Red Post Collection: Updated Lore for GP, Graves, Twisted Fate, Context on PBE Teemo Changes, & more!

"Malcolm Graves, the Outlaw 

“We’re here for your gold, not your heads, so don’t nobody decide to be a hero.” 

Malcolm Graves is a wanted man in every realm, city-state, and empire he has visited. Tough, strong-willed, and above all relentless, through his life of crime he has amassed (then invariably lost) a small fortune. 

Raised in the wharf alleys of Bilgewater, Malcolm quickly learned how to fight and how to steal, skills that have served him very well over the years. Smuggling himself to the mainland in the bilge of an outgoing cargo ship as a youth, he stole, lied, and gambled his way from place to place. But it was across the table of a high-stakes card game that Malcolm met the man who would change his life: the trickster now known as Twisted Fate. Both men saw the same reckless love of danger and adventure in the other, and a dysfunctional partnership that lasted nearly a decade was born. 

Combining their unique skills, Graves and Twisted Fate were an effective team, pulling off scores of heists. They stole from and swindled the rich and foolish for cash, fame, and the sheer thrill. Adventure became as much of a lure as the payoff. 

On the borderlands of Noxus, they set two renowned houses at each other’s throats as cover for the rescue of an heir apparent being held hostage. That they pocketed the reward money only to ransom the vile young man to the highest bidder should have come as no surprise to their employer. In Piltover, they hold the distinction of being the only thieves ever to crack the supposedly impenetrable Clockwork Vault. Not only did the two empty the vault of its treasures, but they tricked its guards into loading it onto their hijacked cargo ship. Only once the pair were over the horizon was the theft discovered, along with Fate’s trademark playing card. 

But eventually their luck ran out. During a heist that went wrong, Twisted Fate seemingly betrayed and abandoned his partner. Graves was taken alive and thrown in the infamous prison known as the Locker. 

Years of imprisonment and torture followed, during which time Graves nursed his hatred for his former partner. A lesser man would surely have broken, but Malcolm Graves endured it all and finally escaped. He clawed his way to freedom and began his pursuit of Twisted Fate, the man whose treachery consigned him to a decade of unspeakable misery.

Holed up in an empty bar, bleeding from a dozen wounds and surrounded by armed men who wanted him dead, Malcom Graves had seen better days. He’d seen worse ones, too, so he wasn’t worried yet. Graves leaned over the smashed bar and helped himself to a bottle, sighing as he read the label. 

“Demacian wine? That all you got?” 

“It’s the most expensive bottle I have...” said the innkeeper, cowering below the bar in a glittering ocean of broken glass. 

Graves looked around the bar and grinned. 

“I reckon it’s the only bottle you got left.” 

The man had panic written all over him. He clearly wasn’t used to being in the middle of a gunfight. This wasn’t Bilgewater, where fatal brawls broke out ten times a day. Piltover was regarded a more civilized city than Graves’shometown. In some ways, at least. 

He yanked the cork free with his teeth and spat it to the floor before taking a swig. He swilled it around his mouth like he’d seen rich folks do before swallowing it. 

“Pisswater,” he said, “but beggars can’t be choosers, huh?” 

A voice shouted through the broken windows, buoyed with confidence it hadn’t earned and the false bravado of numbers. 

“Give it up, Graves. There’s seven of us to one of you. This ain’t going to end well.”
“Damn straight it ain’t,” hollered Graves in return. “If you want to walk awayfrom this, you best go fetch more men!” 

He took another swig from the bottle, then put it down on the bar. 

“Time to get to work,” he said, lifting his one-of-a-kind shotgun from the bar.
Graves reloaded, pushing fresh shells home. The weapon snapped together with a satisfyingly lethal sound, loud enough to carry to the men outside. Anyone who knew him would know that sound and what it meant. 

The outlaw slid off the barstool and made his way to the door, glass crunching beneath his boot heels. He stooped to glance through a cracked window. Four men crouched behind makeshift cover: two on the upper floor of a fancy workshop, another two in shadowed doorways to either side. All held crossbows or muskets at the ready. 

