Generally speaking, a hype trailer should… well, generate hype, and after the bombastic trailer for last year’s season of League of Legends, players had high hopes for what cinematic Riot Games was going to produce for the 2023 season. What they got instead was something that underwhelmed a lot of fans.
The season trailer for this year ended up being a long, swooping shot of several lanes across Summoner’s Rift with narration dubbed over it, which is a far cry from the far more kinetic trailer from last year’s season launch.
Reaction to the trailer’s premiere on YouTube and Twitter was almost immediate, full of meme dunks, confusion, and some overall concern for the MOBA. “I honestly believe this year’s cinematic […] perfectly represents the state of the game: empty, ruined by the greed of the champions (aka Riot HQ), with little to no way of bringing it back,” reads one comment on the video. “There’s no excitement anymore, nothing but a vast wasteland to look forward to.”
Fan response was loud enough that Riot Games actually put out an apologetic explanation, which cites “unprecedented circumstances” that led to the video’s design decisions and tries to calm fears that the studio isn’t invested in LoL.
“We’ve heard your feedback, and we want to acknowledge Brink of Infinity missed the mark for the action-packed, champion-led trailer you expected and has led to further speculation about our investment in League,” the thread reads in part. “We are committed to giving you more details about what that investment looks like in the next couple of days.”
In the meantime, the patch notes for the new season are live, just in case there’s something there to stir players’ hearts and minds; clearly, the video below didn’t.
