- Preseason
- Marksman Updates
- Marksman Items
- Keystone Masteries
- The Rift Herald
- Vision
- New Starting Items
- New Sustain Items
- Compete Together
- Better With Friends
- League Client Update Alpha
Below we've done our best to transcribe the content of the massive 2016 Season Update site . For your best viewing experience, probably hit one of those links above.
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Table of Contents
Preseason
As you've likely seen in our enormous PBE updates this cycle, Preseason 2016 is approaching in full force! The site details the large scope changes coming up, including Marksman updates & items, powerful new Keystone Masteries, a new Rift Herald to conquer around the top lane, vision changes, and more!The changes we're making this preseason all work toward making each game of League feel unique. From the different champion strengths you bring to the items you take to battle, all the way to the masteries you choose - we want your decisions to matter and have a clear impact on how each game plays out.
MARKSMAN UPDATES
We're following up our juggernaut changes with a close look at League's marksmen. Rather than just balancing them against today's meta, we want to give each marksman a specific meta-agnostic identity, a unique bargaining chip that each can bring to the table to either catalyze their team comp or counter the enemy's.
Miss Fortune
Miss Fortune's always been the wombo comboiest of League's champs, so we're souping up her ult and adding in a new mechanic to highlight her trigger-happy tendencies.
Bullet Time now lasts longer and fires increasing waves of bullets as she levels her ult, while we're moving Strut over to her W and giving her a brand new passive tentatively titled... Love Tap. With it, MF will deal increased damage to targets other than the one she last shot at. She has two guns, and by constantly switching targets, she'll deal huge amounts of pain to multiple victims. Finally, Impure Shots doesn't last as long, but gives her much more attack speed, and crucially lasts longer every time Miss Fortune deals extra damage with Love Tap.
Quinn
We're turning Quinn into League's speediest champion. No-one counters a split push as fast as Demacia's Wings.
Blinding Assault no longer blinds (so uh... that's going to need a rename), but its cooldown is reduced whenever Quinn attacks enemies turned Vulnerable by Valor. Next up, we're turning Quinn's ult into a toggle, giving Demacia's Wings the ability to MOVE. Most champions rely on Teleport to safely stray from their team, but League's speediest champion can move about freely and split push - or counter a split push - anywhere on the map without needing summoner spells.
Graves
Graves has always been about getting up close and personal to whatever he wants to makes holes in, and now he's even stronger at that. We dare you to dive him.
We're changing up Graves' basic attacks so they behave like his Buckshot, meaning his basic attacks deal area of effect cone damage and knockback minions, although the three (yep - his shotgun still fires three rounds, and no, we still can't explain it) rounds can each be blocked. Still on Graves' basic attacks, he actually has an ammo system now, and reloads his gun after firing two rounds. Every round that lands reduces the cooldown on Quickdraw, which no longer grants attack speed but does reload his gun. Finally, we're tweaking Buckshot, giving it a unique T shape attack that deals two rounds of damage. We could try to explain it, or you could just watch the video.
Kog'Maw
We're refining Kog'Maw into a high-powered artillery void puppy. Properly protect him, and he'll wreck any team.
We're lopping off Living Artillery's double champion damage, and adding in execute damage that scales up to deal quadruple damage to low health targets. Meanwhile, we're cutting Kog'Maw's Bio Arcane damage in half while doubling its attack speed buff. Oh, and as long as Kog'Maw's W is active, he'll completely disregard League's attack speed cap.
Corki
Corki's still the most magical of the marksmen, but now the daring bombardier gets one minute to go FULL CORKI whenever he heads back to base.
Corki's always been League's magic damage dealing marksman, something we're reinforcing by tweaking his basic attacks to deal half magic and half physical damage. We're reducing the range of his Valkyrie to make him a little less safe, but adding in something totally unique to the mustachioed aviator. Now, once he hits level six, Corki - or Corki's ground staff - will spawn a crate of rockets and bombs back at HQ. Once Corki flies over one of his crates, he gets SUPERCHARGED, earning a homeguard boots-esque boost, increased base movement speed, and a supercharged Valkyrie that basically carpet bombs a huge area with napalm... but only for a small window of time. Basically, Corki has a minute to make a huge play once he picks up his Corki care package - whether or not he makes the most of his window will often separate the good Corkis from the great Corkis.
