Back at the start of the 2024 season, Riot implemented one of the most drastic itemization-related changes League of Legends has ever seen when Stopwatch was removed from the shop altogether.
This change made it so that League players had to invest far more gold into items like Seeker’s Armguard and Zhonya’s Hourglass if they wanted to maximize the stasis effect that previously came along with Stopwatch. In a thread posted to the League subreddit earlier today, players discussed the Stopwatch removal and the impact it’s had on the game, now that the community has had a few months to live with it. Across the board, almost everyone agrees the removal of Stopwatch has been a positive change.
“I actually think having less get-out-of-jail options is what is actually increasing skill expression,” the original poster of the thread said. “A lot of times before in pro games, people would get caught but the Stopwatch would buy crucial time for their team to come and save them and turn the fight.”
Stopwatch’s absence from the game has been particularly noticeable in pro play. In seasons past, players would dedicate portions of their gold just to buying Stopwatches on a rotating schedule, with some players always having one ready for an impending teamfight. Now that the stasis effect has been attached to Seeker’s Armguard (which costs 1,600 gold), pros are more wary of making that investment.
One player in the thread even believed that having the active ability on Seeker’s Armguard was too much, saying the stasis effect “should only be used for complete item,” and that the armor bonus granted by Seeker’s Armguard should be increased as a compensatory buff.
Other players went back and thanked their lucky stars that Perfect Timing, the rune in the inspiration tree that gave you a Stopwatch for free, was also removed from the game.
While there was never really a “Stopwatch meta” in League—if that were the case, it would’ve taken much shorter than seven years to remove it—the presence of the item was always relevant, especially at the highest echelon of the game. Thankfully for fans of the game, the change has made it so that fewer players at all levels of League are going golden.
