One of the unique aspects of League of Legends compared to other MOBA games is its incredibly fast champion updates. In the 2021 season alone, League of Legends introduced 5 new champions across various roles. Even in 2022, there are no signs that Riot Games will slow down the release of new champions. In contrast, another MOBA game, DOTA 2, only released 2 new champions in 2021: Marci and DawnBreaker.
The downside of this rapid champion update speed is that many old champions, released a long time ago, become outdated and struggle to adapt to new gameplay. Not to mention that many characters have designs that are extremely outdated and do not match the current graphics quality of League of Legends. Therefore, reworking and upgrading the appearance of champions is a necessity for the League of Legends development team.
However, the current speed of champion reworks that Riot is applying to League of Legends seems too slow and leaves the community dissatisfied. During the recent livestream introducing the new season, Riot only announced that they would rework one of five characters: Kog’Maw, Shyvana, Nocturne, Tryndamere, and Skarner. This once again led the community to strongly oppose this decision by Riot and demand an increased speed for champion reworks.
One thing that frustrates me about the rework voting is that it will take at least 5 years for all those characters to be upgraded.
Five years, seriously? That’s nearly half the lifespan of this game, and we have to wait until those characters are fixed. The gameplay of League of Legends is deteriorating due to decisions like this. Even after the chosen characters are reworked, there will certainly be a bunch of other champions that need adjustments. They should consider reducing the number of new champions and reworking 3 to 4 champions each year.
So we only get one champion reworked and one champion upgraded each year?
Riot claims they have no plans for League of Legends 2, so they will continue to update the game over time. Therefore, we only get one champion reworked and one champion upgraded each year. Once they finish the rework, there will be another 5 champions to vote on, and the cycle continues, but by then it will be too late.
One champion upgraded each year is a crime. I think they should aim for 3 champions each year.
I believe they should focus on upgrading old champions instead of releasing new characters. We already have 157 champions. Is the experience for new players not bad enough?
I think they should stop making new champions because it’s clear that it receives a lot of “affection” from the developers. At this point, the release of new champions directly affects the play rates of current champions, as they are outdated and lack mobility compared to newly released characters. Please, Riot, fix the neglected characters instead of focusing on new champions.
Indeed, Riot’s rapid release of new champions makes League of Legends more attractive, colorful, and fresh. However, the consequence is that a plethora of old champions are neglected and abandoned by both the developers and players. Even a champion considered “the people’s champion” like Yasuo has seen a drop in pick/ban rates with the introduction of Yone, who has superior gameplay and power. Hopefully, Riot will reconsider and pay more attention to the old champions of League of Legends.