Caitlyn
Caitlyn’s on the hunt as Piltover’s premiere sharpshooter. Siege down enemy turrets while picking off fleeing enemies.
Caitlyn's traps now run on ammo, so the sheriff can lay down up to three at a time, and while trapped enemies no longer suffer damage, Caitlyn can hit them with a basic attack at much longer range to deal instant Headshot damage. She gets the same bonus off enemies caught by her 90 Caliber Net, too. Finally, we're tweaking Cait's Piltover Peacemaker, making the initial shot much thinner until it strikes a target - then her round bursts open and deals reduced damage to everything behind it.
MARKSMEN ITEMIZATION
We're offering more options when it comes to who (or what) you want to fight, and how you contribute to your team through that choice. So whether you want to be a lone gunman, dueling on the edge of the fight, or the nimble spellcaster, or the siege machine and tower crusher, we're providing you with the right items to buy so you can take out the right targets.
We've done a sweeping categorization pass of marksmen items to clearly communicate why and when you would want to buy an item. Some haven't changed much, but we've revamped others significantly to play nice with the rest. Below, we've tagged new items (and significantly revamped items) accordingly, as well as those who've had larger changes.
KEYSTONE MASTERIES
This preseason, we're updating the mastery system to offer focused, high-impact choices rather than a slew of nuanced micro-math optimizations. Each successive "tier" of masteries will grow in importance, ending in a tier 6 "keystone mastery" that fundamentally impacts how you play your champion. By condensing power into clear decision points, the masteries you take from game to game should have an impact on your playstyle, and we want to offer multiple mastery paths for most champions in League.
[Click here for details on each of the new mastery trees.]
THE RIFT HERALD
It’s no secret that players who depart for the top lane can end up feeling isolated without a dragon to contest. Rather than just flipping the map on its head, we’re exploring ways to bring some relevancy to the north so top laners can feel like they're interacting with their team before the 15 minute mark.
Details are still being sussed out, but expect to meet something new on Summoner’s Rift in the early phases of the game. Defeat it, and gain a single target buff focused on early game power and pushing down the lane.
VISION
Our goal with vision is two-fold: first, we want to keep pushing the vision game as a team effort and, second, we want to make vision more dynamic than days past. For that first goal, we’re doing things like free trinket upgrades for all, along with the option for tier 2 support items to upgrade into either powerful tier 3 active items or slot-efficient sightstones. For the second goal, we’re removing Stealth Wards from the shop so teams will need to rely more heavily on their pink (and blue trinket!) wards to get the vision control they need. In tandem with this change, however, we’re also adding a new feature in ward ‘debris’ when a ward passes on. By giving you the ability to see the dead bodies of wards who’ve moved on with their lives, you’ll be able to learn more about your opponent’s vision habits as well as your own.
Ward Debris
Wards now leave behind corpses when they die, letting you know the warding habits of your enemies and teammates.
Trinkets
Trinkets now upgrade automatically and grow in strength as you gain levels. Blue Trinket has been removed, but Yellow now either works like before (2 wards on cooldown) or can be sidegraded to a long-range scout trinket, capable of dropping a visible 1-health ward with unlimited duration. Red Trinket now ‘reveals’ all units (monsters, champions, wards) it scans, acting as both a ward sweeper and brush checker. Red can also sidegrade into a personal radar that follows your champion around for a while, sweeping and disabling all wards as you go.
Sightstones
Gold generation support items can now either upgrade into fully-fledged tier 3 items with powerful actives, or slot-efficient sightstones with gold generation stats. Additionally, we’ll be reintroducing the Ruby Sightstone, which will reduce the cooldown of all of your active items. So either you can go all-in on active items, or just finish that Sightstone before going traditional damage / tank support items.
NEW STARTING ITEMS
We're using the Doran's items (Blade, Ring, and Shield) as a baseline "generalist" set, with the addition of newer, more specialized options for those who want to opt into other early-game openings. Do you want a more aggressive lane? A defensive farming option? Somewhere in between? We've got you covered.
