League of Legends Will Have a Champion Cap

Recently, the lead of the League of Legends balance team, Matt "Phroxzon" Leung-Harrison, went on the Broken by Concept podcast to talk champion balance, solo queue and much more. One of the topics that came up was also the longevity of League of Legends and whether one day there is going to be a cap on new champions. 

Is Riot going to stop making new champions at one point in the future? That's a question we wish the answer to was 'no,' but for those of you who love variety might have a tear slip down your cheek because it could be that there is a future without new champions in sight. But hold up, let's look at the facts for a moment and not be an overdramatic LoL player. 

Riot Will Stop Making New Champions in the Future 

Phroxzon was asked on the podcast whether there will come a time when Riot isn't going to release new champions. "It has definitely been a discussion" he answered. Even though Phroxzon doesn't think this will happen very soon, the premise is this: if Riot feels like the champions they are creating aren't intuitive or unique anymore, they will stop making champions.

What Makes a Champion Intuitive?

In order to figure out what makes a champion intuitive, let's look at how Phroxzon explained it in the interview: If you are, for example, playing against a champion with a hook ability, you should have a clear understanding of what that ability is supposed to do without putting much thought into it. 

Using our boy Nautilus as an example here, when Nautiboy is about to hook you, even if you aren't very familiar with the champion, you won't expect the hook to come out of nowhere, like from the ground. You expect the hook to come directly from Nautilus, and if it hits you (do you even juke, bro?), he will drag you towards him.

Why Is Intuitiveness Important?

If you think about it, there are many things a player must keep in mind when playing League of Legends. Not only is it a lot of information to remember, but there are many situations where things happen quickly. If a champion's abilities lack intuition, reacting to these situations will be challenging and not a lot of fun. It is therefore very important to have abilities that are easy to understand and don't require much thought processing while playing. 

When Can We Expect a Champion Cap?

Besides the champions having to be intuitive, they also have to be unique. After the latest release of Nilah, we now have 161 champions. All of these champions have some features making them special enough to stand out, but not so special that their abilities become unintuitive for players. This is a fine balance, and upholding this balance will be more difficult for every champion released. 

Keeping this in mind, we can better understand Phroxzon's claims that there will come a point where Riot cannot create more champions that uphold this balance, which is when we can expect the champion cap to happen. Though this might be sad news for many, Riot still has new ideas and we can still expect more champions to come before the final champion release becomes reality. 

What do you think about the champion cap? Do you think some champions are unintuitive already?

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