Red Post Collection: Vi page VANDALIZED, More from Ransom's AMA and reminder on upcoming champion price reductions!

Ransom AMA Part 2

Q: And lastly do you use past life experiences as an influence to the stories you write for League?

A: "Absolutely. In fact, #116's jokes are loosely based on the preoccupations of ladies who crush on me/I crush on. 

EDIT: I mean her joke emotes! "

Q: When will the new upcoming champion #116 be teased at with a REAL riot-esque teaser? Before or after worlds are over?

A: "Buckle up."

Q:How would 116 respond to:
1) the burning of her local library
2) her neighbor hosting a very loud party at 2 am
3) basket containing 2 kittens left on her doorstep
4) another woman trying to make a move on her crush

A:"1)She'd run - and not walk - there to burn the fire WITH A BIGGER FIRE.
2)She'd throw an even louder party at 2:05 AM. 

3)I know for a fact that she loves kittens, and this love of kittens is evident in-game! 

4)Well, she behaves like she couldn't care less about crushes, so it's hard to say. The closest thing she has to a crush right now is her admiration for Ziggs: "I like your style, bomb-rat!" is something she might say."

Q:How satisfied and excited are you with 116's lore and design and everything so far? (one more thing. does 116 have a rivalry agaisnt anyone? i dont have to know who but it would be nice.)

A: "We're all super excited about #116 here, and we've poured a TON of work into her. So many Rioters added extra little touches to her, just so you guys would notice and be happy. She's a very spoiled girl. We think you guys are gonna fall in love with her. And yes, she most definitely has a rivalry with one of the most popular champions in the game."

Q: Hey :) I'm in school and was wondering how long did it take for 116 concept to be made?

A: "Champion #116 was born when RiotTeaTime posted a crazy sketch she drew on the wall. Everyone went bonkers and said, WE HAVE TO MAKE THIS. From that point, it took several months to put together a good pitch (she went through a number of revisions). Once we got permission to make her, of course, she spent some time in production. "

Q:Does the new champion have any at all relations to Vayne? Is there anything in the works for Vayne lore wise? As for the last one which has had me shaking in excitement since her release: She's stated to be the first Night Hunter in Demacia. Are there more Night Hunters like Vayne? Do they work for her?

A: "Champion #116 has no obvious ties to Vayne. As for the Night Hunter, I too am curious about whether she works alone or as part of a team, especially in light of the fact that Lucian has a very similar job and is also from Demacia. I honestly do not have the answers here. I just think it's interesting."

Q: Is #116 Demacia/Noxus or associated with somewhere else/independent?

A: "#116 is associated with a faction. "

A: "This actually came up in my job interview. I said at the time that I thought Leona was prettiest in her splash, but now I think the prettiest depiction of a female in LoL is Blood Moon Akali as seen here:http://th06.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/...ee-d5ecx3x.jpg"

Q: When it comes to writing stories and lores about a champion do you come up with the story first then apply it to a character or create the story based off the champion handed to you?

A: Usually, the writer comes on board last, after seeing some artist sketches and some gameplay ideas. But this is because we writers are lazy. We should be coming up with more of our own champion pitches!

Q:Do you know of any plans to develop story related to the Void? And will there be some more character interactions (like Vi and Cait or Kha and Rengar) added for already existing champions later? (my initial hope being Jarvan IV and Swain of course)

A: "You can assume that we are working on story for all factions that have not yet gotten their moment in the spotlight. And to be honest, adding interactions for champions already in the game is possible, but we focus our resources on newer champs because messing with old ones can get messy. That being said, I can see a day in the future when we go back and retrofit the older champs."

Q: Will we ever see more action with the Shadow Isles, kinda like the Freljord patch?

A: "The Shadow Isles had an event when Elise was released - a bunch of champions had their lore updated. And we just released a Shadow Isles rival in the form of Lucian. So it's going to be a while. But! I would say when the next Shadow Isles champion is released (and I honestly don't know when that is), we'll find out more about this mysterious and dreadful place."

Q:Will Lore re-writes ever stop, or are will they continue to be overhauled every year or so?

A: As someone who touches every bio that is released or revised, I would love to take a vacation and say that lore re-writes will end someday. But I'd be wrong. :(

Q: Heya Ransom, what's your favorite "unexplored" area of Runeterra?

A: "I don't know about unexplored, but I would love to know more about Mt. Targon and the Void."

Q:Oh, hey, I have a question I am earnestly curious about. So considering LoL's popularity in Asia, I was wondering if there has been a conscious decision to integrate Eastern tropes into the game's story-telling (as seen with the Warring Kingdoms skins - particularly J4's -), or whether keeping the "exotic" Western feel of the game would be more resonant in the long run.

A: "We focus on 1) making the coolest stuff we can, and 2) pleasing as many of our players as possible, world-wide. Our goal is to make every region feel included and appreciated."

Q: I have a question about lore rewrites. Couldn't a champion be much better suited to having lore added more than reworked? Example: Zyra stays exactly the same as she is now. A carnivorous plant thing lived in a jungle, as food was dying out she possessed a sorceress and became humanshaped.... BUT THEN she joins [X] faction and does other stuff?

