De Facto Champion Removals
Riot doesn't actually remove champions from the game. I like this. I think (and some reds please correct me if I'm wrong) they don't want to remove champions because they believe in positive creative design (ideas aren't bad, just incomplete or undeveloped), and because of a personal attachment that many players feel to individual champions. That's one of the really remarkable things about League, in my opinion: players have a very special relationship with champions they main. This is why, although it doesn't actually affect gameplay, the lore is an important factor in making League of Legends appealing to everyone in its large player base. To summarize: Riot (correctly) believes that many champions with unique abilities and personalities make the game appealing and fun to a lot of people, and removing champions is a bad way to deal with any problems that arise.
I completely agree. I think most people would, too.
"Cool post, Goose. So what, then, is up your feathery behind?" -Everyone who has read this so far.
I'll tell you. It bothers me when Riot releases champions with kits that are just so darn overloaded with neat stuff and cool new mechanics. I think the champions are amazing, unique, awesome creative achievements. They help shape and redefine the way roles and games are played. They bring new, exciting strategies while foiling old, tiresome ones. That's great, and the development team should pat themselves on the back for how much better they've gotten at making champions. However, look what it does to the old roster.
Let's take an example (admittedly of a champion that I think is pure cancer): Kalista. Her passive, w, and ult (and q, to some small degree) have completely unique mechanics not found anywhere else in the game. The only one that's like something we've seen before is her e... which has uncapped damage, good utility, and resets. Now compare her kit to other adcs. Ashe? Ashe has a toggle, a passive gold generation ability with a high cd sight active, a poke, and a pretty straightforward ult. Why would anyone want to play a champion so uninteresting by comparison? Especially considering Kalista does most of what Ashe does, only much better. Lucian was supposed to be the "mobility adc," but Kalista's passive puts him in the backseat to her. Kalista's e makes Twitch e look like a joke. Dont' get me wrong here... I'm not saying Kalista is the BEST adc, I'm saying that her kit makes other adcs' kits look tired and boring. Even the amount of voice work for new champions compared to the old echos my point... Kennen has 15 different dialogues recorded if you count everything (champ selection, movement, attacking, jokes, and taunts... not laughs). Kalista has 17 different champion specific taunts. What the hell, man? How is that supposed to make me feel if I'm a die-hard Kennen main? (I'm not.)
This effect is even more frustrating to me (and I suspect, many others) when you factor in mobility creep, and champions like Yasuo are released with paragraph long passives and skill descriptions, infinite spammable dashes, an ability that nullifies auto attacks and 80% (hyperbole and guesswork) of the other abilities in the game, and an ultimate with infrequent but disturbingly effective synergy. I'm not saying he's overpowered, and I'm not saying he isn't impressively designed. I'm saying his kit is excessively developed and has frustrating amounts of mobility and outplay potential versus the outdated roster.
It's also frustrating when these new champions are counters to a lot of other champions on the roster. Look at Gnar: range, long range slow, speed boost, escape, %hp dmg for laning. Mega Gnar is more useful than anything (more hyperbole) in teamfights. RIP 80% (even more hyperbole) of the toplane champion pool. Granted, a lot of the champions Gnar counters aren't competitively viable at the highest levels, but most people aren't playing at the highest levels so that's not the point.
Summary thus far: Deleting champions is bad. Riot knows that and doesn't do it. Many of the newest champs are making large portions of the champion pool look obsolete and tired. It's not as extreme as deleting them, and it's not as bad, but it's the same principle and I don't like it very much.
"So uh... Goose. You just want them to stop releasing new champions or what?"
Nah. That wouldn't be good either, and everyone knows it. I wish they'd temper the newly released champions and not overload them with spiffy new gadgets on every ability; just one or two would be nice. Look at velkoz (I love this guy): cool unique passive and straightforward (it's a joke about his q) abilities that don't do anything too crazy which combine to give him a unique feel and playstyle without making him look like the obvious favorite child of the family. I also wish they would do more champion reworks and fewer champion releases. Look at what they did with Sion... it's awesome! They did a great job updating his kit to give him a unique role and feel which matches his character and even made him competitively viable. Where is that rework for Mordekaiser? Where is that rework for Veigar?
The grand TLDR summary: -New champions are just so gosh darn loaded and cool and neat that they make the older champs look... inferior (in many ways which may or may not include gameplay). -I find it hard to believe developing a new champion is an easier undertaking than reworking an old one (even a Sion level rework). -No players are emotionally invested in champions that don't exist yet, but some players are emotionally invested in champions that are outdated and competitively nonviable. -For the above reasons, I wish Riot would spend more time reworking and less time making old champs look worse by releasing new ones.
Fin. If you've stuck with me so far, please let me know why you agree/disagree in the comments. I'd much rather debate my overall ideas than specific champion examples. I'd also love to get a red in here to give us the company viewpoint on my described downsides of champion releases.
