If you've been wondering what the heck is a CGU after Riot changed Aurelion Sol, you are not alone. Do they change their skills? or just Champion's art? Stay here to learn the answers in this guide to understand League of Legends Reworks.
What is a League of Legends Rework?
Let's start with what a Rework is. The word Rework means to make changes to the original version of something, in League of Legends this would mean Champions, Maps, Items, etc.
As a game that's been out since 2010, it's natural that older content needs updates (especially when newer champions can steal ults and have infinite scaling).
To combat this, League of Legend Rework champions in different degrees, ones more focused on visuals (ASU), others into gameplay (Mid-Scope Game Update), and a few ones that need both in a very extensive way (CGU, VGU).
(We explain these acronyms in the next section, don’t worry)
The acronym reference guide:
ASU (Art & Sustainability Update): These mostly change the visuals of a champion. Including models, animations, VFX, VO, design, etc. This doesn’t touch anything directly related to gameplay. E.g. Malzahar, Cho'Gath, Nocturne updates.
Mid-Scope Game Update: Changes in skills or something gameplay related to the champion to enhance a fantasy, or tweak/adjust the kit of a champ. These require less work compared to CGU or VGU, and function for fixes aimed to make a champion feel better. E.g. Taliyah, Rengar,
CGU (Comprehensive Game Updates): Champions that have great lore and visuals, but their kits don't feel as representative of the Champ, or even make the Champ less attractive to the overall audience. These changes rehaul the entire kit of the champ while leaving untouched the concept, lore and visuals.
VGU (Visual and Gameplay Update): The biggest of changes, these are more in-depth compared to the previous ones. These changes include visuals, concepts, kit, and overall reimagination of a champion from scratch, or adapt it to a modern era. The upcoming announced VGU is one for Skarner.
Back in the day, this was THE rework - along with Aatrox
Credit where it's due: Most of this info was compiled from League of Legends official sources and from here (LoL Fandom Wiki).
Visuals
Most reworks also include visual tweaks in any shape or form, but the only one that only changes Visuals is the Art & Sustainability Updates (ASU).
ASU includes changes in the design, model, splashes, animations, visual effects, voice over, and all of that.
Their main purpose is to update the art of champions that feel out of place, but still feel great to play. So if you see a champ getting an ASU, it means that only visuals will be changed. (Upcoming ASUs are Teemo and Lee Sin)
Disclaimer: This doesn't mean that gameplay updates don't tweak visuals, that's far from the truth in some instances, just that the ASU changes are way more noticeable (Except for VGUs).
Gameplay
Into gameplay-related changes, they divide into three sections: Mid-Scope Updates, Comprehensive Game Updates (CGU), and Visual Game Updates (VGU). They are ordered according to the degree of the work needed for them, meaning Mid-Scopes take less time, and VGUs take the longest.
Mid-Scope Update
The first type of Gameplay updates are Mid-Scope Updates. These changes aim towards improvements for the satisfaction level of a Champion kit (Taliyah), to upgrade Champions that are kind of good, but need little changes to push them into a better position (Jax) or to simply enhance their fantasy (Neeko).
They can feature significant ability updates, as well as changes to animations, visual effects, or sound effects.
Examples of Mid-Scope Update: Jax, Taliyah, and Syndra.
Comprehensive Gameplay Update (CGU)
CGUs completely reimagine the gameplay from a champion without changing visuals (design or concept wise), or narrative at all.
Although Comprehensive Gameplay Updates may look very similar to Visual Game Updates in the way they can completely change the way a champion is played or kit identity (including new spells visuals), as stated in this video, they require less time due to how VGU can go up a step further. E.g. doing lore adjustments, or entirely change the champion and turning into a Full Relaunch (This doesn't happen with CGUs).
The first attempt at a Comprehensive Gameplay Update (CGU) was Aurelion Sol.
Visual and Gameplay Update (VGU)
This combines the above two categories. The scale of the kit rework is usually slightly larger than a kit rework alone as the developers can plan for more in-depth visual effects and model changes.
The champion's core theme may remain intact. Full Relaunches are also under this classifications. However, it involves an overhaul to the champion's identity - focusing on some aspects while abandoning others. This affects the champion's lore, personality, art, and model. The degree of the kit rework in Full Relaunches varies.
The last VGU was Udyr, and while the way of playing him feels quite similar, he received several changes in his Art, and a change of Abilities (You can argue that Udyr was updated).
The degree of how a Visual and Gameplay Update change a champion varies. For instance, Fiddlestick got many changes but his ult remains as a major ability to its core identity (similar to the first Fiddle), unlike Aatrox and Pantheon, who feel like entirely different champions.
Why are these important?
You can say that having new champions keeps the game exciting, but with a game as old as League, there are players that just only want to play their characters and not feel handicapped by it, or even want to feel them better (Gameplay wise, not in the broken side of things).
Therefore, League of Legends Reworks give life to the game for older players and even motivate newer players to try out Champions that didn't feel right. In spite of the fact that Riot Dev teams get a lot of flack, the overall roster feels good, excluding Champions that desperately need an update (Skarner plz, or Shyv).
Finally, what do you think? Have we made reworks clearer? You can always comment or post on the Mobafire forums to go further and learn more about the game from our lovely community!
