u/Party-Translator-799

Sorry for grammar, i'm not a native speaker.

3 out of my 5 most Played champions have been reworked so far and it is one of the reasons i quit league a while ago. I feel like a had a tendency to enjoy "outdated" champions, because of their straightforward mechanics and clear but odd identities. I feel like many modern champions lack identity because it is being watered down by flashy mechanics, complicated concepts and power often being distributed evenly over the whole kit instead of being driven by one or two abilities. This might be a little controversial but especially that last part is really important to me. I loved old pantheon and old Skarner due to them having a clear built in gameplan and clear weaknesses, while still having extremely unique playstyles and vibes.

Pantheon is still an earlygame lanebully that roams at 6, but in a more balanced way. They nerfed his q into the ground and distributed its power to his e and his passive. That might be "objectively healthy for the game", but it sacrifices a part of Pantheons soul. Q was what made him feel like Pantheon (to yourself as well as the enemy), now he feels like a regular melee fighter.

Same deal with skarner. Sure, his kit is more well rounded, less reliant on flash and the enemies mistakes and therefore objectively fits the game better, but i don't feel like that's what it's about. Old Skarner had a presence that new Skarner lacks. If you dueled him inside of the spires he would f*ck you up, if you didn't respect his flash-r he would pull you out of position. He was one of the only successful support-fighters and therefore really brought something to the game. Now he's just a cc tank.

Same deal with Nunu (don't get me wrong, new nunu is awesome), or Akali. They really brought something to the game back then.

I feel like with 150 champions in the game, not every champion has to have a high playrate and a universally appliccable kit. Champions being weird and filling niches is healthy for the game, it gives character. I vividly remember me and my boys laughing our asses off on discord because the enemy toplaner had 5 farm at minute 11, because everytime he walked up he would eat a pantheon spear, but still losing the game because we didn't manage to close out the game in time. It's frustrating, i get why riot removed that shit, but it made the game emotionally engaging. It made league feel like a game. Hell, i don't even think every champion needs to be viable. Old nunu objectively sucked ass for example, but in the right situation he was able to cheese games in really creative and fun ways.

So my take is: Riot shouldn't be taking those designs from us, they should be celebrating them. Simple isn't bad, frustrating doesn't mean it needs to be removed. I think that's what made old league so magical. Oh, and f*** competetive play. It is totally fine if certain champions are unplayable in competetive, there's no reason to ruin solo queue-heroes for the top 0.00001% of players.