Putting aside the intense matches of ASIAD, or the frantic preparations for the 2023 World Championship (CKTG), it was recently announced by Riot that they will be removing the Mythic item system starting in 2024. The purpose of this change is to create a more balanced game. Of course, whether positive or negative, when this announcement was made, the League of Legends community was incredibly excited.
However, recently, some gamers pointed out that there is one item that has existed for a long time and has made significant contributions to League of Legends but has rarely been addressed by Riot. That is the Zhonya’s Hourglass – one of the most crucial components of Zhonya’s Hourglass and Guardian Angel.
According to some opinions, the excessive presence of this item indicates that it is extremely powerful. In fact, sometimes players only need this one item to determine the fate of the entire match. For example, Bdd at the 2021 World Championship bought 3 Hourglasses. Similarly, Scout bought 2 Hourglasses in the match against Weibo Gaming during the LPL Spring 2022.
Arguments have also pointed out that this is one of the items that every position in a team can build and is necessary to build, whether in normal play, solo queue, or professional matches. One suggestion made is that Riot could introduce some disadvantages for using Zhonya’s Hourglass (like increasing its cost or requiring a cooldown period before players can upgrade to other items).
Of course, some opinions also suggest that because League of Legends currently has too many champions with high mobility and damage, the Zhonya’s Hourglass has become an even more critical item. Moreover, any position can buy and use Zhonya’s Hourglass. However, effectively using Zhonya’s Hourglass at the perfect moment is also considered an important skill.
Riot itself may not yet feel that Zhonya’s Hourglass is genuinely an item that needs to be nerfed, as maximizing the effectiveness of this item is not something every player can achieve. Therefore, for now, the focus is likely on the Mythic items. Only when Zhonya’s Hourglass becomes too powerful or overused like in 2021 – 2022 will Riot truly pay attention to this long-standing item.