[PC] League of Legends

[Eisdrache]

Originally Posted by Kotohono

Yeah I thought was pretty bullshit especially since Sol has been played so much lately without issue, I also thought it was extra bullshit that only TSM was offered the remake and had 100% say when CLG were the ones forces to give up a champion and adjust, the riot logic of 'oh TSM was impacted in this match it's their choice' was just pure bull.

What has happened prior to the bug isn't really relevant. The bug was big enough to affect a player's decisions that he wouldn't do otherwise. You want teams to play in the best environment and that wasn't possible while the issue was still present. Also of course only TSM was offered a remake, they were the ones affected by the bug. There was no reason to make CLG the same offer.

[Kotohono]

Originally Posted by Eisdrache

What has happened prior to the bug isn't really relevant. The bug was big enough to affect a player's decisions that he wouldn't do otherwise. You want teams to play in the best environment and that wasn't possible while the issue was still present. Also of course only TSM was offered a remake, they were the ones affected by the bug. There was no reason to make CLG the same offer.

CLG lost the pick they were arguably effected more by the bug than TSM since TSM effectively got an extra ban as a result, so no I don't think it's fair that they got the only say without some penalty or tradeoff (ie TSM agrees to give up 1 ban due to this remake ruling).

Edit: I do think CLG would have lost either way, but I don't think it's the fair way to handle it.

[IceHism]

Originally Posted by Semblance_of_Power

I really don't see the issue with AS being disabled, a remake is pretty much a worse case scenario that makes them look very bad so they want to avoid them as much as possible, IIRC the bug was affecting Bjergsen therefore it's logical that the affected team is the one that gets offered the remake.

Maybe if the series had been close then I could see some argument for the "what if", but CLG got so severely destroyed that thinking a single, non meta pick would have changed the overall outcome of that series is very optimistic, to put it mildly.

In regards to other topics, I've heard some complains about patch changes somehow screwing up pro players and my opinion is quite simply that the people that truly care about the ultimate display of skill are very few compared to those that just want to watch something interesting.

If players achieving the ultimate skill ceiling was all that mattered for esports, then why aren't we all watching Starcraft: Broodwar instead DoTA, LoL, CS:GO and specially something like Hearthstone? because those games are far more approachable and attractive for the average player, even if they feature significantly lower skill floors and ceilings.

I personally don't care if X player is 3% better than Y player if it's done in the context of the same old, tired and non varied matches in which the outcome is often decided at 15 minutes, that's just not fun. There's no inherent value to being the best at playing LoL unless that's done in a way that attracts viewers because that's where the little money in the industry comes from.

So I don't care if big changes are hard to deal for pro players, we all know there's a 90% chance of the World's finals being two Korean teams no matter what, at least last year we had a Darius pentakill and occasional Mordekaiser shenanigans to mildly offset all the boredom.

In any case, the pro scene is just a mess right now, it's kind of astounding to see Marc Merill make the type of statement that he did yesterday and it seems to confirm an idea I've seen thrown around a lot that the top executives at Riot are completely surrounded by yes men and wholly disconnected from the realities of their game and perhaps that's what fueling the apparent huge inefficiencies inside the company.

I don't think you are getting something. No one is watching StarCraft broodwar because Blizzard destroyed it themselves with SC2 and because it's also not very fun to play. There also isn't any teammates you can blame to make yourself feel better. DotA and CSGO also don't have that many patches either. DotA drops a big patch every 5-8months and never right before any major tournament. I don't remember any recent change to CSGO besides bomb timer to 40 seconds and valve reverting the assault rifle nerfs and making the R8 revolver useless. I don't know what those statements are suppose to mean. They have lots of skill. No one watches SCBW because no one plays it.

I disagree, dropping a big patch right before the biggest tournament of LoL is outright retarded and then makes the game based on who is strongest on this meta or who can figure out the meta the fastest instead of being based on skill. The juggernaut patch made a ton of the matches just ridiculous for me and in retrospect ruined worlds 2015 for me along with GP.

Oh no, more asian region hating. Zzzzzzzz.

[frivolity]

^Agree with that analysis. It's the same with streams. There's a reason why someone like NB3 (who's a star in solo queue but most likely not skilled enough to make it competitively) has multiple times the number of views compared to a world champion like Piglet. Other than the language barrier, which can sometimes be the source of jokes, a player like Piglet who takes the game seriously is just not fun to watch.

