Potential changes to Baron Pit, River, Terrains, and Jungle Path in the Summoner’s Rift map of League of Legends
One of the constants of League of Legends has been its map. No matter how many items, champions, jungle monsters, and visuals have changed, the map has remained fundamentally the same for a decade. The last redesign was back in 2014.
After that, we have seen small updates like the additional alcoves in the top and bot lane, the elemental drakes’ map effect, etc. But none of them were as big as this news regarding the redesigned Summoner’s Rift map.
A fair disclaimer, though. The news is based on the Coven SFX preview video from SkinSpotlight on YouTube. In that video, we see some surprising details that imply big changes to Summoner’s Rift. Some of them have the potential to change the core meta of the game completely. However, these are not set in stone.
After all, these are from the PBE server, and Riot could decide not to go for them in the actual game.
Regardless, it’s hard to overlook them, so this article will take you through all the potential changes that we might see in the future and how they might affect the gameplay.
Read More: League of Legends Patch 13.21 Notes: New Changes, Release Date, and More
Much Wider River
As you can see in the snap from that preview video, The river and the bush next to the mid-lane look wider than they are on the current map. If you zoom in on the mini-map, you can see the wide proportion being reflected here as well.
This change has some significant implications. For example, a more spacious river gives more room for skirmishes in the area. The fight for the scuttle crab might prove to be more complex if its path also changes according to the river’s size. This, again, would impact early game dynamics and map control for objectives.
The river might also see increased team fights happening there. This would mean the waterwalking rune could be more popular. Qiyana players might find themselves using the water element a bit more.
Support players might see more angry ADCs if they decide to cover vision in the wider river now. Moreover, champions whose abilities can affect a large area might find more angles in river skirmishes. However, some other champions may find it difficult to keep their enemies constrained. It’s entirely possible that some choke points would be removed or replaced due to this change.
Pathing to Botlane and Blue Access
Another interesting detail you may have noticed in the image below is the right side of the mid-lane towards the bot lane. It seems like the path to the Red side blue buff is blocked. This could also be true for the blue side as well, although we don’t have the full image of the potentially leaked new map. This change might force the mage mid-laners to take the longer road.
Some people are speculating that the entire path to the bottom from mid is closed. It might be a farfetched take, but given all the ADC memes and the big sadness of the duo lane, it won’t be surprising if Riot ends up implementing that.
But that has major implications for Jungle Pathing. A lot of the early game jungle gameplay revolves around ganking lanes after taking the scuttle crab. If the aforementioned change takes place, then early-game jungle impact on the bottom lane might be greatly reduced. On the other hand, Mid and Top might see more action early on as the wider river provides the solo laners and the jungles with more skirmishing capabilities on the top side of the map.
Some jungles may also struggle to get early drake control due to this change in pathing. This, along with the mid-lane terrain changes, could mean some junglers will have to create entirely new pathing and ganking strategies.
Baron Pit No More?
Here comes the bomb. If you look at the mini-map of the above snapshot again, you can notice the baron pit is completely removed. It’s just plain land there. Let’s take a moment to process this for a bit.
I don’t even know where to begin. It’s so frustrating not to have the full map showing all the potential changes. Is Baron removed, or only the pit is removed? Hard to tell right now. Regardless, this can completely change how we approach the fundamental gameplay in League of Legends because most of the mid to late-game meta revolves around taking control of the Baron Pit.
There are so many game-defining moments in the LoL pro plays surrounding vision control, skirmishes, and nail-biting 5v5 revolving around the Baron Pit. With that removed, the core meta is bound to change entirely. Although, there’s a chance that Baron might be shifted elsewhere. But I can’t see it switching to the bottom side of the map. Having 2 of the biggest objectives on the same side of the map kind of feels weird. So, the former is more likely, I would presume.
Final Thoughts on the Potential Summoner’s Rift Map Changes
Whew! That’s a lot of mental gymnastics for 3 ‘potential’ changes. Obviously, the entire thing could just be an experimentation on Riot’s end. Or maybe there are many more changes along with these 3 that we might see in the Pre-season.
Overall, I have mostly positive impressions about these potential changes. Because I feel like playing on the same competitive map for ages is not the most exciting thing to do. Especially when almost all the modern games nowadays offer so much variety in their maps, constantly updating even. The impact of these changes obviously could be aversive to the game’s health. But the decision to finally bring a change to the Summoner’s Rift map is a much-welcome one from my perspective.
