Surrender at 20: Red Post Collection: 2015 Ranked Season Over, Preseason Rundown, Initial 5.22 Thoughts, Extra Bonus RP soon, & more!

This morning's red post collection includes a reminder that the 2015 ranked season is over and rewards will be distributed by the 19th, a two part preseason patch rundown, Meddler with a few comments on Graves, Yasuo, & Warlord's Bloodlust now that 5.22 is out to live, a heads up you can snag have extra bonus RP while purchasing RP in late November, and much more!

Continue reading for more information!

11/10 PBE Update: New Champion Illaoi, new Azir, Braum, Gragas, Hecarim, Ryze, Tristana, & Varus skins , and more!

Champion and Skin Sale 11/13 - 11/16

2015 ranked season has ended

The 2015 Ranked season has come to a close and this year's rewards are being distributed!

"UPDATE: Rewards will arrive by end of day on November 18. A previous version of this post stated that rewards would be handed out over 12 hours. We apologise for any inconvenience.

The 2015 ranked season is over. Congrats to everyone who hit their ranked goals this season. For those who fell just short, there’s always next year. With new champ select and dynamic group sizesamong other changes coming to the ranked queue, 2016 will be full of all new challenges to master on your way to the top.

Find out more about the 2015 season rewards here!"

As mentioned in the post the various ranked rewards are being distributed in waves and should be out to everyone by end of the day on November 18th, including Victorious Sivir, summoner icons, new loading screen boarders, and ranked team reward wards!

Be sure to keep up with this boards thread as the rewards continue to be distributed!

Extra Bonus RP headed your way for a limited time!

Here's a heads up that at the end of November you'll be able to snag extra bonus RP when purchasing RP!

Here's the NA version of the post:

"With the year coming to a close, tons of new deals are headed your way. To help you get through this *cough* snowstorm of deals, we’re offering an extra bonus RP promotion! You'll get extra bonus RP when you purchase RP from November 29 9:00 PST through December 6 at 23:59 PST.

Here's a breakdown of how much RP you'll receive for purchases during this time:

$5.00 – 650 RP

$10.00 – 1460 RP (1300 + 80 standard bonus RP + 80 extra bonus RP)

$20.00 – 3000 RP (2600 + 200 standard bonus RP + 200 extra bonus RP)

$35.00 – 5450 RP (4550 + 450 standard bonus RP + 450 extra bonus RP)

$50.00 – 7900 RP (6500 + 700 standard bonus RP + 700 extra bonus RP)

$100.00 – 17000 RP (13000 + 2000 standard bonus RP + 2000 extra bonus RP)

Extra Bonus RP does not apply to mobile payment methods, and because of the advance notice, there will be no refunds for RP purchases made prior to the announcement or the promotion. Extra Bonus RP applies to prepaid cards (the $10 card is worth 1460 RP and the $25 card is worth 3750 RP) redeemed during the period.

Take this chance to pick up your favorite champions and skins this holiday season!"

Here are each server's version of the sale - dates & values vary slightly:

EUW / EUNE / LAN / LAS / BR / TR / RU / OCE

(will edit in the other links as they come up!)

Preseason Rundown 5.22

With the 2015 ranked season over and 5.22 out to live, Scarizard and crew have come together for multi part edition of the preseason patch rundown!

"It’s a patch rundown for the preseason… in two parts! In Part I, Gentlemen Gustaf from the playtest team joins Scarizard, Xpecial, and Fearless to talk about some of the big game changers – vision, the Rift Herald, and new pacing mechanics – coming in 5.22.

Check out Part 2 of the Patch Rundown here: https://youtu.be/702pqb2C3VU

Read the Patch 5.22 notes here - http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news..."

and here's part two:

"Check out Part I of the Patch Rundown here: https://youtu.be/w_uBpkpSYKQ

In part II of the preseason patch rundown, Scarizard, Daydreamin, Riot Jag, and Riot Repertoir go deep on the new marksmen updates and their many, many new toys in 5.22.

