League of Legends operates on a Split system, which means that each year is separated into at least 2 splits. With Season 14 being 3 Splits, Riot Games has decided that we are not going to get a Preseason. High Elo Players are not too happy with this change.
Usually with new changes to each Season, Riot gives players a month or a bit more to get used to the new stuff. This is what is typically called Preseason, as it has no effect on your Rank at all, even if you played Ranked Queues. With the new 3 Split System, there is simply no more time for Riot to give us this whole month of testing before they adjust the changes.
Riot has put out the Season 2024 changes early on the Public Beta Environment for players to test and have been monitoring it, fixing bugs and adjusting the balance. But the players are not happy with this change at all.
LoL: No Preseason For 2024
LCS Coach and Challenger Player Veigarv2 has shared his opinion on X/Twitter.
So insane that theres no preseason and only professional players and semi pros can actually practice on the new items , map etc.Imagine season start, average GM /chall player 0 clue on items, map and others have a massive advantage.Theres 0 Content on new items being made...
— Veigarv2 (@Veigar_v2) December 27, 2023
Pro Players have access to the Tournament Realm, where scrims and competitive games are held. This Server is, like the PBE, already on the Patch 14.1. Players on the TR can already practice with new items and discover the strengths and weaknesses of the new map giving them an advantage in the Season 2024 Ranked Climb. Everybody else needs to enter the PBE to test out the changes.
Since the PBE is located in North America, Ping can spike up quite a bit if you are playing from other regions. It surely can't be in the best interest of testing if everybody has 200+ ping.
Veigarv2 is also addressing that there is no content being made on the changes. Most of the player base doesn't know how to access PBE and have no idea what's coming at them in Season 14.
Season 14 will start on January 10 and with it all the changes of the new season. Players are afraid of the changes, since balancing new items and champions isn't Riot's strong suit. Some Users on Reddit believe that the first 2 Weeks will be an unbalanced nightmare for ranked integrity. Others are happy with the changes, as previous Prseasons were way too long and felt “unserious”. They want to jump into the ranked action as soon as possible.
What do you think? Are you jumping into ranked the second it releases?