Preseason Developments for League of Legends
By Zac Cameron ·
While there's still plenty of time remaining in the 2018 season, Riot Games have revealed some of the planned changes for the 2019 Pre-Season that will be trialed in the future.
It’s now September, and that means the 2018 League of Legends season is almost over. While the main event of the World Championships has yet to occur, Riot Games are still looking at some changes they would like to make for next year’s season, changes that might help slow down the fast-paced nature of the game.
In an announcement post made on the official forums yesterday, Riot Scruffy outlined several key area’s that Riot will be looking at for the 2019 pre-season. The first key area that Riot wants to look at is improving the laning phase and extending its duration. The main way they are looking at achieving this goal is by adding barricades to the turrets that last until they are destroyed or time out. This would provide turrets with more health and prevent teams from rushing down the first tower and opening up the map.
The second area is making comebacks more achievable and satisfying. Changing the way the current bounty system works to allow teams that are behind to catch up easier not only extends the length of the game, but also allows players to feel like the matches are worth playing out, rather than giving up.
The third area to be looked at is making sure that decided games resolve faster. While this might seem a bit odd considering the second stated goal, the truth is that some matches are next to impossible to lose, yet the games can still be drawn out by teams with good wave clear. There are no changes planned just yet for this area, but it would not be a surprise if Riot introduces some new win condition for winning teams to utilize.
The final area to look at is the Rune system, specifically making sure that Rune paths no longer dictate stat bonuses. The Rune system has already undergone a massive rework during the 2018 pre-season, so it’s no surprise that Riot wants to tinker with it a bit more to make sure it’s properly balanced.
Riot is also looking to make some minor changes to area’s like minion spawn timers and the like, possibly shortening the wait time in the beginning of the match to promote faster action early on. A long-term goal is also to introduce loading screen chat, however that will probably take some time to implement.
For more on the proposed changes, check out the blog post, here, and for more League of Legends action, check out the results from the EU LCS earlier today, here.