NEW SUSTAIN ITEMS
Health pots are going up in price to better position them as a purchase for those who just need some sustain to get them past the early game. Any form of long-term sustain we folded into the refillable potions (and their subsequent upgrades) to really solidify their identity (because before, it was… flask and potions to be a ‘sustain' build). Mana potions, on the other hand, are being removed. Our decision to remove mana pots goes along the same philosophy as starting items. 100 mana tends to benefit certain types of champions over others (with mana costs being balanced against individual champion kits) and can wildly shift from being a mediocre purchase to a very cost-efficient one. By removing mana pots, we can better balance champion ability costs with the mana regeneration stat while also streamlining the 'sustain game' of League.
Compete Together
Next up we variety of changes to how you get into the game with a new Champion Selext experience,, changes to ranked competition & queues, and rewards to earn with the Champion Mastery & Crafting changes!NEW CHAMP SELECT
Break out your best champs in your favorite roles. With new champ select, everyone is on the same page before the draft even begins. Each player chooses two positions (or fill!) before queueing up to find a team. A new feature, “pick intent”, helps everyone understand the champ you want to play and the contribution you want to make to your team's comp. With the draft underway, a new ban phase distributes one ban each to the players who receive the last three picks, while the top two have a shot at securing priority champs for the team. Put simply: champ select should leave every teammate - and every team - better placed to smash the enemy nexus.
The new champ select process will head to PBE first before going live in normal draft with an upcoming patch. We'll also be testing improvements to the ranked experience during this time, but those features may show up on PBE after the new champ select. We'll have more details farther down the page, but here's a quick look what's coming:
POSITION SELECT
You now select two positions out of top, jungle, mid, bottom, support, and fill. Requiring two positions ensures short queue times and that no one gets stuck in a position they don't want to play.
POSITION ASSIGNMENT
Everyone learns where they're headed at the same time. Team chat appears here, helping the team get on the same page.
PICK INTENT
Before the ban phase begins, you can pick the champ you plan to play, highlighting it for your teammates to see. Pick intent helps your team sort out potential comps and avoid teammate-harming bans.
BANS
We're distributing drafting responsibilities amongst all players. A new ban phase distributes one ban each to the players who receive the last three picks, while the top two have a shot at securing priority champs for the team. For clarity: bans still happen before picks.
PICKS
Bans and picks happen one at a time and require everyone to lock in their choice. If anyone fails to lock in a pick or ban, champ select ends and players return to queue. We expect this change to speed up champ select after everyone adjusts to locking in picks and bans.Next
EXPLORING NEW CHAMP SELECT
Friends understand each other's intentions and set each other up for success. This idea is key to champ select's new design.The new champ select helps strangers cooperate so every player plays from a position of strength, understands their teammates, and makes their best possible contribution to a win.
PLAY TO YOUR STRENGTHS
Position Assignment
When exploring position select, we delved into how most people play the game and designed around what we found: most players feel strongest in two positions. So you now select two positions out of top, jungle, mid, bottom, support, and fill. You're guaranteed to land in one of the positions you select. And yes, support's now officially a position in addition to a role. Check out your options:
Requiring two positions ensures short queue times and that no one on your team gets stuck in a position they don't want to play. We know some options (*cough* support and jungle) aren't always quite as popular, and plan to incentivize these roles with IP bonuses if necessary.
- Select a primary and secondary position and matchmaking weights your primary choice, making it more likely you land there; you're guaranteed to slot into one of the positions you select
- Select a primary position and "Fill" as your secondary, and matchmaking weights your primary choice, placing you in any other role if necessary
- Select "Fill" and join a team in any position
We don't see position select impeding lane swaps or other emergent strategies in the future, and teams remain totally free to collaborate and experiment with different comps (double jungle 2016)!
UNDERSTAND YOUR TEAMMATES
Pick Intent
After your match is made, you and your new teammates discover your position and enter the draft. Before the ban phase begins, everyone picks the champ they plan to play—this is called pick intent. Pick intent helps your team sort out potential comps and avoid teammate-harming bans.
