Riot, listen... (Long post, be ready)

**Introduction: **

Hello viewer, my name is Atomiai. I don't use the boards too much, but today I wanted to come on and try to tell Riot what I think is wrong with the game. It's been a year since I first started playing League, so call me young, call me inexperienced, but I'm here today to express my opinion. This will be a semi-long thread with me stating what I think is good about the game/bad with the game and what I think Riot needs to do better, if you don't like my thread for any reason feel free to downvote me, just don't downvote me because I'm silver or I'm new to the game or some shit like that. We all started as bronzies, we all had that moment.

**Let's gets started:(@Riot) ** Riot, I started playing this game around September-October of 2014. I was asked to play it by a friend, and since it was F2P I decided to play it. In that year I've played about 3/4ths of the champions, gone through a strenuous period of getting from bronze 2 to silver 3 (which I'll highlight below) , and become completely devoted to this game as my hobby. I've seen feeders, trolls, complete scumbags, but I've also made friends. This game (and some of its community) still brings me joy, and to this day I think every penny I've spent is worth it, but the below are my pros/cons of your game and why I think you've done a great job at some things, but utterly awful job at others. Let's do it.

To start off, let's go through my pros:

1. Champions. 126 champs, each one of them with a unique personality, kit, and goal. When it comes to other games you can see this, but not on a scale like League has done. Let me take two of my mains for example.

Ahri: Ever since I started playing the game I've always loved Ahri, but not just because of her proportions. Ahri's story is not just the average story of a blood-seeking siren who only feasts off the living for their souls, Ahri is a young kumiho who is having to look back on the basic ethics of her identity and try to adapt them to her quest for survival and humanity. She doesn't want to steal people's souls, she has to. She's not like Elise who does it for a higher being, she's not like Vlad who does it because, well, he's the embodiment of Dracula. She doesn't do it for power, she does it only because she has to. Whenever people generalize Ahri into a slutty foxlady it disgusts me, because then you're ignoring her entire character, which is utterly disrespectful to the champion and their creator.

Irelia: The Will of Blades. Always known for her determination and power, Irelia is again another generalized case. "She's nothing but another warrior, just because she has her father's blades doesnt make her special". They're right, but how would she be in league if she was more passive? That role is already fit by Karma. Crazy with power and hate against Ionia? Syndra. Irelia's niche is her unbreakable will because she has nothing to lose. Until her heart can be filled, she will remain the stoic guardian of Ionia. But what happens if her will is fractured? What happens when she has to protect someone she loves? These are the questions that make Irelia a mystery and someone unique. In some ways you could call Irelia two people: The defender of light, and the slayer of the unjustified (But who does she think is unjustified?)

Both Irelia and Ahri come off as unique characters to me, Ahri because of her attempts at becoming more human and Irelia because of the possibilities her unbreakable will set. There are others I love just as much: Akali, Fist of Shadows, Zed, the Master of Shadows, and Ekko, The Boy who Shattered Time. I'm sad that there's a con to this, but the pro stands: All 126 champs are unique and bring about their own feel to the game.

**2. The Lore/Skin Department. ** You guys have done an AMAZING job, just look at the Project skins. Project Yi has his own story and self-conflict, not to mention you further elaborated on that with PROJECT: Overdrive. Like the champs themselves, each skin has its own individual feel to the game. I mean, look at the 1820 skins. Gentlemen Cho'Gath, Aether Wing Kayle, Blackfrost Anivia, and Brolaf. All of them give a different feel to your champ, and completely spice up the game.

This isn't to say the cinematics are bad either. While they don't happen as often as they should, they're always up to par, always giving us (and I apologize for stressing this) a better feel of the champions/skins and their backstory, their connections in lore. It's always good to see a new champ preview and see how he/she is represented by Riot. You guys even go so far as to make things like a small arcade for the Arcade Event, the Bilgewater Event, and of course the logins, theme and all. You really bring up the bar when it comes to expressing in artistic ways.

3. The GUI. I really like the launcher and the new HUD, but more than that I love the amount of feedback you've taken into consideration over these last few patches. Finally we have mana costs on the ability icons, proper ult timers, and a nice clean interface. This isn't something I can say a lot about, but just know that I love how you've done the launcher/HUD so far.