The issue is further exacerbated by the fact that esports viewership is fundamentally different from that of traditional sports. People who watch traditional sports are generally open to watching sports that they don't play. Lots of couch potatoes don't play any sport yet spend a lot of time watching all sorts of sports. With esports, most viewers aren't going to watch streams of games that they don't play. My own anecdotal experience echoes this - when I used to play WC3 DotA several hours daily in high school, I would often watch streams of DotA tournaments. When I shifted to LoL because hardware constraints prevented me from making the transition to Dota 2, I started watching LoL streams and stopped watching Dota tournaments/streams.

The role of tournaments is primarily to act as cheap advertising to retain the current player base and to draw in gamers who play other games; it is hard for a gamer to resist the allure of a USD 20 million esports tournament even if they don't play the game! Done well, tournaments can be a big moneymaker. Valve made tens of millions from the sale of compendiums (25% of sales proceeds go to the prize pool, meaning that Valve retains almost USD 60 million) and probably pulled in thousands of new players, including myself to some extent. Done poorly, the tournament will only serve as a reminder to existing players about the deficiencies of the game.

I enjoyed LoL more than Dota 2, even though I no longer play as much as I used to back when I was still a student. I find that LoL champions have more personality than Dota heroes do - at least before the lore department chose to wipe out the league and the JoJ - and I've written and uploaded stories about LoL characters. I want LoL to carry on being the success it has been, for years and years to come, but Riot seems to be content to rest on its laurels instead of upping its game to ensure that LoL remains relevant for the foreseeable future. The main thing that worries me is that Riot is more interested in fobbing off criticisms about its failed decisions instead of actually addressing them. The so-called survey published by Lyte about how most players prefer dynamic queue to the old solo queue is an absolute joke.

I honestly got a shock when I watched TI6 and saw how much improvement Valve had made in terms of entertainment and production value. They understood that TI is a tournament of the fans, for the fans, by the fans. Although a good, balanced game does add to the fun of it, the whole point of having yearly TIs in the first place is to allow fans of the game to take their enjoyment to another level.

I had another shock when I installed Dota 2 a few days ago for the first time in years and saw that Valve had released their custom maps platform. Minigames like Footman Frenzy, Pudge Wars, X Hero Siege, and all sorts of Tower Defense games that I used to play on WC3 have been ported over or are in the process of being ported over to Dota 2. LoL's gameplay and software infrastructure simply pales in comparison.

LoL isn't in trouble for now because they can still continue to ride the wave of their past successes, as well as rely on the powerful networks of very well established partners such as Tencent QQ and OGN. However, if Riot doesn't start shoring up their act, then it is certainly conceivable that LoL will eventually start losing market share to Dota 2 and other MOBA games.

[Eisdrache]

While I do agree that tournaments are boring if you can predict the winner with somewhat high accuracy there is nothing Riot can really do to change that. What is necessary is other regions to increase their quality which is something only the players and by extension the teams themselves can do.

[mangaraw]

From the sand-strewn battlefield of Ascension to the frenetic manatee magic of Ultra Rapid Fire, rotating game modes provide unique spins on the classic League formula. It’s time to kick things off with the next game mode in the rotation: Nemesis Draft is live.

[Eisdrache]

Spoiler for UOL vs H2K:

Casters predicting a UOL win trololol.

Spoiler for CLG vs IMT:

Four a m a z i n g games and one not so amazing game. Unfortunately it was the fifth one but all in all pretty sick series.

[Kotohono]

Originally Posted by Semblance_of_Power

What an exciting game 3 of IMT vs. CLG, one of the best from a spectator's point of view in a long time.

Game 3 & 4 were both great to watch... I wish I could say the same of game 5 .

[frivolity]

I actually preferred watching Game 5. Game 3 was just both sides competing with each other to see who could throw the game even more and steal defeat from the jaws of victory.

[Last Sinner]

Spoiler for EU and NA finals:

G2 prevail in a very messy series. Mithy was the only player that seemed less mistake-prone. G2 profited from Splyce having weak map movements, especially around key objectives. The drafts in Games 3 and 4 also heavily favored G2. Aside from having a more consistent bot lane, they really don't seem much better than they were at MSI.

TSM take theirs in one that was typified more by Cloud 9 being too aggressive and looking for the game-breaking plays rather than TSM breaking games open. Better objective focus and shot-calling, yes. But there's still quite a 'wait and see' approach that is concerning.

[Eisdrache]

Originally Posted by frivolity

I actually preferred watching Game 5. Game 3 was just both sides competing with each other to see who could throw the game even more and steal defeat from the jaws of victory.

