The New Runeterra Annoucement Is Worse Than You Think

[@argenti1801]

It's funny seeing you mention HOTS because it's the only game I play regularly besides LOR. I started playing LOR in part for that reason : Hots was not doing too well and I needed a game with which I could be excited about again, have a community to discuss with again and have devs working on the game again (poor hots). This annoucement of "we're moving part of the dev team to other projects within the studio" sounds an awful lot like the same dev post Hots got some years ago. Here's hoping it's nothing, but seeing my 2nd game following the steps of the 1st makes me worryingly sad.

[@prestonluthy8563]

I am also a hots refugee. A couple different things: 1) This is Riot, not Blizzard. Blizzard actively cut hots from the knees, then the rest of the company fell apart. 2) The economic downturn is making companies all over the place cut staff. Every company needs to cut costs right now, so this is more of an economic trend than a state of the game trend.

[@pietroloz]

I was about to write a comment saying the exact same thing and seeing someone thinking exactly the same thing it's both funny and sad to think about. I love HOTS and LOR a lot, I hope they both get the attention they deserve as being both great games :(

[@ReigoVassal]

I love how the game is shorter and the build is based on character rather than items.

[@Aproximal]

Im a old HotS player too. Johanna main. It's always a game that comes out after the genre burns out or is dominated that just never gets the love it deserves. HotS did so many cool things. It was open, and the community friendly really. Runeterra feels that way. It's a different take on card games, that is friendlier. I love the lore. The voice acting. Everything. Shame Riot doesn't seem to...

[@thewatcherinthecloud]

I know what everyone is saying, but I want to add an extra note on @@prestonluthy8563 's comment: When Blizzard moved employees from HotS, they only had a few games they were working on. Now, when Riot says they are moving employees around, we know its because they are producing several RPGs, several adventure games, a fighting game, and are still centered in "improving" LoL. I have a feeling that even if they are "moved around", some of the moved devs will still come back and add to LoR from time to time. Also, to add, I don't think they're "moving" the devs who are focused on core mechanics, like card behavior and interaction. But who knows.. TL;DR, Blizzard moved employees due to lack of productivity. Riot is moving employees to increase and improve their game pool.

[@Snnuy]

I hope I'm wrong about what is really going on at Riot. EDIT: I'm aware that it's hypocritical to make this video and say "it's just doomsaying lol!!" because that's essentially what I'm doing, but I create these of videos to make viewers aware of what's going on in Runeterra, but also what goes on outside of the game. Seeing hateful comments that are somehow filled with more assumptions than I make in an entire video is a little sad, just complete disregard of anything that's said. I don't make these vids without doing any research or talking to individuals that might know more about the situation. A LOT of work goes into them, quite literally sleepless nights. I love Runeterra and I will support this game no matter what; but I want to show my concern when I think the game is heading in the wrong direction. Let me know what you think of the video and the way it's edited!

[@sarkyny5185]

The best expansion was Shurima ;)

[@frantisektichy7830]

scary

[@EvilCherry3]

6:40 Maybe the team was only 10people last year before making PoC and now they were 18 on pve (because it’s tons of work) and 2 on pvp and now they will be 10 on pvp and 5 on pve because this pve is almost completely finished building.

[@rexvyoli8657]

Sunny one of the voices LOR just like Necrit,Nickyboi,Tbskyen and Dinka in League. Keep up the good work bro 🙂.

[@MrPuch82]

There will be a message by the devs later (it's announced on the LoR reddit). I'm sure it will be all hope and sunshine, but I personally will slowly move away from the game. In my view it doesn't have a future and I don't want to be involved in a hobby I love being cut to pieces while I watch.

[@devastatheseeker9967]

Everyone: "Hey champion shards are kinda bad" Riot: Okay we'll put pve devs on the league fighter and blitzcrank game

[@TheJadeFist]

Everyone who simply wanted to play Jhin but the game says no jhin shards for you... "Ya thanks for listening Riot"

[@victorbenitez790]

I would think they would get moved to mmo team

[@dogmatika7]

I am in my late 30s and played Chess, Magic, Yugi, Hearthstone, etc. over decades now and one thing that is rarely discussed is, how superior LoR is to other card games. Its really the perfect blend of everything a card gamer could think or dream about. Serious - LoR is the best TCG/CCG ever made. And I think I am by no means subjective here. If you ever played Yugi or Hearthstone (which became horrible over time) you will clearly see that LoR is a truly skill based card game testing the limits of what is possible in a game that revolves around a certain amount of rng. IMO LoR still does not get the attention and reputation it deserves.

[@fancyboy3806]

LoR is mechanically the best card games rn, it have the interaction of Yu-Gi-Oh and the game flow of Heartstone

[@nekochan1659]

It's about promotion too

[@PioZeppe]

I still don't get why people enjoy Yu-Gi-Oh when LoR exists. Yu-gi was my childhood card game, I used to play it for many years and then left it, got back to it as soon as master duel was released and man... I never expected it to be so trash. I'm pretty sure people still enjoy it not only because it's a childhood game but also because they think that the card's artworks are the top quality among every other card game, and maybe because you can play it irl

[@qwteb]

I still prefer magic (particularly eternal formats, i dont play mtga), than LoR but since Magic is not super accessible online, LoR is what I play as a ccg. But for a physical card game mtg is still the most skill intensive card game out there

[@frostwindsgaming8645]

@@qwteb I used to love MTG but the problem with it is , balance is not good in MTG , it's a mess every single expension and they dont give a shit about powercreep cause they have the fanbase to not give a shit. People will defend OP shit in MTG when as LoR , people mald over unbalance and dont wanna play it. There's always been a player split in TCG/CCG I found absurd , there's players who LOVE abusing op stuff and those who don't and just wanna have a fun skillful match, and I think that's one of the biggest issues in games in general, narcissistic gatekeepers of op content cause they love abusing it.

[@gegegato]

I hope they never let the game die. It's my go-to game whenever I'm tired of playing Wildrift. It's so satisfying(?) to play, even if I lose I don't mald like in Wildrift or League. I bought a lot of cosmetics too to support the game (and also since they're deservedly beautiful cosmetics). I love watching your LoR streams too whenever I'm having a bad day. Riot, please. :(

[@shintruth2716]

Don't think they'll ever drop it, it would be very negative for their public image as one of the most pro player company. They could decide to bearly keep it afloat with 2 expansions a year and 1/2 balance patches in between though.

