- Red Post Collection: Bard Discussion, Patch Rundown 5.4, Kassadin Champion Update on PBE, DJ Sona Q&A, and more
- Champion & Skin Sale 2/27 - 3/2
- 2/26 PBE Update: Headhunter Akali Splash, End of Game Victory / Defeat updates, More texture rebalances, animations for base Stealth/Vision wards, and more
Table of Contents
- [Continued] Bard Discussion
- Follow up on 5.4 Veigar Changes
- Debonair Galio will not be released in 5.5
- SpectateFaker - What we Learned and What We'll Do
- Teemix
- DJ Sona Fan Art
[Continued] Bard Discussion
When asked if champions - enemy or ally - that are currently traveling through Bard's Magical Journey (E) are able to be targeted, Meddler explained:
"Champions taking a Magical Journey with Bard's E remain targetable the entire time."
As for Bard's chimes spawning on different maps, Meddler noted:
"Yes, Chimes will spawn on any map. As with SR they'll spawn semi randomly, with some tailoring of how based off the map in question."
When asked about the usefulness of Bard's Magical Journey (E) on Howling Abyss, Meddler noted:
"There are some places where you can use it to surf along the side of the walls. It's situational (best when chasing after a team fight), but not useless."
Grumpy Monkey also hopped on twitter to share a model turnaround for Bard!
"Turnaround for Bard @LeagueOfLegends newest champ! What a joy to work on such a uniqe champ! #LeagueOfLegends"
[High Resolution version via Grumpy Monkey's art station]
He later shared a video turnaround:
For more on Bard, check out these links
- Bard, The Wandering Caretaker, Revealed
- Bard and Elderwood Bard on the PBE for testing
- [2/26 Red Post Collection] Bard Discussion Round #1
Follow up on 5.4 Veigar Changes
"Thanks for a well written opening post, was a pleasure to read.
Our conclusion was that an instant stun, at that range, at that cooldown was blocking Veigar from being a healthy (and therefore able to be made powerful) champion. Adding a delay was the best way to preserve what we felt was the core of the skill (lock down an area, at a range that doesn't require Veigar to be completely in the middle of the fight).
As a general update our initial take is that Veigar's looking too weak after these changes. Options we're looking at include having E stop dashes once the walls are up (people attempting to dash out get stopped and stunned), starting the delay at the start of Veigar's cast time rather than at the end and reducing the delay on W. None of those are guaranteed changes yet of course, but that's the sort of direction we're thinking."As for a timeline on when we might see some of these changes, Meddler commented:
"It's likely we'll have at least some follow up changes in the next patch (5.5). It will take a little while for people to adapt to the changes to his kit though and for us to assess how that goes. Design changes for patch 5.5 are tentatively scheduled to lock mid next week and that means if bigger changes are appropriate they'll be in 5.6 (or potentially later)."When asked about the changes going to live and why they weren't able to iterate on them as much while Veigar was still on the PBE, Meddler explained:
"The PBE's really useful for bug catching and feel feedback, it's not as good as a source of balance feedback however. That's in large part because it's got a player population that's a tiny fraction of the regular servers, so it's hard to generate a good matchmaking outcome. Additionally games tend to be taken less seriously, with more experimentation (people playing things they're unfamiliar to test skins etc) and, unfortunately afking. That combination of factors, plus a couple of other things (e.g. mirror matches) make it
difficult to isolate out the effects of balance changes."
Debonair Galio will not be released in 5.5
Over on the boards, Riot KateyKhaos noted:
"Hey guys, we saw that a lot of players weren't super excited about the Debonair Galio skin on PBE, so we've decided to take some time and do what we can to make this skin as awesome possible. That said, he won't be in Patch 5.5. Again thanks for all of your feedback!"Debonair Galio's PBE feedback and bugs thread has also been updated with the same information.
She also added:
"We're actually not shipping Debonair Galio in patch 5.5. so we can take a look at his back and work on making him the best skin possible. :]"She also commented in another thread he will remain 750 RP:
"Debonair Galio will still be 750 RP. We're currently looking to improve the model and texture, since it is a bit plain. :]"He continued:
"Hiya!
We're currently working on ways to improve the model and the texture of the skin. Like you've said, there's a lot of white space on his back, and when playing Galio, that's something you're seeing a lot of. So, we're working to make that a bit more interesting.
Oh god, the dress meme. PLS NO. :P
The thought of having spikes sticking out was discussed, but like you've said, it would ruin the sleek look that the Debonair line has.
The face is also something that's been a topic of a discussion with the team. There's awesome details up close, but it gets a bit lost from game height.
