On a Jan. 14 stream, popular League of Legends streamer and Gen.G content creator Nemesis gave his opinion on the game’s growingly apparent power crawl.
Viewing a clip from a previous season, Nemesis compared the damage profile of a season 12 Olaf compared to that of seasons prior. “If this is me on Veigar right now in season 12, and this Olaf walks into me, I’m dead,” the former Fnatic mid laner declared. “I’m literally so dead—look [Olaf’s] not even dealing damage to him.”
Nemesis commentated over the old clip as Olaf preceded to jump on Veigar using his ultimate and a flurry of auto attacks. The almost-full-build Olaf lost out in the isolated one-vs-one, and Veigar walked away from the encounter alive. The former pro player pointed to the Olaf’s items, namely Sterak’s Gauge and Black Cleaver, as two sources of damage that would overpower a Veigar in modern League.
“It is crazy how much damage there is in [League] now compared to old seasons,” the Gen.G streamer concluded. “If this is Olaf [now] and has half the items that Olaf had, I would be so dead.” Nemesis pointed out a growing concern in the League community: the game’s slow power crawl.
The power crawl is a phenomenon in video games wherein new updates or installations to the game increase the base level of damage units deal. From League to World of Warcraft, this issue has become known across almost every long-running game.
The addition of new champions with burst damage abilities, Mythic items, and other related changes have only exacerbated this problem in League and cultivated a fast-paced “100-to-0” style of PvP. While other titles have combated the power crawl, League players have largely only seen the issue expand. Nemesis’ analysis is only a reminder of the sharp uptick in damage League has experienced.