[@Gaze73]

@@shintruth2716 Exactly what I was thinking. If the game breaks even or loses a million bucks a year they can afford it.

[@SanaTT]

I was so happy when the game was launched. finally a game that hit the spot perfectly I also loved league content but wasn't interested in playing the game itself. lor was the perfect game for me to exploit he champions and the stories it would be such a shame if a game like this kick the bucket tbh

[@toohardtothink1113]

I love playing pve. I only play pve or bots, because (I know its a card game but come on) every time I played against people they would take so long to end their turn. They would wait until the very last second of the timmer to end their turn and I just dont have the attention span to wait and stay engaged that long.

[@davimanggala3452]

True. They has 0 mana but still wait for the edge of the timer to end turn.

[@zayn841]

in contradictory, i dont like playing against AI due to the cringe action that AI makes.

[@gegegato]

This too. Pve was faster to play (as an adult gamer with responsibilities) :(( I hope Riot never shuts LoR down :( it's my go-to game whenever I'm done playing with Wild Rift or League, it's just so relaxing.

[@Rowdysnake]

My exact same opinion. I would love to play more PvP but it’s so aggravating spending 20+ minutes on one single game just to realize I’ll lose anyway because my opponent uses their whole time EVERY single time.

[@bondantrisetyoprihanto3230]

AI being harder than player sometimes😂

[@avekakristianto1314]

PvE is tbh very fun to play, it just enable cards to be straight out broken and where you can combo like a maniac. playing jhin with 'all spells cost 1 less' and 'kat's dagger every round start' has been the most fun i experience in this game. i mean srsly 6 stunned curtain call, thats just beautiful

[@agungrezkyramadhan8664]

Me who got 2 there's-50%-chance-to-create-a-0-copy-of-me-spell items on that 1 cost teemo's spell: this is perfectly balanced game. And sometimes I got teemo with attack: nab 1. The game has some sense of humour.

[@Ziel23987]

Give Eternal Remitter a try, if you see him. All of his powers are absolutely batshit insane. All cards -2 cost? Especially with Jinx and massive draws. Mageseeker is almost as insane, free final spark pell spell cast just made my last run

[@JohnPaul-nb5iu]

You should try hearthstone and yugioh. Then you can do all that in pvp too.

[@dee5559]

Yesterday i played with Jhin and the dagger every round, with the costs 1 less and draw a card enhancements, the "stun 1 enemy each round" starting power, and like 4 of the new minotaurs who give your spells "kill damaged or stunned enemies", man what a blast!!

[@random_access_memory]

I have Jhin with the cast cannonball barrage equal to the cost of the hero thing, its so fun

[@Lost_In_Neverwhere]

Great video, Sunny! I agree with you 100%. Also, for me at least a lot of trust is lost now since Riot's 180 on Path of Champions. I always thought they were as honest to us as possible but trying to sell axing Path of Champions and removing devs from the game as "refocusing on PvP" feels like PR talk like something Activision or Blizzard would do. I still love the game but man, those last few days were kinda awful.

[@rG1vZ]

Pvp is legit the worst part of LOR path of champions is the best pve content of any card game I've ever played

[@protoss5758]

@@rG1vZ Not really, the pve is a joke. Way too easy unless you go out of your way to gimp yourself or are iron elo in pvp. Hearthstone's was better.

[@rG1vZ]

@@protoss5758 hard disagree friend. I love hearthstone's constructed and duels. ( I find them much more relaxing and engaging to play) buy hs' pve is boring and doesn't keep me replaying them. Idk LOR's pvp is such a hassle to play

[@Cinskix]

PVE is the most fun part of the game since it brings lots of randomness with the roguelike elements. PVP feels very limited and feels like repeating same patterns all over again. Also depends too much on the luck(or choosing decks that's currently OP/broken atm)

[@albertoencinar95]

It's funny they say this now after ruining Path of champions with a shity shard economy I have played it for 2 weeks non-stop until I get blocked not being able to upgrade or unlock other champions because I have a lot of shards for the one I have already at max and almost none for the other's

[@saifeddineelfateh4498]

Am hard stuck not being able to upgrade my lux ....I had to play with other champions yet I didn't get a single shard for lux .....wtf rito

[@DustD.Reaper]

Missing 4 of the 12 avalible champions and have 45 Jhin fragments with him on 3 star for a week already, making me waste 4 DAILY CAPSULES...makes sense.

[@saifeddineelfateh4498]

I didn't like replaying the same adventure for every champion every single time......

[@saifeddineelfateh4498]

I liked the idea of defeating some adventure with 3 champions to unlock the next lvl but I am required to play demacia yet the single demacian champion I have is lux and she hard stuck at 1 star lvl I can't upgrade her ....I've been playing for a week yet I couldn't get a single shard for her

[@albertoencinar95]

@@saifeddineelfateh4498 I have the same problem but with bilgewater

[@micheladax]

It must be due to the MMO they are creating, those kind of games requiress a lot of people, also if they want to expand the lore, is the way they choose to go

[@ivangonzalez7292]

I'm really enjoying these videos, especially this one, very informative and nicely produced. I didn't know about this situation and tbh this looks really bad, but thanks for taking the time to do the research and inform everyone ^^

[@eraea9179]

With how crazy LoR is at lore building, i think the PvE devs got moved to other games that sorely need lore.

[@z3sleeper588]

The devs that work on gameplay and the devs that work on lore are separate. I imagine the lore team is actually just one team that handles both League and LoR lore since they're the same lore.

[@matthewcuevas3231]

This was horrible news for me as well. I LOVE POC. 90% of my playtime is POC, partly because I have young children and I like a game that I can leave and come back to without worrying about turn timers or being kicked for being idle for 2 minutes. I also really enjoy the meme deck building aspect of it. Getting OP abilities and trying to pull of outrageous plays is extremely enjoyable for me. I really hope they don't cut POC entirely, and that the updates come at least every 3 months.

