"Playing games of League of Legends should be the unequivocal best way for a player to improve. "

Let's talk about Sandbox mode, which Riot is not working on.

We’ve heard a number of player requests for a Sandbox Mode, with two main reasons: the first is trying out new content – which is something we value too. We want players to know what they’re getting and to be happy with the things they’re unlocking (we may investigate other ways to do this). The second is that players want to practice very specific skills without the constraints of a regular game. For this point, our stance is that sandbox mode is not the way to go. We want to make sure we’re clear: playing games of League of Legends should be the unequivocal best way for a player to improve. While there are very real skills one can develop in a hyperbolic time chamber, we never want that to be an expectation added onto an already high barrier to entry. On an individual level, we know this isn’t always true – some just want a space to practice flashing over walls without having to wait at least 3.6 minutes in between – but when that benefit is weighed against the risk of Sandbox mode ‘grinding’ becoming an expectation, we just can’t accept the tradeoff. We never want to see a day when a player wants to improve at League and their first obligation is to hop into a Sandbox. We do want to support your ability to grow in mastery, and there may be other avenues to do so, but not this.

I want to focus specifically on the SECOND reason here.

players want to practice very specific skills without the constraints of a regular game.

I was shocked when Riot said that this is a bad thing.

My personal experience begins here. I don't know how true all of this is for other people, but it definitely is true for me. I have played at least hundreds of customs to improve my skill level already, and unfortunately only some things are able to be practiced (like CS).

We want to make sure we’re clear: playing games of League of Legends should be the unequivocal best way for a player to improve.

This is already not true in my opinion, at least from personal experience. I worked and worked on improving my mechanics in CUSTOMS, rather than in games. The rest of the stuff, like teamfighting and roaming skills for example, I picked these up from getting advice from higher level people and watching my own replays. This sort of thing cannot be achieved by just spamming games. In fact, I know people who have 4000-5000 games and are much worse than me, because they didn't play to improve, looking at replays, practicing in customs, etc.

Taking an outside-of-League example, If you're learning how to play a song on an instrument, you can certainly learn to play it by just playing through it a bunch of times, but it's usually a lot faster and better to pick out individual parts that you have trouble with and practicing them. This is what playing customs is in League.

we never want that to be an expectation added onto an already high barrier to entry.

The barrier of entry is high at least partially because you, RIOT, set it this way. Whether this is a good or a bad thing is debatable, but with the 1-30 grind, where you don't even have access to equal stats as your allies or opponents (Assuming you're playing with friends), it's a very hard grind (Not to mention champions as well)

Anyways, that's another conversation.

Where do you think this expectation would be added? Who would make this expected? How would the attitude of players change? Are you talking about entering ranked, or learning to play LoL in general? How would someone even know if you've trained in sandboxes or not?

We never want to see a day when a player wants to improve at League and their first obligation is to hop into a Sandbox.

They can do what they currently do as well.

Does Riot think that Sandbox mode would substantially increase the skill level of the average player? If not, then I don't really see the point of making it unavailable for that reason. If so, then it may be reasonable. However, I highly doubt that this is the case. I am pretty sure, but not completely, that most people who play League play casually, rather than to improve.

One question for Riot, that may also change how I see things. How many people are ranked in comparison to the amount of people who are unranked (Unranked including players who just play placements and enough not to decay)?

Sandbox mode ‘grinding’ becoming an expectation

How about taking sandbox games off of match history? Unless most people get substantially better, this won't make a difference outside of high level ranked.

If you disagree with any of these points, I'm definitely willing to debate them. Who knows, I may come to agree with Riot (I'm pretty sure that I won't though).