Red Post Collection: Quick Gameplay Thoughts: October 5th, 2018 All-Star Event Announcement, & More

Posted on at 7:58 AM by Aznbeat
Today's red post collection includes Meddler's quick gameplay thoughts for October 5th, details on the 2018 All-Star event, and more!
Continue reading for more information!


Table of Contents


Quick Gameplay Thoughts: October 5 

Check out Meddler's quick gameplay thoughts for October 5th:
"Hi folks, 
Usual Disclaimers 
These posts will often contain talk about future work we're doing, or planning to do, that isn't yet guaranteed to ship. The nature of the work could change or, depending on what we discover, projects mentioned may get delayed or even stopped. If you'd like to see a Tweet whenever a new one of these posts goes up: https://twitter.com/RiotMeddler 
Some things we'll be looking at in 8.21 
Not a comprehensive list, but a few champs we already know we'll be looking at in 8.21:
  • Kai'Sa nerf - One direction is giving her clearer weaknesses. Another is making her upgrades a bit harder to unlock, given the original intent wasn't that she'd unlock all 3 this reliably.
  • Tank Pyke nerf - While keeping AD Pyke around its current power level. Potentially involves some degree of kit effect changes (e.g. modifying the HP -> AD effect on his passive plus additional scaling changes?)
  • Corki buff - Didn't make it into 8.20, aiming to have it in 8.21 as a result. 
OMW Ping improvements in 8.21 
We should also have some improvements to the OMW pings in 8.21. The big change is that the sound of the pings themselves will now communicate a couple of extra pieces of info: 
  • Processing applied to the sound will represent distance between the user of the ping and the pinged location. The further that distance, the more echo there'll be. Basically it's a representation of how long it'll take the pinging player to get there.
  • The further the ping is from the listening player the quieter the ping will be played. If someone's pinging that they're on the way to your lane, you'll hear a loud ping. If they're pinging they're on their way to the other side of the map, it'll be comparatively quiet. 
We'll also be putting a chat notification of the OMW ping being used back in team chat. Looks like that got accidentally broken at some point when this approach was being developed. 
Why we don't use adaptive effects in game 
Since we added both adaptive damage and adaptive stats to the pre-game with Runes the question's naturally been raised as to why we're not using them in game as well. Things like why not have items just grant Adaptive AP/AD so more champs can use them, or having damage on champ abilities or from items change types to be more optimal all the time. Some thoughts on why we haven't been doing that below. 
  • Adaptive Damage 
By which we mean damage that can change its type. Easy example being Arcane Comet, which deals magic damage when you're building AP and physical damage when you're building AD. With Runes we were almost always aiming to design effects that could be added on to any damage pattern. Offering the damage type that would make sense with the sort of pen you were likely to build was more appropriate as a result. That also means it's easier to pick defensive options against a specific champion, since their pregame damage contributions will generally be matching their kit damage type. 
For in game effects by contrast our concern is that adaptive damage makes it much harder to predict what sort of damage you'll be facing and therefore purchase/play against it. LoL's got a lot of champ abilities and other damage sources already to understand/track, so making it so you also need to assess someone's build all the time to understand whether an ability has flipped damage type is something we generally want to avoid. Possible we might make the occasional exception, especially if it's a strong fit with a champion's theme and really well communicated through art/audio etc, but even then would expect it to be a rare thing if done at all. 
  • Adaptive Stats on items etc (or abilities that scale with either stat) 
As in stats that just give you whichever you scale best with of AP/AD/whatever. Again with Runes we wanted things to be really open, particularly to avoid having to make additional runes that were basically just duplicates with different scaling. With items by contrast there are quite a lot of cases where limiting the pool of users can be really important, particularly from a game health perspective. Which stats an item offers is a really good way to skew its value towards different users it's intended to serve well (e.g. pushing Zhonya's towards primarily mages and other heavy AP users, or skewing Black Cleaver towards health so we can keep it in a good spot for juggernauts and other tankier fighters). Additionally items changing which stats they offer also contributes to difficulty understanding and reacting to enemy damage output, especially if it flips back and forth during the game. We've been very hesitant about adaptive stats in game as a result, given the degree to which that would privilege offense over defense, unless making defensive stats adaptive as well. There are some cases where it might be a useful tool (e.g. opening up the Spellthief's line to AD users). Possible we do use it a bit in circumstances like that at some point, also might just solve the issue in other ways though (offering other power rather than AD or AP specifically)."

