Riot Champion Design Team

HadesBlades·Mar 7, 2016·2 votes·861 views

Do you ever feel like you make champions that should be used in competitive play or soloq? I feel like Illoai was designed very well with a intricate kit but isn't good competitively but decent in soloq, while also someone like Soraka is really good in Soloq but very lackluster in competitive (most of the time?). I don't know I was also wondering when you rework champions if you hope they can both find a balance between the two of them, kind of like the GP and Fiora rework?

2 Comments

AkoladeNov 18, 20161 votes

Riot to my understanding doesn't develop champs in this way.

Their design philosophy is essentially one of creating around concepts:

-Skillls (Illaoi, a champion who literally could punch the life out of you & yasuo, a ronin who would "dash/strike/parry")

-Archtypes (kindred as ranger hunter who grew from kills, Jhin was a byproduct of this idea )

-Aesthetics(Jinx was created from a sketch of "psycho arsenal" a thin framed girl wielding several guns heavier than she logically would have had the strength to carry)

Their eventual viability in competitive play and solo queue is seemingly the job of the balance team. If a champion has unhealthy play patterns, they end up getting buffed, nerfed, or reworked as Riot deems necessary.

AkoladeNov 18, 20161 votes

Also, as the meta shifts, people change their ideas about what is an isn't viable. Pros play a team oriented style, solo queue tends to be more about making strong individual choices that don't rely too heavily on team composition.