League is game with a huge player base and it has a really diverse champion pool, each with unique kits. Every champion appeals to different people from various skill brackets.

While League is one of the biggest esports games, there are a lot of players who don’t have the full understanding of the game so League has to have champions catered towards these players just like how it has to have champions with a lot of depth, reserved for only the best players.

Whenever a balance thread about a champion that is known for having a player base in low elos reaches the front page, there are usually tons of disrespectful comments about the player base, suggesting that their opinions should be ignored because they are bad at the game.

When the Riven thread became popular, a lot of the players agreed that she has different issues than accessibility and good Riven players are doing fine, she is accepted as high skill champion that is only viable for good players.

It is also not uncommon to see comments about champions such as Nidalee “No one below Masters should touch this champion.” and don’t like it when it is suggested that they should be simplified for everyone.

There is nothing wrong with these champions, they are well designed and require specific skills to perform well, I don’t think they should be any easier. In fact, having these champions is good for the game’s longevity. We saw a huge spike at Azir’s play rate after Faker’s recent performance in the semi-finals even though they were not good enough to pilot Azir.

On the other hand we have champions that don’t do well in higher elos due to various reasons such as power creep or having an outdated kit, or simply being balanced around lower elos.

Then we have players who are good enough to climb with these weak champions. When they reach Challenger, they start to struggle or feel the weaknesses of their champion because both players are at an equal skill level but their champions are not equal.

After being invested with the champion, these players get disappointed when the patch notes can’t fulfill their needs to compete with high tier picks because the developers considered a different player base’s satisfaction, which is low elo.

Then we start to see posts about how the adjustments are wrong and the community is ignored. Their frustration is understandable but I think it is also unfair to alter a champion just because a part of the community is vocal about their frustration while the other ones are simply enjoying the champion in their own skill bracket.

My opinion is that maybe the champion is not suitable to one trick in a competitive environment and it is more reasonable to branch out and play more champions rather than asking to make the champion more complex for everyone else in order to make it viable and rewarding in your elo. We also saw how it can backfire when simple low elo champs became viable. Even pros complained when Annie and Malphite were picked in pro play after their buffs.

And insulting the whole player base with the over used “skill issue” phrase is just gate keeping players from having fun. Low elo players make up the majority of the player base and they have as much say as high elo players, when it comes to fun otherwise the game would not be one of the most popular. After all, League is a fun game no matter your skill level.

Compare it to Tekken for example. Everyone knows that no matter what iteration of Tekken you play, Mishimas will be strong and will be played by high level players and Eddy Gordo will be used by button smashers and won’t be expected to perform in a tournament.

Brand is not K’Sante, he doesn’t ruin high elo games but people enjoy him in low elo, do we have to force him in high elo?

TL;DR: League has 165 champions currently and there are difficult champions that can only be played by best players and worse players get told that there are 160 other champions for them. If low elo champs can’t do well in higher elos, it should also be okay because there are 160 other champions for them.