[@IceBen4444]

Without knowing literally anything behind the scenes it sounds like the devs moved up the ladder (which is good for them I hope - I personally love the idea of them bringing "PoC" to other games) - and filling the space with new blood isn't out of the question, they just won't innovate for a while.

[@marajango]

Well, it looks like LoR was making the least profit of all the Riot games, so instead of moving up the ladder I see them cutting costs and salvaging what they can to put their resources (devs) elsewhere.

[@freddykrueger8076]

@@marajango It literally can only be this. You don’t move Devs to another game because “they are doing well”. There are only 2 reasons that that happens. A) They are being punished and sent to a worse game or B) The game they made is failing and they need to cut costs Presuming this isn’t a punishment, this means LOR is failing its profit markers and they are downsizing to save money. This isn’t a matter of getting new blood or promotions. This is them trying to sugercoat the fact they are permanently downsizing the dev team because the game is failing. However this will create a cascade effect. With less Devs the game will do more poorly, which will force them to reevaluate the Dev team and downsize further. Until eventually Riot shuts down LOR permanently. Whoever did this braindead move likely didn’t understand the Devs would have been just fine with this inflated hyper-interest in the game recently, and if they didn’t downsize, the game would be fine. But nope, people who don’t know shit gotta meddle.

[@wintersands2231]

Hearts to all who believed in the Mono Shurima Copium

[@aintheidot9111]

The shard economy for POC is really frustrating, as I'm having a hard time getting any of my champs to 2 stars despite the consistent grinding. I feel like they are trying to make the gamemode more focused on being a roguelike, but are losing the magic of deckbuilding. Only have 3 choices to choose from, with no way to influence what items you are allowed to pick from usually ends up cluttering up the deck. Minmaxing specific cards are extremly broken, as it also adds copies of it to your deck. I have a lot of issues with the way POC is currently working, but I hope they can fix it, as it should be pretty easy.

[@peschionator7873]

PoC really needs more optimization. One can earn shards for champs that are already maxed and I dont like how they force you to play certain champs to complete the quests in hope to earn shards for champs you actually want to play. I really hate to play Yasuo but I need a certain amount of games to grind ressources. I am actually at the point that I need to wait for weekly quests to benefit from playtime because I already finished all the quests that are available. They also didnt deliver the feature that you can change your base deck yet.

[@Deltastream7567]

@@peschionator7873 I mean, I understand why they designed it that way and that is to force engagement. Imagine how fast it would take you to complete Path if you had direct access to the champs you wanted and didn't have a certain region restrictions to move on. It'd be easy, you play the content that you want and disregard what you don't. Now think of this current system. All of a sudden, you have to grind for all content cause it becomes relevant to progress. So they force you to care about all content and increases your grind time, which is probably what they want to see.

[@peschionator7873]

@@Deltastream7567 I get why they do it but it should have been handled differently. The quests already force you to gain exp on different champions to progress on its other systems (like getting level 8 on 5 different champions which is almost half of the available roster). I would have never tried Garen without it but now I enjoy him a lot. Nonetheless some of the region requirements force you into specific champions you dont want to play and give you no alternative. I cant stress how much I hated my runs with Yasuo, but with my only way forward I had to play him to get to the parts I actually enjoy. It would have been way more enjoyable if an adventure forces you to win with champs from different regions to gain their rewards instead of specific ones or have a certain objective that can be only completed with certain champions like "deal x overwhelm damage" (Darius, Illaoi), "stun x units" (Yasuo, Jhin) or "deal x burn damage" (Jinx, Annie). Not to mention that through the specific story chapters and their respective rewards you are already incentivised to play all of the champs.

[@oniuserjh]

​@@peschionator7873 i feel like the champs ive played so far have baseline decks that are WAY better than old PoC, i could not imagine having to deal with another base deckline like tf's(who was also trash), there are some that feel a bit clunky until you get that free mana from 2 star, like yasuo. but some just seem good out the gate, annie is good. JINX feels like the best champ in POC, gets be aggro, burn and control at the same time without change her gameplan at all, impossible to lose unless you are under-starred, or you tried to fight the poros. Also helps that they rebalanced some of the old encounters: Karma, Kelp Maidens, Nautilus's path no longer has tough

[@LutraLovegood]

@@Deltastream7567 I was already grinding for relics and levels, but now I don't have a reason to grind since you don't need to for relics, I get stars at random, and the champs I like aren't available at all (Poppy, Nami, Yuumi, Lulu...)

[@lucastavares206]

Havent seen much conversation about this topic on youtube. On twitter and reddit, as far as i know, none has responded to some of the concerns. Im worried.

[@oatmealftw]

Was looking for someone that was going to talk about this exact topic! Something you didn't mention in this video is that the Expeditions game mode was axed for PoC, and just a few weeks after it's axed we're now getting news of this. It's scary to me, as someone who LOVES the PoC gamemode (especially since it gives me progress towards decks I can use in PvP). I got even more invested into it for 2.0, and was hyped with them revealing that PoC has a majority of the playerbase. But now, a complete 180??? Are the future updates they originally were planning cancelled entirely?

[@justhaku9240]

YOOO! I'm so glad you're making more of these videos I didn't expect one for another month, thanks sunny!

[@jackintos]

Riot needs people like snnuy that are emotionally invested in Lor . Allthough They have done a great job creating this game as a trully free to play game (something that any other card game fails to accomplish) Riots decision-making alot of times makes no sense . There are so many things that make me love this game and i trully hope it keeps doing well and to have the audience it deserves . A big thank you to all the content creators that are trying to keep this game healthy.

[@Rumu11]

I think them possibly being satisfied with path of champions as a framework could also contribute. If they need less developers working on the engine side, and just need more content, that might be able to explain why they are moving developers away from it. It’s still scary to hear about regardless, and probably not the entire reason if it even contributed to the reason.

