Hot Take: How To Problem Solve New Talent
So my buddy pals and I were messaging in our group discussion with our usual "Lol Riot is so silly" banter. Upon talking about discipline (such as restricting ranked play for soft inting) my friend added a comment:
" ... and there aren't enough players to support talent growth"
That struck a nerve because it is a narrative i hear alllll the time about NA. After all NA is the for fun region (for fun players should be restricted to for fun game modes Riot). So here is basically my entire thought vomit on how to obtain new talent in NA.
note im lazy so i'm literally copy pasting my conversation from group chat
me: cuz how do you get into a complicsted game that changes every week? with 0 tutorial help on itemization and runes. the only people who play the game are people who suck but dont care and long time veterans who either troll or dont have the time for a grueling climb.
i wish they would let a meta set for longer than two weeks. + now you have players who were diamond in grandmaster this season cuz they added 2 ranks with no elo reset. even certain high elo players want elo reset. the only people who dont want elo reset are people who boosted or abused to get their elo lol
Friend: Well they can eat a ;) we should all start at iron
Me: I agree. start at iron 4 on your first placement game.
Friend: That would be interesting. Impractical, but interesting.
Me: Not really. it will be one of the only moments bad players will be able to play with people better than them.
Friend: Yea but only if they are a little bit better not god's gift to league and a 3 year old picking his boogers
Me: no difference from iron to low gold means they arent learning legit anything cuz no one better than that is there. in fps games your normal games are filled with people who will be better than you. thats how you improve and learn popular corners to prefire etc.
Friend: FPS poo poo
Me: same applied to league in the beginning. i remember seeing diamond players in my games (or elo equivelant) in early league but i had 0 clue to what was what. but if i had befriended one and they taught me how to play i would be way better than i am right now.
it took me 4 seasons of on and off play to realize that i shouldnt build sunfire on every champion. now imagine if norms and shit had mixed elo players nowadays. back then pc gaming was just starting to be popularized in NA so nobody even typed. all i knew was halo 3 and battlefield. kids nowadays could learn this game easily if they had decent players to play with and against. rather than their special bronze 3 friend that tells them to play jungle teemo and troll people. i mean look at Stanley. i brought him and Heavy in season 5-6 when i actually had a semblance of game knowledge and could actually explain the game. now hes better than me lmfao.
new talent will never appear if it dies in silver. kids have the most free time to play and git gud at games (especially in summer) its why your 12 year old cousin will solo win fortnite games while shouting the n word. cuz no one has to teach you that game. you just play against people better than you till you can kill the people better than you. now if league developed good tutorials and explained stats, items, champs, and runes and reset elo you'd have exactly that environment except really toxic. which is fine imo.
thanks for coming to my ted talk. i'm glad Riot hired a "Diversity Chief" to tackle toxicity, but it really isn't that hard.
tl;dr to breed new talent in NA we need better tutorials and an elo reset. NA has to be treated differently than other regions. Adults dont have time to git gud or have the stability to put the time in. Make league easier to get into and understand for new players.
