The 2020 League of Legends World Championship in Shanghai, China ended with a 3-1 victory for Korean Damwon Gaming over Chinese Suning Gaming. Damwon’s victory ended China’s two-year win streak at Worlds and added another win to Korea’s packed trophy case. With the conclusion of worlds, we enter the preseason or the precursor to Season eleven of League. During this preseason, Riot Games has made many changes, most notably to the items.
For starters, Riot has changed the item shop, giving it a different look and changing the way players buy items. The new format displays popular items typically associated with whatever champion you’re playing and is supposed to give players an easier time when purchasing items. Additionally, they decided to place a “Quickbuy panel” on the left-hand side of the item shop which contains necessities like wards, potions, elixirs, and boots. Although the change may seem drastic, players will hopefully get used to it and enjoy the simpler purchasing experience.
The most significant change would have to be all the new items introduced as well as the elimination of many popular items. First off, Riot has decided to introduce a new array of items known as “Mythic Items.” These weapons are quite costly with prices upwards of 3,000 coins. However, they have many powerful effects and are supposed to serve as the cornerstone of your champion’s build. The catch is that you can only build one mythic item, so you must choose wisely on what to buy. The list of Mythic Items spans 23 different items and includes a mixture of both old and new items. Some of the new ones include: Goredrinker, Stridebreaker, Eclipse, Turbo Chemtank, Galeforce, and others. On the other hand, some of the old items include: Trinity Force, Luden’s Tempest, Duskblade of Darktharr, Locket of The Iron Solari, Hextech Rocketbelt, and others.
Riot has also introduced “Legendary Items” which comprises of items that used to be the strongest in the game. Once again, it’s a mixture of new and old items. There are traditional ones like Rabadon’s Deathcap or Black Cleaver, but there are also brand new items such as Horizon Focus and Navori Quickblades. Unlike mythic items, you can purchase as many legendary items as you can hold. If you go one tier below legendary, you end up with “Epic Items” which comprises of items that build into your legendary or mythic items. With the addition of so many new items, many items were also permanently removed from the shop forever. Those sent to the graveyard included: Adaptive Helm, Athene’s Unholy Grail, Frozen Mallet, Hextech Gunblade, Spellbinder, Rod of Ages, Statikk Shiv, Twin Shadows, Jaurim’s Fist, Chalice of Harmony, Bilgewater Cutlass, and Catalyst of Aeons. Most items also received massive reworks to their looks. They appear more cartoonish as compared to their original designs.
Riot also debuted Rell to the Rift. She’s an extremely tanky champion meant to be played in the bot lane as a support. While supports got a new champ, junglers also received significant changes. Riot has removed both Chilling Smite and Challenging smite and replaced them with Hailblade and Emberknife. These new items disappear after you use your smite five times, allowing you to have an extra item slot to buy a legendary or mythic item.
Lastly, Riot has tweaked the ranked system. They’ve removed all inter-division promotions which means you don’t have to win two out of three games if you want to move up an inter-division(e.g. Silver Three to Silver Two or Gold Two to Gold One). However, this also means that there is no cushion between these divisions, and you will instantly drop down a division if your LP goes below 0. For those seeking to climb up a tier(e.g. Silver to Gold), you must still win three out of five promotional games. With all of these changes, hopefully, your league experience is a bit better.
