The next patches will be massive in League of Legends

The next couple of League of Legends patches are going to be massive, according to Riot’s announcement last week.

No, that doesn’t mean there’s anything bigger than usual coming in the way of new champions, reworks, or features These large patches are only so big because of back-end changes, meaning changes to the systems that make the game work, like audio files and new software, rather than something that you’d actually see in-game.

The focus of the next several patches will be these types of changes, on top of the usual balance changes, champions, and reworks, which means patch times might be significantly longer. If your patch takes longer to complete than usual, don’t worry, it’s probably not broken, it’s just working on a lot.

New tools surrounding champions’ design and function are being integrated into the game, as well as a complete overhaul of game audio, which means every single audio file needs to be replaced.

Affected patches include 8.5, 8.6, 8.7, 8.8, and, depending on how things go, possibly 8.10.

The next couple of months are going to be slightly dreadful when it comes to patching, but hopefully it will be worth it in the long run for the health of the game.