No More Surprises
Now each player selects their champion one at a time. For example, if your team has first pick, the opposing team still picks two champions afterward, they just lock in one after the other.
As a result, however, both bans and picks now require everyone to lock in their choice. If a player fails to lock in a pick or ban, champ select ends and players return to queue (and that player faces the same queue dodge penalties).
MAKE YOUR CONTRIBUTION
Distributed Bans
We're distributing drafting responsibilities amongst all players so every player gets a chance to make a meaningful contribution to their team. A new ban phase distributes one ban each to the players who receive the last three picks, while the top two have a shot at securing priority champs for the team. For clarity: bans still happen before picks.
PBE FIRST, NORMAL DRAFT SOON AFTER, RANKED AND BLIND PICK LATER DURING THE 2016 SEASON
New champ select hits PBE first, and will go live in normal draft during an upcoming patch. We'll keep you posted on all queue changes as they approach, and we're excited to hear your feedback!
RANKED IMPROVEMENTS
If the World Championships have shown us anything, it's that League is a team game and the best competitors are also amazing teammates. We believe a truly competitive ranked experience should reward a player's ability to lead or collaborate with their teammates just as much as their ability to shut down a lane. That said, for a while now the ranked experience has also been a lonely one, having the choice of either queueing up with a friend or braving it solo. We've even had to go so far as to give small penalties to duo-queuers to compensate for the unspoken benefits of friendship (can you really put a price on friendship?).
Our belief is that League is better - and more competitive - with company, so we need to walk the walk on that philosophy.
DYNAMIC GROUPS
This upcoming season we're replacing the solo/duo queue with a dynamic group queue, where you'll be able to climb the ladder with any number of teammates, going from single participation all the way to a full team comp. There's no longer a penalty for players ranking together, so the benefits of grouping up will always prevail. You'll still need to be of similar rank to your queue-buddies, and the system is designed so that groups will almost always play against similarly grouped opponents (so if you're in a premade five, there's a 95% chance you'll run into another premade five), but now you'll be able to compete the way you want to.
Ranked teams will still be available for players who want to form a team of any skill level, as teams are judged on the skill of the static group rather than the sum total of the individuals. That said, this season we're also going to be improving the path to pro, with less ranked team grinding and more focus on performing when it counts. Details to come!
GROUP BONUSES
For those of you yet to find your trusty battle-buddies, there's no better time than now to consult your friends list (or recruit that support who just carried you) - after dynamic groups go live, we'll be launching with abonus IP promotion for all parties who play together. Additionally, with Clubs and Parties hitting the stage, maybe your ranked soulmates are just one social sphere away from that push to Challenger.
IMPROVED HIGH-LEVEL MATCHMAKING
Enduring thirty-minute queue times for reaching the top of the ladder isn't exactly a reward, but that's historically been the price paid when you're incredibly talented at League. We're optimizing high-level matchmaking to identify epically skilled players faster and widen the MMR range for finding games.
This isn't the place to get too technical but, essentially, high-level players will be matchmade in the same games that would have happened after a thirty-minute wait, but at a much faster pace.
PROMO HELPER
When you're in a division lower than Gold 1, if you lose a promotional series, the next time you enter your series, you'll start with at least one win.
Ever since we released the league system for ranked play, we've been following it closely, identifying pain points and looking to add clarity to progression and placement. In 2016, we're adding a new feature to help alleviate "promo anxiety," better reflect improvements in skill, and make it easier to ladder up when climbing to your actual level.
Beginning with the start of the new ranked season, if you lose your promos but are still able to get back into a series (demonstrating you've got the skills but just aren't winning in the right order), you'll start that new series off with at least one win. As the TL;DR said, though, promo helper does not apply to tiers and divisions above Gold 1.
NEW CHAMPION SELECT IN RANKED
New champion select will debut in ranked play for testing during preseason in NA and TR. Read the lowdown on new champion select here!
