Riot Games’ MOBA has a design flaw that’s been there since its inception, and it’s always tipped the scales a little to one side.

Many MOBAs use an isometric view that focuses on your character regardless of which team you’re on. It’s logical, but because of that, there’s a bit of a difference between the two sides. If both teams had the same camera view, each team would attack in a different direction. For the Blues, the camera tends to focus on the characters from behind, leaving the area at the top of the screen where they are attacking and where the enemies are usually located. The control interface is located in a part of the screen that does not interfere with the playing area. In red, the camera focuses more on the characters from the front, leaving the area where they attack and where enemies are usually located at the bottom of the screen. The control interface is located in the same lower area, cluttering the field, making it difficult to see the farthest enemies.

This problem was largely solved by mobile developers. They realized that the touchscreen interface exaggerated the side difference even more, and made a very simple decision: they changed the position of the camera so that it was always behind the player. This seems like something a person with minimal programming skills could do in five minutes… but the problem is that the camera position is not the only issue. Over the past few months, players have been more insistent than ever on the need for a “mirror mode” similar to mobile MOBAs.

Jordan Checkan, Lead Designer for Riot Games’ Competitive Gameplay team, responded to this request on Reddit: “Just FYI, the map in League of Legends only exists from the angles you view it from. It cannot be rotated. This is how many 3D assets are created, including those from Pixar! The next time we do a major update to the map, it is much more likely that we will create something that can be flipped and rendered from multiple angles. Until then, it would be a really expensive way to solve this problem and the results/impact would be less than other projects that involve map art/geo, like new modes. Matchmaking and camera adjustments are the smart move for us at this time.”

Interesting background info!

Source: Reddit