NovaAsterix

This would likely degenerate to basically Rock Paper Scissors where each is "broken" with ~100/50/0% win match ups but the game is balanced. It's fun but maybe not as interesting as one would imagine.

Given I worked as a data analyst at Riot for 10 years from 2012 to 2022 (and returning in 2 weeks!) I have seen most every random fact there is and I know I've shared some before so here are some I don't think I've shared before or at least in a long time.

When we were analyzing Red vs Blue side win rates by champion we saw that champions like old Poppy and Taric were pretty equivalent but champions with long range abilities like Xerath were favored on Blue Side likely do to with the prevelance of locked camera and the perspective difference. Rumble was a MAJOR stand out, like a 8% win rate difference which we attributed to his ult but one patch it went up to like 13% and we didn't know why. Turns out, some how, on Red side (Purple side back then :D) his Q would only tick every other time functionally doing half damage. That was a fun one to track down.

Similarly, there was a time when Ezreal Q had a hidden like +5-15 range on only his base skin which we found when ...

This was actually something we tested internally before it was shipped for ARAM. My buddy and I did Renekton and Darius and it was gross.

Funnily enough, I'm not a football fan but I did hear about Pele having some absurd numbers and stats and I'm familiar with him being a star in his time. I'm curious what separates him from Messi/Ronaldo etc.

Way back when it was shown, the problem folks in this thread are describing was very real. Back then the cut off for Gold (rewards) was 1500 MMR and since you could lose below 1500 without any protection players would get to 1500 (or pay) and then stop. As I remember, Yegg (the designer who initially worked on the new ranked system with tiers and divisions) was right around 1500 MMR and I believe fell below the mark. They then had to play a game right at the deadline of the S2 ending to get back into Gold (and I mean literally the season ended while they were in this game, me and some other folks were watching live). They said the anxiety to not play and risk falling below was real and that helped fuel the new system.

I believe this one was a coordinate underflow bug where getting the negative coordinates on the map would basically make it hit all the coordinates on the map.

I think it was similar to that weird Jax bug where he could Leap Strike to stuff like dragon but in a way where he had the exact same coordinates and so that caused abilities that used coordinates to have Div 0 errors among other crazy things.

There's no way Viego caused more bugs than Yorick, especially pre-rework. I never did the analysis but I'd bet money there was a point in time where Yorick cost Riot more money than he made.

There's been a few crazy things that never lasted too long I haven't seen mentioned as much.

There was Nasus who could crit with his stacks, I think this was an intended change that made it to live to help open up more builds but back the Triforce had Crit and with an IE and some stacks you just bonked for 2k over and over. I only ever did it in a bot game just to live the dream in the brief window it was on live.

Another Nasus one was when his ult was accidentally set to 100% AP per tick on the damage aura instead of 1% or something to that effect, you basically just went AP Nasus, flash in and Zhonya's with your ult and kill everyone around you.

Yorick pre-rework had a bug where he could infinitely respawn through his clone ult thing and he could just run it down and face tank towers while you got credit for 500 kills on him but it didn't matter.

Oh and AP Tryndamere. That was one of the all time greats. It was there for years but no one did it unt...

Because I played before Diana came out I can't say the actual answer of Diana for all 3. The first champ in thought I'd main...I think was Amumu? Or Garen. It was a long time ago.

One thing to consider is which version are we playing on? A player who started, say, in 2017 and is Challenger now probably has no idea what S2 league was like in terms of minion damage, jungle routes, time to kill objectives, or even some of the champ kits.

Additionally there is something to be said in terms of teamwork and prep time. So the rando Challengers have time to gel as a team or just a random show match on a whim?

If it's taking TPA or something vs a team of modern challenger players on a patch none of them played on that much where the challenger players had a week to practice, then it wouldn't be close IMO the challengers would win. Even without practice I think it's close but still the challengers.

Usually less mobile champs, especially junglers and mid-laners, end up being incredibly complex because they need to play the map. Old Nunu, Udyr, Singed, ASol, etc. Others have very obscure/unique mechanics, like Taliyah, Singed, ASol, etc. so playing them is unlike other champions with less transferable skills. Typically ADCs have flat mastery cuves, especially old ones, because the skills needed (move + right click) are so universal to the role.

I think all time old Nunu was the most surprising and nowadays it's probably Udyr, Rek'Sai, and Singed.

There's an old Jatt teamfight breakdown where he shows that the losing team is down in gold like 30k to 20k but they have Lissandra + Viktor + some other wombo so when Liss gets a 5 man W + R and Viktor gets a 5 man R it's like multiplying their gold by 5. Kinda rings true here. Nice play from that Rell + Gnar to start the party. I'd be too scared.

That's the kind of scripts I'm talking about! It really goes to show the value in "knowing your lines" like when a better player kills you and lives with 10HP, it's not luck, it's that they knew they'd live.

I'm not sure how it is now but the bots had very precise scripts way back when. E.g. Veigar bot would only walk towards you if he could combo you and he would with precise E W Q R. If he ran away he could not OTK you. EDIT: Banshee's Veil would confuse him and he'd try to OTK you and not succeed leading to free kills. This was very useful in the doom bots of doom to win at level 100. TL;DR the bots have scripts to layer CC and time things like...well robots.

I actually wonder what Rumble's win rate was on each side vs Udyr who should be largely unaffected.

It's harder to aim long range skill shots though we don't know why: could be UI, could just be how people like their camera (we know the effect was more pronounced for locked camera).

Back when I looked at it when I worked on League, so a few years ago, and for non-pro players, it's often camera angle. There isn't much assymetry for Singed or Rammus but Rumble, Xerath, Nidalee, etc all suffer a ton on red side. Rumble specifically was head and shoulders above the rest. No difference was observed on Dominion or TT (again old analysis)

Nope, NA the entire time.

Sivir, Jarvan IV, Morgana, Ryze in 2011 and then Janna and Elise in 2012. I don't think this goes back far enough though because I've been playing since 2009 and joined Riot in 2012 when I got all the champs unlocked.

Edit: I also distinctly remember asking my parents for money in like 2009/2010 for my first ever RP purchase to get a bundle with like MF and Xin Zhao in it and a bunch of skins.

I've been at Riot almost 9 years now and when I first moved on to Gameplay there was a hotshot new researcher I got to meet and work with (and eventually manage...sorry Blau!). It was awesome to see the drive and passion Blaustoise had for the role. One of my all time favourite memories at Riot is when we all tuned in to the Tyler1 1v1 live and erupted in cheer when he won the Kat mirror. Knowing Blaustoise he will do well wherever he goes and I wish him all the best!