League of Legends (Season 14)

I know it wasn't the most exciting game play, but there was a chess match-like mental mastery to the whole style that I really enjoyed when teams pulled it off well, like CLG did (I was a fan of them). But it's not as exciting to watch as the hyper aggressive style that China brought, so I get that, too, and it also invalidates a lot of champions when there's barely a lane phase.

But I think you're right that it would've been good to see how people adapt to it. I never followed it, but I've been told that Brood War (and Dota maybe?) had many meta updates just from people adapting to each other without any mechanical updates to the game.