User blog comment:BIA-Kaboose/The Problem Behind Balance/@comment-5605969-20131211161837/@comment-1330314-20131211182302

I disagree with the chess analogy. Once you reach a certain level, it's not so much about what's happening on the board as it is about figuring out your opponent's plan, which also happens in professional League matches. If your opponent pulls a completely new strategy out of their hat, the fun lies in deciphering and countering it, which is why chess is still one of the most played games after literally millenia since its invention.

To bring this back to LoL, while I agree with a lot of this blog post, I disagree that Riot has done a poor job of balancing the game. Yes, some champions are strictly better than others, but even in high elo there's a large pool of champions that sees regular use. A big feature that affects balancing that I don't think was mentioned here is the evolution of Riot's own philosophy: in Season 1, champions like, and  were hugely popular, but now they're kept deliberately unviable because their current mechanics are considered unhealthy to gameplay, and would affect LoL far more negatively if they were buffed. Shaco goes into this list as well, as there's little counterplay to his kit, which means he's kept under severe power limitations. Buffs and nerfs are only one aspect of balancing: the reason there are so many reworks right now is because Riot is trying to find a way to make old champions viable again, by removing their toxic aspects in the process. That's also why items like and  were removed: both of them were items designed for carries, but their stat combination meant it was confusing to build for or against them. Bloodrazor's on-hit magic damage was great on high attack speed marksmen, but didn't benefit from armor penetration, for example.

Another balance issue I think is overrated is the development of the meta: sure, it evolves over time and reacts with itself to produce new strategies and kill off older ones, but it's a lot more predictable than it might seem. A lot of the changes in the meta arise from the arrival of new champions. , for example, completely changed the mid lane meta as an aggressive, hyper-mobile champ focused on forcing the enemy out of their lane instead of outfarming them. The meta can also change once pro players figure out optimal strategies for new champions ( was considered severely underpowered once he was introduced, then became extremely powerful once people understood his playstyle better). All of these changes can favor some champions and builds over others, but doesn't necessarily indicate imbalance: towards the end of each season the meta has reached a certain point of stability, which I think would be the best indicator of balance rather than the current preseason, where everyone's trying to figure out who benefits the most from the changes (I root for stealth champs).