“We tracked you halfway across the world, you son of a bitch,” shouted the same voice. 

“Bounty didn’t say nothin’ about you being alive or dead. Walk out now with that cannon of yours held high and there don’t need to be no more bloodshed.” 

“Oh, I’m comin’ out,” shouted Graves. “Don’t you worry none about that.” 

He drew a silver serpent from his pocket and flipped it onto the bar, where it spun through a pool of spilled rum before landing heads up. A trembling hand reached up to take it. Graves grinned. 

“That’s for the door,” he said. 

“What about the door?” asked the innkeeper. 

Graves hammered his boot into the inn’s front door, smashing it from its hinges. He dived through the splintered frame, rolling to one knee, gunblasting from the hip. 

“Alright, you bastards!” he roared. “Let’s finish this!”"

Twisted Fate

"Twisted Fate, the Card Master 

“It's not gambling if you can't lose...” 

Twisted Fate is an infamous card sharp and swindler who has gambled and charmed his way across much of the known world, earning the enmity and admiration of the rich and foolish alike. He rarely takes things seriously, greeting each day with a mocking smile and an insouciant swagger. In every possible way, Twisted Fate always has an ace up his sleeve. 

Born to the nomadic river-folk of the Serpentine, the boy was taught the magic of the cards at an early age and soon learned what it was to be hated. Tolerated for the exotic goods they peddled, but shunned for their strange ways, the boy's people found only short welcomes wherever they berthed their colorful river barques. His elders claimed this was the way of the world, but their refusal to fight back against this prejudice always rankled the young boy's sensibilities. 

When men who'd lost their fortunes in the gambling tents of the river folk returned in the dead of night to exact vengeance, they came bearing cudgels and emboldened by cheap rotgut. They beat the river folk back to their boats with curses and blows, eventually turning their weapons upon the boy's family. The boy could take no more and fought back, driving the men away with swift blows from their own clubs. 

Proud of what he had done, the boy was stunned when his people turned their back on him. Retaliation went against the code of the river, and there could be only one punishment. Exile. His whole world falling apart around him, the boy watched helplessly as the barques of his folk sailed away without him, leaving him with nothing, alone for the first time in his life. 

The boy grew to manhood drifting from town to town, trawling the gambling dens of every city he came to, using his preternatural skill at cards to earn coin to survive. That he was able to relieve the boastful, the arrogant, and the cruel of their cash was just an added bonus. Though always careful to let his opponents win at least some hands, he soon learned more ways to fight when many a disgruntled opponent sought to reclaim their lost fortunes. 

Across one table, he met a fellow named Malcolm Graves and, recognising a kindred soul, joined forces with him. The two spent years cutting a ruinous swathe across Valoran. With every con, swindle, and heist, he sought ever more dangerous means to make the cards bend to his will. 

That search ended badly when a heist went wrong, resulting in Graves being taken alive, though the riverman ran free. The exact circumstances of that night and its dire consequences for both men remain shrouded in mystery, for the gambler never speaks of it. Seeking to begin again, he returned his birth name to the waters and took another: Twisted Fate. 

In the time since, Twisted Fate has continued to ply his games of chance in the high parlors and low dens of every city he visits, earning countless fortunes along the way – though none can say what becomes of these winnings (other than his fine clothes)or why he seems driven to amass such wealth. He has been imprisoned with great fanfare on dozens of occasions, but there is no cell in Runeterra that has been able to hold him. Twisted Fate is always gone with morning's light, leaving only a mocking calling card to speak to his being there at all. 

Nigh-on impossible to track, Twisted Fate has been said to vanish into thin air every time an enemy believes they have him cornered. A useful skill indeed for a man who has parted thousands of souls from their gold... 

All eyes in Fortune's Glory were on Twisted Fate. He felt the gambling hall's many patrons regarding him with a mixture of envy, vicarious excitement,and spiteful longing for him to lose everything on the turn of the last card. 

