8-8 News: Small PBE update, Replays, and Diana's Lore.

From the PBE, the rewards Korean PC Bang players will be privy to,

The PBE was updated earlier today to test a feature exclusive to Korean servers - PC Bangs rewards. These are special rewards ( all champions available for play and a constant 20% IP boost ) for Summoners playing the game in Korean PC Cafes.  Here is what Awwww Yeaaaaahh, an international QA analyst at Riot Games, had to say about the new feature:

We’re going to begin testing international features on the PBE. The first feature we’ll be testing is a Korea-specific feature that gives players extra perks for playing League of Legends in PC Bangs (Korean PC Cafes). Korean players tend to play League of Legends primarily from these locations. In Korean PC Bangs, players pay by the hour to play the game of their choice in a social environment. Within this environment, most game titles (regardless of price) are offered to players via a reduced pricing structure or for free to account for the PC Bang’s usage fee. Our approach is to allow players to select any champion when playing League of Legends from PC bangs, as well as earn a small amount of additional IP. This feature does not affect Korean players when they log in outside of PC Bangs.

When this feature is active, you will see a small medal icon in the top-right corner of the League of Legends client, be able to select any champion, and earn an additional 20% IP at the end of matches. This feature does not actually “unlock” champions, so you will still need to own a champion in order to buy a skin for them.

At this time we have no plans for large-scale implementation of this feature in other regions.

Please remember this is not a live feature ( other than in Korea ) and, if you read the last part, not a planned feature for other regions - something the LAN center enthusiast in me is sad to hear.

LoL Replay, a community created program to record and store replays.

After the release of Spectator Mode earlier this year, many of us thought an official Replay system would follow shortly after. Alas, we still resort to the third party LOL Replay for our replay needs, but in a recent forum post, rjcombo reassured us that a replay system is still on the way. He says:

Replays have not been canned. It's a big feature and we want to make sure we deliver something that meets or exceeds your expectations. Also, like spectator mode, the feature requires the construction of a new service capable of supporting the massive number of players we have worldwide.

We've always intended to deliver a full fledged replay system, and have publicly stated so in the past. That intention hasn't changed, but I can't talk about timelines.

The final concept art for Diana circa April 2012. Taken from Ironstylus's blog about the evolution of Diana's concept art.

Rounding out the day, RiotRunaan is currently hosting an Ask Me Anything style thread about Diana's personality, character, lore, or whatever else you may be interested in. Be sure to stop by and clear the air of any questions you may have.