I'd be happy to bring your suggestions to the team! Thanks for leaving some awesome feedback! :]"
SpectateFaker - What we Learned and What We'll Do
"Over the last week, we’ve been wrestling with some complex and layered issues around how players create and share gameplay content online, as brought up by the SpectateFaker streaming case. It’s come with a lot of learnings, some unclear communication on our part and a lot of debate, both within Riot and externally, on the best way to balance access to gameplay footage that players want to see with protection for individual players who do not consent to having a third party stream all of their games.
Here’s the TL;DR: We believe the in-game spectator experience for ranked games is a critical part of the LoL gameplay experience, and we have no interest in seeing it crippled. Where things become problematic is when a spectator mode for a player (pro or otherwise) is consistently streamed against their wish, and in a way that is harmful. Having looked into the SpectateFaker case we’ve established two major things. 1) That the DMCA issued by Azubu did not have a legal standing as we, not Azubu, own the gameplay content, and 2) that Faker believes (and we agree) that this stream is harmful to him and to his brand. We’ll be honoring Faker’s request and pursuing a takedown of the stream.
Personally, it’s pretty clear that I should have handled communications around this better. My intent was to jump to the defense of a player (Faker) who was being singled out and streamed against his will. I’m very sensitive to the topic of bullying. It’s a sobering lesson to me that in discussing concerns about it, I may have came across as the bully myself.
This individual case has brought up a lot of issues that go beyond Faker - or even beyond pro players. It has the power to affect all of us who create and spectate LoL gameplay through the client. We feel the weight of that responsibility, which is why we took some time to really debate this and doublecheck our assumptions before coming back with a thought out response.
I wanted to take some time to talk a little about our core philosophies around how we’ve approached this issue, what we got wrong in our first steps and what approach we’ll be taking moving forward.
What happened?
With such a complex set of variables and players, there's no easy way to summarize the issues - but below is a topline account of what happened.
Early last week, streaming platform Azubu sent a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notice to a stream named SpectateFaker. This stream auto checked for solo queue games of SK Telecom T1 player Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok, and streamed them on Twitch using LoL’s spectator mode.
Along with several other Korean esports pros, including SK Telecom teammates, Faker signed a contract in September 2014 to stream exclusively on the Azubu platform - and Azubu felt that the independent stream of Faker’s games over on Twitch challenged that exclusivity. As the SpectateFaker streamer StarLordLucian pointed out, however, according to the LoL terms of use, players sign away rights of ownership to the gameplay content they create within the game. Legally, Azubu doesn’t own the streaming content that Faker was producing. As many have pointed out - and as we’ve given feedback to Azubu directly - their DMCA action wasn’t based on a valid legal claim of ownership.
Earlier in the week, SKT and KeSPA had reached out to Riot to express the fact that Faker did not wish his content to be rebroadcast in this way and hoped we would take action to have it shut down. SKT themselves issued a statement via their Facebook page confirming that Faker was uncomfortable about his name and gameplay being streamed without his consent, and that they believed it had a negative impact to the value and stability of his streaming offering .
What's our approach?
Let’s dig a little further into our core philosophies and how we plan to tackle this complicated issue moving forward:
With any issue like this, our guiding philosophy is to protect the interests of players; in this case, things aren’t so simple. There are two distinct player interests that are in conflict: the interests of the individual player (in this case Faker) with the interests of the thousands of players who enjoyed watching the Twitch streams of him playing via SpectateFaker. When we looked at this case, we had to weigh these two interests and make a balanced decision as to what we thought offered the most harm - or the most benefit - to the groups involved.
What StarLordLucian did with the SpectateFaker stream provided a service for thousands of players who were able to watch Faker solo queue games on the platform they prefer and using the tools they’re accustomed to. It was an innovative use of our API which identified a unique edge case, and we believe that the stream was born out of positive intentions to provide esports content to fans worldwide. I regret insinuations otherwise that I made on Reddit in the heat of the moment.
My alarm was driven by the fact that Faker and SKT view this as harmful to his career and brand, and asked for our help in helping to shut down the stream. Having looked into this issue we understand why it would be viewed as harmful. Streaming contracts like this are an important cornerstone in creating a stable financial esports ecosystem in Korea. Systematically streaming spectator mode of each of Faker’s games (rather than a few sporadically) on a rival platform understandably lessens the value of his partnership with Azubu and even more importantly, the potential of pros to gain equally lucrative streaming partnerships in the future. In a very real and material sense, the SpectateFaker stream causes Faker harm in his own judgment - and we believe he should have the right to see it discontinued.
This is a precedent that doesn’t just apply to pro players - or to monetary or brand loss. Imagine a scenario in which a bronze player was targeted by an unwanted stream that meant all of his ranked games were broadcast to a crowd who made fun of him and his gameplay - all against his will. ‘Harm’ could come in several forms - emotional, material, or otherwise. We think that having your gameplay systematically streamed in a way that has the potential to harm or distress you isn’t just something you should put up with as a consequence of playing ranked games. Or imagine a stream targeting a female player, where a narrator or automated system harasses her and comments on every move she makes in every game she plays online. Riot has always taken our responsibility towards nurturing a sportsmanlike and positive community very seriously and we view this precedent-setting situation through a similar lens.
