Hello! Riot Phroxzon is back with the gameplay agenda for Patch 13.16.

This week I want to talk about three issues that have been on the agenda lately: game time and snowball effect, champion durability and role balance (especially under, over and jungler roles).

Play Time and Snowball Effect
Overall we are quite happy with the available playtimes. Currently, the lane phase is half the game time. The remaining half consists of intermediate and advanced stages. In games that last longer, we witness a lot of competitive matches that allow more gameplay options in the middle and advanced stages. Game times at normal skill levels are slightly longer than Season 9, Season 2020, and Season 2021, and slightly shorter than Season 2022. Play times at Elite skill levels haven't changed much since Season 9.

At normal skill levels, the snowball effect is healthy and still lower than before the Stamina Update. However, the snowball effect has increased a bit as players of elite skill levels have gotten used to the changes we introduced to dragons and the early survival effect in 12.14. We brought these changes in order to speed up professional matches that had slowed down at that time. But in return, the snowball effect increased at elite skill levels. Because these players are pretty good at taking map targets and snowballing their early advantages.

We want winning the lane to feel rewarding and carry that advantage into the mid tiers but not determine the outcome of the game. So in an ideal world, corridors should be able to take advantage of the snowball effect reasonably. For example, if a Darius completed the lane phase 3 points and 40 minions ahead, he should be able to kill two people alone with this advantage he deserves. But if he wants to win the game, he needs to maintain this advantage by doing good work one after the other in team clashes.