After 10 weeks, we have all had time to get to know the Fantasy LCS platform Riot Games has given us. Most of us have had our ups and downs, learned the ropes, and overall had a fun time. But there are quite a few times, at least in my experience, where I was a bit bothered that I ended up doing poorly, not because of my own faults, but because of the system Riot had designed.
I realize Fantasy LCS is in its Beta. I am very happy with the platform that has been rolled out, as evidenced by my blogs that continue to come 10 weeks in. However, I do have a few suggestions for Riot to improve upon its standards:
Create an official trade function: Probably their biggest oversight in rolling out the platform was not having a trading function. In a competitive draft Fantasy League, having the option to trade players is critical. This is especially true when you know the other managers in your league, as most people do in at least one of their leagues. Other Fantasy leagues, such as the ones for MLB and NFL, have trade functions for this very reason. There are wonky work-arounds that I have talked about, but they are not preferable. To simulate a true management experience, as well as be up to industry standards, they need to have an official trade function so that managers can trade players and teams.
Keep player pools up to date: Riot had done a decent job at keeping player rosters up to date with the changes they make. More often than not, however, they end up costing players points without giving them alternatives. For instance, Copenhagen Wolves replaced Cowtard in the mid lane with SorenXD on Week 9, but SorenXD was not available for your roster until Week 10. I have not documented all examples of this happening, but rest assured, it has happened a handful of times. As professional as Riot is, this should not be happening on the Fantasy platform, even if it is in Beta.
Balance the points given for Kills/Assists and Deaths: The most celebrated statistic in League of Legends is a KDA. It is our batting average, our yards per game, our shots on goal. But in terms of Fantasy LCS, the statistic is not as important because of a low punishment for deaths as a player. For instance, take Player A with a 5/1/0 record and Player B with a 8/4/0 record. The Player A has a KDA of 5, while the latter player has a KDA of 2.
However, the Fantasy LCS system rewards Player B with more points than Player A (14 to 9.5, respectively), because Kills are worth 2 and Deaths -0.5. Players are rewarded for Leeroy Jenkins playstyle and not for precision playstyle; this is unfortunate as the latter playstyle is often the trademark of the most skilled pros. The same concept also holds true for Assists, which is even worse; a player can jump in poorly, die, and still come out ahead if anyone else on his team gets a kill on anyone he happened to damage (I use he to refer to a player, not because I am sexist, but because there are not any females in NA/EU LCS that I know of). Riot needs to seriously rework their rewards for individual players in terms of Kills, Deaths, and Assists to better reflect the value of a high KDA and not just a player who is always in the action.
Reward teams for winning short, decisive games: A common complaint about the system is that a bad player can earn more points than a good player if the bad player’s game goes longer, even if his team loses. While this is mostly debunked by Riot analysis, the theory still holds true when it comes to teams.
In short, decisive games, the winning team does not opt to take every turret, baron, and dragon available on the map because they see a chance to secure victory (which they should obviously take). In longer, back-and-forth games, we see teams taking more objectives, earning them more points than those who win their games quickly. While I haven’t had the chance to look at the data personally and run the numbers (riot has yet to respond to my requests), I would bet a Hamilton that this is the case (I’m too poor for Benjamins).
This list in not exhaustive of improvements that could be made. It also doesn’t do enough congratulating the Riot team who created this system that I enjoy so much. But I feel like, if each of these steps were taken, then a better Fantasy LCS system could be created. And at the very least, I have a vested interest in having a better LCS system. After all,
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by blog is coming back next year.
League of LCS 