LoL players can choose which champion gets a major rework in 2020

Olivia Richman Published 13/05/2019

There’s still two more days to vote on which League of Legends champion will be getting a major rework in 2020.

Ending May 15 at 11:59 PST, the League community can cast a vote here to determine which of the five available champions will get an update next year. According to the official announcement, the League of Legends team stated that the champion will be redesigned from the ground up, “including their gameplay, visuals, story, animations, voice acting…the works.”

It’s an opportunity for developers to bring an older champion up to modern standards. The five that players can choose from for the rework are “high priority,” according to the press release.

The first option is Fiddlesticks.

“He’s been on the list of champs we’d like to update for a while now, as not much about him has aged well,” noted the developers.

If Fiddlesticks is chosen, the team would like to push his theme of “terrifying scarecrow that comes out of nowhere,” bringing that into his visuals and gameplay more prominently. He’s currently a mage jungler and support with an iconic ultimate, the Crowstorm. But they’d like to add more counterplay to his kit, helping his other attributes synergize with Crowstorm a bit more.

Then there’s Nocturne, one of the most popular champions among new League players. Interestingly enough, the developers noted, players tend to quit playing him shortly after trying him out.

“This suggests that Nocturne’s gameplay and visual fantasies are very strong, but he’s not quite delivering on them in-game,” they sad.

If they get a chance to update Nocturne, they want to “drive home the promised fantasy of a living nightmare, leaving his enemies in total darkness.” This will be accomplished by creating deeper base kit to go along with his ultimate, as well as enhancing a lot of his visuals.

Another champion that developrs feel needs a lot of work done to its art and animations is Dr. Mundo. While they feel his kit has held up pretty well over the years, they feel his animations are lacking when it comes to his theme of a “horrifying-yet-hilarious masochistic madman who goes wherever he pleases and does whatever he wants.”

The developers then admitted that Volibear’s kit didn’t really “land well” when he was launched.

“His gameplay has proven unsatisfactory to the point where he’s the least played champion on this poll,” they admitted.

If Volibear is chosen to get the major rework, the League of Legends team is hoping to make him an imposing, lightning-fueled demigod of the Freljord by giving him a brand new kit. He’d be less “feast-or-famine” upon the rework, upgrading him to an “unstoppable force” who charges his foes “with the power of a ferocious bear.”

League of Legends developers discussed that champions who don’t win the vote are not out of the running to receive an upgrade in future updates. And other champions may be updated first. In fact, the winning champion could possibly not even get the rework, depending on how smoothly the early exploration goes.

But depending on how the vote is received, the developers went on, they might consider repeating such community polls in the future.

Olivia Richman

About Olivia Richman

Olivia has worked in media ever since graduating from college, with her coverage ranging from traditional newspaper reporting to digital coverage of all things gaming, online betting, and nerd culture. She has traveled around the world pursuing that coverage, from the far coasts of the United States to the busy downtown core of Tokyo, Japan. Olivia’s favorite games include Overwatch and Super Smash Smash Bros, and she has been published at Esports Illustrated, Inven Global, EsportsInsider, Upcomer, and elsewhere.

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