CHAMPION MASTERY & CRAFTING
We knew from the beginning that while mastering a champion was a goal in and of itself, we also wanted to go beyond that to reward you for your feats. Our first attempt at this included in-game emotes, multikill banners and loading screen borders but... those were just the start. This year we want to keep recognizing you for the cool things you're already doing, like playing with your friends or performing well across a wide variety of champions.
Cue the introduction of...
HEXTECH CRAFTING
We're introducing a new system called "Hextech Crafting" with two goals in mind: one, create a new way to pick up randomized loot at large discounts (we're tuning the drop stats here but, if you want something specific, a direct purchase will still be the most efficient), and two (this one may be more important for some of you), allow players to earn their way toward champions or skins for their in-game accomplishments. Free.
We're still fleshing out the details, but wanted to share some plans:
CHESTS WHERE?
Later in the new season, you'll be able to earn Mastery Chests and Keys as you team up and compete with your friends. Upon acquiring (and combining) the two, you'll be able to unlock the chest, earning loot items ranging from 7-day rentals to permanent skins and champions.
You'll have the chance to randomly pick up Keys and Key Fragments after each win. Playing with your friends will result in getting a few more keys than going solo and, if you've got the right kind of friends, wins should be easier to achieve as well! Once you pick up enough Key Fragments, you can convert them into full Keys at the crafting table.
Mastery Chests will be tied to your post-game grades, which have always been a combination of your personal and team performance for that game. We're still settling on the number of chests we'll give out this way over the year (so it's not a grind and we can get a clear view of the ecosystem we're creating), but we'll also be exploring ways to give out chests (and keys) for other modes and events.
For those who just want to pick up loot at a significant discount, we'll also be offering unique types of chests in the store that are guaranteed to be good deals! Finally, if the rewards you earn aren't something you see yourself ever using, you can swap them for other content via the crafting table.
DISENCHANTING, UPGRADING, AND REROLLING AT THE CRAFTING TABLE
When it comes to content you plunder, you'll be able to redeem or modify it via the crafting table. Loot items you don't want can be disenchanted into essences. These essences are used to upgrade other items from shard rentals to permanent content. Alternatively, you can use the crafting table to reroll 3 of any permanent or rental item into a different permanent item of the same type (skin or champion).
THE FUTURE OF CRAFTING
We're excited to share this system with all of you on PBE in the coming months. Our goal is to also build a scalable, robust system that future rewards can plug into. We'll have a lot more details as the 2016 Season Update rolls out, so stay tuned!
Better with Friends
In addition to changes to the game, Riot also has several changes to help you connect with players and friends! These new additions include a new club system to group up with friends, a party system to keep grouped up between games, and a brand mobile application for socializing on the go!
Whether celebrating pentakills and promo wins, or agonizing together over a streak-busting throw, League is better with friends. So we're adding a trio of new features during the 2016 season to help you build and join communities of like-minded players, make it easier for premades hitting the rift, and help everyone keep in touch while afk with a new League chat app for iOS and Android.
Clubs, Parties and the League Friends app are foundational features. This means that while their official launch is early next year, we're going to be building them up and working on them throughout the 2016 season.
CLUBS
Clubbing it Up
Clubs are player-named (names must be unique), player-organized, and player-controlled social groups. The idea is to help you grow the amount of available friends at any given time so you can head to the Rift with the right teammates, every game.
Out the gate, each club provides a persistent chat room that lives across login sessions for all clubmates. This social hub facilitates friendships and naturally provides a place to organize games. Club leaders wield a full set of moderation tools, allowing them to invite or kick members at any time. Leaders can share the management burden, unlocking invite and kick powers for chosen officers. At launch, clubs max out at 100 members, but we'll likely increase that number over time.
Find the Right Friends
What's in a club? Well, that's entirely up to you. From esports fans to collegiate gamers, clubs can form around just about anything. And as a bonus, you can rep your club on the Rift with tags attached to your summoner name. Just as a note: because you can be a part of multiple clubs at the same time, there'll be a way to swap which tag you sport in-game.