4. The League Community YouTube channel. I don't know how many times I've watched Dunkmaster Darius list off his various dunks, or Sona/MF/Heca fighting Veigar to the death. All of the content on League Community is great, but what makes it greater is the fact that Riot is helping out hard-working YouTubers spread their work to the entire League fanbase. You don't see many games doing it to that extent, so well done Riot. And to the guys/girls who keep it running, thank you.

5. Esports. Who doesn't love the best of the best fight eachother? Not only do you bring us a year's worth of amazing head-on-head action from multiple regions that eventually leads up to Worlds, but you have just about the greatest casters I've ever seen. Rivington, for example, is super friendly, on the other hand we all enjoy disrespecting Phreak and his pun list. (We love you Phreak, don't worry). All of the casters are so casual, they're not as serious as regular sport casters are, they make watching Esports 2x as enjoyable because they make us feel like it's being casted by a friend, which it is. And of course the worldwide reach of League is also impressive.

**6. Poros. ** I love them, I love everything about these creatures. POROSSS

7. The ability to spam taunt. While it can be annoying in some cases, for the most part this is amazing. Thank you Riot.

And last but certainly not least.... 8. The Community

"you are a crazy son of a bitch if you think the league community is good"

In all games, in all forms of society, there is good and bad. And, to put it short, I hate the bad portion of this community with a fury, but I respect and adore the good portion. The guys who make YT videos for the sake of others, those guys who comfort you or gift you even if you lost a match, even if you're the lowest of the lowest. The people who make art, the people who make fanfics, the people who make funny/serious posts on the boards (That could be you!). I can't stress this enough: If you're doing something for someone other than yourself, and you're an overall decent person, you're considered good in my book.

And so ends the pros portion. Now for the negatives. I'm going to get a bit aggravated in this section, so if you don't want to see me rage or get angry please skip to the very bottom.

1. **The ranked system. **

We've all had that moment when you get a feeder, dc, or troll, or the time when the game comes down to a split second mistake, or when you simply can't carry your team anymore, and you look at the lp lost...

And it's always, always, the same. This PISSES the living hell out of me. Why? Where is the mercy system? Where is the lp loss reduction if someone is dc'd from the match for more than 5-10 minutes? Why is it that you're penalized the same way as you would if you lost a normal match, even though you may have gone 9-2-7 and someone on your team is 0-12-0? I don't get that one bit. It's not fair to you, and it's not fair that the other person only gets dropped as much as you even though they did 10x as worse. "But Atom, it's team ga-" Bullshit. Players should be best at communicating with a team and working together, yes, but then who's saying someone like Faker would immediately get challenger if he has the communication of a bronze? I don't know how many times I've seen someone without tp splitpushing and costing a game-turning objective. I will admit right here and now that I am Silver 3, but I still don't see the reason as to why it's fair that losing because you make one mistake should cost you the same as a person who makes 20. This isn't even talking about provisionals, the idea of a mercy/safe leave system, and:

2. The Report System.

I understand that managing so many players at once is hard, but seriously, is it that hard to make a system that analyzes a user's last 20 matches and determine if he/she was feeding/trolling/afk in the majority of them, or just one? Or if someone is a bot? (This one is harder, but at least give us a report option for it). It just feels like whenever I report someone it does nothing, even though the felon is obviously doing it just to be a jerk. (@Riot, I don't know your system, but I think prioritizing specific players should be based on the # of reports/bot detections (Ex. feeds in two games and gets reported 6 times, he'd be pretty high up on the list.) It could reset after a punishment is dealt (though the record would still be there of the infraction, even if it was appealed). Some people may say this could be abused by a group of 5 who all report one guy for something he didn't do, but then again, if he was innocent he would be found innocent unless he was automatically dealt with (hopefully automatic bans don't happen, someone please confirm whether they do or not). But yes, as it is currently the report system feels useless.

