How to avoid broken champions

Here's what I've learned from Worlds. Mordekaiser: broken. Gangplank: broken. Darius: broken.

A fair amount of criticism has been leveled at the folks who did these reworks, and some of it is probably fair. (CertainlyT's Mordekaiser rework in particular seems like a bit of a disaster to me.) However, I'd like to contend that it's not fair to point all this criticism at the folks who designed the reworks.

One thing I've noticed with all these reworks is that the person who did the rework is also the person addressing the community's concerns about their balance. I don't know exactly what Riot's internal procedures are for champion design and development, but it looks like the same person typically has the final say on designing the champion's abilities and tuning their numbers. I'd like to contend that this is a mistake.

Another game I play a lot is Magic: The Gathering (produced by Wizards of the Coast). Wizards is very open about how they design and develop cards, and one of the key things they've done is to separate design from development. One team, led by one person, is in charge of design, of coming up with ideas for new cards. Another team, led by a different person, is in charge of development, of tuning the numbers on those cards to try to ensure they aren't broken. The key skill for design is creativity; the key skill for development is the ability to play the game at a high level in order to accurately gauge the power level of cards. And sometimes, design creates an interesting, cool card, but development comes back and tells them that the card is too hard to balance, and shouldn't be made.

As an example, let's apply this to the Mordekaiser rework. Personally, I think that CertainlyT pushes the envelope too much, but I also think there's no denying that he's incredibly creative and has real skill as a designer. So fine, let him design. However, someone else--ideally leading a team of players with near-professional skill level--needs to be responsible for development and have veto rights. (Note: The following is just an example. My intent is not to speak definitively about what precisely should be changed with any champion.) For example, CertainlyT might submit his initial design for Mordekaiser, and development could come back to him and say, "We've tested the bonus experience mechanic, and it's very powerful and too difficult to make balanced and fun. We're going to need to come up with something else if we want to push Mordekaiser as a duo laner."

To sum up, I feel that some of the criticism of the designers of these reworks is misplaced. The problem is that design and development rely on very different skillsets, and to rely on one person for both is asking for trouble. (In other words, yes the designers messed up, but they weren't put in a position to succeed.) In order for League to be all it could be, I think it is very important for Riot to learn from other game companies and to work out a better internal structure for champion design and development.