Riot says China is one reason why there’s a lot of damage and faster games in League of Legends at the moment

Riot Games has explained why it’s leaned more towards high damage, fast-paced games in League of Legends.

Speaking on a call with a select few influencers on October 12th, including UK streamer HuzzyGames, they answered one of his questions. He asked them: Is there too much damage in League?

HuzzyGames explained Riot’s answer in this video on his YouTube channel (around the 30-minute mark), saying that the influencers weren’t allowed to record the call, but were able to take notes.

He said: “I’ve been very frustrated with League in season 11 because I do believe the damage is way too high and it has taken away from skill.

“Here is Riot’s answer: They talk about it a lot internally within Riot, they know the damage is high, but in essence, ‘regional preferences vary a lot’, and they specifically said China loves high aggression and high damage.

“So in essence, that is why we have a crazy amount of damage in League, and that’s why it’s not going to go away.”

Huzzy also explained that the meeting was designed to get the perspective of Riot, not to have debates with them, and that not many content creators were invited.

The comments were highlighted in this Reddit post, which quickly made it to the front page of the League of Legends subreddit. In it, the community debated Riot’s comments and the current state of the game.

On the influencer call, Riot also covered topics like objective bounties and whether the game is too complex for beginners – with Riot keen to strike the balance between keeping both new players and existing players happy.

Huzzy also asked Riot whether the new drake buffs being introduced to League – like camo zones are ‘too Champion-like’.

“Riot said the new dragons are more complex than the first ones, they said the goal with the new dragons is to make a more exciting, interesting gamestate and to push the boundaries of what a dragon is – [so it’s] not just a stat thing,” Huzzy said. “They want to create more from dragons.

“One keyword [from the call] was ‘excite’, Riot want to create these crazy, exciting moments that people will talk about for days after they happen.

“What I got from the call was, Riot is looking to make the game more exciting, by their definition, and that definition seems to be more crazy moments, high damage, a lot of gold income and fast games. I think they like that 25-minute average game time nowadays [which is a lot less than the old 45 minute games from years ago].”

Esports News UK watched HuzzyGames’ entire video and he goes into some good detail around the 2022 pre-season changes to League of Legends, which include new drakes, items, runes and more.

You can watch the full video here:

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Dom Sacco

Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.

As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.