League of Legends Might Alternate Large and Small Patches Next Year

Riot Games is considering making changes to the way that League of Legends is patched, specifically by alternating smaller and larger patches.

The suggested changes wouldn't come until next year, if they went through at all, but they'd result in the two different types of patches tackling different sets of issues. Referencing how similar each patch is to the previous one with the way that they currently work, Riot Meddler detailed how the patches would be changed next year.

"We've been considering trying an alternating large gameplay patch/small gameplay patch cycle however," Meddler said. "The small patches would only contain balance changes that are for things in dire need of a change (e.g. very strong or very weak champions), or extremely simple changes that aren't too disruptive and don't need as much testing (e.g. base stat tweaks). The large patches by contrast would then contain larger balance changes, mini updates, item changes, Runes adjustments etc."

The Rioter went on to explain that the number of changes over time wouldn't differ too much in the new system from the one that currently exists, though it would make the changes more concentrated. Regarding the benefits and downsides of an alternating patch scheme, Meddler added that the new system would allow them to "spend more time on longer term fixes for things" while other issues might take a bit longer to take care of.

Responding to a commenter's questions, Meddler said that they'd first start by splitting balance changes into large and small patches, and assuming that worked out well, they'd decide if new champions and updates would be added to the larger patches or not. As far as how big each patch would be, that part is still up in the air.

"Not sure yet on exactly how large/small each type of patch would be, this is still something we're talking about, not a firm plan that's been fully fleshed out," Meddler added. "7.19 would probably be like a large patch at least in terms of champion changes in it, with pre-season coming up though there won't be much in the way of longer term non-champion work in it however (that time's being spent on 7.22+ stuff)."

The patch alternating won't start until later on either way, so there's still plenty of time to iron out the details.