My personal thoughts on the Chicago server change (long post)

When Riot announced the server change from Portland to Chicago, I was extremely interested for a various amount of reasons. As someone who played on the east coast from PA for three years at around 100-110 (mostly) stable ping, I was super happy to hear that the vast majority of the east coast would be getting lower ping. For the record, this is an incredibly smart move from Riot's point because it helps a significant amount of their playerbase in making the game a more enjoyable experience. A more enjoyable experience equates to more money. Maybe it's not as cut and dry as that, but that seems pretty straightforward to me.



I am currently on the west coast living in SoCal as the coach of a LCS team, and the server change does have me a bit worried for competitive. I very much realize that competitive only affects a miniscule amount of people relative to the amount that play the game, so most probably don't care, but I am a little afraid of the consequences. For the record, I don't think playing on a stable 60-80 ping will kill pros, as playing on any stable ping up to a certain amount can be accounted for. (This is echoed in Dom's post about playing on a stable 80 ping)



Despite this, the way professional teams practice is going to be rougher now. While pros have tournament realm servers on 10-15 ping, they are on limited access and arent always even patched to the patch where we will be playing important games on (playoffs, relegations etc). Also, the biggest problem for me when it comes to ping is the fluctuation of ping. If a pro plays on 10 ping on tourney realm, then plays on 70 ping on live, then it goes down to 50, then goes to 70 again, then up to 90, it's crappy practice. This may not be a problem when the Chicago servers go live, but I'd be lying if I said I wasnt worried about it for the sake of the competitive scene.



I realize that the competitive scene isn't something that a lot of casual players of League of Legends care about or watch. I'm not complaining about it because I want the servers to be in Portland. I think it's an extremely smart business move by Riot that will get them a lot of good feelings by a majority of the market. However, in order for competitive to... stay competitive, Riot is going to need to work with the 10 LCS teams, challenger teams, and overall competitive scene in general with this in order to find a way to make things work. Part of me is just a little afraid that that sort of transition isn't going to be the smoothest though.



Also, on a side note: Remember east coasters, lower ping doesn't mean you'll magically get better! Keep working on stuff like decision making, how to make smart plays, when to go back in lane, etc. Ping works wonders on mechanics, but not so much on those that are doomed to repeat the same mistakes from not learning from history. ;)





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