The MOBA League of Legends has recently come under sharp criticism: The game has become boring, events are formulaic, the new cinematic is a disaster. 2 of the heads of LoL admit: The criticism is justified. In a Twitter video lasting 8 minutes, they explain the problems, announce a new game mode and a rosy future for LoL.
Who is speaking? The bosses on site are Executive Producer Jeremey “Brightmoon” Lee, and Head of League Studio Andrei “Meddler” van Roon.
In a nearly 8-minute video on Twitter, the two sit rather sheepishly in front of the camera and pour ashes over their heads.
Van Roon shows a problem of the crisis: There were many changes in the team in 2022, evidently too many. During the Corona pandemic, many employees resigned, including in leadership roles. Van Roon only joined in August 2022.
This video was a low point for many fans of LoL:
2022 was a “rebuilding” year, which is noticeable in LoL 2023
What problems do they admit? The two bosses admit that League of Legends is currently not in a good place. Not only is the disastrous cinematic at the season start a problem, the events have also become formulaic and dull with the years.
This is because the team was not in good condition in 2022; they had to “rebuild”, and many positions had to be refilled:
- The good news: The team is in a much better place in 2023.
- The bad news: The current LoL still reflects the state of 2022.
The criticism of LoL events is that Riot only wants to make money with them and hardly offers any variety.
Personnel has been pulled from LoL for new games
Where do these problems come from? One criticism of Riot is that they have released so many new games in recent years that LoL is no longer in focus as it was in all the previous years:
- The shooter Valorant
- The mobile LoL, Wild Rift
- The planned LoL MMORPG
- Or LoL spin-offs like Teamfight Tactics or Rift Rivals
All these projects would draw resources away from LoL.
The two bosses emphasize how important League of Legends has been, is, and always will be for Riot, but indirectly acknowledge the criticism:
- For years, there was a team at LoL specifically responsible for developing new game modes.
- But this team was reassigned to develop the strategy spin-off “Teamfight Tactics” – while that was great for Teamfight Tactics, it was not so good for LoL, as they admit.
- However, now they have a fully staffed game mode team that is ready to deliver.
New game mode is to pit 2 teams against each other
What is the new game mode? As a solution to the problem that the development of LoL has recently been seen as somewhat slow and formulaic, the bosses have identified “new game modes”:
- A new unusual mode is set to launch in the summer of 2023 – they played the first prototype just a few days ago.
- In the mode, 4 teams of 2 players each compete against each other in a series of “deathmatches”.
- Between rounds, players will be able to level up and buy items.
- The mode is still “somewhat rough”, but has a lot of potential. More information is expected in March.
LoL makes 4 promises for the future
Will LoL get better again? At the end of the video, the bosses nearly rave about the future of the game. They have received a lot of funding, want LoL to thrive for years, and plan to invest much money in infrastructure and long-term projects.
There are 4 promises for the future:
- For 2024, they announce a cinematic again as before.
- They want to bring better events and modes into the game, it should start this summer.
- They want to continue investing in technology.
- Additionally, they want to communicate better and be more transparent in the future.
Apparently, this “honest and personal” communication became necessary because an initial apology from Riot Games went completely wrong:
