League of Legends players confused as Riot lays off designers working on big reworks

League players are growing uncertain about the future of one of the game’s most anticipated reworks after a massive sweep of layoffs at Riot.

The laying off of over 500 employees at Riot Games has raised significant questions about the future of the League of Legends IP and Riot’s other games. With programs like Riot Forge getting closed down, and Legends of Runeterra refocusing on PvE, it’s only natural that League players have concerns about what might happen to Riot’s biggest property.

Riot revealed that as many as 530 staff members have been laid off globally, which represents approximately 11% of the entire company. In a recent player update, the company explained that it will be reducing its commitment to areas that don’t have as much of an impact on player investment.

This has massive ramifications on both the staff and the projects they were working on, and some of those projects were highlighted as big parts of League’s future.

Rioters working on Shyvana rework laid off in massive company changes

In their rundown of new content coming to League at the beginning of 2024, Riot announced that the next big rework, or VGU, after Skarner would be Shyvana, who’s been one of the top choices for an overhaul for a while now.

However, several league players noticed that some members of the team responsible for this rework, including gameplay designers, were part of the layoffs.

Riot works on reworks and champion releases well ahead of release schedules, so it’s possible that Shyvana’s reworked gameplay has already been finalized, but players are still concerned about the timeline of the project, especially considering it’s already slated for next year.