Why Riot Needs to Stop Making Champions
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I've had this thought for a while now, but after the most recent patches coupled with the SR changes, I though it was time to voice my feelings on Riot and the future of League.
League of Legends is a great game, but at the same time it has many flaws. These are some of my main concerns with the game, and center around the uniqueness, balance, and survivability of League of Legends.
Gameplay and Themes
Riot has said in their philosophy multiple times that they want to keep each champion unique and have a specific niche, both thematically, and in gameplay. As stated in Vi's dev blog, they wanted to make sure Vi had a kit that stood out from the others, specifically with her ultimate, which they wanted to differentiate from others like Malphite. However, this problem is still very prevalent in League, and can only get worse as new champions muddle together both thematically and in their gameplay.
Lets give a couple gameplay examples. Braum and Leona, while differing thematically, have very similar kits. Both are tanky supports, have a marked debuff passive, a reliable cc ability, a gap closer, a tanking buff ability, and a large AOE ultimate. Braum fills almost exactly the same niche as Leona, which turns it into who has better stats, lower cool downs, rather than "I want the tanky cc support." And with the Skarner changes (on the pbe at the time of writing) in which he has the crystal venom debuff, All I see is Braums passive, reused to try to fit a champion who needs something a whole lot more, if League wants Skarner to fit the niche of a sticky, tanky, jungler. Diana and Akali, Blitzcrank and Thresh, the pairs of similar champions go on. This creates a glass ceiling where if hit, champions are not unique or relevant, and while Riot has not hit it yet, they are very, very, close. If Riot keeps going, there will be a point in which champions could simply be removed, because there's always another one that does the same thing but better. That is exactly why League needs to stop making champions. Adding more champions will only make this huge problem even worse, creating a place where the top champions are played because they have the best stats, and not because that champion fits the players playstyle, or the team composition. Creating new champions can and will break the game if Riot is not careful.
Health of The Game
There is a definite group of champions. We all know them. You see them in a game and you have to look twice. These champions are so unbalanced, so artistically old, considerably weak in their positions even when their playstyle is completely part of the meta, they are never played. Galio, for example. He has a unique and versatile kit, in which he could be great as jungle, support, or mid. He seems to have synergy with champions like Sivir or Karma, providing movement speed, or Karthus and Orianna, locking up entire teams with big combos. But his potential does not matter, he is still weak and unbalanced, has an ancient character model, and is getting no love from Riot. The fact that Riot can even think of releasing a new champion while there isn't just one, but an entire group of current champions that are already more unbalanced than that new champion, is unfathomable. How can Riot pick up and move on when they haven't even finished with what they already have. Its like trying to build the next floor of a building when the foundations haven't even been laid. The game, like the building, will ultimately crumble and collapse if Riot moves on to the next champion, the new idea. Making new champions is unhealthy to the game, its balance, and its success.
Riot likes it when a champion is in a balanced state. They go to great lengths in the PBE and even into live to get any new champions into this balanced state. But what exactly is this state. Theoretically all champions are supposed to be in it, and it is where each champion has specific strengths and weaknesses, which allow for counter play, but not where champ select decides the game. However, we all know that is not where League is at. There are definite OP and unbalanced champions that affect where the balance is, and what strength is considered "average." It is impossible for Riot to balance any new champions, when there is nothing to balance that new champion to. Riot can try to make these new champions, but it will only send the direction of the game farther and farther from a balanced, healthy game.
Definition as a Sport
Now, why does League have to be a sport, and what does this have to do with not making champions? I can hear it, I know your asking. Well, The simple answer is that games die out, but sports survive. Think about it, in a game like Assassins Creed, you play through the storyline, you finish the game in some amount of time. No matter how long or great the game was, there is always a finish to that game. After you are done it might sit on the shelf for months, years. Sports are different. Sports are defined by their replay ability, constant rules and a player versus player experience. If League of Legends wants to still be around in 5 years, 10 years, they need to make sure League is defined as a sport. Even if it has no ending, League will die out if they don't get people to associate it more with sports and less as a game.
League already has that ability to play and play again, and a great PvP experience. but they lack a consistent environment to do that in. In football, (soccer) they don't suddenly change the rules, add a twelfth player to the field, or anything absurd like that. They change the technicalities, the minor things. In League you consistently see the landscape of the sport changed by the introduction of new champions, items, and reworks. This turns away all people that play the game, who try to master one aspect, only to find that this one champion or item has changed the game and how its played. League needs to steer away from such drastic changes such as the addition of a new champion, which makes the sport less consistent for the future. That isn't to say that League will ever reached a "finished" state. Like those technicalities, balance will always be an issue. Sleeper OP's will be realized, items will be exploited in ways they were never meant to be. But if Riot wants people to continue to play the game in 5 years, 10 years, and to view it as a sport, Riot cant keep changing the face of the game with new champions that deter both players and the public from wanting to keep it around.
Conclusion
Even though I focus on many negative things, remember that Riot brought us this far, and isn't going anywhere soon. They have done a great job with the game, including their expanding of the rework team, the soon-to-be relaunch of Sion, the long awaited SR update, etc. I just hope they don't leave their problems behind for another great champion concept.
{{summoner:17}} -0meganZ