PARTIES
Group Queue Faster
Parties simplify the way small groups of friends stick together between games. Have some basics:
One player hosts a party, inviting friends to a group chat that persists through games, but not login sessions. With a party set up, the party leader goes through the normal flow of starting a game and then every player in the party queues up together. After the game parties stick together, keep their group chat, and can easily hit the Rift all over again.
Open or Closed
Parties are open by default, meaning friends will see your party in their friends list, know you're looking for people to play with and be able to join you with just a few clicks. Party leaders can close parties too, making them invite-only.
LEAGUE FRIENDS APP
League is better when you play with friends; it should be as easy as possible to hit up your pals and organize a game. Enter the League of Legends Friends mobile app.
The app makes your League friends list truly mobile, so you can always yell at your ranked team's jungler—whether he's ganking bot lane from the river, or off fishing in an IRL river. Here's a few reasons to get excited:
Connect With Friends Whenever, Wherever
Use the League Friends app to hit up your buddies for a match any time they're available—even before they've booted up their rig. The app syncs your conversations from any device, so you can keep up the team trash talk long after smashing the enemy nexus.
Never Miss A Match
It's a lot easier to organize your team games when everybody is online. Optional push notifications ensure that you'll get the message when your squad feels a late-night itch for a 5v5.
WHAT'S IN STORE
Like we mentioned up top, Clubs, Parties, and the Friends app are early efforts that we plan to ramp up significantly. Clubs can look toward a future of challenges that clubmates can only face together and search functionality is also in the cards, which should help players without a huge friends list find clubs to join.
The League Friends app will be available (totally free) for Android and iOS sometime in early 2016, and you can expect it to keep evolving over time, supporting features like Parties and Clubs when they become available.
League Client Update Alpha
Last up we have a look at the upcoming client update alpha!
The current League of Legends client has been your companion for the past six years, but it's in sore need of an upgrade. We've been working hard to make that happen, and beginning during the 2016 Season we'll invite community members to test and give feedback on a work-in-progress alpha version of the updated client. We have a limited number of slots open in the alpha client construction crew, but we'll make room for as many folks as we can.
Once the alpha is complete, the updated client will be defined primarily by three things:
WHAT WE'RE BUILDING
New Tech
We're abandoning the legacy client's tech framework and building the updated client from the ground up, so players will finally have the more reliable, responsive client they deserve. Bonus: teams at Riot will have an easier time developing and delivering new features.
Streamlined Style
The updated client is our chance to rethink interface and design, cooking in some fresh visuals while we're at it. The new design unifies all sections of the client under a clear, visually-consistent theme.
Stay Connected
We're already working on quite a few features that will make playing with friends easier, including Parties, Clubs, and the Friends mobile app. The updated client takes that goal further by giving you a resource-light, standalone friends list you can use to stay in the loop without needing to open the full-size client. It'll let you see who's in game and message your buds while you're downloading the latest patch, and you'll be able to launch straight into games with a click.
SO HOW CAN I JOIN THE ALPHA?
Anyone who signs up for the alpha can expect an incomplete, bumpy experience as we actively work on every part of the client. If you're a brave player who wants to join the alpha construction crew, keep a few things in mind: we're looking for level 30 players from all over the world, and those with a history of good in-game behavior will be given priority. For development purposes, not everybody who applies will make it in. Look for signups to open before the alpha kicks off next year.
Follow Up Discussion
Over on reddit, Pwyff commented on the timing of all this:"Quick point we'll double down on in the next Riot Pls - this was a big effort to announce 2016 as a year that's bigger than just single features. We're aiming to debut many of these things in various phases of testing in early 2016 and beyond so we can start actually talking about them and how we're iterating.
In other words, it's what we said we'd try to kick off with the whole iterative communication and ongoing "talk about features as they fly" rather than polishing things in a closet. Personally speaking, it's also cool to tie these things to a larger narrative - to see where each thing that hits fits in the ongoing road trip that is League.
PS: For anyone thinking "EVERYTHING HITS NEXT PATCH," I'm cutting that off. Nope."
"'Solo queue' is basically becoming ranked draft or the ranked queue. Philosophically I think it aligns far more with how skill is reflected in League."
