League of Legends Season 13 changes see spike in top lane, jungle popularity

League of Legends Season 13 changes to top lane and jungle have seen the roles both spike in popularity, as Riot intended. The developers told Dexerto preseason was “going well”, with minor adjustments coming in the weeks following LoL patch 13.1’s launch.

League of Legends Season 13 had two key objectives: simplify the game for all, and increase top lane’s standing in the meta.

Both have been successfully executed on, in Riot’s eyes. The changes to jungle, with new jungle pets and routing recommendations, has helped new players acclimatize to the role. Top lane is now being dominated by more carry-focused champions due to the increased resources.

While there are still some outliers, Executive Producer Jeremy ‘Brightmoon’ Lee remarked to Dexerto “preseason has been going well” with no major overhauls required ahead of Season 13’s true start.

“We have some changes that are coming out at season start with the new patch ⁠— things we’ve observed that need some changes in terms of balance over the last month,” he added.

These changes, included in LoL patch 13.1, include buffs to mid lane mages and continued nerfs to popular tanks and bruisers who have excelled in the two months since preseason went live.

The developers noted the rebalancing of top lane to become more resource-heavy and carry-oriented, as well as the multitude of jungle changes, has seen both roles spike in play rate as they intended.

“There are a lot more players playing top and jungle than before we shipped the preseason changes,” product lead Chris ‘Auberaun’ Roberts said. “Part of that is expected because when we change something, players will engage with it, but the trend is sustaining. We’re feeling pretty good about that right now.”

However one particular area of focus, according to Lee, is ARAM. The changes shipped to the popular casual game mode has divided players, with long death timers a particular point of concern due to it leading to lop-sided games.

“One area I know players are particularly interested in, and we’ve gotten a lot of feedback on, is the state of ARAM, which has been really exciting for a lot of reasons because there’s new stuff, but I know there’s some tweaking we want to do when it comes to in-game balance and death timers,” he said. “Keep an eye out for that.”

With League of Legends Season 13 going live on January 10, 2023, it remains to be seen whether that initial ranked grind will be a bit harder for the top laners and junglers trying to select their new-found main role as many others test the waters.