Beyond the avarice common to dens of chance, Twisted Fate felt a singular purpose at work here, a noose being slowly drawn around his neck. The cards were twitching in agitation, warning him of danger. He knew he should fold and get out before whoever was hunting him sprang their trap, but the opportunity to make a pauper of the man across the table was too enticing to forego. 

He grinned at his opponent, a greedy merchant whose fortune was built on the whipped backs of enslaved miners. The man's robes were expensive:Freljord furs, hand-tooled leather, and Bilgewater sea charms. Every finger boasted a ring of blood gold worth more than most men would see in a lifetime. Aromatic smoke drifted from clay pipes to hang over the fortune in coin, jewelery, and deeds lying between them like a pirate's treasure horde. 

Twisted Fate nodded toward the merchant.  

“I do believe it's your call, Master Henmar.” 

“I am aware of the rules, river rat,” said Henmar, as Twisted Fate ran his tattooed fingers in a repeating spiral pattern on the backs of his cards. “And do not think any of your fancy sleight of hand is going to distract me into making an error of judgment.”
“Distract you?” said Twisted Fate, exuding laconic confidence in every gesture. “I declare, I would never stoop to such a low and dishonorable ruse.” 

“No? Then why is it your eyes keep darting from the table?” said Henmar. “Listen closely, I have negotiated with the best of them, and I know the tell of a desperate man when I see it.” 

Twisted Fate gave a sly grin, swapping the cards between his hands and theatrically doffing his wide-brimmed hat. 

“You're sharp, sir. I can see that,” he said, sweeping his gaze across the gathered crowd. The usual collection of hangers-on; men and women hoping that whoever won might be generous to those nearby. The cards trembled as Twisted Fate's eyes fell upon certain individuals and he felt his mouth fill with the rancid flavor of sour milk. He’d long learned to trust that reaction as a sign of imminent bedlam. 

There. A man with an eye patch and a flame-haired woman. They were almost certainly armed and well aware of his slippery nature. Did he know them? Probably not. Were they working for Henmar, protecting his assets? Unlikely. A man like Henmar would make it obvious who he'd brought. Bounty hunters then. The cards were growing ever more alarmed in Twisted Fate's hands. He slipped them together and placed them flat on the table. 

“You have a look that tells me you know you have already lost,” said Henmar with the tone of a man who believes everyone to be his inferior. 

“Then what say we make this a little more interesting, sir?” replied Twisted Fate, spreading the cards in a fan and watching as the hunters eased closer. “Care to double down?” 

“Are you able to cover that much?” asked Henmar suspiciously. 

“Easily,” said Twisted Fate, locking his gaze with the merchant and lifting a heavy pouch of coins from the voluminous pockets of his long coat. “Can you?” 

Henmar licked his lips and snapped his fingers. A flunky behind the merchant handed him a matching bag of coins. The patrons of Fortune's Glory gave a collective moan as it was added to the gold heaped in the middle of the table. Wars had been waged for less coin than was at stake here. 

“You first,” said Henmar. 

“Always,” agreed Twisted Fate, flipping over his cards as the bounty hunters made their move. 

The man with the eye patch lunged at him with a capture collar. The woman shouted his name and drew a matching pair of pistols. 

Twisted Fate kicked the underside of the table, spinning it into the air in a shower of coins, cards, and parchment. The pistols fired with deafening roars, blasting fist-sized holes in the table. The capture collar snapped closed, but when the smoke cleared and the screams stopped, Twisted Fate was nowhere to be found. 

Henmar rose to his feet, his face twisted in outrage as he searched in vain for his opponent. He looked down at the broken pieces of the table and the color drained from his face. 

“Where is the money?” he yelled. “Where is my money?” 

Five cards fluttered face-up to the floor of Fortune's Glory. 

A winning hand."

Lore Discussion with Jaredan

Following the new lore above and the launch of Bilgewater: Burning Tides Act Two, Jaredan hoped on the boards & reddit to chat about the new stories!
In relation to the format of the new GP, Graves, & TF stories on the champion pages, Jaredan noted:

"Yup, we've got work to do on format, but we just wanted to get the info up on there first. Thanks for the feedback!"

