LoL devs ‘very actively’ working on Red vs. Blue side imbalance—but it’s going to take time

You have to be good enough to notice though.

A Rift Herald hunts down a man in League of Legends
Image via Riot Games

No, the win rate imbalance between the Blue and Red sides in League of Legends isn’t in your head. Riot Games knows it’s happening⁠—though not quite as much at your low Elo⁠—and are working on solutions. It’s just going to take some time.

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The League world has again been in an uproar over imbalances between the two Summoner’s Rift sides this week, with the furore sparked by one fan’s investigation into the win rate numbers. While it’s only just returned to the surface in the fandom, however, balance boss Matt Leung-Harrison said his team has been “investigating this for a bit now” and is already working on changes.

A look at LoL's Summoner's Rift map from a distance.
How the two sides of the Rift work will eventually change. Image via Riot Games

“We’ve been working on things to optimize red/blue side balance,” he admitted on X (formerly Twitter) on July 7, before warning League players that it’s going to take some time to figure out. And, he added, Riot is already convinced it’s not impacting lower-tied players in ranked play⁠—only Apex tiers will really be changed.

What that means is there’s definitely a bit of an imbalance in lower ranks like Bronze, Gold, and Emerald, but things work themselves out there most of the time. In loftier lobbies around Diamond, Master, and Challenger though, red and blue sides can make all the difference.

We can look at the raw numbers too: In low-tier Elo games, blue side wins 51.1 percent of the time, which is relatively balanced. In Emerald plus, red side jumps to 49.4 percent and blue slips to 50.6. Then, Diamond flips the two and Master and higher dramatically sways towards red side (47.1 vs. 52.9 percent).

This has been the biggest pain point in higher Elo groups recently, with streamers like Frederik “NoWay” Hinteregger leading the biggest calls for change.

a top down view of League's summoner's rift
How to balance an imbalanced map is a question often raised in Riot’s offices. Image via Riot Games

Dot Esports can only imagine the largest changes will be felt by the smallest number of League players around those upper echelons when Riot does finally solve things around the blue–red debate. The most likely update will come around League lobby matchmaking; Riot’s historically handed the red side the higher average MMR among its assembled five to make up for the disadvantage of playing on the wrong side with subpar camera angles and odd map perspectives.

That historic MMR help doesn’t take into account how much the Rift has changed after its bumper Season 14 update⁠ though—everything is a whole lot more symmetrical and blue side ended up suffering the most.

There will likely also be changes that impact the whole League fandom (Riot’s still cooking them up) but things should be a little fewer and farther between there.

The League devs have yet to confirm when these changes will arrive but judging by Leung-Harrison’s message it’s going to be some time yet.

Author
Image of Isaac McIntyre
Isaac McIntyre
Isaac McIntyre is the Aussie Editor at Dot Esports. He previously worked in sports journalism at Fairfax Media in Mudgee and Newcastle for six years before falling in love with esports—an ever-evolving world he's been covering since 2018. Since joining Dot, he's twice been nominated for Best Gaming Journalist at the Australian IT Journalism Awards and continues to sink unholy hours into losing games as a barely-Platinum AD carry. When the League servers go down he'll sneak in a few quick hands of the One Piece card game. Got a tip for us? Email: isaac@dotesports.com.