Following community backlash on the Season 13 cinematic, two senior Riot team members sat down to respond to the community.
Riot games has opened up about the various issues that League of Legends has been combatting between 2022 and 2023. Explaining in open detail why things have felt a bit off for everyone. This video came after the community response to the Season 13 cinematic that blew up on socials for all the wrong reasons.
What points were covered?
There were multiple points featured in the seven-minute video of Jeremy "Riot Brightmoon" Lee and Andrei "Riot Meddler" Van Roon; who went into depth to openly communicate what has happened.
"League of Legends has been a high priority to Riot and it very much still is, I can understand that may not always feel the case though."
The following points were covered:
- Season start cinematic and other mistakes (lack of communication, lack of in game consistency, similarity in feeling on events)
- Community feedback on the cinematic, events, and lack of new game modes
- The changes happening to development teams which has led to a lack of development on League
- Lack of communication from Riot League of Legends team and Developer team to the community
- Future and long term investments into the game
Unlike with the previous statement, Riot were clearly making an effort to be open and transparent with the community. Something which had felt lacking this last few months. Riot Brightmoon and Riot Meddler were clear to say that they, and the rest of the League of Legends team at Riot; were aware that “the state of the game for a while hasn’t consistently been what it should be.”
"There are a bunch of places we should be doing better and doing better in how we communicate that to you."
What with a lack of new game modes, repetition in structure of events and so on. They also admitted that “we have dropped the ball, whether that be lack of a start season cinematic, the overall state of our events feeling a bit too formulaic, lack of new game modes.”
How was community feedback received?
The community feedback on Worlds 2022 was that the whole tournament which is meant to be one of the highlights of the year. Had left fans feeling that the event was repetitive, and too formulated to have the pop off exciting moments.
Additionally, the lack of new game modes was put down to the previous League of Legends game mode developer team; having been moved to focus on TFT. Which had taken away from additions to League and left little room for additional game modes.
"Everyone at Riot, League dev team included of course, wants league to be a thriving, evolving, exciting game for many years to come."
Both were quick to reassure fans that League had been, “building back a developer team for new game modes” who are currently working on a new mode. Which Riot Brightmoon informed fans “this week we played a prototype for a new game mode and its really promising; and something we are hoping to get out to all of you this summer."
Adding that "this is a mode that involves four teams of two who get matched against each other in a series of death match rounds.” This sounds exciting for fans, and a way to bring in new modes to a game that we have all missed.
Riot responds to the Season 13 cinematic backlash
It was clear that Riot knew they had missed the mark as they agreed that “season start is supposed to be this hype epic exciting moment and that we all looking forward to; and frankly we missed on your expectations there.”
"We know that the cinematics a key part of the season start that you a lot of you look forward to it; we had fully planned to have a cinematic in place for season start like in previous years."
This comes after the Season 13 cinematic which lacked the traditional trademarks for the cinematics - including champions, background music and incredible moments in the cinematic overall.
Much of the community feedback had questioned if Riot had put in the budget for the usual epic moments. Riot confirmed as part of this video response that “we had the budget for that but failed to deliver.”
Hence, making the additional promise that the usual standard of cinematic will make a return next year; with Riot Brightmoon and Meddler “committing right now to that” in the video. Especially, because they had known "a while back," that the usual standard was not going to be delivered for Season 13.
Riot looks to the future
Throughout, it was emphasised that “League of Legends has been a high priority to riot and it very much still is.” Therefore, there would be larger scale investment into the game moving forward. As such “League is going to have the biggest funding it has ever had,” in order to progress the game.
Especially important is because the game state was described as a result of “the state of the game right now reflects where the team was last year” and henceforth this new investment will improve it for all. One final point of the video was about the investment in communication with the community as League moves forward.
"We need to consistently talking to you folks, transparently and openly about what matters most to you in the game … and the simple things to, when ranked season starts, clearly in the client clearly in advance."
As it was stated that “we need to consistently talking to you folks, transparently and openly about what matters most to you in the game and the simple things to, when ranked season starts, clearly in the client clearly in advance we are both committing to more regular communication with you and the dev team too.”
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