Battlefield Clutter in League of Legends

The success of League of Legends has long stood upon Riot's exemplary ability to provide quality content updates. Almost exclusively these updates are delivered in the form of new champions for the summoners rift. with over 100 champions available to play now, and considering the game released with only 40, Riot has to constantly dig deep into their creative vaults to come up with balanced and interesting new abilities for these champions. But are all of these design decisions helpful? Can they lead to a degraded gameplay experience?

Imagine with me a team comp with Thresh and Draven bot lane, Zac jungling, Syndra mid and lets just say Yorick top lane. Those teamfights would be the most cluttered and colorful ever, and that does not take into account the possible team compositions on the opposing team to add to the utter ocular assault. Most of the champions mentioned are fairly new to the fields of justice but old mainstays contribute to the clutter as well. I am not talking just big flashy spell effects though, I am referring to champions who have abilities that leave spells or minions or just extra animations all over the place. Every champion has their own unique animations, and that is just fine, but a champion like Jarvan leaves a lot more on the field than a Vi.

Now there are several potential problems I foresee if this trend of creating champions who drop or throw things all over the battlefield continues. One is the increased barrier to entry for new enthusiasts in League of Legends as an esport. While LoL continues to draw huge numbers for everything from the biggest tournaments down to daily livestreams, the game is still considered one of the most confusing esports for a casual viewer to watch. Now this is countered with solid commentating and good camera work, but at a certain point is it not just impossible to stay focused on one team? Or one champion in particular?

This leads to another problem with the cluttered battlefield: if one champion in particular is hard to follow, don't the players also suffer? Between Syndra's dark spheres, Yorick's ghouls, Zac's goo droplets and any number of other spell effects, how can you be expected to find that enemy teemo who is happily ripping your team apart? Or, if you are on the other side, how can you find those pesky Zac chunks that fly out once he takes fatal damage? I have been the victim of clicking on Jarvans flag while I am attempting to grab Thresh's lantern and be pulled to safety, and his flag is not the only ability that can get in the way.

As I mentioned before, Riot has been regularly impressive when it comes to creating fun and unique champions to play, and there is little that makes me think this will change anytime soon. While I do not think the game is currently unplayable by any means, I think this is something that needs to be considered as champions are released going forward. Take a few moments as you play this next week and see if teamfights with these champions are a lot more distracting than you remember. Send me a screenshot of a teamfight with the absolute most clutter possible or leave a comment describing when clutter on the battlefield got in your way.