Surrender at 20

Red Post Collection: Team Up and earn Party Rewards, Kassadin Buffs, Riot Merch Shop Updated, and more!

This afternoon's red post collection includes Riot Socrates on the 2 week live test of Party Rewards, Meddler commenting on upcoming buffs for Kassadin and Varus, ZenonTheStoic mentioning work on the Death Recap system, a bunch of new items added to the Riot Games merch shop, and more!
Continue reading for more information!



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Team Up and earn Party Rewards

First up, we have Riot Socrates with an announcement on Party Rewards! Party Rewards are a new feature that offers a chance a big IP bonuses while playing friend

"We all know playing with friends makes for a more friendly League, so we’re sweetening the pot for teaming up. For the next two weeks, queue up with friends both new and old to rack up IP with Party Rewards. The new system awards bonus multipliers based on the size of your premade party. In this trial period, we’ll look to see if features like this one can give you more opportunities to crack nexii with friends and make for positive games. 
Here’s how it works: 
Enter any matchmade queue with a premade party and the entire group earns a chance at multiplying the standard IP reward. Party Rewards work a lot like normal IP rewards--there’re different scales depending on the queue. For example, Summoner’s Rift queues award more IP than Twisted Treeline or Howling Abyss queues. There is a chance your group earns no Party Reward, but larger premade groups win higher tiers of IP rewards. Some lucky players will even earn rare, massive IP prizes. If you queue alone, you won’t be eligible for Party Rewards. 
This table details the maximum multipliers for Party Rewards:
Party size // Max jackpot
Party of one -  N/A 
Party of two - 4x IP 
Party of three - 6x IP 
Party of four - 8x IP 
Full team - 16x IP 
For the next two weeks, Party Rewards is all yours. After the trial period, we’ll temporarily disable the feature and sort through the data and learn what the partying hath wrought. We’ll be back to talk more about the future of Party Rewards soon."

Riot Socrates also added on reddit:
"Hey all, would love to hear your feedback after you've played a few games with this running. 
In case it gets lost in the text of the article: There is a chance your group earns no Party Reward though it's more likely that you'll earn a reward of some size, up to jackpot.
Good luck. :)"


When asked why NA received the Player Rewards a few hours prior to the other servers, Lyte explained:
"We opened in NA first to make sure the feature is stable and there are no bugs. Once the initial testing is clear, we'll open on the other servers today as well."


As for if these bonuses require you to be friends with someone or just play, Boourns noted:
"You don't need to be friends with anyone, just be in the same lobby together. Getting picked up as a solo in team builder doesn't count though!"

When asked if the rewards are available in Team Builder, Lyte clarified:
"Yes, it's a matchmade queue. Hosting a game and inviting friends or joining your friends in Team Builder will trigger the rewards."
As for co-op vs ai bot games, he noted:
"Playing Bots with friends do count, although the bonus multipliers are a bit smaller because the average Bot games are shorter in duration compared to Normal SR games."

When asked about the rewards, Riot Chomey also commented:
"Not random, but yes, you'll end up with essentially somewhere between 0 and 1600% =)"
Chomey continued:
"Win or lose, it's a percent multiplier on the amount of IP you earned. You do earn more IP from winning though... So try your best to win!"

Chomey also clarified a few points that were commonly coming up in the reddit thread:
"One of the most common feedback we've gotten so far is the bonus IP doesn't match the expectations. This is very valuable feedback, and exactly why we monitor these channels of communication =) 
Just thought I'd help clear a few things up: 
  1. It's a non-integer multiplier on top of your IP earned. For example, you can get bonuses such as a 10% extra IP! You can earn up to 1600% bonus IP if you get the jackpot playing with 4 friends! The actual reward you earn may not be a nice round number, and you could end up with something like a bonus 70% (or .7x)
  2. Since you earn more IP for winning than losing, do your best to win! It's a direct multiplier on top of how much IP you would have gained.
  3. It stacks (multiplicatively) with IP boosts
  4. As /u/riotsocrates stated here, "For example, Summoner’s Rift queues award more IP than Twisted Treeline or Howling Abyss queues." Summoner's Rift will give you the best rewards. Definitely looking into cleaning up this messaging for the next iteration.
  5. No you cannot get the 5-man rewards in Twisted Treeline.
  6. This was not meant to be a farmable feature. The purpose is to reward people who regularly engage in games with their friends. Go about your regular game habits, invite a few friends, and enjoy the free IP.
  7. Yes, you can get no party reward, even if you queue up with friends. It's all chance.
  8. This is all just round one of the experiment. We'll be taking a look at the numbers in 2 weeks, and at the end come to whatever conclusions we may. 
Example maths, because "yay, numbers!": Party of 5 wins a match on SR. In normal circumstances, they would have won 110IP. Party wins .7X bonus IP (70% bonus), and they have an IP boost (2x). ((110IP + (.7 * 110 IP)) * 2) = 374 IP earned from the game. 
Hope this clears some things up."
When asked about how the post is worded and the rare IP gains players are expecting, Chomey  commented:
"Quote:
I understand the long term nature of it but it really was marketed a lot better than it actually is. 
I would have to commit to playing a LOT of games with people i wouldnt otherwise play with for this to ever be worth anything. Maybe after several months it would be cool, but a 2 week event for 15ip a game is gonna be like 100-200 ip for me, which might even be significant, but doesn't feel interesting at all.
Definitely a good point. 
The design of the feature is to be a permanent fixture and long term is the outlook we were designing for. The fact that we're doing a small 2 week experiment first, I completely understand and agree, that players won't see the gains they expect to."

