In the recent patch for League of Legends, a new champion stat-tracking system was implemented. This system allows players to gain achievements through milestones to show off to the other players. All of these stats are dependent on the champion the player is using. For example, the same player with two different champions would have different stats to show off due to their playstyle with each champion. The player's support Janna would show different stats than the player's River Shen.
On one hand, this can be seen as a really cool and motivating system because most players of the League of Legends game want other players to recognize their skills. Buying the basic Eternals stat-tracker for in-game currency (or the more advanced version for real money) could motivate players to try harder and think smarter with a reward to show off to other players. Unfortunately, the Eternals Stat-Tracking system can encourage players to make bad decisions they make during matches.
On average, a League of Legends match lasts anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes. There's a laning phase where everyone tries to kill as many minions, destroy turret plates or earn enough gold to buy items and become individually stronger. Then, there is the mid-game phase, where teams come together to destroy turrets, secure objectives and win in-team fights to make the team stronger as a whole. Lastly, there is the late-game, where players have reached their full strength potential. Here, who comes out on top depends on decisions made by the players. If a player slips up during any of these phases, they can find themselves being verbally attacked in the in-game chat by enemies and teammates alike. And the Eternals stat-tracking system encourages this.
By giving the players something else to show off besides their champion mastery emote, champion skins or their newly bought champion borders, players have another method to appear skilled without actually having to play with skill. Reaching the Eternals stat-tracking milestones is fairly easy, and after a few games with all three of its phases, more often than not a player will acquire at least one of them on their champion.
This means that players who spent the time and money on these achievements might see themselves as better players than those without them, possibly discouraging them from working hard. If a player is doing poorly in one game, they might not feel the need to listen to their teammates' suggestions because they have their Eternals Stats to speak for them. In this way, the new system makes the game much harder to play by affecting a crucial element in the game: teamwork.
Because these stats are available for everyone to see during the loading screen, the Eternal stat-tracker gives away a player's play-style to their opponents. Of course, buying the stat-tracker is optional and there were already other ways to find this information, but having this in-game breakdown of how different players approach the game can help the enemy determine who is a threat and who can be taken advantage of. Originally, Riot Games themselves seemed to want to avoid promoting this kind of gameplay by removing the ability to see enemy rank borders. But everyone can see a player's Eternals stats regardless of which team they are on.
For example, if a Lee Sin Jungler has more "Take Downs" than "Epic Monsters Slain" in their stats, it tells the enemy team to be extra careful of his ganks and to pressure securing Jungle monsters. If a Katarina Mid has more "Structures Destroyed" than "Take Downs," it would mean that (for an assassin) they play passively. This makes it easier for teams to come up with strategies against their enemies in advance rather than having to go to another website or subscribe to an app to figure these out.
Finally, the milestones Eternals urges players to complete can impact the way they play the game. There are simple ones that can be accomplished on every champion, like the number of takedowns performed, and there are unique ones for each champion, like the amount of bicycle kicks on Lee Sin. As previously stated, many League of Legends players want to show off, and reaching these milestones is just another way to do so. Players love the idea of being known for landing the most Ashe ultimate abilities on a player from across the map or having the most "Fools Condemned" with Vayne's Condemn ability. Players have been doing cool mechanical outplays in the game for years, and Eternals gives them a way to finally be recognized for it.
But players might love this idea too much and choose to aim for these milestones rather than actually trying to win the game. Landing an Ashe Ultimate from far away is always cool and does require a lot of skill, but it is a costly choice to make. While these milestones may be difficult to achieve, they may incentivize players to make bad decisions so they can show off later.
Losing a match after 20 to 40 minutes can be frustrating, especially when that loss happens because another player is behaving selfishly. Because milestones reward players to make certain choices that may not be the best option for the team, they interfere with the true goal of the game: winning.
One of the main complaints about the champion Bard was that he requires the player to complete a mini-game of sorts to collect chimes in the middle of a match. But what are Eternals Stat-tracking milestones if not just another Bard mini-game for all champions?