The League of Legends season is finally underway after the longest pre-season period we've ever seen. With the substantial rune changes we're already seeing a rather weird meta with ADCs and junglers building support items while professional games are lasting as long as 94 minutes.

And things could get even crazier as Riot are removing the most crucial item for support players, Sightstone. Instead Sighstone will become the new active of support items, having to be earned by that item's quest.

It's a pretty huge change that will delay supports from controlling the vision game, especially for esports professionals for whom vision is crucial. So we asked coaches and players from the EU and NA LCS what they think about the changes.

We asked LCS players and coaches like Olleh what they think about the Sightstone changes

Riot employee 'Lowbo' initially revealed the changes saying: 'The requirement to buy Sightstone has long existed as a tax on the support position. We'd like to lift the obligation while still empowering Supports to be heavy participants in the vision game.'

These changes were revealed before the esports season began, with ADCs now building Targon's Brace it's crucial that Riot gets this right. They will have to walk the fine line between making supports more impactful while stopping other roles from abusing support items.

OpTic support Daerek 'LemonNation' Hart isn't convinced this will accomplish both: 'The removal of Sightstone and putting it on the quest rewards of the support items is a good change for supports as it puts less strain on their economy.

'However, unless they change the support items in some way, it's going to lead to basically everyone in the game getting the support items - we already have the ADC going Relic, and some mid / top / jungles getting Spellthiefs before this significant buff.'

LemonNation isn't convinced the Sighstone changes will stop other roles buying support items

Vitality coach coach Jakob 'YamatoCannon' Mebdi agreed: 'The only thing that the change is buffing are other roles that are buying them.

'I perceive the changes as something done to just accommodate for your Brand supports that are rushing magic penetration and not buying Sightstone, so for all the autofilled supports, it's a buff. In terms of competitive, I see it as a buff to range supports, like Brand, they don't have to make any decision between damage and Sightstone and they should be able to stack it very fast.'

Meanwhile Schalke support (and sometimes ADC) Oskar 'VandeR' Bogdan thinks the changes will help the current meta: 'This is a creative approach from Riot. Other roles are abusing new support items which makes the game feel unnatural. This change should make the game more balanced again and as a support player I'm super excited to be able to purchase strong items even earlier.'

Yamato thinks the changes only benefit AP supports and VandeR is excited to rush new items

The latter point he makes is an important one. The main reason behind this change is to allow supports to rush items quicker, no longer having to save 800 gold early on for Sightstone.

Riot Lowbo said: 'One thing we've learned from Ardent Censer over the summer is that Support players greatly appreciated the ability to rush impactful items - they were able to feel like a bigger participant in the game. We've also learned that the game still functions well without a Sightstone rush - in other words, the game doesn't break down from a lack of early vision.'

G2's new coach Fabian 'Grabbz' Lohmann agreed with Riot's philosophy but doesn't think it'll be as rewarding as it seems: 'In the Ardent meta supports had a reason to branch out from the usual Sightstone rush and implementing the Sightstone into support items will make the role feel more responsive compared to before.

'One Issue I see with this change though is that players will have a hard time to accelerate getting the Sightstone-upgrade due to the gated nature of those items, but the losing side will possibly have a big delay in acquiring said upgrade. So the system does not reward good play but punished bad. This is a philosophy choice that could be revisited in the near future.

G2's new coach Grabbz thinks the changes aren't rewarding but will punish losing supports

'Additionally it will make it harder for support/jungle to coordinate their bases and plant their vision, but I think this will be an issue only in the beginning. 'Overall though I think this change is not as impactful for competitive play as some people make it out to be, I would only have liked those changes to be made in the lengthy pre-season period instead of shortly before or during the season.'

While many are focussing on Supports rushing other items and other lanes abusing support items, some players we spoke were thinking about the main point behind Sighstone – vision.

Fnatic support Zdravets 'Hylissang' Galabov doesn't think supports will be rushing big items: 'You will probably build boots before you complete the Sightstone, but other items are too expensive so you will have it around mid game again. It will take longer to build since you need to complete the quest first and that takes some time also, it will delay you getting vision.'

Fnatic's new support Hylissang thinks supports will rush boots rather than expensive options

Team Liquid support Kim 'Olleh' Joo-sung is a bit more worried about the changes, insisting the item's importance: 'Without Sightstone, League of Legends would be really chaotic.

'For pros and solo queue players, there would be no way to get information away without wards - your team could plan to go top, and the enemy team could just wait and murder them. Even if you're winning, there's no guarantee of ending the game successfully without Sightstone.'

Even pro players are divided with how these changes will work but the biggest takeaway is Riot have to be extremely cautious thanks to the new Relic Shield and overheal meta for ADCs. If they do pull it off though, it could be fantastic for support players.