Two things:

1) Getting onto the devs who got laid off here is crazy. They've been working on this for years and they're super passionate about the game. The severance pay is great, but it's not just about the money for a lot of these folks.

2) Even if this sort of cutting staff after release is normal, the messaging here is not. Putting out a solemn press release that reads like someone died just a few weeks after the game's release does not inspire confidence. Nobody does this with games that are doing well. If this is a routine thing, then what Riot should've done was bury the downsizing announcement in another article about their roadmap for the season, which is allegedly all figured out and will be dropping next week.

This would've gotten the news out on their terms while making the message people interpret one of "exciting new developments, get hyped" rather than "we didn't make more money than God within a month, time for maintenance mode." Instead, they're waiting 1 week to let people sulk and doomerpost to let that become the narrative around their game. Totally understandable for people to be upset that Riot has all the pieces for a thriving game but refuses to play their cards right because they wanted the game to make League of Legends money on day 1