Red Post Collection: Camille champion insights, All-Star 2016 Icons & Reminders, Meddler on Syndra, and more!

PBE Preview: Upcoming GP, Azir, Garen, and Vi skins

[UPDATE: Now on the PBE!]

New skins for Gangplank, Azir, Garen, and Vi have been teased on Riot's social media! Riot Ve1vet tweeted these four skins are tentatively priced at 1350 RP and Vi/Garen/Azir will be legacy. Look for these skins to hit the PBE soon as the 7.1 PBE cycle starts.

Tweet 1:  Lunar Revel skins for Azir, Garen, Vi
Tweet 2: Gangplank

Here are skin preview images & names from KateyKhaos:

Dreadnova Gangplank

Warring Kingdoms Azir

Warring Kingdoms Vi

Riot Lovestrut also tweeted Warring Kingdom Vi's splash, by artist Alex Flores:

Champ Insights: Camille, the Steel Shadow 

With Camille set for release in the 6.24 patch, here's a champion insights discussing her inspiration and design.

"Sometimes, when we set out to make a new champion, we start with a specific role in mind—like a support jungler. Or we begin with just a theme—like "earth mage." 

Camille began with a different sort of plan: "Let's make a champ that makes players feel like in-control badasses." 

And, obviously, nothing is more badass than a lady with giant freakin' blades for legs. As a piece of concept art, Camille was pretty dope from the get-go. But to make her into a real character, we had to answer another question: what sort of person would replace their legs with a two-piece hextech knife set? 

ON THE KNIFE'S EDGE

The most important thing to know about Camille is that she's better than you. She's smarter than you, richer than you, and a hell of a lot deadlier than you. In-game, she'll taunt you with these facts as she tears you apart with slicing kicks.

Camille is from Piltover, a city enjoying the fruits of a cultural renaissance. It's flourishing, and the moneyed families who pull the city's strings want it to stay that way. So they employs "fixers" like Camille—dark agents who work to maintain the current balance of power. One key to the current balance is that lower city of Zaun must not rise, lest it become a real threat to the powers of Piltover. 

"Piltover has a lot of money," says Ariel "Thermal Kitten" Lawrence, "and when there's a lot of money you often get big differences between the classes—the haves and the have-nots." Zaun's scientists may be more free from rules and regulations, but much of the physical wealth of the two symbiotic cities has gone to Piltover. Camille stands between these two worlds, and if she fails to preserve the balance, the consequences would be tremendous. Piltover would fall, chaos would rule. 

So, as you might imagine, Camille's willing to go to some pretty extreme lengths to do her job well. When she realized that replacing some parts of herself with hextech weaponry could give her a leg up over her opponents, she just went for it. The idea of bodily augmentation isn't so strange to the people of Zaun and Piltover, even though many in these cities would consider Camille's particular body-mod to be pretty damn scary. 

Admittedly, Camille has had some second thoughts about her big "blades-for-legs" transformation. "She would never admit it to anyone else," says Thermal Kitten, "but there's a little bit of a question lurking in the back of her mind: has she gone too far? How much more could she augment without losing her humanity? 

Her deepest fear is that, because she's traded in her own flesh for tools, others may see her as little more than a tool to be used. Camille is a woman straddling the razor-thin line between machinery and humanity. But none of that matters, she thinks to herself, so long as I'm still in control. 

IN CONTROL 

Playing as Camille is all about maintaining control, dictating battles on her terms. When she decides she wants a fight, she gets one—zipping in using her hookshot to force enemies into a 1-on-1 duel. "She's so confident that she can toy with you," says champion designer Jeevun "Riot Jag" Sidhu. "That's kind of what her Q is all about. It's like 'I'm going to hit you in two seconds.' And then she does."

Camille's hookshot was the first ability locked down in her kit, although even it went through a few weird iterations. At one point she was basically an English spiderwoman—she could shoot five hooks in a row and dynamically loop around walls. While this mechanic was very fun, it repeatedly proved to be impractical for use in most combat situation (and it was hard as hell to get a grip on). 

Camille's kit features some very important cooldowns concentrated around specific windows, and it'll probably take most players a few games to get used to these. But those who put in practice with her will reap the rewards. 

"When you pull off your combos correctly, it's supposed to sort of look like a dance," says Riot Jag. "She Qs you, backs away, sweeps you with W, and lunges back in for the second Q." 

There are a few some combos that'll require even more work to perfect. You can prime her W while you're in the middle of your hookshot/walldive combo so it goes off at the exact moment you dive in on an enemy. "That's the really flashy play that the playtest team always sends me replays of whenever they pull it off correctly," Riot Jag says. 

Camille shines brightest when on cleanup duty. If you’re losing a fight to Camille’s team, she’s gonna hunt all of you down like an unstoppable secret agent from one of those movies that gets too many sequels. She will find you, and she will… well, you know. 

POWERED BY HEXTECH

A lot of Camille's early concept art pulled influence from other "cyborg assassin" archetypes from movies and videogames. "She’s a James Bond-style agent," concept artist Hing "Hdot" Chui, "but she’s also an elegant lady." 

