Yesterday, the livestream event introducing the new Volibear was the center of attention for League of Legends players, all eagerly awaiting to see how this Thunder God would transform. Indeed, the results of the rework have brought about a significant change in the gameplay of this champion; no longer is he just a one-dimensional champion charging in, the new Volibear has a more diverse playstyle and is suited for various matches.
However, the biggest downside that Riot Games encountered during the stream was that it left players feeling too fatigued with the presentation and how information was conveyed. While the stormy visuals in the initial minutes were exciting, featuring the silhouettes of champions like Ornn, Anivia, and Volibear showcasing their power, when it came time to actually reveal the new Volibear, it ended up being disappointing.
Instead of smoothly presenting the skill set or the reworked skins, Riot chose to break this information into segments, returning to the stormy screen every time a detail was revealed. We all know that besides 4 skills and 1 passive, Volibear also has 6 skins, from the initial designs to the final models. The fragmented information made it difficult for viewers to fully focus on what Riot was presenting, not to mention the stream crashing once.
Therefore, after the stream ended, the most upvoted post on Reddit discussed the disappointment in how Riot introduced this champion. Even the designer at Riot responsible for reworking Volibear – Riot Lutzburg – stated that he was probably ten times more disappointed.
The livestream introducing Volibear was a complete mess
I don’t know what Riot intended to do with this stream, but revealing a few details and then returning to the same visuals is incredibly boring. A quicker introduction of the new Volibear would have been a much better approach than this PowerPoint-style stream.
edit: For those who don’t understand, I’m not saying I hate this reworked champion (at least not yet), but I dislike how it was introduced. The title might seem a bit toxic, but spending 40 minutes of my life watching the stream and receiving very little information makes me extremely frustrated.
I appreciate their effort to try something new, but this style is ineffective.
Yes, I dare say they won’t do this again.
Riot Lutzburg commented on the image of an angry Volibear in front of a laptop: “Not exaggerating, but my feelings are ten times more disappointed than this image.”
According to the latest information from the PBE server, the “new” Volibear will appear on May 12 on this test server, after the testing of patch 10.10 concludes. It is likely that our Thunder God will officially arrive on the main server in patch 10.11. Hopefully, with the new and promising skill set, the new Volibear will help players forget the disappointment of this disastrous stream from Riot Games.
