Why did they buff garen...

Pretty sure he was weak before...

The designer said that he was releasing Garen rework overtuned (buffed) so that players would like the changes, and this was intentional, with nerfs to quickly follow.

Translation: The Garen re-work is actually bad, and we wanted people to forget how Garen used to be.

Nerfs are scheduled for next patch, and they will probably roll out more nerfs in the following patch. (The rework had no bearing on Garen played at Worlds, so they really didn't need to answer to anybody that they cared about, regarding this decision...) (Pretty sneaky, right?)

Cause he's garbage?

Why do you people even think garen is OP? His scaling has changed, but hes still a fantastic lane bully pre 6 who can Q E, Q E ignite you at level two for a free kill if you dont respect him.

Much like malzahar to be honest; if you dont respect him, you quickly lose,

Compared to other fighters, he was somewhat lackluster due to being limited to Grasp of the Undying, compared to others who can use Hail of Blades, Press the Attack, Aftershock, Kleptomancy, and most notoriously Conqueror.

The changes were made with the stated intent of NOT buffing Garen. He was only given a rework release buff, so that the changes would be accepted by the players. He will be nerfed back to his previous winrate.