I don't see the appeal of one-sided stomps.

EU PLAYOFFS:

I wish European teams would stop collapsing in best of 5 series. In every series that ended 3-1 the team that lost was 10k behind at around 20min already. They just give up after 2-1 already instead of trying to bring it to a fifth game. I have had this gripe ever since FNC imploded back at worlds 2015 and Europe as a region just proved that they still have the very same problem.

Aside of that EU playoffs were quite disappointing this year. I never got the impression that any of these teams had a consistent performance over a series, even those that won. Can't put my finger on the reason but EU seems to be in a worse state than last year. I'm obviously not expecting another 18-0 FNC but so many series just devolved into a clown fiesta.

G2 and H2K as well as the winner of regionals will go to this year's worlds and get destroyed so hard it's not even funny anymore. G2 will go too aggressive and get punished. You can do that in Europe but better team will not let that slip. H2K has the strategic aspect down but compared to the playmaking abilities of other teams they don't even register. Regionals are looking bad too regardless of who makes it through. GIA doesn't have the skill, UOL doesn't have the consistency (or skill), FNC seems lost and SPY can at most be considered trolling at international level.

It's not looking great for Europe this year.

[csuree]

Splyce, they will fall in group stage, that is certain..they played kinda bad, they just got lucky in the last game.

If they don't step up their game, by the time worlds start they will be a miserable sight to behold.

[Eisdrache]

Lucky? Splyce had a huge gold advantage in the last game and although it got shaky towards the end they still converted it into a win without that much trouble.
The series as a whole was total chaos. EU is in a pretty bad spot right now and all three teams going to worlds will be outclassed unless something drastic happens.

They're now going to boot camp in Korea. Whether that will result in them stepping up their game remains to be seen but they certainly need a lot of improvement if they hope to put up a fight.

[MrTerrorist]

The Art of League of Legends artbook is now available to buy for $75 or you can downlaod the art from the site for free.

[Kafriel]

It's sad that the biggest esport is in the hand of this company.

Is it? I was under the impression that CS and DotA had far more fans in the professional scene.

[Last Sinner]

Originally Posted by Semblance_of_Power

Jens Hilgers's ruling just goes to show how corrupt and biased Riot's esports division is.

I was always rather neutral towards Riot through the years but the company just looks like a nest of unprofessionalism and extreme biases. It's sad that the biggest esport is in the hand of this company.

At this point I'm even sort of starting to hope the scene starts to fail, it's irritating when such dishonest people are the most successful ones.

Between this, Merill looking like an imbecile when he attacked Reginald with utterly pathetic logic and Montecristo revealing how team revenue actually happens and how underpaid Riot casters are compared to Dota2/CS:GO, it's very disheartening. At least it isn't having major organisations permanently get out like there are with Hearthstone. But if Merrill and co. really continue to not give a damn, things will get very laughable. Not just from Korea dominating the rest of the world, but for Riot failing to capitalise on glaringly obvious sources of revenue.

[Awrya]

Yorick rework is beautiful, definitely worth the hype!

Went 2/5/11 as Yorick top but still got a S-, Yorick standards are pretty low.

[Eisdrache]

Originally Posted by Semblance_of_Power

Jens Hilgers's ruling just goes to show how corrupt and biased Riot's esports division is.

I was always rather neutral towards Riot through the years but the company just looks like a nest of unprofessionalism and extreme biases. It's sad that the biggest esport is in the hand of this company.

At this point I'm even sort of starting to hope the scene starts to fail, it's irritating when such dishonest people are the most successful ones.

From what I read in the competitive ruling article by Riot the whole thing with Jens Hilgert seems to be an extremely minor issue. Sure they gave the involved parties a warning and had them undo the deal but that's about it. While personally I do think that Riot overreacted the same can be said about the fans who are making a big deal out of this. It's a warning, nothing more, nothing less.

[IceHism]

Originally Posted by Kafriel

Is it? I was under the impression that CS and DotA had far more fans in the professional scene.

No. This is definitely not true. LoL is the biggest game in the world by far in esports.
Though CSGO and Dota are really big too. I like to call all three games tier 1 esports.

[DragoonKain3]

Oh oh, while it's going on, I hope the group draw has TSM get the group of death again. TSM SKT EDG and SPY please. While it's the hardest to get out of, it would be the best way to gauge TSM's strenght. And to be honest, if they cant get out of that, then they dont deserve to be in playoffs. XD