There are examples of this kind of spectator mode streaming that don’t carry the same bite. To give just one, SaltyTeemo is a stream that often targets low elo players and streams their gameplay from spectator mode, but the intent here feels completely different. The stream removes usernames and doesn’t specifically target individual players over and over. This isn’t a calculated harassment of one specific player, it’s a compilation of gameplay that’s entertaining and non-malicious towards individuals.
We will intervene and shut down streams where we perceive that it’s causing harm to individual players. This will usually result from the individual player requesting the takedown (although it isn’t always dependent on it), so we’ll also make it easy for streamers to contact us with those kind of requests and look into them on a case by case basis. Although the SpectateFaker case was the genesis - and will be the first case where this policy will apply - it isn’t specifically targeted to him, any pros or even pro players exclusively. If you believe you are being targeted for harassment by someone streaming your spectator games, please file a ticket with Riot player support.
This doesn’t mean that there won’t be a technical/API fix in the future that helps us tackle these kind of problems at the root. Spectator mode is an evolving tool that should not only enable players to watch gameplay live, but also be sensitive to the concerns of players who feel targeted or harmed by others who systematically stream each of their games without their consent. The in-game spectator experience for ranked games is an important part of the LoL experience for those that enjoy watching and learning from other players - pro or otherwise. It’s the act of streaming that gameplay that becomes problematic when the player actively objects - and at the moment we’ll intervene to protect them. Any technical tweaks to our API have a longer timeframe than this response allows for, but we’re committed to assessing what we can do to improve choices for players and streamers.
With regards to the SpectateFaker stream case, we believe strongly that the potential material harm caused to the player is real - as such, we’ll be honoring Faker’s request and pursuing a takedown of the stream.
What did we learn from communications around this issue?
Sorting through complicated and grey legal issues has become par for the course for Riot as we refine our processes in response to player need. Unfortunately, we sometimes show our inexperience when tackling a new area and there’s a lot to learn from this situation.
When I jumped into the debate on Twitter and Reddit, my first concern was to clarify our position around protecting the player experience. My gut instinct was in full force, and I was quick to jump to what I considered to be the defense and protection of a player who was being mistreated. Unfortunately, in my efforts to explain my concern with the situation, I made several mistakes which hurt our efforts to clarify things.
Although I disagreed with StarLordLucian’s actions, they were born out of good intent. By making things personal and adversarial, and accusing him of ‘estalking’ Faker, my comments didn’t appropriately reflect his original intentions, which was to showcase Faker on Twitch.
I moved too quickly to comment in a situation where I didn’t have the full context. I made an error by originally assuming that StarLordLucian was rebroadcasting direct streams; in fact he was streaming spectated games in an automated fashion. Basic factual mistakes like this blurred the message I was hoping to get across - that our primary goal was to protect players who felt they were being harmed by being systematically streamed against their will.
Players were calling for an overall comment on the issue and the legal precedent it created (like this one), rather than a laser focus on the isolated StreamFaker case. By focusing solely on this case, I obscured some of the bigger issues at stake that we are hopefully now clarifying.
Untangling the threads around this kind of issue has been a learning experience for all of us - and it’s one that’s still ongoing within Riot and externally. We know that our decisions will spark a ton of debate. We think that in these instances when something has the power to set precedents in a new and emerging space, debate is not only healthy but necessary.
I look forward to hearing your feedback and want to thank everyone who participated in the discussion. To be honest, a lot of the comments still sting - but we’ll learn from this experience and improve going forward.
- Marc Merrill"
A reddit thread by Tryndamere can be also found here.
Community Collab: Teemix
Next up is the community creator collaboration TEEMIX - a remix of Teemo's voice!"Domics and Jomm took Teemo's voice and remixed it. The results will be stuck in your head 'til the end of time. You're welcome. (We're sorry.)
Domics: http://www.youtube.com/user/domics
Jomm: http://www.youtube.com/user/flashjomm"
DJ Sona Fan Art
Speaking of community creations, Riot Jynx has also posted up a slew of fan art on the recently released DJ Sona ultimate skin:"DJ Sona’s debut album has inspired a wave of awesome community creations. Check out this creative collection of Kinetic, Concussive, and Ethereal fan art to celebrate your favorite track! Don’t forget to click the artists’ names to see more of their work.
With DJ Sona’s release, we know there are still more musical creations out there. Please share your fan art, cosplay, and videos in the comments below!"
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