New Champion Select
Speaking of time frames, Lyte also noted the new champion select experience will not be in 5.22:"Definitely not next patch, we need to take our time with this system on the PBE and make sure we iron out all the issues."
Lyte also commented in the expectation of what queues the new champion select experience will replace:
"We'd like the new Champ Select to replace "classic" Team Builder, and become the new Ranked queue.
But, that assumes player feedback remains positive, and we polish it up and fix the bugs."
He also noted they are want to add champion mastery displays to the new champion select:
"It's WIP and something we want to do :)"
Lyte also noted they are sitll working on ward skin selection for the new champion select experience:
"Picking Wards is still being worked on, there's an empty spot in the bottom tray for it :)"
As for how this will be tuned to a blind pick experience, Lyte noted:
"We'll be creating a version of the new Champ Select experience for Blind Pick, but without the drafting process.
Invite your friends, choose 2 positions, enter matchmaking then a Champ Select where everyone can pick Champs/Skins at the same time and you're off into the game. If this works out, we're going to replace the Blind Pick queue with this version."
Dynamic Groups
Lyte dove into discussion on Dynamic groups over on reddit:"Sorry I haven't been able to hop on this thread until now--busy trying to bughunt with the team and it's been a long few days.
We knew that Dynamic Ranked would be a highly controversial topic, and it even was widely debated internally. It came down to a few key points:
1) The vast majority of players preferred to play League with friends, but there was currently no end-game progression in League other than Ranked (we're not going to count Ranked Teams because we agree there are many issues such as a high barrier of entry). Most players do want to try Ranked, so players were forced to enter a queue that artificially capped your party at 1 or 2 and made the game less social. This was bad.
2) We added a few matchmaking features to bias the system so that it would pair similar group combinations against each other. So, premade 5s would most likely play other premade 5s, and so on and so forth. In our testing, and when we modeled data from Normal Draft Queue to emulate what it would be like if we did Dynamic Ranked, over 95% of the time groups were paired with similar size groups. We'll have to monitor the behavior of Dynamic Ranked to see if the pattern is the same, but we're hopeful.
3) There's actually a pretty big perception issue with premades in League. When I talk to players, they alwaysremember the premade that bullied them or made the game more toxic; however, when I point out behind the scenes and show them the data that almost every single Ranked game has a Duo Queue in it... they are shocked. The perception problem is that you only remember the games where a premade did have an issue, but you never remember the games where they were quiet and just didn't give away they were a premade. We've been measuring toxicity in premade combinations for awhile now and believe that most most combinations of premade 2s and 3s are fine, and premade 4s have a little bit more toxicity than we'd like. Premade 5s are obviously awesome experiences. So what are we doing about premade 4s?
4) As you may have noticed, we've beefed up the Report System, and added new features to the Instant Feedback System. More than ever before, Premade 4s won't be able to "affect" your account if they simply gang up and try to bully you with reports. In fact, if they do this often and they file false reports, they can be banned for this behavior. Secondly, in a Premade 4 situation, your reports are just as powerful as the group, so if they are showing toxic behaviors at all, your single report can have a meaningful impact and trigger a punishment. We believe measures like this will help balance out this specific scenario to be less negative.
5) With the new Champ Select experience, we're giving players more benefits than ever before to play with friends because we believe playing with friends is the right way to enjoy League--we don't want the game to become an anti-social experience. For example, there will be a promo bonus for playing in parties during the launch of the Ranked 2016 Season, and playing in parties is the best way to guarantee exactly what positions you want to play in the new Dynamic Ranked Queue. We understand that we're going to frustrate the purists that enjoy playing solo and seeing what they can do alone among a group of 4 strangers but, we want you to give this a try before slamming it. More players playing Ranked means more competition for you, and it means quicker queue times at low and high MMRs. We also have ideas to expand the Ranked system even more in the future to give multiple ways for you to challenge yourself and your friends.
