Red Post Collection: QGT: October 11, Preseason Gameplay Goals & More

Today's red post collection includes Meddler's quick gameplay thoughts for October 11th, Preseason gameplay goals from the SR team, a new story featuring Lucian and Thresh that's up on the Universe, and more!
Continue reading for more information!

• Red Post Collection: Save the Date: 10 Year Celebration on 10/15, TFT Beta Pass 3, & More

Table of Contents

• Quick Gameplay Thoughts: October 11 
• Preseason Gameplay Goals
• Universe Story: Homebound
• Miscellaneous 
• Reminders

Quick Gameplay Thoughts: October 11 

Check out Meddler's quick gameplay thoughts for October 11th, including Garen  & Shaco thoughts, Victorious skins,  and more:

"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  

Garen and Shaco changes so far 

Shaco:

• Directionally changes seem promising, with the E and R changes especially working as hoped in terms of the gameplay they create.
• Looks like he's too strong, though probably at nerfs next patch levels not hotfix levels of too strong. First thing we'll test is weaker level one boxes, aimed particularly at hitting how quickly he's clearing his initial camps and hitting level 3.
• Power wise our minimum goal is to ensure he's not weaker than before the changes, even if we have to pull back on some of the just added power.

Garen:

• Is also looking too strong and a candidate for nerfs next patch. As expected with Garen he’s less out of line in high MMR, though still on the strong side even there.
• Not sure yet how good attack speed as a build path is for him post E changes. Our goal was that it should be an option, rather than mandatory or always a mistake.
• Another goal was to shift power to his early game, the belief being that that's both part of Garen's historic identity we wanted to bring back and generally an appropriate pattern for juggernauts. Does look like that's working so far.
• In terms of overall power as with Shaco we'd like to ensure that he doesn't end up weaker than before the changes at a minimum. 

SR/TT Victorious skin if you don't own the champion? 

Since this is a topic that comes up every year - if you hit Gold+ in SR and/or TT and qualify for the Victorious for the year, you will get the skin even if you don't own the champion it's for. You'll then also get the base champion unlocked as an extra bonus. 

In terms of who that skin's for we'll announce that a bit later this month. 

Why doesn't the ranked season start in December? 

This is another question we see pop up fairly often. A lot of people have time on holiday in December but, because we start the ranked season early in the new year, they can't start their ranked climb or play in as competitive a queue. We did try starting a ranked season in December a few years back to see if that was a better overall experience. Our conclusion was that it wasn't worth the trade offs though unfortunately. The gap between preseason going out and ranked turning on being so short means there's not enough time for followup on the preseason changes, leading to a significantly less stable game state for the early parts of the season. That's particularly problematic since there's also a patch at the end of the year that's live for longer than normal (around 4 weeks usually instead of the usual 2), so any issues take longer to get addressed as well."

When asked about Diana art changes, meddler noted:

"Small art changes to anims/VFX support gameplay modifications."

He also noted other VFX changes would be coming:

"We've got a group of artists who are doing VFX updates when they've got gaps between larger projects. There'll be some more updates coming, tends not to be on a regular cadence though because other work can mean more or less time available any given patch for older VFX updates."

Meddler commented more on Garen:

"We'll take preseason changes into account, he's looking sufficiently out of line though that we can't just leave him until 9.23. Would rather put a bit of power back in if he ends up too weak post preseason than just let him sit that long."

Preseason Gameplay Goals

Check out some of the goals for Preseason from the Summoner's Rift team - "An early look at the direction for preseason, with more details to come on October 15.

It’s almost League’s 10th anniversary, and we’ve been reflecting a lot about the last decade. Since 2009, League has been a game that millions of you have queued up for again and again, and we believe the best way for us to approach the next ten years is by emphasizing the things that made the first ten so fun to play. We’ll have specific details to share during the 10th Anniversary Edition of Riot Pls on October 15 at 6:00pm PST, but for starters, here’s a high-level look at the goals for Preseason 2020’s gameplay changes. 

Evolving Summoner’s Rift 

Two of League’s greatest strengths are variety and mastery. Variety is one of the true foundations of LoL, where the huge roster of champions creates 824 trillion unique possible matchups—and that’s before runes, items, or Summoner Spells. We believe this variety keeps League fun to play because there’s something a little different (and sometimes even unexpected) to experience every time you load into a game. Mastery leads to the deep satisfaction that comes from finally executing on that perfect combo or developing that sixth sense around when a gank is coming. The never-ending path to mastery constantly presents new goals to chase, adding meaning to your time spent in game. 

We think there’s an untapped opportunity to amplify these strengths in a fundamental part of the League experience—Summoner’s Rift. The Rift underpins everything in League’s original mode, from the wide variety of champions to the strategies players perfect. This preseason, we want to add new layers of depth to the map itself to evolve it into more than a static backdrop in your games. 

• Variety: The map should create more memorable moments via different environments you don’t see every game. Elemental Dragons already offer this very lightly, but we want to go further and in a way that’s fair for both teams.
• Mastery: The map should offer more details to play around in both the baseline experience and the not-every-game circumstances we’re creating. Much of SR’s mastery is currently macro-oriented (eg. rotations, objective trading), and we want terrain to support more opportunity for in-combat playmaking.

Season 2020 will challenge you to adapt your playstyle across a variety of environmental changes from game to game, taking your mastery of Summoner’s Rift to new heights. 

The changes to SR are the main focus of this preseason, but you can expect a wide pass of other small improvements to the game’s systems. These will include support items, lethality items, improved top lane influence, jungle pathing improvements, improved dragon buffs, and keystone improvements. 

Preseason 2020 comes to League of Legends this November in patch 9.23. Today was just a quick intro, so join us for a video preview of this year’s changes on October 15 during the 10th Anniversary Edition of Riot Pls!"

Universe Story: Homebound

Homebound, a new short story by  Phillip Vargas featuring Lucian and Thresh is now up on the Universe!

Here's a short excerpt that includes the first few paragraphs:

"Lucian sat on a hilltop beneath the shadow of a large banyan tree and scanned the valley below. His hands rested on his relic pistols. Fingers brushed the bronzed metalwork. The Black Mist rolled across the verdant lowlands, consuming everything in its path. The Harrowing had made landfall on the island several hours earlier. 

The light of countless torches moved through the darkness. Clouds of drifting mist enveloped the area. One by one, the fires waned and extinguished, their distance too far to carry the screams of the dying. 

One light remained strong. Its pallid green glow floated effortlessly through the Black Mist, seemingly unaffected. The corrupted flames of vile spirits. Lucian’s heart quickened at the sight, and a seething heat flushed his body. 

He raced down the hillside, fighting for purchase on loose gravel until he reached the basin. A body lay in the tall grass. Its arms were tightly wrapped around its shoulders, its eyes wide open—inky black marbles stared at a moonless sky. He marched past and continued his pursuit."

[CLICK HERE to check out the F U L L story on the Universe!]

Reminders