That’s a game from last night, shortly after Riot’s new service ticker alerted me that the company was aware of some general service issues and working on a fix. Loss forgiveness comes as a result of what’s known as “The Button.” The Button is a switch Riot can throw whenever there’s trouble that sets the game into a special mode to prevent players from accruing losses and losing ELO as a result of technical difficulties. In the game you see above, everything was fine until about the five minute mark. From that point forward there was a solid five second delay between a given command and the corresponding action. I’m glad to see I didn’t lose any ELO as a result. The Button does allow winning teams to still get the win and get ELO recorded, but at 50 percent the normal rate.
While I understand the idea behind the service ticker – more communication with the player base – I do hope Riot uses it sparingly. It could easily create a placebo effect, which might result in more backlash than if Riot just hadn’t said anything. I know when I see that yellow box all lit up, I’ll be looking for problems, and that’s not the way the game was meant to be enjoyed. If used sparingly, though, I think it could do just fine.
