League of Legends has been plagued with programming bugs since launch, and some players even think they keep getting worse. However, while Riot Games’ game is far from perfect, it is actually a paradox. We can think that there are more and more bugs because our knowledge of everything that happens in the title has increased over the years. However, it’s when certain stories about its early years come to light that some of the studio’s strange decisions come to light.
The champion that Riot did wrong on purpose
One such story from League of Legends’ distant past is that of Yorick. While this champion was almost of no importance to the community before going through the rework box, it does illustrate the changes made by the developer. With a skill set created in three days, he is the second least popular champion in the game’s history, second only to the older version of Urgot. However, when no one chose Soul Shepherd, the developers weren’t alarmed — and didn’t try to make it popular. Instead, they relaxed knowing that his major flaws continued to go unnoticed.
Riot August explained the character’s situation during one of its streams. He said that although Yorick was very unpopular and barely appeared in games, the studio chose not to interfere. The reason is simple: programming problems. “We did it wrong on purpose, and there’s a reason for that. His ultimate was one of the buggiest things in League of Legends history”. This sentence needs to be nuanced. It’s not that the old Yorick wasn’t good in terms of efficiency, as he had a good win rate. It’s just that no improvements have been made to make it more fun or increase its popularity.
Explaining the danger a rise in Yorick’s popularity could cause, Riot August pointed out that “that would have constantly broken games”. According to him, the champion did not just have programming bugs that could cause it to malfunction, but “could break game servers”. A bug could literally cause the game to crash because from a bad interaction of his ultimate. In short, he presented the “most dangerous bugs” that have ever existed in League of Legends.
In this sense, Riot Games relieved themselves of a big burden with the release of the character revamp, as most of Yorick’s problems were in his old ultimate. With this ability, which is now completely gone, he could target a teammate to summon a spectral copy. And, if he died, he could take control of the ghost for 10 seconds, in order to continue the fight. A very interesting and unique mechanic that gave it a niche use that luckily players didn’t take advantage of.
Today, League of Legends runs much smoother. It is true that there are programming problems capable of bugging a game. However, things that “break the game” only do so figuratively.. It’s annoying when something doesn’t work the way it should, and we’re right to complain about situations like the new Yorick which still has dozens of bugs, but at least there aren’t any champions who can put end of the game due to what is called a fatal bug.
Bel’Veth will be the next League of Legends champion. A monstrous new addition to the jungler position that promises to make a lot of noise with its unique mechanics. While we’re still awaiting the final announcement of its capabilities, the release date doesn’t seem to be much of a mystery.