Riot games doesn't tend to make the best decisions.
They aren't making the best decisions as of the last 2 years. I'll just name 3 of the biggest changes I felt hurt the game overall. And then add in 3 possibilities they could had implemented.
TL;DR First, they removed Dominion. Second, multiple champ updates are unsafe and some need more testing. Third, the lore retcon was unneeded and the new lore leaves too many unanswered questions. Riot could had made the Rotating Game Queue last a week rather than just weekends, they are waisting the Butcher's Bridge map by not using it, and the chests and keys system could be better.
The First change that hurt League was the removal of Dominion from the game, and is now a rotating game. This change hurts League as a whole because Dominion was the only game mode different from the normal game. It gave a breath of fresh air for players and brought on a new way to play. But, since the game mode had few players and the game itself was getting old, Riot felt it would be better to just throw it in the trash, that is until players backlashed and asked for it to at least be put into the rotating game queue.
Quote that harsh line and argue what you want, there was no need for Riot to get rid of anything as large as a game mode.
The Second change that hurt League was the belief that Multiple Champion Updates (though small) could all be released at one time. Such as the Juggernaut update, Marksman, and Mage updates. There are quite a few champions in these updates that had tough and touchy new abilities that needed more time and testing to be perfected. The Juggernaut update (it being the first) is a prime example. Only four champions got changes and 3/4 were still in need of a few tests (I'm talking about Garen, Mordekaiser, and Skarner). Garen mostly just had a bug on his R, Skarner was over buffed, and Mordekaiser became more of a mess than he was before and alienated his mains. Others that were touchy were Graves from the marksman update, and Malzahar from the mage update. Vel'Koz was added into the mage update for just the sake of it, it felt like. He was possibly the most balanced of all the champions, and was played averagely and effectively.
The sad reality is, putting so many champions in one huge update is risky. They should (instead of just 2 weeks prior to the patch update) give players up to three or four weeks, maybe even five, to test the champions and give good insights due to having played the champion(s) in a long enough period of time to be able to give good wholesome ideas on what might be wrong.
The Third change is not the loss of Team Builder or Dynamic Queue but it is the lore change they are trying to make which is unfinished and is less interesting than the original. I want to apologize to the writers, but they are waisting their time by making this choice. Its alienated many other players who actually liked how the story made the game seem reasonable. It helps us understand why they are in Summoner's Rift, why they are fighting, why there could be two of themselves fighting each other, their backstories, etc... After the lore's retcon, what stops Cho'Gath from destroying humanity? Why is Annie fighting at all? Why was Fiddlesticks made? They are basically taking a story that works and throwing it away for something else that just makes us ask the most important question(s): Why this? Why now? Just, why?
I can understand making champions stay in one dimension rather than bringing someone like Taric or Nasus from some other plain. But, taking away Rumble's epic introduction into League? His epic fight against the (not real) Heimerdinger and how he continues to rise to the occasion.
The were even possible changes that could had improved League, but Riot didn't seem to be able to get them right. Here are 3 possibilities on the top of my head Riot could had given us:
The First possible change they could had given was the Rotating Game Queue to last a week. Its not satisfying to only get a weekend to play a game mode you've been waiting a year for. Its like if Butcher's Bridge only lasted 2 days of play.
This is simple, easy, and fair. If a lot of people stop playing the Normal Summoner's Rift game, then there is a reason. And the reason is, its stale, unimpressive, long, exhausting, and overall too competitive (even for just a normal match). There's a time for competitive play, and then there's a time where you just want to relax. Maybe let off some steam and get with some friends and troll a match together, just dying because its tiresome.
The Second change they could had made was the addition of Butcher's Bridge to either ARAM or bring in 1v1s or 2v2s back (aka, Showdown). Even if the Rotating Game Queue lasted for a week, adding another permanent game mode (or map) would had been the biggest thing Riot has done since the Summoner's Rift map update. It would had been even better since Dominion was taken away...
This map looked like it took quite some time to make... and now its just shelved? We have no idea if its ever coming back. In fact, its been a year since we've ever seen the map.
The Third possibility they tried to make was the addition of chests and keys which were to help with getting champions and even getting other fun items... What Riot failed to explain was how hard it is to get a chest or a key.
Now, here are my criticisms for the chests system as a whole:
First, champions are apparently not apart of the essence system as skins and such. And because of this, those who own all of the champions cannot get rid of the champion essence at all. What should had happened was one of two things. On one hand, champions, skins, etc. should be all the same essence or on the other hand, champion essence can be halved into skin essence (just to get rid of it). As someone who is trying to get champions rather than skins, I'd like the first but I know how people are and just say that the second may be more appealing.
(Don't quote this and put up some argument about abusing this system, when you already have trouble just getting chests and keys for free.)
Second, chests should cost 10,000 IP (each) and the Key separately should cost 10, 000 IP (each). This will be a present to veterans who accumulate millions of IP over time and can now not only get rid of it but also get a multitude of chests and keys (but they are limited to just 25 of each a day). In reality, this would be too much for average players that are new (or still trying to get all of the champions) as they struggle (like me) to get 4800-6300 within 3-5 weeks of play.
And, the chests are just hard to get in general. And since Riot has become a company that will not give any RP out for free (due to the new player getting a chest rather than 400 RP) as you level up, you should get a chest (up to 29 chests and keys in total). And, it would be nice if Riot would chest for winning at least one game for 7 days in a row.
To finish, I don't know if I'll get down votes or up votes, but I feel that someone should speak up about this.