Former WoW leader shifts to Riot Games; big changes in store for League of Legends?

Asia’s favorite competitive game may be in for a shock after it was confirmed today that former World of Warcraft lead systems designer Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street has been hired by Riot Games as the new lead designer for League of Legends.

Street has an impressive resume, having worked for years on the beloved Age of Empires series before taking a job at Blizzard leading the team behind the most popular MMORPG of all time. But in his time working on World of Warcraft, he made significant balance and game changes that have many League of Legends players worried about what he may try to change.

And with the game’s season 4 changes still likely over a month away, Street is likely to play a major role in the revisions that are being made to the game right now. That means when season 4 finally does start, players are likely to get their first taste of Street’s take on League, and many of them aren’t particularly excited at the prospect. Case in point: in a post about the leadership change on the League of Legends subreddit with more than 2,500 comments, the most-upvoted comment right now is this:

Fuck.

And the negativity isn’t just in English-speaking LoL circles, either. Street’s move is headline news on several of China’s top gaming portals, and the hottest comments there are also quite skeptical. Here are some of the top comments on 17173, China’s top gaming site (in these comments, the name “Crab” refers to Street):

“This is definitely a Blizzard conspiracy! After Crab has totally destroyed League of Legends, and after all the cursing dies down, everyone will go back [to World of Warcraft].”

“The Crab has joined [Riot]. LOL’s death is near…”

The main concern seems to be that in his time at Blizzard, Street oversaw what some gamers call a “dumbing-down” of the game that made it easier and gave it more appeal to a casual audience, but ultimately resulted in losing the skill-based PvP that had made it a viable title in competitive gaming circles. League of Legends, obviously, is also a skill-based PvP game, and its player base is not excited about the prospect of the game being moved in a more casual direction.

But whether Street plans to make that kind of change to the game remains to be seen. Certainly, League players will be more nervous than ever about season 4 when it finally arrives (probably sometime next month), and Street is already facing an uphill battle in winning the affections of the LoL community.

Related:

League of Legends Season 4 likely still over a month away