Read the Patch 5.22 notes here - http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news..."

Pushing Advantage Minion Changes pushed to 5.23

The official 5.22 patch notes have been updated to note the large set of "pushing advantage" minion changes are NOT ON LIVE (5.22) and will instead be making their debut in the next patch (5.23)!

"UPDATE: We froze the pushing changes below at the last minute, so these won't be going live in 5.22. They'll make their official debut in 5.23!"

In response to concerns on these large changes to minions, Meddler noted:

"Can definitely understand your concerns. We do think there's a useful lever in tuning minions based off game state, I'd imagine it's a mechanic that will need a decent amount of follow up tuning to get to the right spot though (when should it be triggered, how large an effect should it be, how obviously communicated does it need to be etc). It's also a change that from what we've seen in testing looks bigger on paper than it's felt in game (it's been on the PBE for a couple of weeks for example without anyone that I'm aware of commenting on it).

The other big thing to mention is that it's also a change we've shifted from 5.22 to 5.23 due to a bug we found right at the end of the testing period, so the initial preseason patch won't have the minion changes in yet. Once 5.23's out though it'd be great to get a bunch of feedback on how people are finding the changes once they've had a few days to play with them in game, rather than just assess on paper."

Illaoi will be the last new champion of 2015

With only a few patches left in 2015, Meddler has noted that Illaoi will be the last champion of 2015 and either 5.23 or 5.24 will be the last patch of 2015.

"Seriously though, Illaoi will be the last new champion of the year. If all goes according to plan Illaoi will come out in 5.23 and the final patch of the year will be either 5.23 or 5.24, depending on how patch testing goes."

Meddler on initial 5.22 Thoughts - Graves, Yasuo, & Warlord's Bloodlust

In a thread discussing the 5.22 Graves changes, Meddler popped in to mention they feel he is definitely too strong and are likely looking to hotfix in some changes:
commented:

"Yeah, it's looking like Graves is definitely too strong. We'll probably do a balance hotfix early next week to get some quick changes in halfway between 5.22 and 5.23. Odds are very high there'll be some Graves nerfs and some Kog'maw buffs in that."

As for thoughts on what they may buff on Kog'Maw in this hotfix, he noted:

"Base attack speed and base AD are what we're currently thinking (we'll be testing AS going from 0.625 to 0.665 and AD from 54 to 57 tomorrow). Might also try a slightly higher AD ratio on the W."

When asked about Yasuo in reference to the new Warlord's Bloodlust keystone mastery, Meddler noted:

"Early indications suggest Yasuo's too dominant in 5.22. Before we look at Yasuo specific changes though we want to look at Warlord's Bloodlust, see whether we need to adjust that first and if so what spot Trynd/Yasuo end up in, given they'll be better placed than almost any other champion to take advantage of that mastery."

He reiterated this in another comment, saying:

"Not certain yet, though he's certainly looking to strong. Solution might be to hit Warlord's Bloodlust first, still talking about that."

He continued on Warlord's Bloodlust, explaining:

"If the mastery itself is simply too powerful in general (not saying it necessarily is, but it's certainly possible) then we'd want to get it into the right spot first before trying to balance other game elements around it. If it's too strong overall we'd expect to see that strength further exacerbated for champions who have extra access to crit or get additional value from crit.

Once the mastery's in the right spot (whether that requires changes or not) we'd then want to look at changing individual champions, assuming for argument's sake other systems are also appropriately balanced (e.g. they're not just strong because an item they use is also overtuned, rather than due to a problem on their kit). That could mean changes to their crit interactions, a crit mastery being really powerful on Trynd/Yasuo doesn't necessarily mean that's the thing that ought to be nerfed though. E.g. if Trynd needs to be nerfed, and Warlord's Bloodlust's pushed him over the edge, it's possible we should actually be hitting the AD reduction on his W, given how that decides some match ups with very little gameplay, in order to get him into a healthier more balanced spot, rather than nerfing his crit just because that's associated with the thing that changed."

