Opinion: Champions with active reworks shouldn’t be in ranked

I remember back when I first started playing League of Legends, there was this rumor among my regular play group that Riot was planning on taking Soraka and Taric out of the game. Now, this was before either of these champions were heavily reworked, and to be honest, they were both pretty awful at the time. However, this rumor, if you can even call it that, was obviously total nonsense, as Riot never could, would or should take a champion out of the game. That being said, it doesn’t change a very serious reality in League of Legends: the roster is huge, and some champions just don’t work.

Among old champions, there is a strange inconsistency, some of them hold up extremely well (Anivia for example), and some of them do not hold up well at all. Champions like Galio and Warwick feel as though they belong to a different game, a much slower-paced game that is not as skill-based as League has become. In many ways, League has outgrown these champions, and that is a very sad thought.

So what do you do about this? Does Riot stop making new champions until they have updated every old champion in the books? Preposterous. Not only are new champions awesome, and some player’s favorite aspect of League (like myself), they are key to Riot’s business plan. New champions are some of the only regular content updates that we get as players that actually impact the game (skins are dope but don’t count). Every six months or so Riot adds a new mechanic, a la plants, that could bring back lapsed players, but champions are far more frequent ways to spice up the game.

OK so that’s not really an option, why don’t we just take those champions out of the game forever? Unacceptable for a ton of reasons, how could you even suggest that? You monster.

First, plenty of players have spent money and time on those champions already and there is no way Riot is going to refund all of those people all of that IP and RP. But that isn’t even the important part, not by a long shot. What makes League of Legends amazing is the champion diversity. Not just the number of different kinds of champions that exist, but the number of different kinds of people who play them.

Look, I hate Shaco. I hate Shaco very much. I hate Shaco so much that my hating of Shaco is documented in my personal Twitter bio. That being said, I know that there is some monster out there that loves playing Shaco, and as much as that kills me, they shouldn’t have to stop playing Shaco just because I think he is annoying or evil or the worst champion in all of League of Legends (which he is, and always will be).

I have very strong feelings towards a lot of champions in the League of Legends roster. Some of those are very positive, and some are very negative. For every rational person out there (like me) who thinks people who play Singed are bad people, there is someone who thinks Azir ruined League of Legends, and I love me some Azir. We all have different opinions on League champions and that is awesome, shouldn’t we be able to play what we love?

So, if you are keeping track, we have solved nothing thus far. Both proposed solutions are impossible and terrible. But the problem remains that some of these champions just don’t fit into the game League has become, especially in a competitive landscape. So, here and now I am proposing that champions that Riot are currently working on reworks for should be disable in Ranked Solo-Duo Que (currently, just Warwick and Galio).

Think about it for a second. When Riot announces that they are working on a rework for a champion, that is a declaration that something is not working properly. If something in the game is broken, should it be allowed in the most competitive mode? For example, we know the Warwick update is being worked on right now, and we know it is coming soon. If Riot thinks he is enough of a problem to be reworked, I don’t want to have to play with him in my ranked games.

Not wanting to play with champions in desperate need of a rework is not a new issue for League of Legends. In 2013, Riot Morello went to the League boards and spoke about how poor of a champion old Poppy was, even offering up somewhat of an ultimatum.

Morello:

Well, there are two choices; I'm OK with both to some extent;

* Rework Poppy and make her a real pick in League, balance appropriately.

* Don't rework Poppy, and never ever buff her, and nerf her if she ever sees play.

As we all know, they decided to rework her, but not before The Unicorns of Love played her in a Promotion Tournament, crushing with the pocket pick Poppy. When Rioters recognize a problem like this, one of the solutions shouldn’t be “I really hope nobody picks this champion before they get reworked.” That is absurd, a problem with an easy solution. People who want to grind ranked alone or with a friend should be safe from broken champions like old Poppy and current Warwick. If people want to play those champions, by all means, please do, but do it in Normals or Flex.

Riot removing any kind of pick from any kind of queue is bound to ruffle some feathers (understandably), but hopefully this plan could save all of us some LP while still allowing for you to troll your friends with the Galio pick. In the grand scheme of things, is this a huge problem for League of Legends? No, not remotely. That being said, it would certainly make me feel a little safer knowing I wasn’t going to get flash Warwick ulti’d from across the map again before that rework comes out.

So there, I spilled my guts. Your turn. What do you think about old champs on the rework docket? Feel free to leave a comment below, unless you are a filthy Shaco main, in which case I want you to get the hell out of my comment section (not really). But really though...Shaco? Look at your life. Look at your choices. Smdh.