Riot complains about dead-end stories but the most they've ever done with Annie is pretend her and Amumu were friends without ever writing a story about it. The girl who's charterization begins and ends with fire.
I personally loved the old lore with the Institute of War. It may have been a bit contrived, but it allowed the world to make sense. These beings who can manipulate the elements, who can kill silently from the shadows, who can cause an apocalypse with the snap of their fingers, it allowed the world to explain them coming together and fighting. They basically had their souls controlled by mages called Summoners to take their bodies into what was effectively a magical simulation of real combat. They fought in this magical world to stop wars that put innocent civilians at risk by having each side pick Champions to represent them on various fields of combat. Summoner's Rift for large debates, the Twisted Treeline for smaller ones, so on and so forth.
Now, it basically, "There is this fantasy world where all kinds of amazing and interesting things are happening. Now, we're gonna take all the cool people, those with interesting origins, and have a 'what if' scenario if they fought each other." The entire game we play is equivalent to having your Spiderman and Batman action figures fight. They will likely never meet in canon, but we can say they had an epic bought in our heads.
The old lore also gave a reason why these characters could compete on a level playing field. For the sake of keeping these disputes fair, The Institute of War had to keep the power of every Champion in balance to one side didn't have an inherent advantage just because they had a certain someone on their side. Therefore, every Champion of the League had to be able to fight without a clear winner. It explained how a demi-god with near infinite knowledge (Nasus) could fight an untrained magician who likes to explore (Ezreal) and neither side had an advantage that guarantees their victory before the fight itself.
Now, the current lore says that Graves, a random guy with a shotgun, could fight and potentially beat THE CREATOR OF THE FUCKING GALAXY, Aurelion Sol without any levelings of the playing field. Did you know that, canonically, Cho'Gath is about the size of a planet? So how can a badger with a blowdart even stand a chance against a Mars sized monster who can eat anything to grow larger and stronger? Syndra is the most powerful mage in all of Runeterra, with enough unkempt energy within her to destroy the universe, and yet she can lose a fight to a guy who throws cards.
Just one more... Garen, who is LITERALLY just a guy with a big sword, can challenge and kill Kindred, THE GRIM REAPER. THE PERSON WHO DELIVERS THE SOULS OF THE DEAD TO THE UNDERWORLD. A BEING WHO IS NOT TECHNICALLY ALIVE CAN BE KILLED BY A RANDOM GUY WITH A SENSE OF JUSTICE AND A SWORD.
The old lore allowed these things to make sense, but now I can't help but feel conflicted when I play Azir, the undead God-King of the desert, and lose to Jhin, who is only three things. An actor, a perfectionist, and a murderer. Because... Sand is coarse?
All lore post-Skarner-retcon is just fan fic
This is canon
Nah that's LeBlanc
Riot complains about dead-end stories but the most they've ever done with Annie is pretend her and Amumu were friends without ever writing a story about it. The girl who's charterization begins and ends with fire.
Why do some people care? Because to some people like myself, LoL is more than just a simple 'game' to play. I live and Breathe LoL(and I still suck). I buy merch and RP and i have posters everywhere in my home. Lore matters because you want to know peoples stories and origins. The answer is. The game is more FUN to play when you know everything about every champion. I wish Riot would just make a Lore that can piece together the land, maybe just make a map of the cities and where they are located. Make a map of Runeterra. Make stories about a cities culture more in depth. Make champion bios fit with where they are from and who they are associated with.
Thanks for the comments of MountainDread & PyroAeroVampire. Very well said.
I used to care about lore, but then Kerrigan took a Blizzard to the knee.
