Turret plates contribute to the “counterpick” top lane meta more than anything

Now, this problem is absolutely existent no matter what, especially ranged vs melee match-ups. But if you look at one thing that really contributes to the lopsidedness of these hard counter match ups, it’s the fact that most champions are practically resourceless (by either being resourceless or having access to unlimited mana) and the ability to get turret plates non-stop.

You really do not even need to kill your lane opponent, especially if you’re ranged. Ranged champions can poke you and wear down turrets, getting free plates. Hard counter melee lanes can beat you up in the middle of the lane and post-6 for most champions, they can dive you so the threat opens them up for turret plates, though this is far less consistent.

If riot is insistent upon keeping turret plates, they need to reduce the gold that ranged champions get on plates. I know that is absurd, but it is disproportionately favorable for ranged champions to get plates than it is for melee champions. I would also recommend reducing turret plate gold across the board. And I would strengthen turrets for longer than 14 minutes, probably increasing it to 16 minutes but only allowing plate gold in the first 10 minutes. This way, you can’t just slow push, bully people off tower and collect plates easily. If you want to do this, you need to hard shove and take a risk to get these plates rather than just accumulate them for free because you’re in a favorable match-up.