He continued:

"This is much more simple to take care of. Once Bilgewater: Burning Tides sails off into the sunset, we'll sort the format out."

He also noted they'll have a dev blog up sometime next week on the bios:

"Yup. Still work to do on formatting and links etc. but we can start putting some of the text up that we want. I've done a dev blog to explain a few things that will likely go out next week. I hope you like the new content."

As for if we'll have more stories added such as the  GP, Graves, & TF ones above, Jaredan noted:

"Just those three for now. Keep an eye out next week."

When asked if we'll see longer form stories for Shurima and Shadow Isles champions who received the short in-client bios last year, Jaredan noted:

"There will be some, yes, at least a couple of short story additions. Eventually, full character introductions in the same vein as those you see for Graves, T (for Tobias) F, and Gangplank."

He continued:

"Quote:

Riot WAAARGHbobo mentioned in this post on Surrender at 20 (bottom of the post) that they do have more of the Shurima storyline already written up and will hopefully be released in the near future. WAAARGHbobo himself is specifically excited for Sivir's storyline as he actually wrote it. I'm not sure why they weren't released shortly following the Shurima event but it may have just not fit properly into the Ascension narrative properly and would have taken away some of the emphasis on it.

It was due to problems in publishing because of how our client and website were related to each other. We've made some strides and will be releasing some of the content mentioned when we're out of Bilgewater."

Jaredan also noted there will be a short story for Amumu:

"There's a short story for Amumu that will be released when we're not so focused on Bilgewater."

He also noted on twitter it is the same story that hit the PBE in November -  Greed and Tears.


He also noted that Tahm Kench will also have an equally long story for his introductory bio:

"It's not forgotten, don't worry. The focus right now is obvious, but Tahm will be getting the same treatment that the main characters in the Bilgewater event are getting in regard to their introductory text."

As for if we might finally learn who killed Miss Fortune's mother in the lore, Jaredan teased it will probably be revealed during the Burning Tides storyline:

"Quote:

It will probably be revealed in the event (although the most popular opinion/most likely culprit is that is was Gangplank's dad)

It probably will."

When asked if champions and characters have "super plot armor" or if they will be able to be hurt or possibly die, Jaredan noted:

"Yes, they will be able to die. Doesn't mean we start lopping heads off, unless you're Darius, but everything is on the table."

He continued:

"Runeterra is some kind of Runeterra, it's one of the joys of our work. We have such a joyously eclectic world that there are few limits to what we can do."

Teemo R Changes on PBE

"Hey everyone! Gonna jump on this thread to give more context on some of these Teemo changes since I worked on them as a humble sacrifice to our dark lord.

I had a few specific goals for these changes:

1) Reduce some of the ambient frustration Teemo causes by just having immortal shrooms.

2) Give this little devil some more skillful ways to express himself as the evil that haunts all of us in our dreams.

3) Give Teemo some sort of fall back team-fight pattern that doesn't just involve right clicking dudes in range so he can feel more useful when his team isn't on the same page as him in terms of baiting enemies into mine fields.

Answering a few questions I see here and there real quick:

1) The bouncing will not prime the mushroom, it is simply a way for Teemo to have some extra placement on his traps. Traps will still have to land and arm before they explode.

2) Mushrooms will only be target-able by enemies after they land, but currently still are destroyed by Wind Wall like effects before planting.

That being said, I'd love some feedback on how his upgraded passive feels in game. Can you pull off some more sneaky jukes as you traverse around the map? Does ambushing people feel like a more fun and viable way to express yourself as Teemo?

I'll preface this before you guys go ham trying to mess with people in top lane with his new camouflage: it should not be as good as you think it is since you have to worry about last hitting over and over, but there should be more situations where you feel like cheesing someone as they comeback from base is viable.

On the other hand, support Teemo in bot lane should have way more fun dominating the bushes and being a nuisance for the enemy since he doesn't need to worry about last hitting minions.

