User blog comment:Ozuar/The 9 Health Potion Argument/@comment-5196742-20130424015100

The thing to remember with the 9-pot start, and why Riot is determined to nerf it, is that they've done the math. They've done a LOT of math. And the end conclusion was that many champions literally cannot kill somebody who starts with 9 health potions due to lack of burst, sustained damage, or mana pool.

Riot doesn't enjoy seeing stale gameplay, especially when you take into account that they're looking to, and have, made themselves a force in the professional gaming industry. Watching two people farm for 10 minutes because nobody can kill the other is, quite simply, fucking boring, and that's what was happening here.

More than just limiting the number of potions numerically, Riot needed to figure something out. Crystalline Flask is still useless, even though this 9-pot start is really just a resultant of this nerf, and also caters to the same group of people/champions. Maybe it would be a good place to look back at?