We came up with a bunch of early nicknames for Camille meant to capture or convey some aspects of her personality: Lady Em, The Gray Lady, The Left Hand of Piltover, or just Diver. Without question, the goofiest of these was "Cyborg MI6 Mary Poppins." 

The hardest thing to capture with Camille's visual design was the idea that her hextech core (which powers her legs) has slowed, but not stopped, her aging process. She’s actually around 80 years old, but her form suggests that she’s much younger. She’s not immortal, but she’s older than she looks. 

The secret to Camille's good looks has nothing to do with her skincare routine—it's the hextech core embedded in her chest. It takes more than strong hips to maneuver her leggy cutlery, and that means Camille's commitment to the cause has affected just about every part of her body. Even her eyes glow, betraying the inhuman source of her power.

Camille is chopping heads on the PBE now. Stay sharp—she'll hit the live servers soon."

More on Camille available here:

• Champion Reveal: Camille
• Camille PBE Coverage
• Camille Severed Ties Comic
• Camille Universe Page - Bio & Story -1/2

Fan Artist Spotlight: Shilin

Following the recent launch of the LoL Fan Art Showcase, here's a Fan Artist spotlight on Shilin! 

"Shilin is a Canadian freelance illustration/comics artist perhaps best known for her long-running online manga, Carciphona. She’s worked with Riot before, so you may recognize her beautiful work on, say, Sona’s updated splash art… 

Thanks so much for taking the time to talk to us. Can you introduce yourself and how you got into art, or when you decided to get serious about artwork? 

Thank you for the opportunity! I am Shilin, and I'm an illustration/comics artist. I've drawn for fun all my life because it made me happy, and even now, it is important that I draw what I want/what I find fun to draw as a career, so you could say I am as serious as I've ever been in my life long drawing hobby-turned-career! 

What do you play in League? Favorite champs or roles? How did you get into League? 

I got into League through my girlfriend who played League extensively. It was my first pvp-based game and I was terrified of dying and thus being a burden to other people on the team, so I started and stayed with some supports that had heals. Then after realizing that those poor squishy supports are even more likely to get blown up especially in place of their ADs, I decided to try some tanks to give myself a little longer to live. My favourites to play are Nami, Leona, and Morgana! 

What do you do for a living? Are you working on art full-time? 

I am lucky and privileged enough to be able to do art for a living right now! I have a degree in music, but getting that degree just made me realize how much more I'd love to do art for a living, spending my life and time doing what I really want to do, rather than what I feel obligated to do. Nowadays I spend most of my time drawing/writing/self publishing my comic of 10 years and counting, Carciphona. 

What made you start working in digital art? Do you remember any early pieces, and how your work has evolved since then? 

I learned about digital drawing and drawing tablets back in 2000 on Neopets, and at the time it was like witchcraft to me that one could draw on a pad with a pen, and stuff would just appear on a computer screen, or click on the paint bucket and a big area would be filled in with colours evenly. I fell so deep into the digital art abyss because it felt so novel and exciting (and each drawing doesn't cost me dollars in markers and paper lol). Older pieces are much simpler because of my lack of technical skill and understanding of what Photoshop can do, but over time, my drawings become more complex and time consuming. 

Do you have any particular artistic influences that come to mind? 

There are many amazing artists that have influenced me over the years, several standing out over short periods as the most inspirational to me, like SR from Ragnarok Online, RA/Rei/Cushart from pixiv, and Cushart to name a few! Artistic influences aren't limited to drawing/painting for me either; photography, movies, even games as an expansive piece of art changes how I see and think about my art, and what I could do with it. Everything gets me thinking! 

What tools do you use? 

I use Photoshop CC along with a Cintiq 21 UX display tablet. 

Can you walk us through your process? From inspiration to final touches? 

The beginning of a drawing always varies; sometimes I have a clear visual in my head and all I need to do is to sketch it down, and sometimes I need to think hard to place things precisely, struggling and redrawing a lot along the way. After the sketch I would put down very rough colours to give myself a sense of what the final piece would look like overall, so that I could make major changes where I see them without having to worry about deleting work I've spent a lot of time on. Once I'm happy with it, it's detailing for tens of hours until I'm happy with (or sick of) it! 

How do you get better at your craft? Tutorials or writing communities or articles? What advice would you give someone who is aspiring to create artwork like this? 

There are prolific amounts of tutorials and help posts online these days for learning artists (and we all are learning artists no matter our level), so when I do happen across them, I read them to see what I can learn from them. But in general, I improve just by doing what I like because I'm not keen on structured education, it makes me rather sad and unmotivated about what I do. So in the past 16 years, for every picture I draw, I try to ask myself what I liked and what I didn't like about what I was doing, and used google to help myself overcome obstacles one by one. It is highly inefficient; education could teach someone the same amount of knowledge in a year or two, but the most important part of this method is I get to keep my interest, and I get to enjoy and indulge in art in my own pace, which I believe in the end is what art should do for an artist. 