Also sound effects for throwing and bouncing the mushrooms should be getting into PBE around tomorrow and it would be awesome to get some feedback around them too! (Big thanks to our vfx and sfx guys for cranking these awesome things out btw.)

Thanks in advance guys! And have fun out there >:)

P.S. posted something like this on Reddit to but I got there too late so it is buried :X! Hope you guys don't mind me re-posting a lot of what I said over there!"

"It is pretty substantial no doubt, but it was also a lot of power that Teemo players would tap into unintentionally. Cutting down on this type of superfluous power will let us shift some more buffs into cooler/more skillful areas of Teemo's kit in the future if we need to. That being said, through a lot of internal testing so far, the extended cast range has been a substantial buff that for the most part seems to make up for this loss. 

The big thing about this change is that it creates a larger and healthier space for us to work with in the future if we need to give him some more love :D!"

"This is a pretty good assessment. The goal is to make a more-or-less power neutral change that empowers Teemo to make more strategic decisions (expanding his ability to place shrooms and participate in teamfights) while reducing some of his frustration points playing when playing against him.

It's also adorable. Bouncing mushrooms are f*ing adorable. Extra mad props to Wav3break for quantifying the bounce range in terms of Teemos, which is our preferred unit of universal measure."

FeralPony continued:

"We've found there is a lot of additional power added in the increased cast range, both in terms of personal safety for where Teemo can place things and his ability to contribute in team fights (priorizing killing mushrooms in a teamfight is a difficult choice for teams to make) 

That said, we're happy to be wrong here and will adjust Teemo's power as needed moving forward."

He also added that the bounced mushrooms do not arm until after they have finished moving :

"The mushroom does not arm until it has finished moving after the bounce. The bouncing is more about squeezing out extra range out of the ability and set up some fun bounce combos then hitting dudes in the face with long range shrooms."

When asked about any changes to Move Quick and Toxic Shot, FeralPony noted:

"This is not intended to be anywhere near the same size or scope of a traditional champion update. These changes were the result of us seeing a cool opportunity space for a champion we haven't looked at in a long time. While there certainly could be room to do additional adjustments to other skills, we felt these areas would be the highest impact and value for Teemo and his opposition and wanted to keep the scope of the changes under control."

Riot Eno on HUD Update sounds

When asked about the loud sounds on spell use, Riot Eno noted:

"For context, there has always been a sound for those, they were just less noticeable. I totally agree that they're too loud and annoying at the moment - they're getting turned down in 5.15. 

Legit thanks for the feedback zjedz =)"

He also noted they'd be removing the scoreboard sound when hitting tab and lowering the shop sound:

"The tab sound for the scoreboard IS annoying - I'm taking it out. =) 

Shop has always had a sound - the new one is getting lowered in volume."

Gangplank's Silver Serpents on Non-SR maps

In a thread asking about Gangplank's silver serpent collection and if anything will be done to adjust the rates on non-SR maps so he can purchase Cannon Barrage upgrades easier, Scruffy noted:

"We're prototyping a system that gives him roughly 1 Silver Serpent per second on non SR maps. Should give a similar progression of ult upgrades throughout the game."

Bilgewater Inspired skins now available

With the start of Bilgewater: Burning Tides ACT TWO, three new Bilgewater inspired skins for Aatrox, Garen, and Quinn are now available for 750 RP each.

Sea Hunter Aatrox

Rogue Admiral Garen

Corsair Quinn

Gangplank Login Music

If you just can't get of Gangplank's login music, the full track has been uploaded to the League of Legends soundcloud!

/ALL Chat | 40 Youtubers locked in a room

Last up we have a new episode of /ALL Chat where the crew checks out what 40 LoL youtubers have been up to at the Creator Lab!

"ALL Chat crashed the Creator Lab for a behind the scenes look! Forty talented League YouTubers were locked in the YouTube Space LA for 48 hours and made whatever they wanted. We wanted to get personal with creators and ask them what it’s really like making videos on the internet. 

After you watch the episode, be sure to check out the Creator Lab collabs playlist for all the awesome made at the event."

Check out the creator labs youtube videos playlist for more!