Kassadin Buffs Planned

Following his R range reduction in patch 5.4, Meddler confirmedthey are planning on buffing Kassadin:
"We'll be buffing Kassadin. Not sure if any details have been worked out yet."
He continued:
"We're currently testing buffs to his R involving increasing its range and, at ranks 1 and 2, giving it a lower CD (so while it's not going as far as pre 5.4 still he's able to use it more often ). Not guaranteed that'll be the path we take, that's current thinking though."

Upcoming Varus Change in 5.5

 Meddler also commented on a buff for Varus' Q they are planning to include in patch 5.5:
"The niche we've got in mind for Varus is a combination of poke and moderate ranged initiation/counter initiation, primarily via his Q and R respectively. We've been feeling he's a bit weak at those for a while and have been gradually buffing him as a result. That's involved increased mana regen late last year to support poke and increased R width recently to improve his ult's reliability. Additionally in the upcoming patch (5.5), we'll be changing his Q cooldown to begin at start of channel, not when he fires the arrow off. That should give him access to more Q casts late game in particular, and make charged shots (as opposed to saving the Q to proc Blight) a bit more attractive."

Brand's Ult and Untargetable Units

In a thread asking if it would be possible to have Brand's R bounce off of units that go untargetable (such as Zhonya's) so they don't negate his chain, Meddler commented:
"Pyroclasm bouncing off untargetable units (without dealing damage of course) seems reasonable given it's an ult on a fairly noticeable cooldown. We're planning to try that change out in testing."

IronStylus on ChampUp

IronStylus also swooped into the boards to comment on a few art related things.

When asked about the terms to accurately describe the varying degrees of visual updates that champions receive, IronStylus commented:
"Quote:
Ironstylus recently mentioned how the categorizing isn't really helpful anymore, so they'll probably move away from it. Different champions have different needs and merit different amounts of work, so they'll likely just make the decisions case-by-case. 
Kassadin didn't really need a reimagining (even though I would have been excited for one), and they got a high amount of value from a low amount of work. That is good. Very few champions really need a Sion-level update to be brought to a decent quality standard.
Pretty much this. Also, we have a term (which doesn't really hit the nail on the head) which is Model & Texture Update (MTU). What's being listed by the OP mistakes model updates with just texture updates.. which are similar to texture rebalances..

..which is why we have to figure out better names for all of this."

When asked about Cho'Gath and visual explanations for his spikey abilities, IronStylus noted:
"One of the goals when we approach him will be to give some rhyme and reason as to why his abilities to what they do. It'll be an interesting challenge. Currently we do have a concept hanging around where there's a good case made on his physical body for seeing his spikes appear from the ground."

When asked about Evelynn's eventual visual update, he briefly mentioned:
"Currently, as far as the ChampUp team's involvement, which would dictate whether she's being work on in preparation for pre-production, I don't believe so. Because she's on our hit list she'll enter the concept pipeline when we're done with our current batch of content. When that happens, our dedicated Narrative resource will jump in as well as the designated representatives from Art and Design.

A lot of us are itching to get at her, however."

Death Recap

In a reddit thread discussing the current state of the Death Recap system and how unreliable it is, ZenonTheStoic stepped in to comment :
"We're 100% aware and trust me, no one here likes it either. We had a couple of smart people in a room recently sketching out the features of a revamped death recap and guessing how much time / how many people it would take to make that happen. Armed with that information, producers will find a timeline for us. So depending on just how much work it will be and whether or not people will be available, this may happen soon or it may happen a little further into the future, but we will fix death recap and turn it into a useful system."

Reminder on Updated Player Hovercards for Other Regions

Matt Enth also reiterated on reddit that the new player tooltips are currently only enabled on NA and LAN/LAS but will be pushed out to other regions as soon as possible:
"Hey guys,

It's really awesome to see you guys eager to get your hands on the new hovercards. We really want to get them to you as soon as we can.

The hovercards are currently activated on North America and both Latin America regions, and we're monitoring those three regions very closely. The new new aesthetics and upgraded usability are kinda front-and-center here, but know that there are a few new technologies going in the background that we're watching and gathering data for. We want to be confident that activating the new hovercards in more regions won't cause service issues for you guys.

Last thing - I don't think the original poster is talking about a new "friends list." The friends list hasn't changed - just the mouse-over interaction for your friends."

Riot Merch Shop Updated

The Riot Games store has been updated with a ton of new League of Legends merchandise, including new figures, apparel designs, and more!

From the official announcement:
"We launched the Riot Games merch store to give you new ways to connect with League of Legends and extend that experience beyond the game with lovingly crafted, high-quality products. And maybe, just maybe, help you find a new duo-queue partner when a random stranger recognises your champion t-shirt at the bus stop. 
We’re excited to announce that a fresh batch of items has just hit the store, touching everything from plushies to hoodies to champ figures! We’re on a continuing mission to increase the variety of designs, champions and price tiers so you have a broader variety of options. 
The merch store is still in its early days and our focus is on learning, adapting and evolving to offer you the best possible merch experience possible.


Visit the merch store now to check out the new items we’ve just added!"

Here's a look at some of the new items:




Head on over to the merch store to check out all the new stuff!

Check out this page or use the navigation bar in the upper right of the store page to select your appropriate region's store.
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