6) Like any big change, we're going to have to monitor this one carefully. We ask you guys to be patient and give it a chance. We'll ultimately make the right decision, but a LOT of players have voiced their opinions that they do want a more social Ranked experience and want to play in a Dynamic Ranked queue. Give it a chance, and we're listening if it doesn't work."He continued on ask.fm
[Link] Not against Dynamic Queue, but I do hope you reconsider the way you treat those of us who do enjoy the game solo. I read in one of your posts that Riot believes playing with friends is the correct way to enjoy the game - it does hurt that you discredit how much we too have enjoyed and love the game.
"#LeagueOfLegends
We knew Dynamic Queue was going to be a controversial topic. If you check my accounts over the seasons, I've played over 5000 Ranked Solo/Duo Queue games, and about 4800 of those are pure solo. Other team members like RiotSocrates, RiotChomey, ryedan, and RiotTantram... we're all Platinum, Diamond or higher and pure soloists. Because we *are* the advocates for solo players, this is also why we're the best team to build the new Champ Select and Dynamic Queues.
When we first started building the new Champ Select, we knew this would be a big debate. In every research survey, the majority of players wanted to try Ranked, but also wanted to play with friends and did not have enough friends always online to play Ranked Teams. In every analytics report, the more friends you play with on average, the better your experiences and the less toxicity there is. We looked to other popular games and it was very hit-or-miss. Non-MOBAs have historically rewarded group play with more opportunities and better rewards (such as WoW, where the entire end-game is based on group play and you are forced to group up to get the best loot). Competitive PvP games, however, were split. HOTS and LoL were most recently Solo/Duo Queue, but CS:GO has Dynamic Queue, and DOTA2 has a hybrid Dynamic Queue. When we looked into this, the *reason* every game chose their approach was for different reasons. For some, it was size of their playerbase, some were forced to because of how their matchmakers were designed. For Riot, League is a competitive team sport. Playing with friends allows you to try more strategies, and the more organized play there is, the more competitive the entire ecosystem becomes. By playing with friends, it becomes much easier to organize a rotation strategy, a knock-up comp, or double jungler invade strategy.
So, we had to make a super risky, super difficult choice. We--a team with a bunch of solo purists--had to try to make Dynamic Queue a great experience. We started by adding a bunch of features:
1) We upgraded the matchmaking system to pair similar group comps together. It is possible that it might be *harder* to rank up in a premade group than as a solo because you'll be consistently exposed to crazier, and more competitive strategies.
2) We changed the Ban System to something we call "Distributed Bans." By giving Players 3, 4, and 5 one ban each, and giving Players 1 and 2 first and second pick, we've given every player a meaningful choice in Champ Select and this "leverage" reduces a lot of toxicity in our research labs. Basically, the premade of 4 doesn't want to lose LP either, and in every game, the random solo has a lot of power in Champ Select.
3) We've upgraded the Report System to completely wipe out the power of Premade 4 reports ganging up on a player, and given the solo player "equal power" reports in this scenario.
We're going to try everything we can to make Dynamic Queue a great experience. Please give it a chance."
Crafting
As for how you will earn chests, Socrates noted:"Earning chests will be based on a new set of objectives from grades at end of game rather than your level."When asked if Chromas or chroma packs will be included in the crafting system, Mirross noted:
"No chromas at launch."
League Client Update Alpha
CapnBranFlakes noted they will be posting more info on how to get into the client alpha closer to release:"We'll be posting info about sign-ups as we get closer to alpha."
When asked about the new client and if it will continue to use AIR, Baconhawk noted:
"completely new construction from the ground up. Goodbye, Adobe Air. :)"CapnBranFlakes added:
"Air's out, HTML/JS/CSS for the UI, C++ for the core functionality is in."
As for if there will be a mac client in testing for preseason, Riot Hark noted:
"Yes. There will be a Mac version to test out during the Alpha. :)"
CapnBranFlakes also noted that there shouldn't be any additional hardware requirements for the client update:
"Even with the updated client being built in a new tech that allows it to run better than the current, it shouldn't affect any hardware requirements."He continued on reddit:
"The plan is actually for the opposite. RAM usage should be lower when not in game, and much lower when in game. It may not be there for the initial alpha release, but between then and launch it will."
As for connection concerns, he noted:
"The updated client should handle connection issues more gracefully."
[Additional red post discussion will be down here]
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