[@michielvanmol3529]

I think this was what they were planning to happen from the start. As someone pointed out in a tweet Riot has a couple projects in the making that could include a decent chunk of PVE about which we haven't heard much about. They overstaffed LOR specifically on the PVE side so that these people could deliver the current aweosome PVE experience to then take what they had learned from making the new POC and implement it in the other non-released projects. After all I'm pretty sure that RIOT knew from the start that the PVE side would be harder to monetise than PVP. With the release of the new POC I think they reasoned all the new stuff should be able to keep the PVE players busy for a while so they don't have to focus on making new a huge amount of new content for it in the near future. It is important to point out that they specifically stated that this shift in focus is "for now" and thus temporarily. It is true however that LOR could use a little bit more PR from RIOT's side. To be honest I think a lot of people are drawing too many conclusions from an announcement that basically said "Hey guys, we're gonna focus more on PVP for now. See you in the next update." I understand the concern about the reallocation of developers though.

[@steps8140]

Yes, but copium

[@leagueofrazor]

hello i'm starting a channel playing legends of runeterra come if you like :3

[@balintgyuri6555]

Runeterra is fucking amazing! Best card game I ever played. In HS, you are always up against other people and you can't complete any quests against bots, also it is very much pay to win. I also tried Gwent, but it was kinda meh. It is similar to Runeterra, but still has some monetization. LoR is an entirely F2P game. I love it how I can just play, get my weekly vault, get champions and so on. Path of Champions was great too, it was the gamemode that got me interested in the game again, and hearing that it would get an update got me excited. Jhin is my favorite champ in LoL, and I was so excited when I heard that he was going to be in the next expansion! Overall the best gaming experience I had with card games.

[@Mexaze_]

For me PVE can be challenging because you can't build your own deck because it was all about survivability with given cards and passive powers but I still enjoy the game because these bot sometimes can outsmarted you when you started playing 2+ stars...

[@balintgyuri6555]

Yeah, that part is also frustrating, I just got Garen unlocked and I couldn't beat Katarina with a midrange deck

[@Ranakel]

It's easy for enfranchised players to kinda lose touch with the casual perspective but in this case, according to my own experience, you were pretty spot-on! I never played nor wanted to play any game by Riot whatsoever. Had an aversion to it in fact. But, a mix of Path of Champions coming out and MtG Arena getting too costly to justify meant I gave it a try, and actually loved it. And as a result dipped into a bit of PvP modes. I remain mainly PvE, but that's what drove me to stick around, and to seek out content creators that help process through the new stuff. And like, right now, the new PvE mode is great, but the fact they had to take formerly PvE characters out means that what should be an upgrade feels like one step forward and one step back. At first I was pretty understanding because, well, that's the launch and they're gonna expand it at a pretty rapid pace, right? But that posts seems to say that this ain't happening chief, and well, that.... May make my periods of interest in the game more sparse than they otherwise would be.

[@leagueofrazor]

hello i'm starting a channel playing legends of runeterra come if you like :D

[@Hornzer]

@Snnuy Could you tell me what the music is you're using in the background is at ~3:45? I'm getting mad nostalgia.

[@zzcryxutyrcfjytf]

Everyone doomsaying and exaggerating about the death of the game truly have no insight in game development or working at studios like Riot. The company has been focussed on competitive multiplayer games at its forefront: league, valorant, tft, the league fighting game (in dev), the league mmo (in dev). Runeterra started out just the same as a core ccg multiplayer experience, but PoC was an unexpected popularity outlier that grew from just a simple lab. It is much more realistic to look at it from the approach of "woah, we're investing a lot of resources into a passion mode that has split the core audience of the game and is *years* away from being fully completed as envisioned." For the team LoR has, which was already small, a project like this is simply not feasible, especially while simultaneously updating the ccg and pushing competitive esports. This is the same reason why league stopped having new rotating modes or PvE content. It makes much more sense to take the talent working on projects like these and move them toward major releases, including the MMO which is undoubtedly Riot's biggest creation in the works that has sapped devs from all across the company. The game is not dying, it is being refocussed, path of champions was never meant to have a forefront on LoR, but I genuinely am surprised that higherups gave it as much time as they did.

[@QBiggie95]

Quite frankly, the love for the PvE comes from variety in gameplay. I see 6 decks every day in pvp atm. There's so much room for experimentation but the incentive is low as hell because there is more value to climb with fast decks that tend to beat slower more combo-fun decks. I'm not surprised that pvp fell off at all. Go face/ get panth buff builds are just not fun to play against and are so prevalent under this format and many of the cards of the past cant keep up with the tempo.

[@youtubesucksbutts]

What kills me about LoR is the utter lack of communication from the devs. Their in-game roadmap calendar doesn't get updated until AFTER the events it's updating to. I have no idea what is on the docket for June because they don't post it in game and I'm not interested in chasing their social media teasers. Hell, I didn't even know there was an expansion coming with PoC 2.0.

[@dungao958]

I understand what you wanna say, the announcement LoR team sent us is really sad to hear. But let's be optimistic, I (hopefully) dont think they mean to do that, and they are truly focusing on pvp. Maybe new game mode or entertaining will be released so that the pvp player base will grow up. Never give up hope

[@OneCSeven]

bro… youre just setting yourself up for failure

[@Whitedudeabove]

The problem is that PoC has so much untapped potential and can also generate them a lot of money if implemented well. They have a lot of features they announced in dev logs that aren't in the game. One big example, and the one I was personally most excited to see was Custom Decks. The ability to change your starting deck. That can add a lot of variety to runs with the same champion. But it also plays into how they can monetize it. Right now, there's no reason for a PvE player to ever get new cards. If they made it so that you need the champion to play it and cards you own can be freely added to your starting deck. Maybe even the pool of cards that are available to you in a run are only cards you own. Then this would be a huge incentive for a PvE player to actually get cards. I would love to make custom decks for PvE runs, and it would definitely get me to spend some money to get the decks I want. But instead now they're removing a lot of support for PoC despite A LOT of changes needing to be done to the current system. Such as the dumb shard system that literally no one likes. Or the fact that you can get excess shards for champions that are already maxed out. Just leaving the game mode after so many changes need to be made is just a slap in the face to PvE players. And it honestly makes me lose motivation to play the game at all, PvE or PvP. Because it just feels like there's no point if this is how they're supporting it.

[@solitudesf8111]

running low on hopium supply. i hope there are enough people at riot who see the true value of LoR and who wont let the game die. but im also interested if we are going to see pve/roguelite focused gamemodes in other games.

[@Panarchy.]

