It Is Starting To Feel Like Every Step Riot Goes Forward, They Go Two Steps Back
Over the years, Riot has done a LOT right, and I do mean a lot, I just want to start by saying that. The things Riot has done correctly, they have knocked it out of the park, but that isn't my issue by any means of course. The problem is, in the past year to two years, it feels like each step Riot takes and makes the RIGHT move, they suddenly feel as if they can now take the big and unpopular risk, but it rarely, if ever pays off and puts them two steps back.
I mean, just for example, people had been calling for some sort of queuing system for roles in champ select, so Riot brought that, and it was pretty good. The problem was, they didn't do it properly, and it just drastically raised queue times.
They implemented a "dynamic queue" and completely removed not only solo/duo queue, but TeamBuilder along with it (which made no sense given it wasn't a ranked mode, but they felt it was overlap for some reason).
They rework champions and have successes that everyone praises, but for every Poppy, we get a Skarner, who wasn't cared about until after they nerfed all the other popular junglers, and Mord is only played by people like Malicious Metal who would play him if they took away his weapon and gave him a giant flopping fish, or Ryze, who seems to get a yearly rework (and will likely need another as his winrate is already pretty terrible (around 44% win rate and around 5% popularity. Second lowest wrin rate right now).
They seem afraid to take the initial risk, so they take the "Easy win" first, but then the risk they dive into, they go in face first and refuse to ever look back and it blows up so many times. They've gotten very good at "no no it's fine, dynamic queue is totally awesome and successful" while everyone looks at them as if they are wearing a coat made of dead rats and fire. I just hope 2017 is a year they think before stepping, so the good steps forward aren't followed by leaps back that over shadow the good they do/did.
2016 had some good moments, but all the ridiculous stuff Riot did made it hard to see them without looking for them, because Dynamic Queue alone just put a sour taste in so many people's mouths that has yet to leave, and they just keep steaming ahead with their flaming rat coat.