League of Legends developer opens up about themed Summoner’s Rift maps, and why they are so difficult to implement

League of Legends map themes were something that fans would often look forward to throughout the year when Riot would customize the way Summoner’s Rift would look like. These customizations were often in celebration of an event, with the Winter themed map being one of the most memorable of the lot.

However, over the last couple of seasons, a themed Summoner’s Rift was hardly introduced by the developers. Players have voiced their feelings on the matter and how they have missed the uniqueness of the maps.

Fortunately, in a recent post on Reddit, Ken Adams, the product lead on events, loot, skins, and more at Riot held a short Q&A, addressed the issues of the themed maps in the thread.

According to Ken, there are a lot of variables involved when it comes to introducing a theme to the Summoner’s Rift. While there are some complications when it comes to making them a reality, Ken also promised that the developers are looking into ways to bring themed maps into League of Legends.

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Themed Summoner’s Rift maps will make their way to League of Legends once again

While talking about why the developers have not introduced a themed Summoner’s Rift in League of Legends in so long, Ken stated that,

“League as a game is not built to support these types of experiences in a way that is sustainable or empowering for the teams who have put them together."

Talking about considerations regarding how enriching the themes might even be for PvE, he said,

It is extremely difficult to work against what the game is natively built for to create a PvE experience, and at a certain point, it begs the question of whether or not it would be better to satisfy the PvE needs in other, more fleshed out ways (like Ruined King for example).”

He continued,

“We know that there is a (relatively) small, but ultra-satisfied group of players who loved Odyssey, and more broadly, it was an exciting moment for League. We want to find ways to build on those feelings that are complementary to what League is designed as (a PvP game) and recreate those same “holy shit this is super unique!” reactions.”

League of Legends and Summoner’s Rift in particular are designed in a way that they can run on lower-end PCs, there by allowing the title to be highly accessible. Adding a theme, along with new particles, can tax hardware rather heavily, and there are many who will not be able to enjoy the game as performance will take a drastic hit.

Fortunately, the developers will be coming up with a way to reintroduce themed maps back onto League of Legends' servers.