I started playing LoR again with this new update, and path 2.0 was so exciting! I was disappointed that they reduced the champion roster, but they said they would be adding back more champions so... all good, right? I was playing for hours at a time and enjoying all the time spent. But when I read this announcement, all my desire to play the game went away in seconds, and I haven't touched it since. Re. statistics and higher ups - it may be that most of the player base is playing and enjoying the PVE modes, but that those players spend less on LoR. I guess the higher ups are thinking about LoR profit first, rather than realising that it can serve as a loss leader for the runeterra universe in general (and the sheer quality of gameplay you get for the price of absolutely nothing must be great for generating good will sentiment towards Riot?) And by the way, I probably wouldn't have watched Arcane if not for LoR. I will probably buy and play other runeterra games, and the only reason I am still invested in that world is LoR. I just do not enjoy PvP any more. I hope we will get another announcement soon clarifying exactly what the future looks like for this game.

[@MajiinBae]

I love these videos, I think it's the best LoR content and it's not even close

[@Anthony-ye3uv]

Something I didn't see mentioned is that Tencent's financials are currently in a bad state. They've missed targets for the last two quarters quite significantly and their year over year income and profit margin have each dropped by 50%. Tencent owns 100% of Riot games and at this point is very likely looking to cut costs and stabilize. Of course it wouldn't come in the form of Tencent telling Riot "pull LoR devs," it would look more like "You need to finish and release your other projects sooner, and we're reducing your budget by 10%." With LoR not being heavily monetized, and without Path of Champions building in new monetization, it makes sense that leadership would reassign members. That being said, LoR is the best card game - in many cases one of the best games period - that I've ever played. If that want to monetize it more, do it. I will buy every event pass and a ton of skins. I'd rather they lower overall output for both PvP and PvE a medium amount, rather than reducing PvE content entirely. Regardless this news came across very poorly and I think many people are going to see LoR as a sinking ship - which in itself becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

[@Martician]

I would love for them to release Paid PVE story campaigns, where you explore the lore of a champion with it being voiced by said champions etc. But maybe thats just wishful thinking.

[@Whitedudeabove]

You mean like they hade with the Arcane event for PoC?

[@TheJadeFist]

It'd obviously be more work than a card game, but I always kinda wish they made a Diablo style game with the LoL engine and characters. If you remember the Star Guardian event, that was kinda neat and the game engine can basically do everything with them really only needing to make assets, and the controls can be the same.

[@iwatchstuffs7933]

​@@TheJadeFist there is still upcoming games such as a top down arpg, a fighting game and the league mmo

[@biowbe4522]

Yeah, i missed the comic in pve, they were sooo much fun, especially Jinx and Vi comics. They hits just the right spot for sibling rivalry.

[@Nintendo165]

Good informational video Snnuy, really liked the stuff that was in the video! I really hope that the pvp doesnt suffer like it did back in 2021 :( the worst time of LoR. On the editing side, I liked your informational side (like 5:05 or 6:30) a lot more than the random videos relevant to LoR in this video. It was more cohesive and easier to follow, where as the Cuts/jumps to content were a bit faster and harder to digest mentally/visually; if that makes any sense. 9/10

[@vuksavanovic375]

Hi Sunny and all you beautiful viewers. As one of your regular viewers I'd like to share my opinion on the issues you raised as I agree on them fully. Like yourself, I also enjoy strategy games, card ones especially, and LoR has been everything I wanted of the game because it provided lots of interactions between champs, champs and followers etc. I am a fan of lore and POC is what I was always waiting for as it brings us new stories, a way to further enhance our champ, without feeling salty or frustrated due to losing to a meta deck because you drew poorly and you just want to fulfill the daily quest and 3 wins. I play this game exclusively for fun, which means I do not like spending more then 2h per day but I like seeing this game prosper and the direction they took with PVE content, as PVP always has a very short life cycle due to so many pro players finding ways to exploit op cards to climb in ranked. I feel this game should explore PVE content and do events rather than expentions, like Void Attack, Mage Uprising in Demacia, ASol's revenge on Targon, Darkins, Black Rose etc

[@IjustWantedToPost]

I really like Path of Champions in its current state from a gameplay perspective but to be honest, I was really perplexed when I noticed, that Champions personal campaigns weren't featuring comic slide shows nor were they voice acted anymore. To me it felt like a regression, which was strange, because the Devs promised to enhance the Path of Champions experience in every possible way. Almost seems like funding was cut halfway into the projoect.

[@mchlup]

P.S. They finally have a great update in years and it's kind of sad to hear they are losing resources. I always turn to Path of Champions when the PvP is garbage (usually about 3-4 weeks after a new set release).

[@VocalSynthUtau]

respectfully, i dont understand why you are so certain that PoC is the smash success the LoR team claims it was. If PoC grew the games playerbase at all, this growth was not reflected in a single publically available metric. Twitch, youtube, twitter, reddit, by all metrics the LoR playerbase has been declining the entire time. The release of Arcane was a golden opportunity, one that any developer would pray for. very few of the people who picked up the game because of arcane stuck around. As opposed to TFT, whose playerbase is at an all time high. the higher ups at Riot clearly dont agree with the LoR team's assessment that PoC is a success, so why do you believe it? the LoR team had every incentive to mislead the playerbase about the health of the game. And it seems like they did, and they fooled many people, including you. But they didnt fool their bosses who can actually look at the data.

[@chrisgaines9966]

I saw your twitter please do not stop creating long videos. I really enjoy them

[@jaxmiller724]

I kinda disagree on the moving people being a problem. You're assuming there's perfect overlap between the pve and pvp team in skills and that they can just change them in and out, but what if one was something like scenario development or encounter development or the pvp guy works on matchmaking. They aren't necessarily good at creating pvp content and maybe they have specific skills useful for other games that aren't required after all the updates to path of champions. I think the better request is to hire more pvp focused staff than to try and shift people from department to department. It just feels like that old idea of "if they're working on this it means they aren't working on this" when they could be completely different teams with different skills.

