing a dangerous animal (or pack of animals) trying to kill them, but also knowing you could be killed if you weren't a few steps ahead at all times.

The point I'm trying to make is that I feel like Riot is going for quantity over quality to please a larger audience and promote more matches/less time. Sure, some people prefer this style of play - but it just doesn't feel as enthralling. And I miss the quality of the matches that they used to have. Don't get me wrong, every now and then you may get that one match that lasts more than 35 minutes, and it's a fantastic feeling of nostalgia. But overall, it just doesn't feel the same.

2 Comments

TruelyTrueTrueth10/13/2017, 9:32:05 AM1 votes

AGREE WITH YOU ON ALL LEVELS AND ASPECTS AND ANGLES AND SIDES AND CORNERS

Critmaster Garen10/13/2017, 11:25:02 AM1 votes

its because theyre catering to the korean and chinese player base.

most of them are not playing like us on home pc's, but a large portion of their player population is playing in internet cafes where theyre trying to cram as many games into the time they have as they can.

its the reason why it was usual for korean teams to be quick on the surrender button in previous seasons, when they just fell somewhat behind. more so than other regions like eu or na who would either never surrender games or be very reluctant to surrender a game (unless the odds were truly overwhelming).

youll see this difference in attitude especially on euw, where people will not ever surrender games and play them out to the last minute. even blind picks are rarely surrendered, when they snowball.

riot pushed to reduce game times from 35 minutes on average to 20 to 25 minutes. the effect youre seeing on the game health is the result.

its just too big of a game that is reasonably played out in a 20 minute timeframe, without turning into a stomp and fucking with champion power curves.

even if they managed to cut game time on average to 20 minutes and make it relatively even during that time, it would be far less enjoyable than 30 to 40 min games with clearly defined game phases in my opinion.