Last week, popular League of Legends leaker, SkinSpotlights, revealed that WASD controls were coming to League of Legends. While it’s not clear when Riot wants to implement this, the code for it is already in the game. This revelation has left the community divided on the topic. Here’s what people think.
Traditional VS Accessible
The main point of contention regarding this addition is the traditional feel of the game vs the accessibility for new players. Players who are more familiar with shooters and mobile gaming will find the WASD movement more familiar. On the other hand, long-time League players and MOBA fans feel right at home with the QWER and Mouse combo.
While most fans understand this is an optional addition to controls, many “traditionalists” don’t like the idea of changing how League is played. This isn’t the first time that WASD was introduced to League, however.
There was a limited-time event back then called “Swarm” during the release of the second wave of Anima Squad skins. And was a completely different game mode. It featured Seraphine, Jinx, and Leona as playable champions and utilized the WASD controls to move the charactes around. Even though this was a limited-time game mode, it gave us a brief look at what League would look like with WASD.
Going back to the line of code that SkinSpotlights found, it appears there’s a whole menu built around it. That suggests that this isn’t simply for another one-time event, but actual in-game controls.
Modern Implications
It’s no question that a lot of popular battle games use the WASD movement. All hero shooter games, for example, and MOBAs like Smite use WASD and mouse for in-game controls. League of Legends implementing the option appears to be a move to accommodate players coming from these types of games. In fact, WASD might be more accessible for players coming from Wild Rift.
While it does entail that gameplay may change a little, depending on who you ask, it does not detract from the overall play experience. It’s simply another option for players who aren’t familiar with the left-click and QWER controls of MOBAs. It’s certainly skill-intensive to learn how to have good movement with mouse clicks, but that entails a slightly steeper learning curve.
At the end of the day, it’s nothing finalized yet and thus might even never be implemented. It’s fascinating to see just how players react to a core and fundamental change to the game like an option to change controls though.
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