[@YBthree]

Just a couple weeks later, riot drops an announcement for an mmo in the works. I would expect that they moved the devs to work on the mmo bc LOR by far does more for the world building of riots universe than any other game. Personally I’m really hyped for the mmo, but I can see how it can be disappointing to LOR players that just wanna play the card game

[@nnsdE]

Recent tweet from the game director of LoR says the reason they moved their devs was because they set their goal on PoC 2.0 too high and decide to moves their resource on... other project... They said PoC did well and yet this what they do. I wouldnt mind much if they moved some of their resource to other project if only they fixed a lot issue and bug current PoC has before moving on.

[@nunyah36]

they may say about the exp because the first 3 wins of the bonus exp you get for pvp win you get in path of champions as well but its separate you get it for the first 3 wins in each

[@More_tefi]

I think my opinion will be biased for PvP players, but I see this news is good for LoR overall. I think the purpose of this announcement is Riot telling us "LoR is one game. Not PoC + Ranked". Splitting devs team has the risk of each team has their own definition of what fun and what not in the game. Putting fewer devs and even fewer splitting could make the game move forward in a clear direction. Its like they're telling us that they'll try to make the game Fun and Balanced. Not just fun is for PvE and balanced is for PvP. They'll try to make both modes complement each other, even for each player base respectively. Don't get me wrong, I like this video, Snnuy got great analysis 🙏

[@ongseungwu4311]

Riot i don't care if you put ads just to keep the game alive

[@mrn_oobaka]

I think is a money oriented decision. Like, if you play only PvE, why buy skins for champions that are not in PoC, or why buy emotes, even boards. And cause people might preffer to play PvE, but they preffer to watch PvP. SO to the card game give money and still being relevant they should invest in PvP, no?

[@void2258]

I have been waiting for a fix to the shards issue before I play more Path of Champions. I liked it just fine, I just wasn't willing to put in a ton of time with a known issue. I just figured I would wait a couple weeks for a patch to fix this one minor issue.

[@hansarnaldbaja9180]

I am a PvE player but I respect competitive PvP players that got me so hype building my own decks and test it on normal games. I feel you, and I'm hoping Riot does need to balance both gamemodes as it is one game that's been split into two. No quarrels between two kinds of players in LoR because we do our own grind and enjoyment. And yeah I got hooked also the same way as you still playing it today and waiting things to get better.🥺

[@arkraith4148]

Wasn't it brought up that all devs had a choice in what projects they wanted to work on? The devs weren't forced into new positions from what I know

[@4pereal726]

I think it's fine as long as they deliver World walker expansion experience every update -Champs that makes sense to what they are in runeterra -Support cards for all archetypes -and more Buffs/Nerfs I Played the new PoC and I don't want to collect "shards" to unlock champs I just want to play them straight away And the shard collection is frustrating too because i got too much shards on 1 champ even though i got 3 star power already on that champ...

[@pinapple7482]

I agree. They made it way too grindy just to get the characters you want to mess around with. It'd make more sense if the only shards you get from completing a run are shards for that champion and reinstate the previous rule of being able to play any champion you own. I also don't like the fact that they took away a lot of playable champions. Just seemed like steps backwards to me

[@4pereal726]

@@pinapple7482 Yeah that's the issue too They removed most of the champions that you can play then call it a PoC 2.0 update? My first deck that i beat Viktor with is Ekko I hope they'll put him back :(

[@Koookiez]

Dude fuck the shards system it's so hard to unlock a certain champion you wanna try, and it's not even guaranteed you get shards at all after clearing a challenge, what the fuck riot.

[@JustACego]

As someone who just dropped pvp after reaching high elo and only play the PoC now, I'm really sad about all of this annoucements..... For me, is just a F

[@sarahtekh]

Im a bit late to the party, but ill leave my 2 cents here. While i do agree with many things you have said in this video I do also think it is completely possible that they just finished PoC 2.0 and now because they are happy with how it is the want to focus more on pvp and make it just as enjoyable and popular as pve. So while it is entirely possible that what you said is true. I personally think it that because PoC just got 2.0 now would be the perfect time to refocus on pvp.

[@staren1991]

Let's hope this won't become another game in the line of abandoned-by-higher-ups... (HoTS, ES Legends...)

[@ChessPieceHalloween]

Been averaging 4 hours a day in the new Path of champions finally beat Galio last night and unlocked Annie. Now the grind to get Annie to 30 begins

[@doctor-goggles]

I have been sounding the HotS alarm ever since the announcement. HotS was *my game* for three straight years and the announcement that they were moving devs to different projects hit like a ton of bricks. Really hoping for the best here but it don't look great

[@soshspotgames4380]

Heya. I found you from Rarran's videos. This is the first full video of yours I've watched. Just wanted to drop a comment to let you know that I love your series with Rarran, you're probably my favorite guest he's had...I love the way you explain things. I've never played Runterra so I can't really place this video into proper context, but I hope the game you love continues to grow and prosper. You got a new sub my guy. :D

[@user-yz9mi9rj1i]

that sentance on the end hit hard...

[@Vinicius-Bigode]

I've played LoR religiously from beta to Rising Tides, then l almost drop it several times. Everytime, when I was about to quit they kept adding new content, the timing was perfect. But I had enough when Irelia dropped. Azir/Irelia was so meta defining that playing ranked ment seeing that same cards over and over again, I quit 2 weeks later out of boredom. The only thing that kept me in touch was Labs and the many iterations of what is now Path of Champions and boy it was fun. Playing PvE ment that I can play Runeterra while working and that is a HUUGE thing for me. Being able to just pause and return later is such a big game changer that I went back to playing every single day. PoC saved the game for me and thanks to Worldwalker I finally find joy on PvP again. I mean they literally added my 3 favourite champions from League, Bard, Jhin and Illaoi. I don't think LoR is dead but this new announcement makes me... I dunno... Skeptical. Why would they do that...?

[@tolmir2929]

Yeah sadly legend of runeterra has never worked as well as they hoped it would which is just sad since it's not even a question of quality the game is very good but it just came to late the card game fade was nearly gone at this point, it's like heroes of the storm good game but the market was already saturated with moba and people have a hard time quitting game they are used to that's why league of legends as the first truly popular moba is still at the top to this day. What hurt me the most is that legend of runeterra was the first card game that was truly f2p and they failed which mean new card games probably will follow hearthstone system instead of Lor which is much more pay 2 win.