**3. The amount of Riot attention given towards other gamemodes. (Twisted Treeline, Crystal Scar). ** Around 85% of my league time is spent on Summoners Rift. 14 percent is spent on the Howling Abyss/Customs. 1% is spent on Twisted Treeline/Crystal Scar. Why? Because I simply don't think they're enjoyable the way they are right now. The Crystal Scar is a CTF on a very chaotic map that doesn't really demonstrate much teamfighting due to the ability to just take 2 objectives by yourself, that shouldn't even be possible. That's not mentioning the bot issue or the strange itemization. It just feels...weird. Twisted Treeline is a lot better because of its similarities to Summoners Rift , but I feel like it could use some more love as well. (I'm not a player of either of these, so if someone wants to help explain below I'd be grateful)

**4. Grinding, or the overpriced costs of Runes, Rune Pages, Champs, and Skins + The uselessness of IP/RP boosts. ** Riot, I know you have to make money, but do you really think the average kid has the time to grind a champ and the runes required for that champ/the type of champ within a month? Do you think pricing Rune Pages at 6300 is a good idea price-wise? Riot...Riot...I've played this game for nearly a year, and I only have half the champs, and some of those I had to buy with RP. I have a few rune pages, but again, all of those I bought with rp whenever I could, because IP takes so long to get it hurts. I'm not even going to try talking about this any longer, this has been a discussion for a LONG time, and I think that the idea of having to grind 24/7 or having to hope that the champ is on free week or the skin is on sale is utter bullshit. Why do runes even cost anything? WHY? Why do rune pages cost anything? Are that desperate for money Riot? If you're that desperate, do what Dota does and give the game itself a price and reduce the costs of everything else. I seriously don't understand your logic here. (Not even going go go into IP/XP boosts, just that they're inefficient as all hell)

**5. The new player experience. ** Thornmail on Ashe...you could just make her have invulnerability at 1hp...Bots? They could be better when it comes to objective management and who goes in which lane (and there could certainly be more of them) but I think they're okay. Toxic-ass players at lvls 10-15 because they're smurfs/being elo boosted? Elo Boosting should be reportable, Smurfing is annoying but I don't have a problem with it as long as smurfs are banned with their main account. (IP bans). I'm starting to run out of energy at this point since I'm writing this all in one session, so bear with me from here on. But anyway, all I want in this section is a slight improvement to bots overall, a few more tips/lessons in the tutorials, and maybe some more anti-elo boosting.

And finally, 6. Turrets. After about 20 minutes in Turrets become practically useless because of their damage output. I know they scale as the game progresses, but the inhib/nexus turret damage is just...weak. I mean, look:

LIGHTNING ROD: 75% armor penetration Unique Passive - Lightning Rod: Deals damage in a continuous beam and cannot be dodged. Deals up to 125% additional damage the longer it targets the same target. With every hit, the beam gains 6 heat until 120 heat is reached. When the beam switches targets, heat is reset. Gains +1.05% damage per point of heat, up to a maximum of +125% extra damage. +4 AD at 8:00 and every minute after that, until 290 AD.

In this case all I'm asking for are some tests to see if the damage can be improved against high health targets (ex. Nasus, Garen, Alistar), like ignoring damage reduction if they don't already, or doing extra damage based of Current % health like Elise, just so that tanking it early at about ~2500hp is a bit more risky. Turrets shouldn't protect you late game, but 3 man inhib/nexus diving mid game shouldn't be encouraged unless it can really be pulled off.

Conclusion: I spent 3-4 hours straight working on this, and it got a bit sloppy at the end, but my point still stands: There are things Riot does good, and things Riot does horribly wrong. I love you as a company Riot, but there are things you SERIOUSLY need to look at. I know you're looking at #1 and #2, so thank you for that, but some of this stuff has been around for a LONG time, so its time they get some real attention. Maybe I'm not the guy to be the one to make this post, or maybe I'm leaving too many things out (The PBE is a con as well, but I don't know enough about it to give a sincere opinion, I've at least tried Crystal Scar/Twisted Treeline.), but this is a dedicated league player trying to help this game in the best way he can: By petitioning for attention to the subjects people have asked about for a long time.

To anyone non-rioter who has read through all of this, thank you. It makes me feel good that someone took the time to read my statements and press that upvote/downvote button (doesnt matter which if you take the time to press it, though upvotes would be nice). I don't have much experience when it comes to big topics like this or the boards themselves, but I can at least try, and if you're kind enough to read through it all then again, thank you. Also if you have time, tell me how I did, I'd like to do this more in the future so I could use some advice.

**I'll probably edit in some more pros/cons that people post/fix some sloppiness when I have time, so if you have anything I missed please post below. Thank you! -Atom **