‘League of Legends’ common referred to as “LoL” here in the Philippines is a 2009 multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Riot Games. Inspired by Defense of the Ancients, a custom map for Warcraft III, Riot’s founders sought to develop a stand-alone game in the same genre.
Well, ‘League of Legends’ is already thirteen years old and it captured the attention of early teenagers to young adults and we’re the perfect witness to it. And with over 150 champions on the LOL roster, it’s not even a surprise Riot Games has to continually refresh and update older characters. Last year’s character reworks include: Evelynn, Fiddlesticks, Volibear, and Dr. Mundo. They all received large-scale reworks to adjust their current state in the League of Legends gameplay.
What is a Champion Rework?
Champion Rework is an update that focuses on the gameplay and visual aspects and gameplay update. These updates can take months and span over a long period of time—it revitalizes the champion’s visuals, while also looking at the gameplay and how to improve. Over the years, Riot Games Inc. has worked on updating champions whose visuals or gameplay don’t fit with the current state of the game.
In 2020, Fiddlesticks and Volibear both received overhauls, improving their splash arts, their in-game model, their lore, as well as the gameplay, without trying to change the champions’ identity too much.
And in 2021, they only released Dr. Mundo’s champion rework.
Three Major Champion Reworks:
Visual and Gameplay Update
Visual and Gameplay update or VGU is the most extensive and long rework for a champion. It can take as much as months and in a span of a very long time like who else knew, when?
Udyr will receive his VGU sometime this 2022 because he was the winner of the VGU poll that was held last year garnering 37.2 % of the votes.
Art and Sustainability Update
This means that older champions can get a larger visual update. These updates are cheaper and less time intensive than a VGU and don’t affect a champion’s abilities nor their lore. With these, a champion’s outdated animations and outfits will be restored. Apart from that, fresh voiceovers will take place and gameplay clarity will be improved.
This year, Ahri will be the one to receive the ASU update. She got a mini rework back in 2011 and her visuals will be lifted some time around this year.
Mini Rework
Mini reworks are small updates which should bring the champions’ gameplay into 2022. It could also include a champion’s abilities.
There are two champions who will be receiving mini reworks in the next seasons. This include Orianna—who will have an extensive update on her visuals and Leona who will have a bomb-ass abilities and visual aspects improved.
Aurelion Sol 2022
Fans knew that Riot Games started to move on new characters that never really found their success—it is the turning point of every characters which only gets fewer notice.
Aurelion Sol is such an interesting case for character rework. Many players love his personality and voice over because it’s a mix of a narcissistic, all-powerful star forging dragon from the cosmos. His gameplay is a little difficult—demanding precision and keeping his power locked behind a ridiculously high skill ceiling.
But one thing is for sure—Aurelion Sol’s rework is currently planned for some time at the end of the year.
