Riot Games are going to balance League of Legends with a different mindset in the future. Lower ranked players will get more say in League balance as less attention will be given to the top 10 per cent on the ladder and pro players.
David "RiotRepertoir" Capurro has shared thoughts about Riot Games' new balancing mindset in a blog post. He cited that there are four main groups that the developers pay attention to when rolling out balance changes.
The first are the average players who make up the vast majority of the player base. In more precise lingo, it is 90 per cent of the player base. In League rank lingo, it is the players below Platinum on the ranked ladder.
Skilled play is the second biggest group which consists of 9.9 per cent players which is from Platinum all the way up to Challenger.
Elite play are the Challenger folks, who make up 0.1 per cent of League of Legends population. When you sum it up, it is already 100 per cent of the player base so the last group, professional players, are actually a subgroup of elite players.
Initially, Riot's mindset was to balance the game for "skilled play" and above, which is just 10 per cent of the player base but it made sense because these are the players who react to balance changes the most due to higher game understanding and mechanical prowess.
On the other hand, this was not ideal for 90 per cent of the players, literally. According to Capurro, Riot are well aware of some players believing that balance should only revolve around the top players but the developers believe "a balanced experience is an important part of what makes League compelling regardless of skill level" hinting at taking more notes from players below Platinum in the future.
Riot Games
He also explained some of the metrics used for making balance decisions and which groups use what. Essentially, the global metrics that all groups determine what is overpowered are champion pick and ban rates. Win rate is also an important factor but it is only used in "skilled play" and "average play" since there aren't enough matches in the other two groups to precisely determine what kind of win rate an overpowered champion would have.
League of Legends - showcase of several champion splash arts
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