[@otherspooder6079]

Man I guess Runeterra is kinda dead for me I came back and really re-enjoyed path of champions before world walkers and while I enjoyed what was in the new path of champions, I am already done with the content(to clarify, I mean that I have beaten every boss to get their reward on the map, and did all the chapter quests, I could try and farm shards and champions levels, and ranks using dailies but that wouldn’t be fun without new stuff to fight against) and frankly confused why there aren’t comics or voice acted stuff in path of champions anymore. They had them and then just scraped them and I can only assume it is for some weird for lore reasons.

[@johnranbandeira1948]

The Smash Bros Brawl music in the background is just perfect

[@Geallach83]

The most annoying thing about this is the confirmation bias that the higher ups will get. When the PvE numbers plummet (because why the fuck will I waste time on a game mode that is doomed to stagnate), they'll see it as confirmation that they made the right call and pat themselves on the back. What a pile of crap.

[@terryanisaurasrex2207]

The executive producer of lor (@davetron) made a thread saying that it was their decision in reallocating resources and that it had nothing to do with poor performance or anything. You pushed the narrative that the developers didn’t want to do this but if this tweet is true then it was there choice to make and if so I fine with that.

[@NickCTorres]

i still don't get how the new chief/s reached such an idiotic reasoning: "we found out that the vast majority of players loves and spends most of their playtime on the PvE, so we're going to stop our budget, dedication and personal for it; the programmers and artists responsibles of it are going to be outsourced (kicked out) to other projects and we're going to focus on the part the least part of you play; remember how this game was supossed to be a source of lore for Runeterra's? we know the PoC with campaigns and aventures was perfect for it... So we're stopping that asap

[@Razmatschannel]

Removing expeditions without adding a draft mode straight away should have given it away. It’s sad because HOTS and LOR are legit my favourite games

[@leagueofrazor]

hello i'm starting a channel playing legends of runeterra come if you like :)

[@Diagala19]

one of the Reasons why i started to play LoR again was because of PvE. I am a huge fan of roguelikes and PvE and Path of Champions was so great with the enormous amounts of cards, effects and buffs that could make your games so broken and hillarious. Just imagine you play a Garen, that not only strikes the strongest enemy but also the nexus and gains stats for both strikes. Broken in PvP, but against a 3rd turn malphite it is completely fine, since everything is broken. Hearing that they would remove resources from PvE is such a downer. Especially if the resources won't be used to make new cards or balance them.

[@natenet1240]

Personally, I am one of those players who plays pve exclusively. This isn’t because I don’t think pvp is fun, I much prefer when my fav KZbinrs upload pvp rather than pve, the problem is that making decks is just too expensive. I don’t have enough shards or wildcards to make more than a couple decks. And even though I could probably make most of my more favored decks, and then just play those, it would still be restrictive. I play pve because I don’t have to buy any cards, and also because the powers and card items are really cool, but the main reason is just because I can play without having to spend almost all of my shards/wildcards. (I do realize that if I played more than just an hour or two per week I could probably have plenty of shards, but I don’t, because I still play other games, like the biggest time sucker of all, league of legends.)

[@mausebas]

Something that worries me is how lackluster the PoC 2.0 stories were, and how will it affect stories in other riot games

[@JVSkellington]

It's just the way Riot always operate, cut content, and when people complain, cut more.

[@silvwolfe2574]

Hi snnuy. Just found your channel. Saw your video with the hearthstone player and runeterra champions. Since you talked about the future of runeterra I have a question for you: I made this suggestion to riot a while back. What do you think about making a "path of champions" multiplayer mode, where instead of battling bots, we battle players, all while still following a battle map, starting with a random choice of champions and their respective starter decks. Perhaps also choose a "league," as in what star power level all the champions will be at. Would you want to try battling other players using 1 star, 2 star, or 3 star powered champions?

[@leonasunny3182]

I think its also about how they can make profits out of LOR, if we keep playing POC, we not gonna buy those arena, build our own deck and so on. Comparing LOR profit model with TFT's, the only time you can flex your style is through PVP, and its 1v1, whereas TFT is 1v7. Not sure how Heartstone makes money, any thoughts?

[@yitzchokbraunfeld8333]

I'm scrolling through the comments as I watch the video. It's fascinating how people get hard stuck on one single point that dislike. An annoying unlock system, for example. Or "Snnuy said one negative sentence in the video, so he's obviously a doom sayer" etc. Now that I finished watching the whole thing, I just wanna say thanks for such a great video on such a short call. You emphasized all the good points just as much as the bad ones, unlike the many haters on social media. Every opinion pointer made a lot of sense and I really enjoyed watching. Keep doing what you do!

[@ihavecrabs56]

i dont get it. why did they say they are focusing on pve, then a week later say they are refocusing on pvp? even though i am solely pvp, i dont like this. it does not make me feel confident in the games future. there are a few things i dont like about lor, but it is still my favorite card game to play which i do daily. i think we will see this game go the hots route and be put in maintenance.

[@udeanbambang1703]

please riot, dont fall into blizzard hole :(((

[@1nekrus]

Blizzard didn't fall into hole Activation dragged it in to the hole.

[@misterpreposterous5771]

Realistically, there's a bunch of PvE content in the pipeline that's finished already and can be released over time (very few adjustments needed, since it's PvE to begin with), but once that is fully out and if the team members won't be back by that time, there might be a longer break in PvE content updates (with potentially pretty big solo player campagin that should last a while).

[@LadyKaira]

I don’t think it’s gonna be as bad as some people are thinking. Using the example given, I don’t think they’re removing a quarter of the dev team, more than likely it’s like… 2.

[@SuperDanielHUN]

I don't think there is anything bad with this move. Reducing the size of a team isn't necessarily bad, and honestly they might just want to create a standalone PVE experience. We don't know how complex the backend of LOR is. Maybe making rule altering changes for path of champions is just too resource intensive, and it's better to create a completely separate game (maybe with its own monetization and more unique ideas?) I'd rather see a smaller, more efficient team in charge of the competitive side who have a clear identity on what the game should focus on.

