Illaoi Is Broken, But She's Not The Problem

I've felt that Riot has been making their new champions stronger slowly for a long time now, but its finally come to a head with Illaoi. I feel helpless to stop what I feel is a trend towards imbalance that will eventual cause me to quit playing league, and I'm not ok with that. So after holding in these thoughts for months and months, I've finally decided to pour out my heart in the hopes that my warning will be heard.

This is my ardent plea to Riot.

Every game dies eventually, but so many of them died prematurely because they chose to trade stability for flashy, balance for easy cash. Illaoi is a poster-child for these very dangerous design decisions, and yet she is just a symptom, not the cause. The root of the problem is the pressure to slowly make champions stronger and stronger in an effort to sell them, this is called power-creep. Similar temptations have heralded the deaths of so many other great games, and now I fear that League will one day succumb to this poison as well.

Many of you may be wondering why I haven't explained why Illaoi is broken. Its because this isn't really about Illaoi, but rather, about the forces at work behind the scenes that created her. Thoreau said "There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root". This is my attempt to strike at the root of the problem that will eventually destroy League. In short, Illaoi is not the problem, the power-creep that created her is.

Please Riot, for the sake of the long term health of your game, you must resist the scourge of power-creep, or League will slowly wither and die.