Meddler also briefly mentioned that a few oddities still exist in relation to the recent changes to block/dodge/blind, saying:

"There are a few on hits (6-10 from memory) that didn't get properly updated to respect the revised blind/dodge/block rules. Nasus Q is one of those, should be fixed in 5.23."

New champ select Q&A November 12

Have questions about the new champion select experience that has been testing on the PBE for the 2016 season? The teams responsible will be hosting a Q&A on November 12th at 11 AM PST!

"If you’re looking to lock in more info on new champ select, head over to the designer Q&A at 11 AM PST on November 12! Some of the Rioters behind the new system will be on hand to answer your questions and share the details behind the design.

Explore the 2016 season update site for more about the new champ select."

Reports: How do they work?

Next up we have Lyte with a dev blog on reports and how they work, as well as recent updates!

"Since launching the instant feedback system in the spring, we’ve spent all summer and fall powering it up. We updated reports in 5.21, so let’s talk about the why's and how's of reports, and how they fit into the broader ecosystem.

So What Changed?

We made two major changes to the report system. First, we cleaned house, analyzing report data and community feedback to dispatch redundant, useless, or simply out-of-date report categories. This effort winnowed the list down to seven types of behavior:

Second, the old system only allowed reports for one offense, but we’ve all been in games with players who show multiple unsportsmanlike behaviors in one game. The system now allows up to three categories to be selected when reporting an especially disruptive player.

Selecting multiple categories won’t increase the severity of a report because the system verifies the accuracy of every category of every report. Later on, we’ll discuss how we handle dishonest reports, but generally speaking, the more earnest and accurate the report, the better chance of appropriate action being taken.

Why Reports Matter

We occasionally hear some players wondering whether reports matter in a world with automated systems like instant feedback. Short answer: Reports matter a lot. For the longer answer, let’s zoom out to the big picture.

We view aggregate report data as the collective voice of the playerbase and the main way the community defines and establishes standards of behavior. When reporting a player, you add your voice to that chorus. For example, report data shows the vast majority of players can’t stand racism, sexism and homophobia, and that’s why we tune systems to specifically target hate speech.

Importantly, each region owns their own community standards and we customize the system for every region to account for cultural differences. For example, in most regions, calling another player “bronze” is heavily reported, but we’ve learned that in Korea, even calling players “silver” is offensive. Youch. “Your mom” jokes vary by territory, too. In English speaking territories, “Your mom” can be silly or mean, but in Korea, “Your mom” is always deeply offensive. So keep that in mind on your next swing through Seoul.

Reports are significant on a per-game basis because no one is punished on game data alone. So if there are no reports in a given game, the system assumes no one had a bad time, and there’s no reason to consider punishing a player. This means that if you play with a negative player and don’t report them, they won’t receive a punishment and likely won’t reform.

How Reports Help

When a player’s reported, the instant feedback system collects all reports from the game and compares them with in-game data (statistics, chat, item builds, metrics from past games, etc.) to make a call on a whether or not to punish. If a player ends up punished, they receive a reform card (an in-client message calling out the punishment and evidence of the behavior that caused it). Even if no one is punished, the system stores the report and game info to better inform future decisions when players are reported again.

Reports go beyond supporting instant feedback; player support specialists, designers, data scientists, researchers, and engineers use them to:

Hand review difficult or nuanced cases (a situation where hand-written comments really help out)

Analyze trends in report types and comments over time to inform the design of future social systems

Build and power our automated systems like instant feedback

Sometimes a player attempts to punish another player by reporting them as a form of retaliation. In a system that relies on honesty, that’s potentially a big problem. We can detect false reports, filter them out, and decrease the effectiveness of future reports from consistently dishonest players. As we continue to build more systems that rely on honest reports, the penalties for false reporting will become more strict.

