Riot Games has revealed its intention to gut the double support item meta in the next League of Legends patch after it surged in popularity and win rate to start the season.
The start of the year is always an experimental time for developers and players of live-service games, and League of Legends is no exception. The game has made massive changes to its item systems and map for Season 14, and the developers are responding quickly to the data they have been gathering by watching matches and player feedback.
Ahead of the release of the season’s next big patch, 14.2, the Lead Gameplay Designer on League, Matt Leung-Harrison, has revealed what the next update will look like on social media.
The dev said that burst is up, snowballing is up, and detailed the changes coming to specific items and champions. One big point Leung-Harrison mentioned that caught the eyes of players is the nerf to the double support item meta.
Double support item meta dead in League patch 14.2
The meta around the new support item, World Atlas, revolves around the dour in the bot lane abusing the item’s passive. Players earn gold with the item by either killing minions, and sharing that gold with their duo, or by attacking enemy champions.
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As players complete the gold-earning quests from the item, they will upgrade it to allow them to generate more gold and gain access to wards.
Patch 14.2!Ranked– We're making some changes to reduce how lenient tier boundary demotions are. While we think making a tier boundary is a big milestone, we also need to be demoting people more honestly to ensure the ranked system functions properly– We're also continuing to… pic.twitter.com/cNUgtnAj3W
— Matt Leung-Harrison (@RiotPhroxzon) January 17, 2024
Players have been vocal about the meta on social media, saying that those who have abused the meta have been winning their matches at an alarming rate. One player even crafted a composition that optimized the item for use with four players, duo laneing in the top and bottom lanes.
“Double support item (and quadra support item) are being nerfed. We’re being pretty heavy-handed here,” Leung-Harrison said on social media.
The strategy was even used in a professional match in the LCK, where T1’s bot lane duo both purchased the item. T1 went on to lose that match.