AWKWARD ZOMBIE

I am okay with this

Why do people dive Mordekaiser?
Why, Papa, why?

So with the lore changes, Xerath is actually evil now, as opposed to him just being good at researching magic and people losing their shit over it.

It's not like I'm actually a Xerath fan, it just feels weird when lore gets changed like that.

I'm fine with that, whatever. Xerath's old lore wasn't really all that great to begin with. What I am kinda peeved about in the Institute of War being retconned. Everything about it, gone. Here's a list of things (I can recall off the top of my head) changed because of this:

Fiddlestick's lore
Cho'gath's lore
Orianna's lore
Nocturne's lore
Brand's lore
Kog'maw's lore
Any lines of dialogue in the game that mention summoners
SUMMONER'S RIFT'S NAME

Riot has stated that the lore and game are now separate entities. So now the question of why the 2 teams of 5 random assholes are fighting each other to kill the other's giant crystal is "Because it's a game GOD don't over complicate it." Shit, even in Dota 2 there's motivation for destroying the enemy's base. "Because it's going to kill us all/Because it's stopping us from killing them all." There is now bodaciously no framing device for all of this. None whatsoever. I'm not saying the Institute of War was perfect, but it was something.

No wait shit I just realized something. The League of Legends is NO LONGER A LEAGUE OF LEGENDS.

Also, Lee Sin. Although, it wouldn't make sense of some of the champions (lore wise) to be working together against another enemy. Like with Thresh and Lucian bot lane. But, I don't get it, are they getting rid of summoners entirely?

Everything to do with the Institute of War, summoners included.

As sad as it is to see some of that lore go, It might be a necessary decision.
I giant, brand-new world would be a cool thing to explore. A lot of older champs will have to be completely rewritten, but I trust that they will do them justice.
(I just want my clockwork waifu to be treated well ;_;)

Orianna's lore will probably just be blah blah guy daughter blah blah s̶h̶e̶ ̶t̶r̶a̶i̶n̶s̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶c̶h̶a̶m̶p̶i̶o̶n̶ blah blah she dies blah guy builds robot.

It's just, it seems like such a lazy solution to something the writers considered a problem.

After reading the article I can see where they're coming from.
It can't be an easy decision to make especially with the feedback they're getting.

They gave up on the lore years ago anyway

That sucks, I liked the lore. It kind of makes me wonder what people with ask blogs and summoner personas will do.

It's not like they're getting rid of lore completely.
They're UPDATING it. Meaning that they will still have lore. Hell it's probably gonna be better, more consistent lore too.

Of course they're not getting rid of the lore completely. They're just massively disconnecting it from the actual game and effectively removing the only framing device said game had.

The framing isn't that powerful, especially with the newer champs. It's not a crucially necessary thing. It's a cool thing, but not necessary.
They'd rather expand on the world itself and quite honestly they can't expand the Institute any farther than it already is.

The framing isn't that powerful with newer champs because the writers basically gave up. Shit, the League itself hasn't been mentioned in any champ's bio since Varus. Two years.

No, story and lore aren't necessary for a video game, but it tends to make the whole experience much nicer.

They can expand the world as much as they want, but if it's not connected to the video game in which it is based, it means jack.

Like, I don't even care that that institute itself is gone. I'm mad that the game has no framing device whatsoever. Even it's just "Iunno they want the power from these crystal dealies or whatever here's fantasy LCS," I would be fine. Also everything built around the institute is now null. Summoner spells? Nope. Summoner's rift? Nah. Motherfucking influence points? Done-zo.