[2021] Theory: Riot is increasing system requirements in 11.17 because Vex is planned to release in the same patch

This isn't so much about Vex specifically as it is that in general we do want to give our art and dev teams space to do things like they're doing with Vex.

We are very, very conservative about changing our minspec, because we want to make sure that as many players as possible around the world are able to play League. In many regions, players are far more likely to be playing on older hardware than they are in NA or EU (where most redditors are).

Before we change the minspec, we look very closely at the number of players worldwide that will be affected, and for the most part, we won't adjust it until that number is very small. Even then, we balance that against the benefits we'll be able to deliver to all of our players by giving our artists more capabilities.

The only real exception to this would be if third parties (e.g. OSX, Windows) drop support or change requirements for things that we don't have control over. Even then, those parties usually aren't dropping support until the number of affected users is very small.

Yes, this is largely correct.

We are very proud of the "League runs on a toaster" memes, and even though we will be updating our minspec sometimes, we have a very deliberate goal to make sure that League continues to run on old hardware. Our "new" minspec CPU is over 10 years old.

Yes, we don't want to constrain ourselves to technology that isn't "relevant", that's why we will periodically update our minspec.

However, keep in mind that we have players all over the world, not just in NA and EU (where most redditors are). In most areas of the world, more players are using older hardware than they are in NA or EU, and we look at our global player base to determine what is "relevant" to our players.

I meant the actual CPU. The Intel minspec CPU was released over 10 years ago.