Loading screens: Vanity vs. Information

This patch we got the loading screen update which has been somewhat contentious largely because of the change to ranked borders.

Before this update, with the exception of summoner spells, loading screens consisted of purchased and earned vanity items in the form of skins, icons, and borders. The idea of loading screens as a place for vanity was reinforced over the last few years by the implementation of things like exclusive overlays for certain skins, followed by mastery banners and honor flairs, and only really contradicted by the creation of keystones which, along with summoner spells, is information that can still be accessed once you’re in game.

With the 9.3 changes the loading screen is now interactive and it’s less clear what function the content is supposed to serve. Summoner levels and mastery points are now visible to both teams and borders, which used to represent the previous season’s achievement, now corresponds with a player’s current rank.

Whether players support or object to these changes for the most part appears to be based on their perspective on ranked borders. Players that see borders as a tracker are likely to support these changes, whereas those who view borders more as a trophy tend to oppose these changes.

After spending some time reflecting, I don’t support these changes and am one of many players that feel somewhat blindsided by them and I think a lot of factors played into this. It took me months to hit plat last season, and yeah, I read the dev posts when I could. Looking over them again, borders weren’t really addressed, the primary focus being on explaining how the new placement system and whatnot will actually work. Unless you happened to remember the one line in the first post that said, “Next season, you’ll unlock your rank border as soon as you finish your provisional games for a position” and realize that it would have an interaction with season 8 rewards it’s easy to completely miss that this was going to happen, and this is after borders were already bugged through preseason and 9.2. As a result, a lot of players feel cheated, and the tail of a banner on the backside of a portrait is not a substitute for a loading screen border.

Moreover, the idea of loading screen information setting the tone for a game before it starts never felt right, e.g. the enemy team sees that your Kindred only has a few hundred mastery points and proceeds to take advantage of that or teammates shift their play according to their own preconceived notions about your rank. I see these changes overall doing more harm than good in that it further encourages and enables players to judge each other based on largely unhelpful information, rather than to maintain an open mind, and seems more about what your border means to other people as opposed to what your border means to you.

On the other hand, I’m also aware that an issue other players had with the old border was that they were stuck all season with a border that didn’t reflect them, in which case you could send in a support ticket to remove your border. What I thought originally was going to happen with the introduction of ranked armor was that your border would reflect last season’s rank while your armor would reflect your current rank, thus satisfying both parties, but it turns out I misunderstood.

I’m not sure what Riot’s stance on players op.gg-ing all of their matches while they’re loading in is, but this could be a first step to turning the loading screen into a stripped down version of that.

As much as this has been bugging me, it’s unlikely any changes will revert, but was hoping to at least get some fuller perspectives shared.