League of Legends: UI update, Riot, WHY?!

Two months ago League announced that they would be doing a user interface update, though not many people noticed announcement this including myself. The result was starting a match and being ridiculously confused. Everything had shifted to different spots which made for a rough first ten minutes. I really shouldn’t have to figure out where the shop is mid-game.

Credit Riot Games

Credit Riot Games

The Cons

The biggest con for me is that no one was really aware of this update. It wasn’t advertised on the main League screen, so for those who didn’t think to seek out this HUGE change, you had no idea it was coming. When I played a match yesterday I was shocked to see that everything had changed. I have been playing League of Legends for years, and to have this thrust upon me was an unwelcome surprise. If you’re a new player this is an easy adjust, but for the veterans, it is downright confusing.

The shop has moved completely, along with your player stats, which you don’t see until you click the little helmet icon below your champion picture. For players that like to keep tabs on their champion statistics, this is just one more thing to click and open. Why isn’t it permanently open? Knowing how much damage you’re dealing is a huge in game asset. For the new players coming to League, this will be an issue.

The small text is frustrating. Though I should be wearing my glasses while playing, I don’t, and it took some searching to find how many kills we had versus the enemy team. Right above your mini map is a tiny little piece of text that shows you this, instead of the top right hand corner where it used to be.

Your team is now visible right above your mini map, in little bubbles. The left hand side was more obvious and made it to where you always had tabs on your team whether you were paying attention or not. These tiny team bubbles are frustrating; where are my glasses?!

The Pros

No longer do you have to press “tab” to see how long it will be until the enemy will respawn. It is now shown above your teammate’s counters directly above the mini map. This is a welcome change since it was distracting to be in lane and have to pull up the enemy team’s stats to see when the ADC would be back.

The ult countdown is a neat little feature. This enables you to time that Annie stun ult just right (assuming Annie knows how to play Annie correctly). This feature has been long overdue, as people have been asking for it for years. Now you don’t have to ask your teammates when their ults are up; it already shows you. Hopefully your teammates use their ults correctly!

It is streamlined. Everything is in the same general area, and after we get used to it, this will improve performance.

Overall

The UI update is like a Facebook update. Do people want it? No. Did we ask for it? No. Do we like it? Definitely not. The forums are in uproar over this needless change. Will we deal with it? Unfortunately, yes.

Riot won’t be changing their UI back any time soon unless they see a substantial drop in players which will never happen. A better way to go about this is allow people to use the old UI while still having the new one available. It is asking a lot, but having that option would appease a lot of angry people.

Are you listening, Uncle Rito? If you would like to take a stand, or see the outrage, click here for the board.

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Author: Lexie Proctor View all posts by
Currently attending Central Washington University, I am an avid gamer stuck in a little town. I am a PC gamer with a taste for horror games and gore. Constantly talking about my cats, tarantulas, and my great need for sushi.