Surrender in League of Legends is a hotly contested topic. Do you give up after a bad early game and move on, or do you believe in that top lane Kayle and that your team can wait it out until level 30? Well, Riot is now making some major changes to surrender and they could change the solo queue meta.
Riot is making some huge changes in League of Legends starting in LoL Patch 13.2. Specifically, they're going to be updating the early surrender and how it works. Riot Auberaun outlined what the team is looking to change and how they're going to monitor these early surrender adjustments.
How they will play out on the meta is yet to be determined, but it could bode some bad news for Nasus and Kayle enjoyers who want to scale to minute 30 before becoming an actual champion...
Huge Early Surrender Changes Coming to League of Legends
While North America and Europe seem to be the two regions with the lowest surrender rate, it's still an important topic to talk about, especially early surrender which has been a part of the game for a long time. So far, players were able to surrender early, meaning between the 15 and 20 minute mark of the game, but the vote has to be unanimous. That means all five players have to agree.
Now, if you know a thing or two about League of Legends, then you would also know that a lot can change after the first fifteen minutes, especially if you've got scaling and late game champions on your side. You likely won't be winning the early game with a Kayle in the top lane and a Kassadin in the mid lane.
Riot has decided to change it up, starting in LoL Patch 13.2 though. Chris "Auberaun" Roberts explained on Twitter that for normal games, both blind and draft, they'll be testing out early surrender with 4/5 yes votes instead of a completely unanimous decision. This is being done to combat players getting held captive in games.
Why is Riot Making Early Surrender Adjustments?
According to Riot Auberaun, their data shows that comeback rates when a 4/5 surrender fails early are extremely low.
Our data shows that comeback rates when a team fails a 4/5 yes early surrender (before 20 min) are low; teams have a generally good sense of what a "winnable" game is. However it's important that opponents have time to feel powerful with a lead and games aren't abandoned too soon.
Starting in patch 13.2 we'll be testing a change to the surrender rules for Normals (Blind and Draft). Teams will be able to pass a surrender vote with 4/5 yes votes starting at 15 minutes. The early unanimous surrender will be removed.
— Chris Roberts (@RiotAuberaun) January 6, 2023
Riot is looking to find the balance between keeping players stuck in games they know they can't win and therefore have no desire to play, while also keeping the games long enough to feel competitive for strong opponents.
Potential Impact on Champions in League of Legends
This change could have a huge impact on certain champions in League of Legends, which could be rather disruptive to their play rates and win rates. Riot has specifically designed some champions to function in the late game, taking over 20 minutes to get going.
Therefore, Riot will be closely monitoring those champions that scale into the late game to see whether this change has too big of an impact to implement it into ranked games. Therefore, Riot will first test these changes on normal games before taking it to ranked.