Remaking Champions: Why it Promotes Game Health

Hello Everyone,
Sorry for the long break in between posts. These last few weeks of school have taken up pretty much all of my free time; it was hard enough just to play a game of League here and there, let alone think in depth enough to come up with a well written post! Anyways, in this post I would like to discuss why champion kit reworks promote game health.

In my experience in reading the forums, there are two kinds of reactions to every champion rework that Riot does. There are the people who love the new kit and the people who hate it. The ones who love it are people who usually didn't play much of the champion beforehand, and the ones who hate it did play a lot of that champion beforehand.


There is a lot more attention on the haters on the forums. Why? Because people who are unhappy are much more vocal on there (and in general) than those who are. If one was to make a judgment based purely on reading the forums, he/she would probably believe that Riot made a huge mistake reworking that champion, and that they should be reverted back to the way we were, and they hate on and argue with Morello and other Rioters.




However, this judgment is wrong. Why? Well there are two main reasons. First of all a few players not liking a rework is a worthwhile cost to many times more players having a new champion that they will enjoy and want to play. The other reason is that some champions, because of their kits being toxic, can just never really be good, or they will be harmful to the game. Examples of this are champions like Teemo, Shaco, and Evelynn (pre-rework) who have been repeatably nerfed in order to keep them from ruining player experiences.

When a champion is reworked, problems of usability, toxicity, and popularity (which may also require a visual update, e.g. Trundle) all can and should (if present) be fixed. In my opinion, Riot has done a fairly good job of doing all of this. Take Evelynn for example. Her kit used to be so toxic to the game that she had to be reworked into her current form in order to be good. Some may argue that she is not a great champion, and as I talked about in a previous post I believe she could use a small tweak, but she is definitely in a pretty good spot, and seeing as how she has recently been used in the LCS more than once, there are a few pros who clearly agree.

Trundle and Sejuani now both feel and look like much better and stronger champions. Xin Zhao is in a pretty good spot in as far as I can tell; as is Twitch. All of these champions were ones that were considered really weak before their reworks, but they are all now really strong. Xin and Twitch have been common LCS picks, and I wouldn't be surprised to see Sejuani and Trundle there as well soon.


The only place I feel that Riot might have failed is in their reworks of Karma and Tryndamere. Karma I would like to give some more time on though to see if people can figure out how to play her better, or if a few number tweaks might help. Tryndamere on the other hand is just too Binary in general. Even though AD tryn was used very sucessfully in the LCS recently, I still feel as though he is in need of some help. Morello has stated on the forums that he wants to make Yi, Tryn, and Fiora more assassiny than they are now (*cough* I said this over a month ago with Fiora *cough*). So, I believe that sometime in the future, we will see a better rework for Tryn that will work much better.

Anyways, I feel as though I have been a little all over the place today, and I apologize for the poorly written post. To summarize though, Champion kit reworks are good because they reduce game toxicity, increase champion usability, and promote popularity so we can see a wider variety of champions being used in our games. I am looking forward to seeing more upcoming reworks on champions like Heimerdinger, Sion, Shaco (if he get's one), and the melee carries in the future.

Until Next Time!
"With Balanced Steps"
-Rikukun