Is this another case of favoritism?
Chinese LoL Client: International Players Complain About Quality of Life Options
If you watch any Chinese player streams, you'll notice a marked difference in the Chinese LoL Client, compared to the one used by the rest of the world. So, what gives?
Over the years, the strength of the Chinese market, in conjunction with Riot being bought by Tencent, has skewed the company's decision-making towards considering the needs of the Chinese market more than that of the rest of the world.
At the very least, it's how most of the LoL player base feels, as we all remember the issues with Udyr's rework pandering to Chinese players, the exclusive China skins, or the blatant disregard for breaking rules with illegal gambling sites that target famous streamers like Tyler1 or even pros such as Faker.
Why is the Chinese LoL Client Better?
The toxicity of the League of Legends fanbase ensures that most of us would want nothing more than having a direct excuse to hate on the Chinese server, as a subconscious way of pointing at their advantages to excuse our hardstuck status.
After all, the Chinese Client has an in-built timers showing on the map, numerical health points on jungle camps, and the gold difference in lanes. The rest of the world doesn't and has to rely on third-party extensions to achieve the same effect.
Well, there is no way anyone can spin this on Riot showing favoritism towards the Chinese server. It's actually all Tencent, and their response to third-party apps. Something that Riot is ignoring for now it would seem.
All of the upgrades we see stem from WeGame, Tencent's version of Steam. When installing LoL through it, the mentioned upgrades are automatically applied. This measure was in response to a multitude of third-party apps, that went so far as to allow players to try out skins in-game, without having to mess around with game files.
The game itself can still be installed the regular route, by downloading the Client directly, but most Chinese players see no reason to. Who in their right mind would give up advantages that don't come with a metric tonne of ads so you can use them?
But, whenever the question of the League of Legends Client pops up, it always reminds us of how bad the Client actually is. The recent updates brought a few servers to their knees, and we dread what's going to happen when ARAM Clash kicks off.
Maybe we should petition Tencent to take direct charge, and overhaul the Client themselves, Thanos-style?