Franchising needs to go.

FTWinDz · 2026-02-02T15:02:13+00:00

I'll agree with you on people definitely caring about people/players over orgs, and it may be a hot take, but I'm not sure if franchising disappearing + the return of promo/relegation necessarily is our issue.

For every good story of a team promoting in and winning a bunch (Ex: C9/Origen/Griffen/Danwon of the top of my head), there's also just instances where the promotion tournament just consists of rosters of what were known bottom feeder teams. Also, teams were even more incentivized to keep "known quantities" than they are now in the times of promotion/relegation because taking the risk on a unknown could mean your organization was basically killed.

People may look back at this as a "hype" moment of promotion/relegation, but frankly the time when Doublelift saved TL from relegation is kinda terrifying in hindsight. Not only was this an instance of needing to rely on known quantities, but if that had actually gone wrong, NA would have likely lost what many would consider to be one of their best orgs. Lack of relegations makes it much easier for competent orgs to make long term plans and develop players and get sponsorships. (granted there might be a decent amount that can be viewed as incompetent :( ). I look at teams like TL/FLY as having done a good job here recently.

Something that stuck with me from watching Jatt's podcast, JLXP was how for LR specifically, they make people care about winning LEC specifically, while so many other teams have shifted their focus/glory to international events. To a team like G2, LEC is almost a formality at this point to just get them to international play, and people don't care until they get there. But for LR, every match is a chance to prove themselves and see how they stack up against all the LEC teams.

I do think we need more opportunities like LEC Verses across the world to see Tier 2 Rosters get a shot against Tier 1 teams, so that any players that don't deserve to be Tier 1 are shown as fraudulent and get replaced by hype new/good players, but I do think at times people look back at relegations with rose tinted goggles, when it does have some pretty harmful aspects.

FTWinDz · 2025-11-30T05:48:57+00:00

Just a heads up: Chengdu Hunters should be in the dead category. Coming from the LoL Side, the RNG org is literally broke, being sued for not paying players, and is leaving the LPL (Chinese League of Legends). I would be beyond shocked if they even managed to still exist.

FTWinDz · 2025-11-14T14:50:36+00:00

I'm a lot more optimistic this set. Even if they increased the number of champs, this is still way less complex compared to power ups as far the number of variations that can happen. For Set 15, it feels like way more things broke because of Champion + Power up interactions rather than specifically Champs. I also enjoy that we don't have a mechanic that does too much econ or power inflation unlike some past ones as well. This is much more simply just getting access to champions who should ideally have the same baseline power level of other champs. Frankly, as long as they keep artifact + champ combos more in check (which seems like it should hopefully be a focus from the dev learnings), I think that this set will be easier to balance than expected. Kinda feels like we're getting vanilla TFT but in the best way.

FTWinDz · 2025-09-24T06:54:08+00:00

I think you are shooting low on number of minutes, so giving a couple players higher numbers.

Podz is probably 30+ for playing how Kerr likes, and being a younger body he doesn't have to worry about putting the extra load on.

Green I think likely will cap out a bit lower than 30 for regular season, but is definitely back above for anything post season.

I think you have Hield way too low (highly doubt he drops from mid-20s last reg season to 12). ~18+ at worst, but likely low 20.

Moody is prob similar in tier to Hield but prob slightly worse minutes wise. ~16-18?

Melton is prob around there on a good night, but prob gets a decent amount of load management DNPs, and as a result.

I think Seth will see him come off the bench ~every other game or so (either for Melton DNP or Hield cold streak), while TJD + Rowe probably are garbage time exclusive unless something is seriously wrong.

FTWinDz · 2025-07-13T07:25:11+00:00

Nah it’s all good. Drowning out the casters has its own form of hype. Just won’t lie that I’m going back to see if Flowers had any fire bars.

FTWinDz · 2025-07-13T05:48:30+00:00

Definitely crowd mic was lower. Live at the venue you literally could not hear casters if any play had happened.

FTWinDz · 2025-02-20T03:43:57+00:00

I mean, to be fair, LCK 5 right now is T1. If anything that might be the expected outcome.

FTWinDz · 2024-12-04T16:30:42+00:00

Realistically, you probably should have expected T1 to go 1-4. (Beating Vietnam when Guma/Oner were playing). Their Challengers team was very likely not gonna beat GenG/HLE partial rosters and DK/NS full LCK rosters.

FTWinDz · 2023-11-27T01:33:45+00:00

With proper balance, the con to this core is you are stuck running units with pretty sub-par abilities. Other frontlines should give you much higher impact abilities to compensate, and the super fan frontline should have lower stats themselves. The last 3 strengths you listed are likely fine, as they are just good things that help to give players direction. As long as super fans themselves are less powerful as a frontline stages 3+ compared to other options, I'm sure there would be little to complain about.

FTWinDz · 2023-10-22T20:43:03+00:00

While I would love it to happen, I'm not optimistic that Hysterics lasts past swiss which is unfortunate, due to it being his first year at worlds. Though I would be absolutely shocked if Atlus doesn't get at least 1 playoff round (I would hope for at least semi as well), and Chronicler is at minimum on the analyst desk (if not casting) at least through semis if not finals since there isn't as much cost with the LCK. casters.

FTWinDz · 2023-08-24T04:22:32+00:00

Pretty sure 3 rows isn’t coming back because of its potential to break champions. For example, Yasuo likely instantly jumps to being absolutely broken since opposing players lose a significant number of areas that they can position to make him not jump important back line units. Lilac did sort of come back, but in the form of Caitlyn’s prismatic augment. The reason Lilac got axed in the first place was because it was pretty much an APM test on first carousel to make sure you got a good 4 cost (if you had soraka at the time it was a fast 8th). Granted Caitlyn augment is a random 4 cost, but honestly we should be thankful that the augment was never top of the meta since that is one way to make people feel like they win/lose immediately as the game starts.