I think it's really important for any artist to realize what they like the most about drawing, and how they would like to indulge in that curiosity. For some, formal education is the way to go because some people soak up knowledge so much better that way, and when you derive no negative feelings from formal education, it saves so much time and builds such a solid foundation for the aspiring artist. But don't feel bad if studying is not for you! Draw at your own pace and don't worry about getting to a certain level by some age; it is nice to be able to excel at your craft, but it means nothing to excel at something that you eventually end up dreading doing. 

Thanks again not only for this interview, but for contributing to this amazing community. Do you have a site with your work, or a Twitch channel, or any other way for us to keep up with you? 

Thank you, Riot, for creating a game that inspired so many of us to come together and share our love for art and storytelling! I have many websites, but they are all linked on my homepage, shilin.net, and twitter.com/okolnir. I stream sometimes on twitch.tv/shilin!"

More of Shilin's art available on the fan art showcase or on her homepage, twitch, or twitter.

Context on PBE Syndra R Nerf Reverts

When asked for context on the PBE reverts to Syndra's R damage nerf, Meddler  explained:

"Syndra's nerf was removed from patch 6.24 because her win rate, ban rate and pick rate all dropped more than we expected. Balance isn't decided by those stats by itself of course, they're a particularly useful guide when it comes to understanding urgency of problems though.  

When we pulled the nerf we were originally thinking we'd wait and see whether we should add it to 7.1 (the next patch) instead. Current thinking is that we can instead use that extra time to explore better changes than just a base damage nerf (removes some power, but doesn't by itself address underlying problems enough)" 

2016 All-Star Team Summoner Icons & more now available

[UPDATE] Official announcement regarding the 2016 All-Star promotions is up! In addition to the new team icons, we also have several bundles, the 2016 All-Star event icon coming to shop for 1 IP, and mystery gifting triggering during event. The new ward skin will be released in 6.24

"Mayhem is coming. Who will win your support? 

Don’t miss the the impending elemental clash of Team Fire and Team Ice during the 2016 All-Star Event. Check out our lineup of fiery and frozen in-game goodies: 

What’s New? 

Team Fire and Team Ice Icons [December 6 - December 14]: Are you a burning hot flame ready to smoke out your opponents or is your style more of an icy touch that will freeze the heat out of your enemies? You will also receive a themed emote, recall, and LCU profile background based on your fiery or icy choices until December 14 at 23:59 PST. Show your allegiance with a Team Fire or Team Ice Icon for 250 RP. 

2016 All-Star Event Icon [December 6 - December 14]: Celebrate the 2016 All-Star Event with the new ASE icon for 1 IP, or you will receive it for free if you voted for your favorite pros earlier this year. 

2016 All-Star Event Ward [December 8 - December 14]: With the start of the show, unlock the event ward that combines the elements of Team Fire and Team Ice for 640 RP. 

Mystery Gifting Trigger

Watch closely throughout ASE as any Pentakills and Baron steals that happen during matches will trigger bonuses on Mystery Gifts. This trigger will grant up to 4x the chance of legendary and esports skins! Just for All-Star, we’re also adding a trigger: if a 1v1 ends before the minions meet in lane, we’ll also up the chances. 

Bundles 

Unlock an elemental lineup packed with some of our the hottest skins or new frozen friends with our mega discount, megabundles. All bundles are available from December 6 - December 14:

Team Fire Mega Bundle - 50% off at 7570 RP (13164 RP if you need the champions)

Skins included:

• Foxfire Ahri
• Infernal Alistar
• Infernal Diana
• Shadowfire Kindred
• Obsidian Malphite
• Charred Maokai
• Phoenix Quinn
• Molten Rammus
• Scorched Earth Renekton
• Firefang Warwick
• Volcanic Wukong
• Scorched Earth Xerath
• Wildfire Zyra
• Firecracker Jinx

Champions included:

• Ahri
• Alistar
• Diana
• Kindred
• Malphite
• Maokai
• Quinn
• Rammus
• Renekton
• Warwick
• Wukong
• Xerath
• Zyra
• Jinx

Team Ice Mega Bundle - 50% off at 6345 RP (10724 if you need the champions)

Skins included:

• Frosted Ezreal
• Freljord Ashe
• Frostblade Irelia
• Frost Queen Janna
• Frostfire Annie
• Frozen Shen
• Arctic Warfare Caitlyn
• Blackfrost Anivia
• Arctic Ops Kennen
• Snow Bunny Nidalee
• Ice Drake Shyvana
• Freljord Tailyah

Champions included:

• Ezreal
• Ashe
• Irelia
• Janna
• Annie
• Shen
• Caitlyn
• Anivia
• Kennen
• Nidalee
• Shyvana
• Tailyah"

New TEAM FIRE & TEAM ICE 2016 All-Star Team summoner icons are now available for 250 RP each.

These specific 2016 All-Star team summoner icons grant unique but temporary cosmetics such as changing the profile background on the LCU and + in-game recall stamps and emotes.  These will be enabled through December 14th.




Here's a video preview of the temporary in-game effects - Ice on left and Fire on right!

2016 All-Star Reminders - Survival Guide & Promo Videos

As mentioned above, 2016 All-Star Event kicks off later this week on on Thursday, December 8th!