The world of League of Legends continued to evolve throughout 2022, bringing familiar faces back to the forefront with updates to the lore, while seamlessly introducing new champions to the ongoing struggles plaguing Runeterra. In doing so, the popular MOBA once more changed drastically as players discovered how the additions to the cast impacted gameplay and the ever-changing meta.

This year, Riot Games released five new champions in League, while reworking the winner of 2021’s rework poll to breathe new life into a champion that has roamed Summoner’s Rift for over a decade. Each of these debuting champions was created with the intention to fill a specific niche, with only two occupying the same lane position—though with drastically different playstyles.

Interestingly, Riot did not release a champion designed for the mid lane in 2022, a place that it had specified would be the recipient of one or more new champions each year. But even without any fresh faces fulfilling the most popular role in the game, constant changes to the meta made it seem that the mid lane always had something new for players to experience.

Riot’s emphasis on balancing champions continued to venture away from simply creating new characters to be played on the Rift, as well. Smaller kit updates, known as mid-scope updates, to champions like Taliyah, Swain, and Olaf tuned their kits to bring them back into the fray without removing the thematic parts of their characters that make them…