It is possible to make both teams believe that they are behind by manipulating information revelation, however.

When viewed through this lens, comeback mechanics are generally negative; they increase surprise and reduce early information on the outcome of a game. Lower TTK is universally bad, it increases comeback potential, but getting unexpectedly one shot greatly increases surprise and makes it much harder to predict the outcome of fights. Snowballing is generally good, but in the ideal game there would be a spike in surprise at the very end.

Very insightful read. The big findings are that engagement could be significantly increased if the more information on the outcome of the match was given within the first two minutes of the game, while the rest of the game save for the final minutes was less impactful. It also finds that players dislike surprises, and both winners and losers are more engaged when they are behind.

Now the question is what changes could be made to the game to make it closer to the theoretical optimal game?

2013 and it’s not close at all. Back when Riot understood how to make champs by starting with a simple premise and developing it to add depth. Aatrox and Quinn are the only champs from 2013 that have been reworked, and Quinn was a champ that Riot admitted was rushed, while Aatrox’s previous kit was still better than his current one.

After 2013 is when we start seeing all the overdesigned 200 years champs more interested in breaking the rules of the game.

Stopwatch removed! Sunderer removed! Magic resist Sunfire cape added. I am so happy right now, can’t wait for this to ship.

Armor shred is an assassin skewed stat and would only empower her lethality builds more. Eclipse is already Riven’s most purchased mythic, she needs to be pushed into tankier Goredrinker builds. Changing passive/W to %health damage could be a good change, but those are large scale changes and you’d probably get a lot of resistance from OTPs upset this means they can’t kill every champ from full health at 6.

Phreak said that K’Sante was in a fine spot because the changes successfully lowered his high elo skew and made him more accessible for most players. And in low elo he is pretty balanced, but he’s 52-53% in masters+. I don’t understand these complaints, K’Sante is getting nerfed 2 patches after he was gigabuffed. Orianna isn’t getting nerfed after 6 patches.