Some cases require human intuition and judgment, and for those, we’re rebuilding the Tribunal voting system. In the future, the Tribunal will lean heavily on reports (and honors) to build cases for both positive and negative behavior. Accurate report selection and comments will be critical to letting Tribunal voters know what really happened. We’re looking forward to rebooting the Tribunal after we’re through pushing new champ select to all regions and queues.

Comments? Questions? We’ll stick around for a bit to talk player behavior."

Preseason Open Forum [Day 1 and 2]

Following 5.22 going out to live, Pwyff opened up threads [Day 1 and Day 2] to serve as an open forum for folks with questions or concerns on preseason!

"You've survived the patch notes.

You've read the dev blogs.

We're going to be chilling in the dev corner this week to talk about any of the preseason changes coming in the patch. Hopefully by tomorrow you'll also have a few games under your belt.

Also: you're not here to pose opinions as questions."

Should you have concerns on any of the changes or specific questions, be sure to swing by the DEV CORNER boards, find the most recent preseason thread, and drop 'em off!

When asked why the large amount of changes at once, Pwyff explained:

"Preseason is currently our best window to trying a lot of dramatic changes. We don't impact ranked or pro play, so we can really shake up the game and push it towards significantly new space.

We totally go into this work knowing some people will be pretty resistant to change. It's ok. Players love this game a lot, and some of them don't want it to change, even if we believe it will be much for the better."

When asked about follow up to Rift Herald, Riot Asyrite noted:

"Quote:

How you plan to deal with Rift Herald and it's buffs if it shows extremely powerful in competitive play, especially in lane swap situations?
Great question! We're going to be closely monitoring Rift Herald and what impact it really has on the map. If the team who gets the first Rift Herald wins 90% of their matches, that's definitely not a good thing. Or if we suddenly see every game having support and ADC go top to secure Rift Herald that's also not ideal. We want to make Rift Herald be a neutral objective that opens up strategic choice for teams, not become the must have objective. We can tackle this in many ways, whether that be tuning numbers on the buff, spawn timers, or tuning other objectives. Rest assured, if RH comes out too strong, we'll be quickly jumping on bringing it to a healthy place :). In the mean time we're super excited to see what kind of crazy strats evolve through the preseason and into next year."

When asked to clarify the Kalista attack speed changes, Riot BelugaWhale noted:

"Quote:

Really appreciate the feed back (: ,Thanks for making me understand the context on these changes ,but what about the fact that kalista only does 90% ad ,i thought this was because kalista was meant to build attack speed to get more rend stacks,rather than critical strike and be a unique marksmen getting her damage from rend,so now turning kalista into a crit adc shes like all the other adcs but worse because shell always do less damage than any other adc with the same items as her ,i guess she compensates for this with her jumps and she still has rend going for her despite it being less impactfull?so now allowing her to crit makes her a bit stronger but at the same time weaker because she can jump less and builds less as so less rend damage,So this opens more build paths for her.Am i on the right track with this lol? do you want transfer her power from rend to crit
I'll try to clarify:

Her jumping will be weaker, but the value she gets from bonus attackspeed will be increased relative to other marksman due to her Base AS increase. We'll be watching her power closely as the patch plays out."

Riot BelugaWhale continued on Kalista, commenting:

"Quote:

hey (:
Its obvious you guys wanted wanted to take away alot of kalistas power for season 6 ,nerfing her passive and all her core items and introducing crit on runaans,But whats up with riot ignoring she exists? i havent seen a single riot comment on anything about the context on kalista changes ,item changesand how the new items will affect her (,less lifesteal on bork ,less as but useless crit on runaans and new items ) ,please riot say something ,i search kalista in the past week and no riot comments it just seams kalista will be ineffective after these changes and i really would like to know whats the direction with her
Actually, the increase to Kalista's Base Attackspeed does a lot towards making up for the changes to her Attackspeed growth and the item changes, as an increase in Base AS increases the effective value of all Attackspeed on her, and makes her truly value additional attackspeed itemization over all others.