[@dungbuitien738]

I think Riot is currently focusing only on WR, League and VALORANT. They give Riot more profit, and the fanbase of these games are much much much larger. Plus, eSports and stuff. Twitch viewership is incredibly low on average and only spikes during tournaments (like Seasonals or Masters) Probably Riot doesn't want to do a hard invest on LoR since not so many people are fond of TCGs/CCGs (comparing to other genres like MOBA or FPS).

[@Teldo]

Damn, very well written and produced video. I share your concern. I love LoR and I hope this news isn't as bad as it seems. Oh, also your last line touched me emotionally.

[@mawillix2018]

Riots only data source at the time of making the comment was tainted. You can't just "account" for that. Sure, they should have been able to see a shift in the amount of PvE players with the release of Path of Champions 2.0, but they haven't given an update (from what info I've been able to gather) on the state of PvE post PoC2. Riot not reconfirming that it's the most popular, or stating that the number of PvE players is growing might indicate a decline in the amount of PvE players.

[@00031849]

I hope that those pve devs went to the MMO from Riot at least. I will leave LoR once PoC doesn't get more updates but at least I'm looking forward for that MMO (Please don't suck! Please don't suck!!!)

[@mensrea1974]

I think this just tells us how little people were actually playing PVE. And I imagine there's been a drop off in PVP. Realignment of resources.

[@arphaxadbasilona1871]

If LoR started ''dying' 'just because PoC isn't gonna be the focus from now on, what does it say for the game in general? that this online CCG is basically dead in the water from the start and that only PoC is keeping it afloat now? I think not... I think what Riot is doing is just cutting their losses early on and accept the fact that they can't focus on two things at the same time at LoR... The ugly head of ''monetization'' will always come up and it is something that we should have expected, especially in the first days that PoC came about... but sadly, Riot didn't capitalize on that so much and instead botched up the implementation when 2.0 came out just recently...I'm not a fan of the game mode...even annoyed that they are integrating PoC stuff in the recent expansion card release videos...but I feel it's also asinine of them to keep the fans of PoC hanging high and dry with that announcement of them ''focusing more on PVP''... One thing I can see Riot come back to this is if they make the game mode as a stand alone single player game and sell it on Steam or some other digital storefront, because clearly trying to monetize it in the current game client isn't working out... the game is free to play...what did you expect? even if there are people willing to spend money on it, the way they designed the game and have assured the players from day 1 that it is conducive to the poor little gamer and not a pay to win whalefest like other card games like MTGA... So that''s what I think about all this doom and gloom... TL;DR: It sucks that PoC seems to be getting shafted but I don't think LoR will just ''DIE'' because of that...

[@z0mb13m0n]

And a couple hours later, the 'clarification' tweet from the game director drops in at Twitter lul

[@krevin543]

Legend of Runeterra is the best digital card game out there period. It wins in every category. Great things don’t last. I think we all know that and it is the reason why we should be so keen on enjoying the game as it is now.

[@Surxe]

I think this is an over-exaggeration. Devs are being moved away from PVE not because they think PVE is dying, but because POC 2.0 was such a success that they don't need much new content rushing into it.

[@GandalfTheSilver]

Obvious troll bait lmao

[@OverEngineeredMistakes]

8:00 I would like to see where anybody at Riots says LoR (a Riot Games PRODUCT) isn't made to make money. And if it really is, it shouldn't be a surprise to see developers leave for a paid job in another Riot team. I love LoR and I would hate to see it die but, being a developer myself, I would gladly kill it myself if it is maintained by developers paid in exposure. And if anyone say Riot have enough money from other game to paid them, first you don’t know that, second that not how that work and third Riot officially started the pay their employees depending on how much they work make Riot money (Calling the Shot: the Next Five Years at Riot Games; Jan 11, 2022 ) so no money made = low salary

[@aarondelacruz4208]

Thank you for highlighting what a lot of people missed. Behind the PR lingo, the message I see is: 1) PoC will require a lot of investment to expand and doesn't return any of it 2) Refocusing on PvP means more cards to be created and sold, which means ROI 3) Loss o devs in the core team, if they're being moved it's because they're GREAT talent 4) Riot has more faith in other games by reducing LoR's priority for scale Disappointing, but with LoR's business model compared to Hearthstone's (even though I hate it), LoR is not in a position to make money for Riot. In the end, games need money to grow and expand. And they haven't been able to monetize PoC.

[@itsyaboiherman]

As a new player to this game....this is very sad to hear

[@jaggededge11]

The problem I had with playing PVP was that there really wasn't any incentive to grinding out games (Especially in ranked). Even if you did manage to get spot in the end of season tournament (Whether through Gauntlet or Rank), the payouts for participating were almost non-existant (Minus the exclusive sleeves and icon). That being said, the game is absolutely amazing.

[@lukaspohorelsky1108]

2:00 I can hear you there ruins theme!

[@Jinkuzu]

I was around for the launch of the game but lost traction as I have finite time of the day to play games. Which other games held my attention better mostly due to what intresst I had at the time. Did end up getting back into LOR like 2 weeks ago and havig a good time, just playing more POC simply cus I want to grind up amount of cards I can play with and nice to play on my lunch break at work.

[@Helikite]

Honestly I don't believe that they will abandon LoR like HoTs. I know riot as a company is greedy but they know that if they pull the plug on LoR they don't just lose players in LoR but in league as well. It would cause too much uproar.

[@eolyas1664]

Wanna know the only good point of less devs into PvE ? No more card release showcased in PoC with weird items that'll confuse players. Very good video, I love those kind of videos that summarize what I think. Makes me feel like I'm not alone despairing. :(

[@colledeicorvi7422]

I don't get why they reduced the team size... Did they expect to have a smash hit as big as lol? This game is my favourite card game ever, I love both PvP and pve

[@osoperezoso2608]

I don't think this is "doomsaying". The people that complain about that need to get a grip with reality. I work in software as a person of strategy for our product and this is NOT a good sign by any means. You're pretty on point with your own analysis here. All we can do is wait and that's it. I'm not quite sure I want to wait around, however. There are plenty of other games I can play with good resources.

[@void735]

My problem with runterra is after Targon faction came it became sonhard about spamminh spells and getting more cards in hands that free deck making for fun became unwinable. That and ranked became more or less rock papper sissor of the current meta decks