I hesitate to write this post, because it’s entirely possible that I’m overanalyzing the situation, but the changes around the new jungle are so bizarre to me that I just can’t help it. The latest in this new saga is that Zileas, Riot’s Design Director, is digging around the official forums for feedback on the latest round of tweaks. Zileas comes and goes on the forums, so it doesn’t necessarily mean anything, but he hasn’t been largely involved in the feedback on this project, so why now?

For one, the playerbase is clearly upset. There have been forum threads since the jungle changes were announced crying foul. What’s more interesting to me is that Riot seems to care so much. There have been issues in the past that upset the community – what makes the jungle changes different? I can only think that Riot is seeing some sort of statistical or high profile pushback on the jungle changes that merits Zileas’ personal oversight. I know some of the streamers have been unhappy, but just how many is hard to say.

I only mention the statistical angle because Riot seems interested in quieting people down as quickly as possible, and there has to be some backing to that. We’ve seen unpopular changes in the past that lingered for a long, long time. Why is this one so different?

I give Riot credit for being willing to change one of the longest standing conventions in the LoL style of play, but I wish the company was standing behind it. The change needs time to permeate. Sure, we’ll get a few million hours of playtesting done in a week, which provides a decent chunk of data, but it takes much longer than that for playstyle changes to trickle down through the playerbase.