Gaming delays suck, especially when you’ve been waiting on League of Legends’ champ overhauls for a while; somewhere out there, Ahri mains – myself included – and elusive Aurelion Sol players (I know you exist, and I see you) are crying in the chat. Still, the pushed patches are a blessing in disguise. I’m glad the League dev team isn’t falling prey to crunch after the recent Riot hack.
Discussions on game studios’ crunch cultures have become more and more prevalent in recent years as younger generations of devs have begun to embrace healthy work-life balance. Priorities have shifted; the well-being of employees over deadlines has become a hallmark of excellent development studios. Putting people first makes a company a better place to work. Major companies like CD Projekt Red and Naughty Dog have had issues with crunch in the past when faced with approaching deadlines, and often the work suffers for it, as seen with the initial launch of Cyberpunk 2077.
That’s why it bodes well for both the health of the League team and the game itself that Ahri’s visual overhaul and Aurelion Sol’s kit rework have been pushed back a patch or two. Dev teams that don’t enforce crunch deadlines are perfectly capable of putting out complete games, as seen with Supergiant Games’ Hades or Insomniac Games’ Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. League patches are really no different: when working with a game that involves so many distinct moving parts, the more time a team has to align things properly, the fewer balance issues they need to resolve in the future.
These projects are no small feat, either. Ahri, a fan-favorite assassin mage mid-laner and member of League’s K-Pop group K/DA, is receiving an ASU, or Art and Sustainability Update. Released back in 2011, Ahri is one of League’s older champions, and it definitely shows in her graphics and older splashes (Popstar Ahri in particular is an absolute nightmare). They’re updating the champion’s rigging, skin splash art, voice lines, and in-game effects to make sure her character design stays relevant and in-line with their more recent champions. ASUs are crucial for the health of League, ensuring that champs don’t feel outdated or unrewarding to play. It’s an important part of maintaining champ pool diversity in a game of 162 playable characters and counting.
Aurelion Sol’s update is even more ambitious; while his visuals are gorgeous and up-to-date, since he was released in 2016, the champ’s kit leaves a lot to be desired. Despite a relatively high win rate for those who play him, he only gets picked in an estimated 1.3% of League games. He’s been changed slightly in the past in an attempt to bring him into the meta, but this time, the Star Forger is getting a full kit rework with all new abilities.
It’s nearly the same as introducing a whole new champion to the meta: While the League team doesn’t need to worry about new character design or lore, they’ve got to focus on his scaling potential, how his abilities synergize with other champs’ abilities, and making sure he’s not overtuned into an absolute monster to play against.
It’ll be a bit longer before we see these changes fully implemented in game, but I’m more than happy to wait. As excited as I am to see how the Arcana Ahri skin looks with her new animations, I’m glad that the dev teams are taking the extra time to perfect everything in the wake of the recent hack. There are plenty of League champs to enjoy in the meantime — delays certainly won’t keep me away from the Rift.