Big changes are coming to teleport in League of Legends

Ahsan Kabir Published July 10, 2024

The League of Legends community wants changes to teleport, and League of Legends’ lead designer agrees that its an “automatic top lane win.”

League of Legends has evolved over the 15 years since its launch and continues to change the meta. Plenty of character adjustments, complete revamps, and map changes have been made to the MOBA. Similarly, the teleport summoner spell has also seen plenty of changes, the biggest being the unleashed version. Still, the spell is considered an annoyance by many top laners. The teleport spell is critical in returning to a lane after recalling to base or early death. The spell removes the travel time and lets players get back into the fight fast. It’s also great for ganking other lanes and helping out the team.

However, many players feel it reduces the reward of getting an early top lane kill.

Riot Games’ lead designer dislikes teleport

Riot Games lead designer August’ August’ Browning stated his deep dislike for teleport as a defensive summoner spell during a stream. 

August further explained that taking teleport shouldn’t be an automatic lane win. He also talked about players using all offensive spells being disadvantaged when going against someone who has teleport. August dislikes what TP does to the League of Legends meta in general.

“Not a fan of that, kind of wish it wasn’t that,” he stated during the stream.

With the new death timer adjustment in the early game, teleport is an even more critical skill. The death timer is becoming shorter and shorter, which makes teleporting back even quicker. Unfortunately, the short death timer isn’t going away as it safeguards against snowballing.

Riot August suggests changes to Teleport

August proposed an early game cool down on the Teleport summoner spell to help reduce aggressive, carefree plays by its users. 

The lead developer says the game should start with teleport on cooldown. Then if teleport users die at level one, they’ll be disadvantaged when returning to the lane. The designer also acknowledges that teleport is essential for top laners, especially at the highest level of play.

Teleport is great for moving around the map without losing out on creep farm. Split pushing or even ganking the bottom lane is possible thanks to teleport. The spell lets the top laner participate in fights without the worry of their tower getting demolished. August ended the conversation by saying that “it’s not an easy solve.” Riot Games hasn’t officially announced any changes to the spell, its cooldown, or how it behaves in the early game.