Player Skill Vs Champion Balancing
I'm going to go off the assumption that about 80-90% of the League of Legends community are the equivalent to braindead monkeys.
When a group of people in the community ask for champion "X, Y, or Z" to be nerfed, they fail to understand the patch notes in their entirety. So what can we do to help them understand? We already have Videos that Riot has started to do explaining the patch notes with Guests from the balance team and LCS players. Still not working? Well how about we treat them as if they were special ED students (this is a legit suggestion, not to sound like a jackass) and an interactive UI where it explains in detail how said nerfs/buffs would work in the system with numerical values?
Now that that's out of the way, I will ask, what is balance? Well by definition of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary balance is: "a state in which different things occur in equal or proper amounts or have an equal or proper amount of importance." Now refering back to the part above, you know I did say that players failed to understand the patch notes as a whole. When a champion reaches a high popularity level and is picked constantly in Solo Que or Professional level play then you have to first try to understand why that champion has become so popular. So what made that champion popular? Looking at the patch notes is one way to accurately learn why a certain champion or archetype has become predominant in the current patch. Chances are that if in the patch notes a certain archetype was nerfed either indirectly or directly then its entire archetype would be suffering the same wounds. This allows for a different archetype to come into play and dominate on the scene. Second question you should ask yourself is: Where does your skill match-up to your opponents? If you are of the same skill level then who has the better reaction time (assuming that both players have flawless connections)? Most of the time Skill match-ups come down to who can execute their combo's faster. Now how does Skill level and Reaction time have anything to do with balancing and what champion is OP in the current patch? Well surprisingly it has much to do with the top tier champions. A champion in League is just a "tool" for players to test their skill level against players of the same or higher caliber, champions are balanced around Master and Challeneger Tier because at that point Player Skill is what overcomes Champion Mastery and that is what you guys are watching on the Featured Matches. So what do Master/Challenger Tier players have to do with balancing champions? Well like I said before, it's their skill that preceeds the champions skill ceiling that allows them to progress further than any normal player. If I had to rank people with League's system then here is how I would describe each rank.
Bronze: New to the game, not much knowledge of the system and how it interacts with mulltiple inputs. Basically you're not a terrible player you just are not knowledgable enough to be considered the "norm"
Silver: The "Norm," these are players who understand the system better than Bronze players but they still have to learn more about the game in order to become better themselves.
Gold: These players are very knowledgable about the system and can react to most situations with an equal reaction. It is at this point that a players ego starts to disappear and actual progress is made to become a better player.
Platinum: This Division is nearing the point where Champion Mastery is met, but it's also where real team coordination comes into play unlike the previous 3 tiers. As players in this tier master champions, they can move skills they have learned from one champion to another allowing them master several champions in a short timeframe (hence why LCS players can master a champion quickly when the meta shifts).
Diamond: The Goal of all players. Diamond players have already mastered their pool of champions and they have an acceptable level of teamwork. Player Skill starts to be the deciding factor in most matches, but timing is also very crucial since it could turn a won game into a loss.
Master/Challenger: Players have completely Mastered the Champions they play, their timing is near flawless, and coordination with teammates is top notch. It's Raw Player Skill that decides these matches, no excuses. Each player is a Candidate for Professional Play whether it be on a College team or a League team.
Champion nerfs and buffs are put into the system with the idea that players who have different skill sets from the "Ranks" will be able to utilize their own strengths and climb the Elo Ladder that everyone is trying to climb. Nobody expects someone to do tremendously well and instantly be moved from Bronze to Challenger in one game, so instead of making others feel bad focus on you yourself as a player before you bash on others who are not having a good game. If you are in either Bronze/Silver/Gold you have no right to insult your teammates in a ranked game because they are not doing well because it does 2 things. The first is obvious in that it brings down their morale and will make them less like to try their best. The second is that when you focus on harassing a teammate verbally then you are not getting any better and are making no progress towards the higher level of gameplay that you so desire. So before anybody talks about balancing a Champion, think about where you are skill-wise and then try to figure out a solution to your issue before coming onto the Boards and spamming "NERF XXXXX because BS that happened to me in a game." Now go ahead and Downvote this post to hell, but I don't care. I am trying to help people understand what is wrong with their thinking when they talk about champion balance and if they feign ignorance towards it then let them rot in Elo Hell.