League of Legends now has 140 champions in the game. That’s a lot of characters to learn how to play with and against. The father of all MOBAs – DOTA – had just 112 heroes (though many were updated or changed as they were in LoL). DOTA 2, the next largest MOBA, commands 115 heroes.

140 is hardly something insanely high given the competitor stats, but it still begs the question if there isn’t a certain point that the game will have too many champions. After all, for pro players, it is necessary to understand the ins and outs against every single champion, and for casual players, it can be devastating if they are unfamiliar against even one enemy. This might be something Riot has already been starting to realize too. In a recent article, Riot addressed their plans to slow down champion creation and focus on revamping older ones.

This was followed with news that they will be increasing their work on VGUs (visual graphic update) as a part of revisiting older champions both visually and mechanically. Given how intensive Riot has been about creating new and interesting mechanics – such as Zoe’s ability to steal summoner spells or slingshot her attacks – it makes sense to revisit older champions. Many champions like Garen are legacy champions from the days of beta or alpha, and little has changed about them from the game’s earliest inceptions in 2009. It hardly makes sense to have incredibly skill heavy and unique champions coupled with those require only simple button presses.

This is the double-edged sword that Riot has been trying to balance. They made a commitment early on to quickly reach a number of champions close to DOTA – around 100 total. That meant that in the early years they were releasing 20 or more champions every year. By 2013, this scaled down to 8. Since 2014, it has been 5-6. The problem is that Riot established an expectation of tons of champions being constantly released, but if they keep this schedule, they will almost certainly begin to damage their own brand.

After all, one of the most played champions, Jhin, has 550k matches every month. The least played champion, Rek’Sai, has just 34k. It is a difficult thing to balance when some champions are being played 10x more than another champion, but it also asks if champions continue to get added, if some will slip further and further out of popularity.

One of the criticisms leveled against League of Legends is that it doesn’t have the level of finesse that its competitor, DOTA 2, has. Valve currently releases just two heroes every year, 1/3 the rate at which Riot is releasing them and their heroes are considered fairly balanced. Riot’s champions are often released being dramatically under or overpowered, which creates a lot of pressure for what the new champion will have (Kayn, for instance, has been relatively useless in high level play while Orne has been monstrously strong).

This is one of the reasons why veteran players and some streamers have been throwing in the towel. The difficulty is creating champions that both casual and professional players can enjoy, and it’s a difficult thing to manage.

If Riot wants to continue growing as an esport and a game, it may one day have to stop adding champions. Or, they might do what they already appear primed to do, which is switch from making new champions to fixing old.

Either way, the more champions populate the Rift, the harder it is for casual players. Casual players are often brutalized by newer or more complicated players as they try to keep up with the new abilities and reworks. Conversely, the more champions are introduced to the competitive scene, the more exciting it might become. Surprise picks and off-meta champions could become a huge deal as the champion pool continues to grow.

It seems Riot’s current plan to scale down new champion creation is there attempt to find the middle ground. For the game’s sake, let’s hope they succeed.