LoL fans praise Riot for toning down ‘frustrating’ champ releases

This year, League of Legends saw fewer new champion releases than in 2022. While there is still one champ on his way, players have praised Riot Games’ approach this year, believing the ones released in 2023 are simpler and less “frustrating.”

One player started a discussion under a Nov. 16 Reddit post, where they thought this year’s champions were better received than the 2022 ones. “There has been less ranting about this year’s champ compared to last year,” they wrote. Many others chimed in and shared their thoughts on the sentiment, mostly agreeing on the sentiment.

“I feel like 2023 champs are an attempt at simpler design. Most of the 2022 champs were just overloaded nonsense,” the top comment reads. It’s hard to argue with such an opinion. Last year, League players could discover champs like Zeri, K’Sante, or Bel’Veth, all of which feature complex mechanics and have immense snowball potential if mastered. But, their capabilities often got out of control. It feels like Zeri alone was tweaked with every patch, and it’s close to the truth. Following her 12.2 release, she was updated in 12 of the 22 patches left in 2022.

This year, on the other hand, we saw the release of Naafiri, Milio, and Briar. Most of them are rather easy-to-learn champs, without too many complex abilities, though Naafiri’s case could be arguable. Still, overall, this season’s champs feel easier to navigate and to play against but are still fun and strong, which is a massive change compared to Zeri or K’Sante, who broke the meta more than once.

“At least the new champions don’t have anything really frustrating. A few of last year’s champions can be very frustrating,” one player added. We think they summed it up quite perfectly, though, as we mentioned, Naafiri also has a somewhat frustrating kit, which players also pointed out.

Riot is expected to release one more champion in 2023, Hwei. While the other three new ones this year had fairly simple mechanics, Hwei is said to be a “high-complexity champion,” according to League’s October roadmap.