Safer, veterans can have proven clutchness, older players played when solo queue was a lot better or have more knowledge about the game over years (like an Xmithie) which some see beneficial, lots of other reasons i'm sure.

I can see why they do it but I do wish we had a better system for developing talent. I was always down for a 3rd party regional circuit put on by something like an MLG to cultivate new talent quickly with open tournaments or something similar to that. That'd get people possibly entering to feel more connected with League as an esport by competing on some level, build some hype with tournament weekends, allow a much larger pool of people to make their way up quickly if the perform. Not sure if it's as efficient as academy teams, or maybe efficient in a different way, but it'd probably be more hype than regular season minor league games at least.