Riot Games developers are planning to curb the snowball effect in League of Legends by making additional changes to Baron Nashor, death timers, Turret plates, and Dragons in the upcoming Patch 13.20.
In a recent update from everyone’s favorite League lead designer Matt “RiotPhroxzon” Leung-Harrison, the devs are continuing to focus their attention on events, items, and objectives that can help teams snowball to victory, with a heavy focus on Epic monsters like Baron and a toughened-up squad of Dragons.
Since the end of season 12, Riot has focused heavily on limiting leads from early advantages. This meant nerfing the power of the jungle and having junglers focus on farming over ganking, changing items and champion playstyles, and more, which was implemented to give teams a fighting chance to bounce back.
Although we knew about the Jungle changes, K’Sante adjustment, and massive item changes last week, the anti-snowball adjustments in this preview are new and we should expect to see changes to individual Dragon rewards, Dragon Souls, Rift Herald gold, death timers, Turret plates, Runes, and Baron health.
This also aligns with Phreak’s recent comments regarding how overpowered the jungle role is and that they hope players will focus on teamwork and macro gameplay rather than relying on just one role to carry. These anti-snowball system changes should help lessen the jungle’s snowball effect on the Rift.
Unfortunately, we don’t know how extensive these adjustments are or how they’ll impact low Elo, considering these changes were brought about by how high Elo players tend to snowball games. All we know is that these systems will be toned down, and Riot has reduced the value of early Dragons but not the importance of Soul.
We can assume there will be a slower laning phase, more focus on teamwork and team fighting for objectives, and less reliance on the one role. We’ll know for sure when we get the full Patch 13.20 notes on Oct. 3.
