If I were you, I'd be afraid especially if my champion is the next in line for an update

As someone who witnessed the very first major rework League has released some years back, looking at you , and having the privilege to see how far League has come especially with their champion designs and gameplay updates, I thought perhaps it was time to share my personal opinion about the recent updates we've been receiving.

WIthout a doubt, League has made a huge progress compared to their old reworks. They've definitely put in more effort in to redesigning a champion's kit, there's a team that is specially formed for large and small scale updates and heck, they even have an art team that is devoted to improving the quality of splash arts for updated champions.

But if I'm being honest, the updates as of 2016, is utterly bland and no longer sparks excitement for me. A part of League that I had always looked forward to is when they reveal a new champion or a new rework. It's interesting to see what sort of ideas the team can come up with and how they attempt to integrate elements of the old kit and the new kit together to create an overall improved champion. Yet, the updates as of Meddler's era has been on a continuous decline, up to the point I find that League has lost a majority of its spark.

Let me tell you why. If you're new to League, as in you probably only started playing since Season 5, then reworks and updates shouldn't bore you that easily. But if you've been around since Season 2, then you'd understand that updates these days are overly hyped and under deliver.

All updates have a few common goals in mind:

1. To increase the viability/relevance of a champion in gameplay standards
2. To ensure the champion has a healthy gameplay pattern
3. To allow a champion's kit to be much more interactive
4. To ensure certain champions do not have a binary playstyle

Most of the time, and that usually means all the time, Riot hits the mark. Having said that, there also come a point in time where Riot's standard approach towards reworks and updates have also gone stale and uninteresting. Every single time a champion gets a newer form of update, Riot tries to outdo themselves, and it usually results in a bad way.

Aside from the update and update, there probably wasn't another time where I would be excited in the rest of the updates. And as much as all updates are unique and distinct from one another, there's a couple of reasons why most no longer excite me.

1.Repetitive design patterns

Like I said, Riot's main goal is to ensure all champions in League has a healthy gameplay or counterplay. Yet this is the number one reason why I find updates to be boring. Almost half of the champion Meddler's gameplay team had updated recently follow a similar pattern of "window period" damage. Meaning, half of the time you have to wait for awhile before you can dish out damage i.e.: 's passive in her new update, 's Q, 's passive and W. Well, you guys get the point. Basically, all of Riot's update follow a similar pattern of waiting out in exchange for large burst of damage. Again, this isn't bad per se, but it is getting a bit stale at this point. Remember when RiotGypsyLord had an obsession with 3 hit passives or 3 hit anything? Well, this is the new 3 hit obsession.

2.Overloaded kits/overly elaborated kit interaction

You don't have to look far to know about this. The most recently updated champions all boast some form of overloaded stuff in their kits. For example... 's E alone gives him an in built heal, a dash and an attack speed steroid. 's new E provides her with a mobility tool that sorta doubles as an escape, a dash. Her new W, which happens to be a controversial topic as of now, provides true stealth, movement speed and on top of that, extended duration. The list goes on but two champions should give you an idea of what's to come.

3.New targeting reticle and art design

Honestly, this is the only reason I can think of why most players get hyped up every time a new update is unveiled. And it is also Riot's latest gimmick of marketing an updated champion when they've run out of fresh ideas. I specifically mention targeting reticle designs as a part of the hype because all updates now use a newer design for the abilities. Honestly speaking, if you strip the reticle down to its most basic form, most of them are just in the form of cones and aoe target. Think about it, 's new Q is just a cone shaped ability that is designed in a slightly more rectangular form, her new W is really just an expanding AoE, but people seem to think its a new form of ability. And you know what else is a gimmick? Splash arts. Riot has pooled so much of their attention towards Splash Art in a champion update so it gives off the impression that every update is bigger and better. They go HAM on the designs, and it's not surprising how everyone is pleased with the end results because it is an improvement from the previous work. Like seriously, what's not to be excited about it? Everything looks new, everything is exciting. Yet, its the gameplay that falls short of being amazing. It's like, yes it's a new kit! But when you play the updated champion, it almost feels like it is what it is and perhaps there was an overexpectation of how the updated champion would have felt instead versus how it actually feels to play them.

4.Absurd damage

Lastly, and I don't want to come across being some QQ-er who cries about every new champion being OP. But in case you haven't notice, all the updated champions and released champions lately all pack a mean punch. Riot has come to a point where every new champion that comes along somehow deals a large amount of damage before they nerf and gut the other parts of the kit. I won't bother elaborating on this, but the balance team has been under a lot of fire lately for the amount of questionable balance choices they've made.

All things said, I do believe that champion updates are always a fun thing to see. But in its current state of development, it certainly feels more like a stale and boring change in League and it's also one of the reasons why the game is losing its spark for me. Change is important, and that's something Riot has preached over and over again. Their motto - "We can't keep everything." At the same time, this new form of change is beginning to wear out and it's only a matter of time before it becomes predictable. Somehow Riot can't strike a balance between go big or go home, or just giving a decent, rather normal rework to a champion.

I'm sure the team has poured all their blood and tears in to perfecting every update. But perhaps what they don't see is that not every update needs to go out with a bang. I particularly enjoyed 's rework (as much it's still the shittiest rework for me) because of her kit's simplicity. Nothing in her abilities were overloaded and it was a straightforward design. New champion designs like were also pretty fun to watch, they were simpler to grasp compared to someone like or .

The whole point is with the way Riot is pushing their champion updates now, and with being the next in line to receive the update. I'd be very careful to wish for one if I were you. While I understand that Nunu players have waited a long time for a decent update, I do believe it's better if Riot actually put more time and thought in to planning the rework/update before launching it out hastily just because players are excited that Nunu is in for his turn. You wouldn't want Nunu to end up with something like Akali's new W, where a simple spell has been transformed in to something much more unnecessarily intricate and strong.

And I'm sure the next champion after Nunu will go through the same fate of being overloaded and overpowered. Which is why I hope the update team learns to reel in on the way they update champions. At the end of the day, a big, badass update is absolutely awesome, but there really needs to be a limit in how far the team should go in designing the updated champions so they avoid overhyping things and disappointing certain players.

Thank you for reading.