Melany M. July 18, 2019
The most recent League of Legends update broke the game.
In less than 24 hours, the live Patch 9.14 has resulted in over 50 known bugs. The chaotic state of LoL forced Riot Games to disable ranked queues and three champions.
On Reddit, players reported several glitches and other issues including connection troubles that kept players from joining games. According to some other players, the in-game chat stopped working as well.
Champions like Ezreal, Zed, Galio, Sivir, and Lux were also not functioning properly but Annie, Mordekaiser, and Qiyana were so broken that they wound up being disabled by Riot. Bugs made Annie’s stun permanent and easy to abuse, Mordekaiser had several issues that made him overpowered, and Qiyana's elemental effects didn’t apply properly which resulted in the champion dealing no damage at any level.
Perhaps worst of all was Pyke’s ultimate, which saw reports of the champion actually being able to kill teammates.
The bugs also affected items, particularly support items and wards. Support players didn’t receive gold from the items when they had an ally close by while wards failed to show enemies in range.
Alongside these troubles with champions were the expected roundup of game crashes in various modes. Players were also forced to miss picks and bans which led to 5 minutes dodge timers. Runes like Conqueror, Manaflow Band, and Aery also stopped working.
Patch 9.14 is supposed to be the last major patch before playoffs begin across all regions. According to the balance team, this patch would switch the meta and give them time to make changes before the World Championship.
The new update targets some of the most popular champions in professional play. Aatrox’s revive is gone, Lux's shield has been changed, and Galio can no longer flash while channeling Shield of Durand. These three modifications may not look like much but could change the the pro meta in a big way.
Yuumi’s early game is significantly weaker, making her less oppressive in the lane. Strong competitive picks in Jayce, Kennen, and Neeko received nerfs in damage and attack speed.
The current state of the game will not affect the rest of the competitive week that is still taking place in Patch 9.13.