Games too "snowball-y," current state of the game, and potential solution...

So, after reading some posts, I had some thoughts on the current state of the game.

The long and the short of it is that objectives, namely towers, are WAY too easy to take making games feel like they're over, or they actually are over, WAY faster then in previous seasons. One mistake can easily result in losing multiple objectives. This is unsatisfying in a variety of ways.

1. It feels terrible to be on the receiving end of a so called "rofl stomp." Particularly if you did well in your lane. Getting rofl stomped in the past was exceedingly rare. If it did happen, usually it meant either the other team had a smurf or someone had a fed a very snowbally champ a la Riven or Akali. But I've had at least two games end in LESS THAN 20 MINUTES (in other words, a team took the nexus before the option to surrender even popped up) in this last week alone. Or to put it another way, I've seen sub-20 minute Summoner's Rift games more times in the past week than I did in the entirety of season 5. Not fun. :(

2. It's not that fun to be the one giving the rofl stomp either. Sure, once in a while, when you play out of your mind and destroy the enemy, yes that feels good. But it feels good because you know that you had to play incredibly well to do it. When every match starts to feel like it's decided before the 20 minute mark, it doesn't feel good anymore. It feels more like you got lucky than you really played well.

3. For LoL in particular, it feels like we're playing the game in fast forward right now. The mid game is essentially gone and the late game, such that it is, feels redundant. It just seems like so many games are currently decided in the first 15 minutes, even if the match lasts 25-30 minutes. Someone compared the preseason changes to HotS (Heroes of the Storm) which I've played and hated. Yes, they're faster games (and arguably much simpler) but nowhere near as interesting or fun.

So, beyond the result of the game being less fun to play, what else does all this mean?

Dragon: For starters, it means that dragon stacking is an excercise in futility. The odds of a game going long enough to make the possibility of getting a 5th dragon have dropped dramatically. Also, shorter game times mean that most of the dragon buffs are worth a lot less overall. The 6% dmg buff wasn't really worth much until late game to start with, and late game is coming so much faster that it's arguably not that helpful. Dragon buff 2 isn't super useful because towers are already really easy to take in the first place. Buff 3 is still nice for the extra movement speed, but again, dragon buff 4 seems like you're not going to see it very often and the team that would want it the most, due to the new minion mechanics, is the team that's behind (and thereby less likely to stack 4 dragons to begin with).

Rift Herald: I think the bott lane should become the new top lane. Instead of putting your bott lane in, well, bott lane to help with dragon control, make bott lane a solo lane and put your adc and supp in top. Do your best to control the Rift Herald and just ignore the dragon. Some pro teams were already ignoring the drake in the early game in season 5. I think this is exponentially more valuable in the current state of the game. I haven't done the math, but my guess is that gaining a "mini-baron" buff 2-3 times in the early game is way better than attempting to stack dragons for the late game that probably isn't coming. Particularly if you can use the "Herald buff" to gain a major tower lead.

Currently, I think the way to fix the game, so to speak, is to

1. Make turrets significantly more difficult to take, akin to season 5 and prior.
2. Revert or simply don't add in the new minion mechanics.
3. Leave items where they're at, but keep an eye on game stats, particularly turret death times, and tune from there.