League's Balancing Problems

In a game of 5v5, there is 20% distribution of accountability for each teammate, adding up to a 100% effective team composition. This is excluding more obvious, and acceptable, role imbalances such as AP carry and AD carry.

The problem of balance is due to 5v5. It is an odd number. Why is it a problem?

Well naturally some champions counter others through natural resistance (or lack of), to the other's abilities. Let's take Ryze vs. Fizz as an example.

Basing balancing of this scenario on: http://www.lolcounter.com/champions/Fizz

A sample of about 28,000 people voted on this matchup. If we divide the amount of wins (19,388) by the amount of games played (28,000) that gives us about a 70% chance to win as Ryze.

A person can win against a Fizz, as Ryze, with hardly any effort. This is part of why Ryze is such a strong champion even in the hands of a poor player. Ryze's skill level gap almost doesn't exist. That means most Ryze players can play at about 60-70% of Ryze's maximum ability without effort involved.

"But how does that pertain to the 5v5 match-up that Riot Games has so 'intelligently' created for our lovely player-base?" you might ask.

Well in this scenario, there is a sudden balance issue among the team. If one player picks Ryze and the other player picks Fizz, suddenly the entire team's chance of winning is altered.

The difference?: With both Fizz and Ryze operating at max potential, and Ryze having the 70% chance to win in lane fights....

Ryze's contribution to the team is at maximum value worth 20% of (% chance of Team winning) Or 1/5. If his chance of winning in lane is 70%, he's effectively giving 14% chance of victory to his entire team. Where as Fizz is only contributing 6% to his team's overall chance of victory.

Now imagine 3/5 of these scenario's for Ryze's team.... Suddenly there's an imbalance. If three players pick 3 "Ryze vs. Fizz" situations, there's almost no player skill involved in this situation.

If 3/5 lanes on Ryze's team have the same % ratio of lane domination as Ryze, and the other 2/5 have let's say... the % chance of Fizz of lane domination (just to point out the problematic flaw in 5v5 for balancing), Ryze's team automatically has a:

(14%) + (14%) + (14%) + (6%) + (6%) = (54%) chance of victory.

Just for being on the team that gets to have that extra advantageous pick, you get an automatic (at the very least) 4% victory rate, the rate increases or decreases based on a lot of other factors.

Now let's look at Riot Game's Champion Selection.

Stage 1 Team A gets first pick, so they have no idea who or what Team B are going to choose so they pick a 'Fizz' character. Meaning Team B has someone that plays a champion on the team who can counter that champion in laning phase. Team A Team B |Fizz| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

Stage 2 Team B see's the Fizz pick, and one of the players chooses a Ryze to counter the Fizz. The second person chooses a Fizz character, not knowing who or what the team will pick for the next champion(s). Team A Team B |Fizz| |Ryze| | | |Fizz| | | | | | | | | | | | |

Stage 3 Now Team A has two people who can select champions. One person picks a counter to the Fizz champion, and the other picks a champion not knowing whom they'll face. Team A Team B |Fizz| |Ryze| |Ryze| |Fizz| |Fizz| | | | | | | | | | |

Stage 4 Team B now gets to choose their champions. Naturally one player selects a counter to the Fizz champ, and the other picks a champion not knowing who the other team will pick.

Team A Team B |Fizz| |Ryze| |Ryze| |Fizz| |Fizz| |Ryze| | | |Fizz| | | | |

Stage 5 It is now Team A's turn to pick champions. One player chooses a Ryze to their Fizz champion, and the other picks a Fizz champion not knowing who they'll be facing.

Team A Team B |Fizz| |Ryze| |Ryze| |Fizz| |Fizz| |Ryze| |Ryze| |Fizz| |Fizz| | |

Stage 6

Now Team B has one player left who can choose a champion. They pick a Ryze to Team A's Fizz.

Team A Team B |Fizz| |Ryze| |Ryze| |Fizz| |Fizz| |Ryze| |Ryze| |Fizz| |Fizz| |Ryze|

As you notice, there are 3 Ryze situations on Team B. Meaning team B has a 54% chance of winning the match. Which is a 4% difference that is very unfair to Team A, and is clearly a balance issue.

Edit: To fix this issue would be simple. Make the team matchup an equal number. 6v6... 4v4... etc.

A simple way would be just changing SR to 6v6 and letting people adapt to that. Which would likely lead to either one jungler and two top laners, or two junglers and one top laner.