The changes coming to League of Legends in 2024, revealed last week by Riot Games, have left the community looking forward to the new year to come. The wave of content on Summoner’s Rift seems to have been welcomed by the community—but everyone, including Riot, knows the game is still far from being perfect.
The new Void-themed Rift will open League to a whole new world of gameplay possibilities for players to explore, and even Riot is looking forward to seeing how its decade-old game will change. The new terrain and reworked monsters should improve certain aspects of gameplay, but there are still “few” long-term goals that Riot wants to tackle in the future.
“One is kind of the overall strategic layer,” Matthew Leung-Harrison, lead designer for League’s gameplay, told Dot Esports. “In the current construction of the game, it’s all very much about team fighting, it’s something we would like to address long-term.” The first step in that direction, he explained, was taken with the changes coming with Season 2024.
According to the lead designer, the voidgrubs, for example, should help playing for side lanes become “more viable” as the monsters will help players take down towers. “That should help counterbalance the dragon team fighting aspect of the game,” Leung-Harrison continued, commenting that grubs alone are not enough to help sidelanes.
Split pushing especially is a strategy that is “hard to defend” and “not particularly intuitive,” which leads to a frustrating experience for players, according to League’s gameplay designer. This creates the need for Riot to look for ways to allow players to find that “satisfying” playstyle that is both offensive and defensive. “It’s very frustrating, for example, to defend against a Tryndamere who just keeps going in the top lane and he just runs down top lane and just keeps hitting the towers,” Leung-Harrison said describing a not particularly satisfying experience every League player found themselves in at least once.
So while the 2024 League Season should give players new ways to enjoy the game, Riot is already looking at the next big challenge on their plates, and this time it’s how to renew the strategic layer with “really engaging and rewarding” gameplay.
Disclaimer: Riot PR paid for travel to Seoul and provided accommodation.