Some other feedback we've gotten is that Runaan's with crit allows Kalista to naturally transition into a crit build if you so desire, which, while weaker on her than other marksman, is still not a "wasted" stat.

Finally we hope that taking some power out of her mad hops will allow us to create more interesting and powerful partner interactions in the future."

When asked about the removal of Tiamat's passive, Fearless noted:

"Quote:

Why remove the passive from Tiamat and only leave it on Hydras?
Tiamat was pretty hard to use as an actual component. It was just a mini hydra, not an actual component. This changes aims to make it possible to use as a component in the future, as well as make sense for Titanic (which was a pretty bad progression before)."

When asked why they changed kill bounties to award team gold instead of only for those participating, Riot Colin noted:

"We generally put global gold/effects on objectives that we want teams to focus on. The motivation is to make killing high value enemies more of a team objective."

As for why Phantom Dancer is disabled on live, Sotere noted:

"A really unexciting bug. In rare cases it negatively impacted performance."

Soraka & Grievous Wounds in 5.22

Meddler also briefly commented on Soraka's anticipated power level after the 5.22 changes to grievous wounds (self heals only now!) & reintroduction of Executioner's Calling

"Quote:

New grievous wounds only affects self healing not ally healing champs like soraka, sona, and can still do their thing
Yeah, suspect Soraka's going to end up stronger after this patch. The change also means that the GW removal on the ult's potentially unnecessary at this point, since the only thing meaningful it contributes now is that Soraka's ult always heals herself for its max value. Might strip it off at some point as a result if she's looking too strong."

He continued:

But isn't it a problem if her own sustain, from W passive, is reduce by GW as her heal cost is balanced arround her ability to sustain herself with some good Q.I kinda understand grevious wound for tanky sustain guy (play a lot of 3v3, sustain tank are near unkillable atm) but the fact she is heath cost/sustain champ who is not a tank can lead her to a really bad spot.So, as you are open to remove some of her power if she is strong, is the opposite true too? (W passive immune to GW?)
If Executioner's Calling shuts down too many characters we'll certainly look at nerfing it. Similarly if Soraka ends up too weak we'll look at ways to add power to her. That's extremely unlikely to be in the form of GW immunity though, that mechanic's an awkward band aid that was originally intended to just be a temporary measure on Wish."

Riot Games Engineering: LoL vs. real-time internet

Riot Games Engineering blog has also posted an new article on their work with the current internet architecture and what they are doing to maintain LoL's connection experience!

"Riot’s engineering blog offers an inside look at some of the tech powering League of Legends and its systems. In this post (the first in a new series), tech director Peyton Maynard-Koran explores some of the challenges Riot faces in maintaining a real-time online game with the internet’s current architecture, which wasn’t exactly built with games like League in mind. In a world where buffering simply isn’t an option and data bounces haphazardly from city to city, how do we go about giving players the best possible experience?

Check out the post here: Fixing the Internet for Real Time Applications: Part 1"

Caitlyn VO Fix in 5.23

For those who are quickly growing sick of Caitlyn's repeated use of the"BOOM, HEADSHOT!"line, CertainlyT has noted the bug will be fixed in 5.23!

"This is a bug caused my me and her sound designer not communicating closely enough. We'll have a fix for it in 5.23."

More deals coming soon

When asked if Riot will have any sort of Black Friday sale at the end of this month, WizardCrab noted:

"While we won't have anything ON Black Friday, you're gonna be getting more/better/cooler deals very soon, especially around the holidays this year. And you'll know what they are before December begins."

Whist on improving Hecarim tail animations & turn tech

With a new Hecarim skin up on the PBE, Riot Whist tweeted he's also fixed up Hecarim's tail animations a bit!

"Hecarim bros - I did a little overtime to improve his tail animations for all skins (minus arcade). Animates less like a wood plank now #PBE"