If the third Drake can have this much of an impact on the game, don't make us blind to it.

Sort of surprised I've seen nobody else talking about this, and I'd like to preface this ranty post by saying that I love the preseason changes and the 10 year anniversary stream was fantastic. Good shit Riot, keep it up!

However, there's just one thing that worries me a bit. As is probably pretty obvious, the environment is a big part of League of Legends. The preseason changes introducing different ones being such a big deal is an example of this. Aside from the environmental changes, the Drakes are also being more impactful is also great! However, them being so impactful seems a bit odd when you realize that there's no way of knowing what impact they'll end up having on any individual game.

A Rengar pick could be heavily influenced by having an Ocean or an Infernal Drake. The possibility of a Cloud Soul could make or break a pick like Orianna, Pyke, Nasus, and other ult-reliant champions. An Ocean Drake spawning so many times could make a pokey team comp completely obselete, and a Mountain Soul existing or not could make me reconsider my Rammus ban. If a game can be so influenced by these terrain changes and stat changes, which could change the viability of an entire teamcomp, the fact that you have no idea what's going to happen until it happens is absurd. A game could be decided by the extra or removed brush, the extra terrain from Mountain Drake could give Kayn an escape that lets him stay alive and smite steal Baron, the ult CDR from Cloud Drake could let Jax and Singed be better frontline for this next teamfight too.

I love the preseason "Rise of the Elements" changes so so much, I really really do. But if they're something that's going to be played around, make them something that can be played around instead of something that just comes out of nowhere - I actually think it'd be so much more interesting if you could see teamcomps based around the third Drake spawn as opposed to it just coming out of nowhere and making or breaking a game.

inb4 you actually can see the third Drake that spawns in champ select and I'm just being an idiot, but I thought this was something at least worth asking about.