2023 felt much simpler (and I even had this feeling with Nilah from last year compare to Samira) but they delivered good champions.

I still have the - probably unpopular - opinion that having these simple kits is harder to balance and I understand that Riot is okay not trying to make every champion viable both in pro and soloQ but I think this is bad on multiple levels. As a player who is motivated to go pro, why should I bother champions that are only viable in lower ranks? On the other hand as a casual player, I would destroy my fun picking champions I like but hard to play in a soloQ environment or in lower level. Also, I would love to see my main played by the best players even if I am Shaco main. Okay, maybe don’t be a popular pick, but at least 1-2 times/ year should be good.

2022 started really good in my opinion. Zeri is super fun and okay to play against if not overtuned. Bel’veth could be much more kit-wise but still fun and her fantasy is awesome (her teaser was maybe the best for me), Renata is super fun, unique and surprisingly balanced with a kit that is broken on multiple levels on paper. Udyr rework was also really good although it took much longer than anticipated.

However with K’Sante, I am not sure. Yeah he is high skill which I adore and somewhat fine but I still don’t like his kit and I have to say, the main reason is his aesthetic, his animations and his lore is… weird. Nilah felt uninspiring and just a budget Samira.

The biggest hit were the midscope updates in 2022 which were almost always incredibly well done. So well that I was more hyped sometimes than in case of new champions or reworks. However 2023 I would consider only Neeko and Rell as a success and the rest are either neutral (Jax) or big misses (Yuumi, Ivern) and there are less updates than before. No reworks at all, just some icon updates (that were nice quality but not enough imho)

TL,DR: although new champions are fine, 2023 is much weaker on almost every aspect than 2022 in my opinion