On Rek'Sai, Meddler commented:
"Ah, thank you. I'm feeling daft for forgetting I'd talked about her that recently. I don't think we'll do any work on her for a while, but whenever we do next work on her for anything other than minor balance tweaks would expect skill curve assessment to be part of that."

On Lissandra, Meddler replied:
"Lissandra - no, won't be this cycle. My apologies this is taking so long, in retrospect I should have handed it off to someone else when I took on my new role. Currently working on revised visual effects for the statues, they're getting lost too much in team fights which means it's hard to appreciate their value as Lissandra or play around them as enemies. Also looking at whether or not they're currently contributing enough even when spotted, hard to disentangle the two issues at times though. 
New champs - there's always a new champ getting closer. In terms of helpful details, no, I'll leave the teasing of those to the champion team."

Meddler continued:
"Got those pretty high right now. Some of the issue is that they're often just not in relevant positions (team fight moved, no other enemies around etc). Some of it seems to be that they are contributing, but it's not getting well noticed, hence the focus on clarity first, then possible mechanics changes."

Meddler noted what should be Kai'Sa's weaknesses:
"These are all relative to other marksmen. 
Primary weaknesses intended:
  • Low range (has to take more risk to deal damage both in lane and afterwards)
  • Soft lane
  • Item reliant
Secondary weaknesses:
  • Low utility/no CC
  • Low AOE damage against champions"

On the next rework, Meddler commented:
"We'll see how Ezreal lands, in particular what the response from players is like in terms of feedback, engagement etc, before hard committing to more like this. Blitzcrank's the champ who comes to mind for me as a strong candidate, that's just personal opinion though, we haven't come to a consensus yet."

On Miss Fortune, Meddler replied:
"Would expect DH nerfs to have a noticeable impact on MF, particularly on the somewhat degenerate 'one shot' builds. We'll see where she lands after the change, she's performing ok with some other keystones too, but DH makes up most of her playrate. 
Leona's in a stable spot in our eyes."

On Kassadin, Meddler noted:
"Backing off on Kass nerfs for now. We've been seeing his impact drop a bit, so he's not looking too out of line. Suspect might still do some at some point, but at the very least won't be prioritizing them over other work right now."

Riot Rovient commented on rune paths in preseason and Lethality:
"We are considering lethality/mpen. We consider a lot of different stats, weighing up the pros and cons of each stat. 
Whilst I do like the idea of lethality and magic pen existing as a pre-game option, we have to keep in mind that for a large number of our players, knowing when to choose between AP and Mpen is a pretty complex (or impossible) choice. 
Lethality is still on the table. Anything can change between now and when pre-season drops. :)"

2018 All-Star Event Announcement 


Here's an LoLEsports article on the 2018 All-Star event:
"We listened to feedback from pros and fans, and this December we’re bringing back the All-Star Event in a new format with an emphasis on celebrating the things that fans love about League: the game, the competition, and the community. Get ready for All-Star 2018, an esports event experience like no other. 
When and Where? 
TL;DR 
  • Esports Arena, Las Vegas
  • December 6-8
We’re excited to host the 2018 All-Star Event at the Esports Arena in Las Vegas. This venue allows us to offer a unique broadcast and live show as compared to our NA LCS studio shows, while still providing a more intimate in-person experience. It also gives us an opportunity to provide the attending All-Stars with an awesome Las Vegas experience to celebrate the end of their competitive year. 
All-Star will take place on December 6-8 and ticket sales information will be published in the next few weeks. We’ve packed a ton of action into just three days to ensure that every minute of All-Star is entertaining and filled with can’t-miss moments, while providing minimal disruption to our All-Star’s off-seasons. Check out a preview of what’s in store below. 
Who will be attending? 
TL;DR
A pool of approximately 64 All-Stars including: 
  • 2 pros from each competitive region, as voted by fans
  • 2-3 League Partners (streamers, prominent LoL community members, etc.) from each region, selected from the League Partner Program
  • 4 pro player “All-Star Invitees”, chosen by Riot after the conclusion of the fan vote 
We want All-Star to be an event for the entire League community, so in addition to the All-Star pros we’ll be inviting a few select members of the League Partner Program from each region. These could be some of your favorite streamers, cosplayers, content creators, and more. The full roster of partners who will be participating in All-Star will be announced shortly before the start of the event.

