Recently, the publisher of League of Legends (LoL) has made numerous changes to champion stats to make the Summoner’s Rift more engaging. As the end of the season approaches, Riot Games wants the global LoL community to unleash their creativity with unique trends. Among them, Jungle Blitzcrank is a prime example.
Previously, the Steam Golem was only used in the Support role thanks to its ability to make surprise attacks with its hooks. To push Blitzcrank into the jungle area, Riot Games invested considerable effort in adjusting champion stats. Specifically, they increased the base stats of the champion, raised the damage of abilities against jungle monsters, and improved interactions with bonus ability power stats. However, the upgrades to Blitzcrank led to unforeseen consequences for the publisher.
When these changes were applied in patch 12.19, the Steam Golem suddenly became one of the strongest Support champions. Due to Riot’s excessive stat boosts, Blitzcrank excelled in damage output and created heavy pressure on opponents. With just one precise hook, players could make their target lose a massive amount of health thanks to stronger basic attacks than before. It is no coincidence that Blitzcrank reached a 55% win rate in the Support role in patch 12.19.
Unfortunately, this champion only achieved a 45% win rate in the Jungle role in patch 12.19. The advantage of Jungle Blitzcrank lies in its ability to create good pressure in the early game. By the late game, the Steam Golem still only excelled in single-target attacks but had very little impact in team fights. Therefore, the effectiveness of Blitzcrank diminished as the game progressed, especially when players grouped together.
Riot Games did their best to change the situation in patch 12.20. They increased the jungle clearing speed for Jungle Blitzcrank and reduced damage output in the Support role. However, this champion still ranks among the top support champions in patch 12.20. In the Jungle role, Blitzcrank remains at the bottom of the leaderboard with a win rate of less than 47%.
Moving into patch 12.21, the “Jungle Blitzcrank” project is gradually reaching its conclusion. To rebalance the meta game, the publisher is forced to reduce the overall power of the Steam Golem. If the current situation continues, this champion will remain quite overpowered in the Support position. When Riot reduces power in the upcoming patch, Jungle Blitzcrank will officially be “retired”.
When implementing the idea of bringing Blitzcrank into the Jungle role, Riot Games aimed for the community to have many memorable moments at the end of the season. However, miscalculations combined with inappropriate champion balancing have caused this creativity to backfire.