Riot cares more about 5 players losing than 67 million players having fun: short rant on balance

Riot has always had a 2-week patch, but it is pretty clear now, more than previous seasons that they cannot be called balance patches. They are just "shake things up and confuse players" patches. Some people like that. I can admit. But some others? Like people who actually have time-consuming jobs? They can't keep up with this pace. The game changes nearly every time we log on. There is no possibility for improvement beyond a certain point when the game changes this much.

Players aren't focused on learning their champions front-and-back anymore. That strategy is too unstable. Who knows when your champion will COMPLETELY DISAPPEAR FROM THE GAME or get changed to the point of unfamiliarity? Players now opt to let crowd-sourced data (op.gg) do the big thinking for them. There's not enough time to figure out optimal builds on your own. No space for creativity. The meta changes too fast for that, unless you play 20 games a day. But why? I conjecture, that it's to shake up pro play.

More specifically, to keep SKT T1 on their toes.

Riot is SICK of seeing SKT T1 win World Finals. They changed the finals to a best of 1, to give other teams a chance to upset.
If they don't do these things, SKT T1 would adapt fast enough and have the time to figure out a winning strategy.

And it worked. SKT T1 lost last season. Well done, Riot.

Riot Phreak knocks pro players all the time for being "stupid" and not adapting fast enough to hidden, extremely powerful champions, but is it their fault? Pro players love consistency, and there is simply NOT ENOUGH TIME to dick around with unfamiliar champions. If a pro spends too much time trying to find pocket picks, that's time not spent practicing the mainstay power picks. He's at a disadvantage, and he's taking huge risks. What if his pocket pick gets changed on a patch before Worlds? All of a sudden he needs to practice a stupid pocket pick again, AND he's behind on practice with his main champions. It's not worth it!

If the pros are having a hard time keeping up with the game, then how do you expect the layman to keep up as well?

Riot says they want the game to be the flagship e-sports, but do you know of any sport that flips the game on its side every month or so?
Do you know of any sport that makes changes just for the sake of making changes, or adds rules that isn't to improve the status of the game?

No. There isn't. Oh wait no I forgot, there's one.

League of Legends.