We also want to make sure that this feels like a globally inclusive event that every fan across the world can enjoy. For this reason we’ll be bringing participants (both pros and partners) from all 14 of our competitive regions. Here’s how those pros will be chosen:  
  • Fans will vote for two pros from their regional league to send to All-Star
  • Pros will eligible in the region which they played during the most recent competitive split
  • Pool of eligible candidates will be limited to 20 of the most prominent pros from each region
  • At least one pro from each team and at least two pros of each role will be included in the pool of candidates
  • Fans may cast votes for other regions as well, however, foreign votes will be weighted to make up no more than 20% of the total vote within any given region
  • Top 2 vote-getters (regardless of team or role) in each region will be invited to participate in All-Star
  • Standings updates will be provided daily on LoL Esports social channels 
Voting will open on 10/17 and stay open for approximately a week. Keep your eyes on lolesports.com and LoL Esports social accounts for exact start and end times 
In addition to the 28 fan-voted pros, we’ll retain four invitational slots to fill the remaining slots in the 32-person bracket. These will be selected after voting ends and announced before the start of the event. 
What will they be playing? 
TL;DR:
  • All-Star 1v1 Tournament
  • Charity 2v2 Tournament
  • Regional Rivalry Show Matches
  • East vs West Bo5
  • Mixed-Team Alternate Game Modes 
This year’s All-Star format has been redesigned to deliver three days of fast-paced competition and there’s guaranteed to be something for everyone:
  • All-Star 1v1 Tournament- All 32 pro players will participate in the 2018 All-Star 1v1 tournament. Whether they try-hard or troll will be up to them, but there’s a pretty sick Draven trophy and title of 2018 1v1 Champion on the line
  • All-Star Charity 2v2 Tournament- New to All-Star 2018, we’ll see pros and Partners pair up and compete in 2v2 matches on the Howling Abyss. They’ll be playing for a charitable donation in their name to a cause of their choosing (with guidance from the Riot Karma Initiative)
  • Regional Rivalry Show Matches- This All-Star twist on regional rivalries will feature teams comprised of both pros and Partners. Matchups will include NA vs EU, China vs Korea, and more!
  • East vs West All-Star Showdown- Another new addition this year is our East vs West All-Star showdown. We’ll create teams of Eastern and Western pros to compete in a set of three games, with players rotating out after each game in the set
  • Mixed-Team Alternate Game Modes- Finally, throughout each day we’ll have mixed-teams participating in alternate game modes. Stay tuned for a lineup of game modes to be announced in tandem with other details, just before the event. It’s gonna be an all-out blitz.
Based on this year’s participants and format, we think All-Star 2018 be our best All-Star Event ever. We’re excited for League fans around the world to tune in and celebrate an amazing year in League and League esports. It’s bound to be full of surprises including a few sneak peeks and spotlights of new League content. Fans will see what the pros can do with a colorful and curious new addition to the rift, get an early look at what this year’s Snowdown has in store, and more. Stay tuned for more details."

Quick Hits

"Hey all! 
Hope you enjoyed some Clash games this week! Many thanks to everyone who participated in this 3-day test! 
What we learned 
We’ve focused a lot on developing a disaster recovery tool for when things go wrong, but this test helped us to have continued confidence in the Clash experience when things go right. :) 
What’s next 
We will be expanding the scope of our test efforts with upcoming Regional tests. Stay tuned for more details next week on when and how you can get involved! 
Cheers!"

Reminders

To round out this red post collection, here are a few reminders on current promotions or limited time events!
  • Worlds Pick'em is now open! Make sure to LOCK YOUR PICKS for Group Stages  by October 10th! Check out the article for full details on dates, prizes, and more!

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