Why Snowball?

Vargol·Jun 28, 2015·1 votes·843 views

Hi everyone. Im having one question about a mechanic in the game that i hope someone can answer (not just Riot, some of you with more experience than me)

Why we have Snowball in the game?... I dont recall a sport where the winning team gets an advantage over the losing team. This happens in the moba like games.

The advantage for winning is.... you are already winning (towers, push, etc).

Killing a champ or winning a teamfight already has advantage over the winning team.

I dont understand the concept in giving a big advantage over an already good player or strategy in team...

Thanks for your time

15 Comments

ErockandrollJun 28, 20154 votes

Keep in mind that, other sports don't have changing conditions. Foot ball players don't level up, Buy items, Kill tower, etc. And Leagues objective isn't "Score the most points in X time." It's "Destroy the enemy Nexus."

Really, League is more comparable to Chess by having an Early, mid, and late game. And the field changes as more pieces are removed from the board.

VargolJun 28, 20151 votes

I agree with you. But in chess everytime you get a piece, you dont get nothing, your piece dont duplicate and dont gain some advantage in the board...

thats my question.... in chess, the advantage is that you already have more pieces than your opponent. In lol, losing towers or dying too much increase the advantage to get the goal, in this case the nexus...

EndlessSorcererJun 28, 20153 votes

Luckily, there exists a MOBA just for you.

It's called Heroes of the Storm.

VargolJun 28, 20151 votes

haha, nice one... but im just asking... why this concept exist... im not saying is bad... im trying to understand why this mechanic exists....

Heroes of the storm has something good... It uses and focalizes on the objective... You use the scenario to push harder and reach faster than the other team. The problem is the customization and the heroes...

EndlessSorcererJun 28, 20152 votes

I'd say the concept exists to give some weight to early game performance and to allow a character's play to influence how the game progresses.

If players couldn't snowball, then there wouldn't really be much of a point for laning phase to exist aside from soaking experience (since gaining gold for items would be considered snowballing). Players who performed well would have the same impact as players who performed poorly, which wouldn't be very rewarding for them.

In addition, games would be very hard to close out if neither team could snowball. All of your progress towards victory could easily be thrown by one lost fight, since you wouldn't actually gain an advantage in fights without snowballing and the teams would be equally strong no matter how far ahead one is.

Quite frankly, I would find League of Legends very unsatisfying to play if personal and team performance wasn't rewarded.

VargolJun 29, 20151 votes

I get the point now and im satisfied with your answer.... thanks!!! :)

EndlessSorcererJun 29, 20151 votes

Sorry if I came off a bit short in my initial response. I've just seen this question quite a few times and was somewhat tired of it.

Anyways, glad I could help.

RueianJun 29, 20151 votes

Heroes snowballs Harder because of how much more xp soaking, level difference, and objective control means.

MatezoideJun 28, 20152 votes

Why should a team that is ahead get another point for scoring? wtf i was watching Soccer the other day and this team that was 2-0 scored another goal and went 3-0 so unfair

VargolJun 28, 20152 votes

HAHA, very funny... The objective of soccer is to score goals, but it doesnt give the winning team the possibility of get another player in the field (12 vs 11) each time you score. The game itself is the same 11vs11, no one on the winning team has advantage... is about strategy and abbility, the losing team has to score 3 goals to get even, but all the initial rules stay.... nothing changes

The objective in lol is get the nexus, a winning team that destroys 4 towers already has advantage in the game. (goals in soccer) the other team has to destroy 4 towers or more to get even in game.... Why should ill give them another extra, plus or something else?

RueianJun 29, 20151 votes

There is an advantage when you are 1 point ahead. At that point you can just grab ball control and stall.

lightdragoon88Jun 28, 20151 votes

?????????????

VargolJun 28, 20151 votes

????????????. Dont understand what im saying?.. The advantage for winning is in every sport and is "score points" (this mechanic is because the sport itself has specific time in which you need to score the points), the initial setup is the same... nothing changes, you need to score... based on strategy, abbility and sometimes luck you can achieve this.

Lol doesnt have time for this, so in this case the objective is destroy the nexus, if i stay 2 hours without destroying it the game continues. So, is a team based game, if you kill someone or destroy a tower you "Score a point" because you have dead champions (cooldown), dead towers and you are close to the objective. Thats an enormous advantage... You are winning... and close to the objective... Why you give another advantage? like feeding the team to impossible levels?...

Is like you are winning a basket game and every time you score, you can get another player in your team or better, you can use 2 balls or 3 balls

JustMyBassCannonJun 28, 20151 votes

And League of Legends not mimicking other sports is bad because...?

VargolJun 28, 20151 votes

because if you talking about "SPORT" you cant give extra advantage or buff to winning team... why? because you alter the meaning of sport or competitive.... The team who wins must win because has the ability and the strategy for that not because you kill 2 or 3 enemy players at early... in an even encounter... 2 vs 2.... the game is tactic like... and is perfect... but if you have the same 2 vs 2 against one champ with more kills than you.... you know that you will suffer more dmg. Why?... why you require much more defense like or tactic like strategy because... the other champ kill more than you?...

it has to be even.

the snowball... do i need to explain the concept?

And again... why should ill give a winning team a buff to defend more, to do more dmg?... Why i need to make it harder for the other team? Whats the meaning of that?

And of course, we are talking about a professional esport.... take any sport and think why non of them applies more difficulty to the losing players and make it easier on the already winning players..

We dont need to think that much.