Nah. And here's why:
League is just as balanced as it's always been, and in the same way.
That's not why people are angry. It's only why they THINK they are angry.
Here's what's really happening:
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Players believe they are better statisticians than statisticians, even though the vast majority have no background in it, and the ones who do, don't actually have full access to data, so trying to compile some query is going to be absolutely biased toward their own play tendencies.
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Players have generally got a lot of what they want from Riot/Tencent, which has resulted in some culture of entitlement. I know players don't like to hear this...... but the evidence is everywhere around you right now. Complaints/Concerns are not at all focused on one or two champions right now. They are focused on ALL AND ANY Champion....even those who are already doing extremely well. They are hostile and protective of champs who are unconditionally becoming pivot points in every single game they are played in, and pull 53%+ win rates in average length games.
Most of the current complaints have nothing to do with actual champ balance, or trying to improve the game. They are about personal bias, and fear...... fear of not being able to adapt to change.
- 70%+ of the community is in Silver/Bronze. That's not an exaggeration. That's a fact (about 55% are silver!) And they've been there for 3-5 years! They keep playing ranked hoping for those Gold Skin prizes, borders, etc, or higher ambitions, and never get there. Some of it's because of an inability to learn, but some of it is for various other reasons:
-Win LP scaling is punishing. If you are around 49-50% Win rate, you progress LP about 19-20 LP for a win, but lose 21-22 Per loss. If you go on a string of losses, you can get down to where a win is 14 LP and a loss is - 24 LP. That's massively punishing, and can happen even if you are a 50% player, because it calculates this based on your RECENT games, not your aggregate.
-_**Smurfs have fully realized they can profit off of streaming dominant games. **_Twitch feeds and Youtube are being used to solicit donations, and there is almost 1 smurf per game. Not all of them are that impactful...... Some are Gold in Silver games..... but MOST are Platinum Plus, and often play with a duo. The teams at those elos don't realize this and don't care when you warn them. They don't understand the skill gap. It's leading to irregular results where actual performance's results are diminished by forcing players to compete WAY outside their skill group. (Gold in silver is actually healthy; they need to prepare for promos. Plat -Challenger in Silver = they have no margin to learn or prepare). If Smurfing didn't exist, it's very likely Bronze would only be about 9% of the population, and Silver would only be about 40% of the community, pushing "some of the community toward Gold at least" increasing satisfaction among the aggregate player base. (I am pulling those numbers out of my behind, but that's about what I'd expect)
-Players really do want to see progress. Season rank results dropping them 4-5 ranks is extremely depressing for the majority of players, because they cannot cope with players in a compressed pool of Platinum/Gold/Silver/Bronze all playing together as much as they can Gold/Silver or Bronze/Silver. The LP loss, Season resets, and smurfs generally destroy all morale.
This all has led to an extraordinary increase in player toxicity and trolling. And that, not champ imbalance or some season's meta..... is what is the root cause of this season's fears and worries.
If the vast majority of players learn they cannot climb, are being buried by factors outside their control like LP rates/smurfs/resets, they begin to look to changes in the game as something to project their frustrations upon, even though most of those are minimal changes.
I mean Feral Flame was a bigger change to the game than anything else in the last 4 years in game impact. Even more so than the new runes. But, you know... It's been 3 Seasons since then. And League only grew after that. It's still growing, if you track players on OP.GG.
Dissatisfaction and loss of utility for the game are on the rise. I'll agree to that. But it's far more because of natural game spirits than it is because of some change that happens every year.
And there is something they could do about it. Allow some of those Silvers to have a better chance of gaining LP. Reduce the penalty for going on a losing streak to LP. Make LP gains/losses something like 20/20 flat, instead of sliding on gains and increasing on losses, until something like Gold IV. Give them a better chance to filter the "Gold skilled" players out of Silver and into games with Golds who take their games a little more seriously. Make them feel like there's less pressure on spamming the game and playing thousands of games on tilt, and more comfortable that they get to the elo of their skin reward earlier, so they aren't paying for illegal boosts in October, or have less reasons to rage in a game.
There's not much they can do about smurfs.... except perhaps sweetening the pot to play their primary accounts. Create a Platinum reward worth obtaining. Like an annual Legendary skin exclusive. Create a Diamond Mythic skin. Masters Ultimate skin. Or offer those higher elos a free RP balance to spend as they please. Keep them playing in their real elos.
And then...... you'd find most games..... would be:
-Longer
-More same skill matched.
-Less toxic (at least toward feeders/snowballs)
-Less snowballs
-Turrets lasting longer
-More diversity in champ selections (smurfs heavily create the metas, because you expect to have to deal with them on an assassin or an adc, and some are exceptionally effective in a smurf's hands compared to other champions).
-Less trolling
Ofc, even if Riot did this, it's likely 2-3 years down the road even the Gold stucks would begin to get upset and project. But it would buy the game a couple years of satisfaction.