Heads up to lore team: "Reborn" is how do you it, Shurima event is how you don't
From a purely gameplay perspective, Shurima event was a success. We've got a neat game mutator for Dominion that actually showed how secondary objectives could possibly enrich gameplay on Crystal Scar, a new champion, visual updates for a few old ones, and a bunch of new VO lines. That was quite okay, almost on par with Freljord, albeit we had to wait a little bit too long for it.
The story, however, was pretty much bad. Sure, a group of previously disconnected characters became a part of a bigger picture, but even compared to the Freljord retcon, this was just... shallow. If you want a fair comparison - and I will not even bring up JoJ here - take a look at Quinn's journals. Every chapter not only described the social structure of Freljord tribes, but also added Quinn's personal insight into characters of the leaders. This gave the players enough information to choose their allegiance.
Now, imagine if the summoner icons this year, instead of Ascension rewards, were declaration of allegiance towards Azir (with Nasus and Sivir) or Xerath (with Renekton and Cassiopeia). What information to give insight into both sides did the Shurima event deliver? None. Sure, Azir is a new champion just like Lissandra was, but she had the whole Frostguard conspiracy, and Quinn's journal described the people's fear of the Ice Witch. Azir is barely fleshed out and while his intentions are known, we have absolutely zero knowledge of how the other characters might look at him. Xerath from a scholar torn between love and wisdom turned into a cliche evil mage and we have no indication of his goals or why would Renekton or Cassiopeia side with him.
Then, there are the problems of wiping out lore and leaving nothing new in its place. Skarner's VO is now not canon, Xerath's personality, backstory and intentions were ruined, and a bunch of auxillary characters like Ezreal and Amumu lost any connections to other city-states and characters that they had. I mean, look at the lore notes in AIR client. They take pathetic three lines, a fraction of what they used to - for no apparent reason. That empty space hurts. I'd trust the lore team that something will eventually take its place, but it's been a year and a half since the Freljord event, and JoJ was closed long years ago. I don't see the tempo... yet.
For now, the only way to not lose a huge part of what made Xerath Xerath and what made Skarner Skarner is to completely ignore their new lore and keep the old one in mind. That's not something a lore revamp should end up with, huh? Same goes for Cassiopeia's family tree, which is nowhere to be found in the new lore, and Nasus's former occupation as a librarian.
This is why the "Reborn" teaser is, after one part, a lot better than the whole Shurima event. Even though it doesn't dig into Sion's character yet (and possibly never will, as Champion Judgements are gone), it does something that Quinn's journal did and Shurima event did not - give us a look at the events from perspective of other characters.
Now, you may ask, why do we need lore? What difference does it make if Cassiopeia is Katarina's sister or not?
Take a look at any fanart that involves more than one champion. Their relations - especially if they come from the era before special voice interactions - all come from lore notes and JoJ. "Sibling rivalry" webcomics, impiled Katarina/Garen romance - it all stems from those sources. Without story, without rich background, those characters become one-dimensional, nothing more than costumes put on an otherwise ordinary person. Take Brand. On the outside, he's just a raging elemental spirit. However, not only did his Champion Judgement show the reasoning behind his actions, there was also an interview he gave to Journal of Justice, in which he hinted at the grand conspiracy behind the whole League of Legends. Now, is that information necessary to grasp who Brand is? No. But it sure as hell makes his character design a whole level higher. And that's just an old forgotten character that barely appears in competitive scene or fanart.
Braum is friendly to everyone and we've seen the legend about his feats. But what would it take for him to change his attitude? How would he react to some difficult situations? Old lore had the Champion Judgements, that literally went inside a champion's mind and tried pushing all possible buttons. Journal of Justice mentioned some champion's hobbies, friendships or grudges - and that's what fueled all the fanart and fanfics. Relationships between characters are crucial, even without that insight into their heads. Think how much of Rengar and Kha'zix's characterization is their rivalry. How much of Jinx is about her contrast with Caitlyn and Vi (even though she's already a great character even without that).
Sure, we can make up our own "expanded universe" - but we need a starting point. If we're let alone to fantasize what is the rivalry between Lux and Fiora about (as their character pages imply), we'll come up with a variety of different reasons and we will have no point in choosing one over the other. All will be equally irrelevant. Now if we had some seed - family grudge, personal issues, stolen boyfriend - it would allow for a plethora of fanmade content, not only about what's canon, but taking things further from there. This is what JoJ provided and the Shurima event did not.
Keep up the good work with "Reborn". This is exactly the direction we're supposed to be headed in. Thank you.
"Imagine if I had a real lore team."
