His lore "issue" is the easiest fix ever. You don't even have to touch Maokai himself!

-Lore Fix
-The League realizes that the official league battles are making the Twisted Treeline worse.
-They decide to scout around for an area to replace it at Maokai's request.
-(Insert Shadow Isles champ) leads them toward the Shadow Isles (implying a sinister motive)
-They find the perfect spot and import some nexuses.

-Client Fix
-Rename new TT to Shadow Lanes or something
-Keep old TT the same and leave it as a custom queue

So easy.

It's an easy fix, yes...

But then why hasn't it been fixed yet? >.>

We were upset because these changes came out of the blue. All Riot had to do was post one thing here to set up the change, which likely would have garnered support and excitement, but instead we got nothing but questions.

And so, we're still upset, because we still have questions, and no actual answers. Just theories.

I do like the lore of the new TT, and I don't care about the old TT gameplay wise, but plotwise, it's better to change things organicaly than a retcon, every time.

The changes in the lore have to be retcons because they are in the past, but this event is easily explained in Maokai making a difference in the world, and the shadow isles becoming more involved in the world's scene.

Again, this could have worked a lot better in a JoJ format,

"Maokai starts Zaun forest conservation movement"
"new undead centaur joins the league"
"karthus talks, the glory of death"
"Maokai accepts human protesters in his movement"
"Dissapareance of a large number of people who follow the cult of the spider"
"Nexus activity detected in the shadow isles"
"League champions: Karthus, Mordekaiser, Yorik, Hecarim, Evelyn missing"
"A offer from the shadow isles emisary Elise, 2 nexus for entrance to the league"
"Syndra/Maokai aliance Twisted Treeline nexi moved to the institute of war, TT forest closed for matches"
"A new Field of Justice aproaches, Twisted Shadows"

You're right, that is the easiest way.

Then you get this:

Along the same lines, Kitae also mentioned that Maokai's lore will be updated in the near future, seeing as how he originated from the old Twisted Treeline map

"We are planning on doing a lore update for Maoki in the future.

As a preview, Maoki will not become an undead tree. He will retain a connection to TT as a connection to the Shadow Isles, but he will not be a Shadow Isles champion. As a proponent of nature, he will see the shadow isles as an abomination."

Cited from http://www.surrenderat20.net/2012/10...on-reddit.html

What you suggested is the absolute easiest way to not only please everyone and make the most amount of sense, but requires less work on their part than rewriting more and more. That doesn't seem to be in their plan however.

I thought that nexuses were geological features that couldn't just be up and moved?

Agreed, OP. Don't get why they can't just retire TT lore-wise and rename the revamped map to match the new location better. It would be so easy, and might even tie in to Maokai having an impact on the larger world by getting the League to shut down the original Twisted Treeline.

No using up valuable time on rewriting lore that doesn't need to be rewritten that way. I just don't get why they can't work with what they have and add to it rather than changing things. The thing that actually needs help is the time line, and who knows whether they're even going to work on it.

That might work, except for the fact that IIRC they are retconning TT to have always been on the Shadow Isles.

Also, a Nexus can't just be "imported". It is a powerful natural source of magic; the structure is simply built on top of the existing geographical feature.

...Right, I forgot about that.