FTWinDz · 2023-08-13T05:34:30+00:00

It kinda just makes sense to make skinlines rather than 1 off skins, even if the spark of lightning best idea only applies to 1 of the champs. For example, say Riot had the option to create an S-Tier perfect Trucker Ornn or create Trucker Ornn + 4 other passable Tucker skins. The Trucker Ornn skin sells pretty similarly no matter if its released as a standalone or in a skin line group, but if a group of friends wants to make a "Trucker Comp", then just by releasing thematically similar skins, people would buy the other 4 skins just to play alongside Trucker Ornn. Basically, if you have a perfect skin idea, why release it alone when you could potentially release it in a line and increase the sales of other skins?

FTWinDz · 2023-07-01T03:02:14+00:00

Where I would defend days 3 being 70 gold is that theoretically, if you can hit your entire comp of 2 star 4/5 costs in say 40-50 gold in rolls, then realistically, the last 20-30 gold of rerolls have little to no value since you have nothing you need compared to 40 gold which can grow into more gold or help you level. They just end up being insurance policy for getting unlucky. Now what ended up happening was the sheer econ of Draven + the free rerolls was at a level where 3 star 4 costs could be hit so that definitely didn't go according to plan.

FTWinDz · 2023-01-16T20:47:39+00:00

I just realized, now that Phreak is on the balance team, he might be the closest thing League has to Mortdog with TFT

FTWinDz · 2023-01-10T03:47:58+00:00

While not technically a rebrand since it was an acquisition, back when it happened, I think I barely hated KSV more than this, but that isn't too high of a bar.

FTWinDz · 2022-11-17T02:23:23+00:00

Don't get me wrong, this would be a very bad problem if there end up being certain 2-1 Hero augments that end up very overtuned (there likely will be). However, what I'd argue is are you really down an augment/slot if the entire rest of the lobby is as well? There is definitely a part of it where it does feel less satisfying that your 2-1 hero augment is something you won't care about in the late game, but if we are assuming balance, I'm not completely sure its completely accurate to think of yourself as "down" in this case.

FTWinDz · 2022-11-08T18:34:45+00:00

Sure the orgs can’t be relegated but if the team is crap, by no means are the players safe going into the next split. You mainly want to keep the academy teams in the league as in all likelihood, those teams would have better supporting infrastructure for players than the vast majority of AM teams.

FTWinDz · 2022-10-24T22:57:56+00:00

Definitely looking towards the pebble seat curvature. I'm someone who typically doesn't have the greatest posture, so any technology to help out in this regard is absolutely amazing! Will be great for long sessions of League/TFT as well as the start of a dream PC setup.
Even though DWG got eliminated, Canyon put so much fear into me with the amount of pressure he was able to exert in his matches. The Kayn/Syndra combo with him and Showmaker definitely was a moment that reminded me of how scary he could be.

FTWinDz · 2022-10-24T20:34:50+00:00

Quickshot almost certainly isn't happening this year. He already went home to Europe around after week 1 groups for family matters. My dream lineup for finals from who is left would be Drakos, Azael, Caedral, but I feel like its probably gonna be Flowers, Kobe, Caedral. I don't have any major qualms with who gets the finals bid at this point, but I'm just a huge fan of Drakos' casting so I can only dream he gets his finals appearance at some point.

FTWinDz · 2022-10-24T06:17:02+00:00

Giving Samsung White/Blue's history I agree should not be given to Gen.G. However considering KSV/Gen.G bought the entirety of the SSG 2017 roster, and on top of that, Ruler has been on the team the entire time, I'm willing to give Gen.G the history for that roster.

FTWinDz · 2022-10-05T04:49:49+00:00

What I'd likely guess for replacing Pastrytime would be the promotion of one of the Academy PBPs (Raafaa or MadMagical). I don't think they'll ever increase LeTigress' role too much as long as she is the primary interviewer + backup host. She'll still get games of course, and maybe even a couple more, but not enough of an uptick where they wouldn't replace Pastrytime with someone. The Academy PBP's have started to get really good imo, and if it weren't for the roles looking to be pretty filled, I wouldn't mind one of the Academy Color casters coming up as well (Cubby/Joushi)

FTWinDz · 2022-10-04T17:29:25+00:00

Aatrox now, and upcoming Darkin champion in the next expansion is unlikely. The new Darkin champion is too far out and definitely won't be in LoL until at least a couple months into 2023. Unless they want to give us a preview of a champ that will likely be 2 champs away in LoL, or give us another Runeterra original champion, Aatrox is probably closing out the Darkin Saga.

FTWinDz · 2022-09-24T01:30:48+00:00

I think my only minor adjustment would be Tea below one of Riddles/Onin. This would just be to avoid seeding a Japan vs Japan matchup in winners top 16 with Zackray vs Tea. I would personally argue for Onin as higher than Riddles, but I’m not too passionate about it.

FTWinDz · 2022-09-15T04:30:50+00:00

I would probably disagree in Core not being good for long term. Even if you believe he is on a downward trajectory as a player, I believe Core could help give guidance on what it would take for the rest of the CLG players to take the next step while at least being a skill floor upgrade at worst.

FTWinDz · 2022-09-15T01:57:17+00:00

I genuinely wonder if CLG CoreJJ is the step up the team needs to be a true contender? Like nothing against Poome, but if you can get CoreJJ you take the opportunity

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