A: "Great question. As you've noticed, most of our bios are Chapter Ones - telling the beginning of a champion's story. In the Freljord event, we continued the stories for many champions. So yes - we want to do more Chapter Twos. The question is: what's the best way to do that? We're still figuring that out."

Q: Is there a plan to make it easier to catch up on lore? I haven't really explored the new site that much, but I think if I want to go back and read some of the teasers I have to did through forums. Also I didn't realized you had started putting lore into the login screen. I've had mine muted for a long time now, and have pretty much ignored them. Can I go back and view Lucian's?

A: "Great idea. We've been talking about having a home for teasers on the Lol.com website. And as I said earlier, I'd also like to have the writing team have some sort of ongoing presence online, putting out episodic content of some kind."

Q:So will all of these "couples" be straight? I hope not. It'll suck with no diversity. How do you feel about Riven x Irelia? Some people believe it fits couple-wise and lorewise.

A: "Great point. There's definitely an oversight here, and we do spend some time discussing same-*** relationships on the team - particularly Runaan. All I can say is we are always looking for ways to strengthen the world of our game. As for Riven x Irelia, I would need to know more about Irelia as a person in order to really believe it - as much as I like playing her, I feel she's a bit thin. And I'd love to take a shot at giving her more story someday."

Q:How do you go through the idea process of making a champ. do you just right down weird things and find a idea or do you play the game and think stuff through it.

A: "We do anything and everything, but mostly a lot of "Wouldn't it be cool if?" discussions. There are a million roads to a good champion. This is true of champions and just about everything else in writing."

Q: Is there a chance some of the lore/storytelling will fall back on skin releases?...

A: "What I'm hearing a lot from you guys is that you would love to see more lore-related skins. Me too! I'll start pitching more of these ideas to the skins team. I personally would KILL KILL KILL for a Redeemed Morgana skin, one where she looks pleasant and heroic. 

As for the fact that our department is so darn sporadic and slow, all I can say is that we are working at getting better at putting out more stuff in a timely fashion, and you can see that in our teasers, our events, and our lore reworks. And I'd like to think that we're raising the bar with every release.

Given the amount of work the JoJ was for the writers who worked on it, and how busy those guys are now, I can't say I see it coming back. But! Another takeaway here is that the writing team needs to think about a project where we put out small bits of stuff on a regular basis. That's a good suggestion, and something we can definitely think about! Thanks for this suggestion - I'll start spinning up some ideas."

Q: Any plans on writing "what if" stories on skins? I feel that a lot of the skins, even the less serious ones like Corporate Mundo have a lot of potential for "what if" stories.

A: "I personally would love to see more skins explore the past, future, and alternate realities of champs. So I'll start pitching these ideas!"

Q: Is Zyra going to be included in any lore? She just seems abandoned. ):

A: "Good point. A lot of our indepedent champs - champs without a faction - tend to be a little isolated. That's why we try to give most champs a relationship - rivalry, romantic, etc. - with another champ: to reinforce their place in the world. Thanks for bringing this up. I'll bring it up in our discussons!"

Q: Can you explain where riven trained to control ki. I was under the impression that it was an Ionian technique and seeing as Riv was a noxian commander, I'm guessing she didn't hav to many friends in ionia

A: "You are a very astute player of our game. Let's just say there's a lot about Riven's past that we don't know yet. And that she'll have to come to terms with it. And that it'll be difficult for her. She's got a long road ahead of her, but no different from the one that we all face. We're all growing, all the time!"

Q:My question is, did you have any hand in writing Vi's quotes? I ask because my favorite line in league (even better than League of Draven) is Vi's "Punch first, ask questions while Punching".

A: "Your favorite line was written by Skribbles. Our VO scripts are a team effort, although I honestly don't remember which Vi lines were written by me. Yes, I am the "credited" writer on #116 (for doing most of the work), but I only wrote about a third of her VO script, her bio, and one of her teaser pieces. (Although I was heavily involved in the planning process for her teaser.)"

Q: Do you see a future where Katarina and Riven join forces? "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" kind of thing? I feel like a Noxian civil war would be cool idea.

A: "I think this is a super cool idea. I've never thought of Katarina as evil, really, and I could easily see her being forced into a situation where she has to ally with Garen or Riven."

Q: Thoughts on Ahri getting a rival? Something along the lines of her stealing someone's lover maybe?

A: "Would be awesome to see Ahri get some kind of foil or strong relationship. "Tell me a secret" is one of my favorite VO lines in the game."

Reminder on upcoming Champion Price Reductions

Hippalus has dropped off a small reminder on the next batch of champions to get their prices reduced as new champions are made available - next up is Xerath and Miss Forturne, followed by Shyvana, and then Graves!

"For the past year, we’ve been reducing champion prices on a fixed schedule, primarily based on champion release dates. With every third champion we release, an additional champion currently priced at 4800 IP or lower will be reduced to the next lowest tier, based on age and ease of play. 

Here are the details on our next set of scheduled price reductions. Please note that because these price reductions are preannounced, refunds will not be granted to players who purchase these champions prior to their price reductions.

For our next champion released (after Lucian): Xerath will be reduced to 4800 IP / 880 RP and Miss Fortune will be reduced to 3150 IP / 790 RP


For the following champion released: Graves will be reduced to 4800 IP / 880 RP
For the champion released after that: Shyvana will be reduced to 4800 IP / 880 RP"