The second split of Season 14 has just begun. Let’s break down what has changed and where the meta is at. 

Since last year, Riot Games decided to ‘split’ each season that used to go on for almost the whole year into sections that last for several months.  

The current season, Season 14, is the first season where one season is divided into 3 splits, and the second split of the year was released just about a week ago. 

The intentions of the split system are quite questionable. Regardless of the fact that Riot Games claims to be implementing it to alleviate the players’ obligations to maintain their ranks, it still sparks some doubt in me and I’m wondering if it’s actually necessary. 

Although I am pretty confident that Riot Games has other priorities to attend to in order to make the game better, the focus of this review will not be on that matter but will rather provide an overview of what major changes have been made and what I think the state of the game will most likely look like.  

Please note that this review will generally be readable for those who are already familiar with League of Legends to some degree, as it will be too wordy and complicated to explain every gaming term in one article. 

The Changes 

Patches are quite regular in League of Legends (LOL), as minor ones take place every other week.  

However, major game changing shifts follow with the end of a season. In the case for Season 14-2, the changes are summarised as below.  

The most conspicuous and controversial changes are definitely the removal of Lethal Tempo (my condolences to Yasuo and Yone) and Corki’s huge rework, making it more viable for an AD Carry role for the first time in about 10 years.  

Having played some games and looking over the statistics in the early few days of the split, I honestly think the game is in the most balanced state I have ever seen.  

I have been playing this game since Season 3 and there would always be that one, or sometimes more than one, champion that is so broken that people must either play it or ban it to win.  

However, this did not seem to be the case for 14-2, as there was no such champion in any lane, at least for the current patch. There were a lot of champions that were functioning well in the meta, whereas it used to be only a few that were usable.

So, in terms of balancing, the game seems to be in a pretty good spot. However, it does not mean that every champion is balanced – there are still those champions that are hitting rock-bottom on the tier lists, and I really hope they soon get the rework or buffs they deserve, just like Skarner did last season. 

Nevertheless, I am still quite satisfied because I did not (yet) and will not have to deal with any champions that make you feel utterly helpless. 

The Current Meta 

My overall view of the current meta is that it’s slow and simple. By the game being slow, I am referring to the tempo of the game.  

In the past seasons, I remember games would often end up only lasting for 15 – 25 minutes. Sometimes maybe 40 minutes at max. 

But now, everything feels much slower. Games normally went over 25 minutes at minimum, unless everyone lost their minds and ff’d. 

The game is also simple because it’s so slow. Since no matter what you do early game has such insignificant impact on the outcome of the game, there’s not as much tactic or strategy to think about before 20 minutes in.  

There are so many factors that led to this current meta, for instance the nerfs on tower plating, nerfs on drake souls, faster respawns, etc.  

All of this was intended by Riot Games because their main focus for the past few years has been trying to get new players into the game.  

The barriers for entry are way too high at the moment. As a result, the devs are trying to make the game simpler and more braindead for new players to join. 

To be quite honest, I am actually for Riot Games on this, for once. The game was slowly dying, and I would have been surprised if anyone tried to learn this game in 2024.  

As League is one of my favourite games, I really hope the directions of these patches will really attract more newcomers and enlarge the player base. 

Anyways, let’s move on to the last part of this review, which is my thoughts on the current impact of each lane. 

Impact of Each Lane 

As you all know, there are 5 lanes in League of Legends – Top, Jungle, Mid, ADC and Support. Every lane has a unique role and obviously has had different impact on shaping the state of each match. 

The impact of each role changes significantly along with each major patch that happens every season, so I would like to share my thoughts on what I think it looks like as of now. 

I tried a few games for each role and in a nutshell, they all feel somewhat balanced.  

Similar to the balancing of each champion that I mentioned previously, there was not a single role that had way more impact over the others. 

It felt like there will not be a high chance of ever solo carrying the game in the current meta, and you must rely on your teammates to some degree. 

To begin with, the top lane seems fairly less impactful than the other lanes, as it was always. The meta is still centered on the bot lane (AD carry and support) and the value of drakes, which are the objectives on the bottom side of the map, is still more significant than the grubs that are on the top side. 

Even so, I would like to say it has gotten better than the previous seasons only because the game is much slower, and top laners usually start to have impact in the mid to late game.  

On the other hand, the jungle role is still one of the most impactful lanes since it can practically be wherever the player wants to be hence minute 3, but since the game is so slow, the impact is much less significant than it used to be like in Season 5. 

In the past, a few ganks from the jungle were often game changing and consecutive ganks to one lane would most likely have resulted in that lane being unable to play for the majority of the game. 

However, such ganks are pretty pointless in the current season, because however far behind you get from being ganked, there is always a chance to come back later on, as the game will last for at least 20 minutes.  

As a result, I ended up effortlessly clearing my camps and ganking whichever lane seemed gankable afterwards, which was an unusual experience.  

In the past, every gank mattered, and I would have had to stress about which lane to prioritise and face the backlkash of any lane I didn’t gank. 

Although this is still true to some extent, it’s less stressful now because no matter what anyone says, the match will still go on, in comparison to it ending quickly in previous seasons. 

Next up is the mid lane, which felt like the most uncomplicated role at the moment.  

When I was playing on mid, it was just a game of killing creeps for 15 minutes and following the jungler afterwards.  

There was very little trading or skirmishing in the early laning phase, probably because the lane is physically shorter than the others, so coming back from base after dying or recalling is significantly quicker. 

There seems to be little reason to invest your resources in taking your opponent laner down because it’s just not as rewarding as it used to be. You would rather get more value out of shoving your lane and roaming bot. 

In terms of both ADC and support, they are still the main characters of the meta, especially after 15 minutes when they usually switch places with the mid laner.  

The early game does not have much fun for these two, however. 

Even so, the advantages of having the priority of shoving mid lane after 15 minutes are incomparable to other lanes, and this always has typically been the task of the bot laners.  

Moreover, the Damage Per Second (DPS) potential of many ADC champions have been indirectly nerfed due to the removal of lethal tempo, but there are still powerful champions that have huge impact in the late game.  

Overall, I think League is off to a great start in terms of the split, and it has definitely become very enjoyable compared to other seasons.  

The decent balancing and general simplification of the game has made it great for not only veteran players but welcoming for newbies as well.  

Personally, I would rate this season a solid 9 out of 10.