Riot reveals plans for Worlds 2021 patches, promises big change

With the 2021 World Championship nearing, Riot Games recently gave some insight into how the developer is planning to handle the patches that the tournament is played on. 

The world championship is the absolute biggest League of Legends event of the year, and the patches it is played on will be catered towards the tournament. For this year, Riot is planning to have Worlds in focus when creating the changes for the patches, but will also keep in mind that it shouldn’t break solo queue in any way. Another goal for Riot is to not introduce any changes that are likely to be reverted. 

In a post shared through Twitter, lead game designer Jeevun “Jag” Sidhu spoke to some of the team’s thoughts behind the patches and what players can expect from patches 11.18 and 11.19, which Worlds will be played on. These patches will likely turn out very different because professional play will be in focus. 

Based on previous experience, Jag said that fans are very welcoming of changes that will create new strategies in the professional scene and will see champions contested at Worlds that haven’t been played a lot during the regular season. Riot will be aiming at making changes that can create new strategies, such as Darius leading to Gnar top in 2015 and Miss Fortune support appearing in 2016.  

To make sure that some new picks reach the priority list, the plan is to “fringe champions pros have already deemed worth considering” and try to bump their pick and ban rate closer to 30%. This could mean that some niche picks throughout the season will suddenly become way more viable during Worlds 2021. 

Riot shares potential Worlds 2021 changes for Draven

Even though Riot didn’t present many specific changes that are guaranteed to arrive in patch 11.18 for Worlds, Jag still gave a little sneak peek at some changes that have been considered. One of the considered changes would affect Draven, who is rarely seen in professional play. 

The changes have Draven’s Whirling Death (R) receiving a new effect that will execute enemies if they are left with health that is below Draven’s current League of Draven stacks from his passive. This would create a unique way for Draven to execute targets based on his own performance, since keeping up stacks is a very important part of his gameplay. 

According to Jag, a change like this could be exciting for both professional play and for normal solo queue games. If the change will ever hit the live servers is still unknown, but it seems that Riot is looking at more creative ways to change champions going into the 2021 World Championship.