It’s been a pretty busy year for Riot Games. From the release of multiple new titles like VALORANT to its expansive League of Legends Spirit Blossom summer event, the developers haven’t had a lot of down time for themselves lately. As a result, Riot took a week-long break starting Monday, Aug. 10, the company announced a week ago.
Tending to multiple titles can be hard, especially for a company that just put “the ‘s’ in Riot Games.” But it’s even more difficult to run these games smoothly on a remote basis. The COVID-19 pandemic made life difficult for video game developers across the globe, but Riot stayed vigilant in making sure that the products fans received were living up to its high standards.
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“To make sure we’re not just cramming more into the following week, we’re shifting some patches and release timelines a bit to accommodate,” Riot said. “A few teams are also staggering their time off to make sure everything is running smoothly. Look for specifics on League, TFT, LoR, and VALORANT over the next few days.”
Jeremy “Riot Brightmoon” Lee also confirmed that League‘s Patch 10.16 is still scheduled to release normally. The following patch, however, will be relatively light compared to previous updates.
Riot also said its employees “owe it to [themselves] and to you to prioritize [their] health as a team,” so that they continue to make great content for fans in the long-run. This mindset is important to focus on since many other companies have been criticized for making employees work unhealthy crunch hours.
This timing coincides with VALORANT‘s newest act, which brought a new character to the game’s expanding roster of agents in Killjoy. Riot Games had an explosive year, announcing multiple games and putting the “S” in Riot Games finally. They’ve been releasing patches in every game, including League, TFT, and Valorant on a regular basis. This week long break should give the developers much needed rest in order to prepare for the upcoming international competition, especially in League of Legends.
This year’s international tournament will be held in a much different way in what we are supposed to see and Riot will be all eyes and ears when they’re back from their break to make it happen. While it’s unclear how will the event happen, fans should be happy that it’s still going through even though all the negative situations happening all over the world right now.
