[2019] Riot Blaustoise: "I think its better for the long-term health of the game if non-marksmen carries are viable in botlane. 8.11 was a mistake due to timing, but the idea of bot marksmen not being mandatory is correct"

Originally posted by EROTIC_RAID_BOSS

None of that matters.

I strongly disagree with blaustoise. He's basically saying they want to bring the top lane cassiopeia experience to bot lane.

This game is more fun when laning phase is fun. And the laning phase is most fun when there are certain expectations you can depend on, to not get totally cucked. When mages and yasuo go bot and get free lanes because adcs are weak that makes bot lane less fun, just like when mages and vayne go top to abuse melee champs that is less fun.

I'd much rather be locked into adc sup bot lane, and let's get Cass the f**k out of top while we're at it, because when you can only take champs to certain positions, you might have less variety but you have more fun

Originally posted by Lekassor

I dont understand the arguments of Loco

Specialization is good for the game, why change it?

Specialization in league comes from the positions, not from the class you play. Toplane is mainly focused on 1v1 or 1v2, jungle is about map awareness and prediction etc.

If marksmen hadnt been mandatory, Doublelift will never be able to be that good on them because he would had to play other champions

Lol. So Faker isnt a god on Ryze for example just because he had to play other champions? TheShy isnt f**king nuts on carries because he also has to play tanks sometimes? What kind of argument is that

EDIT: To further clarify: Since LoL doesnt have the mechanical depth of games like Starcraft, if you are talented you will eventually reach a hard cap on what you can do with a class of champions. Thats why there are other skills in the game to distinct the good players from the great players. One of those skills is champion versatility, which exists in ALL positions except the botlane carry one (we had improvements on this, but IMO alternative picks are still way more situational than they should be)

Originally posted by FakerJunior

I respectfully disagree with Blaustoise. What we've previously seen in the bot lane does not make for a healthy or fun game. Even now, out of 20+ marksman champions, less than half are being played competitively. By introducing ''non-marksman'' carries to the bot lane, they cut down the already small pool of viable ADC's. Instead of ADDING champions to the available pool in the bot lane, they actually replace them. Several AD carries get retired for the likes of Vlad, Swain and Malzahar, which also happen to promote boring gameplay patterns.

Another problem. ADC's have historically only been viable in the bot lane, with a support to offer peel. What Blaustoise refers to as ''non-marksmen carries'' here are overwhelmingly AP champions playable in the top or mid lane. By giving them another lane to possibly play in or get picked for, you raise their presence and winrate at the expense of champions that were already struggling. Not to mention that you turn the professional LoL meta upside down and offer a substantial amount of ''flex'' picks in champion select, rendering pick order and possible counter-picking completely useless. The champion select game which currently involves several coaches would devolve to ''just pick the best shit available and hope for the best.''

To summarize, unless the Riot balancing team also makes solo ADC's in the top or mid lane viable, they should not be inserting top and mid lane champions into the bot lane. And if they do plan on making marksmen strong enough to solo early game, which they're currently unable to do, they change the established meta over the last 9+ years. While I ultimately agree with more champions being viable in competitive and high elo, Riot's past attempts at implementing just that have been very poor. There's but a few ways to do it right and many ways to do it wrong. Past experiences don't instill me with much confidence here.