Red Post Collection: Bard's Big Birthday Datapalooza, Hextech Crafting Releases later this week, Updated on New Champion Select, Mecha Zero Sion Teaser, and more!

Posted on at 2:48 AM by Moobeat
[UPDATE #2: Socrates has posted a lengthy update regarding new champion select and solo queue & Teaser for Mecha Zero Sion circulating on Riot's Social media! Both added to post!]

Tonight's red post collection includes Socrates with an update on the new champion select, a teaser for Mecha Zero Sion, Clairvoyance Blog looking at Bard Data for his first birthday, Mirross with another comment that Hextech Crafting is planned to launch on EU & other servers later this week, ZenonTheStoic on Samuel and his wish to Design a Champion, and more!
Continue reading for more information!



Table of Contents


New Champion Select Update 

Here's Socrates with an important update on the new Champion Select, as well as several comments on the previously mentioned pure solo queue:
"Hey all, 
It’s been two months since we launched the new champ select and dynamic queue. The team has been heads-down addressing issues and we realized it’s past time to update where we are and where we still need to go. 
The number of people playing in premades is the highest we’ve seen in League’s history and 98.6% of the time, premades of 4 or 5 teammates are being matched against a premade of the same size (most of the 1.4% with more divergent premade sizes come from very high and very low MMR ranges). Teams made of solos and duos are matched against a premade 4 or premade 5 only 0.21% of the time, and players queueing solo get teamed up with 4 man premades 3% of the time. 
Match quality (defined by the average MMR difference between players on one team vs. the opposing team) has improved slightly, giving us closer, fairer games across all tiers of ranked play. 
With the introduction of new champ select and dynamic queue to ranked, as players get the roles they want (with some exceptions we’ll talk about below), we’ve seen the frequency at which ranked players encounter language serious enough to result in a chat restriction has dropped by nearly 40%. 
Overall, we interpret these numbers to suggest a higher (and more positive) degree of engagement with dynamic queue, but we still have a lot of work to do on a number of fronts. 
At the launch of new champion select, dodge rates almost doubled from the old queue because of the new lock-in requirement. We’ve added new sounds and made a few other usability improvements to help correct this. We’re also still pursuing a tricky bug that makes the client not pop to front when it’s your turn as well. The dodge rate is now slightly lower than the previous champ select (even when we include players who dodge by failing to lock in), but there’s still room for improvement. 
There are some remaining critical issues with matchmaking. High-skill players above Diamond tier have seen unacceptable queue times lasting as long as an hour. We launched a high-MMR queue time update on March 4. As a result, average queue times for most high MMR players are down to 5 minutes, but some at the highest levels still have much longer waits. That’s still not good enough and fixing it is one of our highest priorities. 
When we first launched new champion select, players were getting their primary role about 70% of the time. As selection behavior changed, this number dropped. We expected players would try and game the system, but we may have underestimated the impact on matchmaking, and there are some particularly bad position combos that result in getting secondary position too frequently. Improving and properly calibrating role selection is also high priority for us. 
We’ve also been working to fix a lot of critical issues while adding some much needed functionality, such as being able to open your champion grid at any time and not revealing pick intent to opponents when it’s your turn. 
A few days after we launched dynamic queue we said we would re-release solo queue within weeks, which we haven’t. The main reason is we've prioritized improving matchmaking and position select first and foremost. It's also clear we underestimated the amount of iterative work necessary to bring dynamic queue up to our standards, and we should have communicated that earlier. That said, as we continue our work, we're concerned about the impact solo queue will have on matchmaking as a whole, and we’re assessing how to best proceed. Once we've fixed match times and position selection, we’ll have a better update on other queues. 
Until then, thanks for helping make the new queue and the new season start off so successfully! GLHF, and we’ll see you on the Rift. 
Riot Socrates"
On the new solo queue specifically, Socrates noted:
"Hey guys, we know there are a lot of players who are really passionate about solo queue. We're not trying to be dishonest or dodge this topic. Radio silence on this the past couple months has been painful, we know. We hoped to come out with a direct answer to this, but working through the problems players are facing on live now (consistency around position select, queue times and matchmaking for high MMR) is taking longer than we initially expected. We did a bad job at managing expectations around this and deserve the heat we're getting around that. 
That being said, solo queue does not directly address either of these problems and could suffer from the exact same problems. We'll be honest: there's definitely a world in which solo queue doesn't return, but we'd rather keep it on the table as we work through these issues before making a final decision."
On reddit, Socrates added:
"The solo queue tl;dr is: We've identified some issues with implementing solo queue, specifically around matchmaking quality and health. We're assessing how to best proceed based on this."

On the removal of ranked 5s, Mirross commented:
"Quote:
I just want some way to play ranked with friends ( I have friends from diamond to silver ) now that 5's is dead ..
We don't let you play competitively with those friends now, and that's missing from the game. When we launched Dynamic, it was very close to Teams - most Teams weren't hampered by the restriction, so would migrate to dynamic, and Teams was going to be a really low population queue with bad matchmaking. 
That said, doing Teams better is something we're brainstorming around now. We think that persistent team play is a great experience and when we fix the problems we've talked about elsewhere in this thread it's an area we're planning to focus on."

Riot Socrates also replied to a comment on the removal of team builder:
"Quote:
I still miss Team Builder, but I have to admit that this champ select has been really good.
Team builder does fill a niche that isn't totally satisfied by the new champ select. The trade is it does have much healthier match quality and queue times. We are exploring a few options to improve primary vs. secondary position frequencies atm to help smooth out this part of the experience but it's a ways out."

As for the problem of "Fill" having an extremely high chance of support, Mirross commented:
"Quote:
So nothing about "Fill" being basically support now?
This is a big problem. That (position selection) and high MMR matchmaking are our two highest priorities."
Mirross continued:
"Quote:
This is really barebones information on a topic that players are very interested in. How popular are the individual roles in champ select and how does that popularity affect queue times? How often does "fill" end up each individual role? Does primary vs. secondary role actually do anything? I understand that if you select Mid/Support you will still get Support more than half the time because of the popularity disparity, but how much of a difference does it make compared to how often Support/Mid would receive Mid?
We do care about primary vs secondary. For actual numbers - it's changing, almost weekly. It's gone from where we were happy with it at launch to where if you put Fill or Support as one of your options... you get Support most of the time."
Riot Socrates added:
"Quote:
At times it seems like there is no priority for primary role whatsoever.
It's at the point that I NEVER get Primary role if I select support secondary.
Even as a support main I get tired of it eventually and stop putting support anywhere. This forces me to select a third role to play. 
A lot of non Support mains might play Support occationally, but if they are guaranteed to get Support if they select it, they will decide against it.
If the only options are "Yes" or "No" a lot of people prefer to pick "No" even though they would pick "Maybe" if it were available. 
This only ascerbates the situation, because the more people stop putting support secondary the worse the situation gets for the remaining ones.
I want to play Support/Jungle, which worked for the first weeks, but then I had to start selecting Jungle/Support if I wanted any Jungle at all. Now I have to conciously decide not to play Support this game and go Jungle/Top instead, which only means I get to play a lot more Top than I actually want.
We agree that position matchmaking is a little too loose atm. It uses a fairly naive algorithm resulting in players getting their secondary too frequently in a few cases. We are targeting this for improvement, no ETA to share yet though.
When asked about the requirement to always lockin, Mirross commented:
"Quote:
Why on earth do we still have to lock in.
Yes this. We're at a point where dodge rates are lower than they were previously, so a lot of the pain is going down now. We can get overall champ selects down lower and waste less time with lock ins."

Mecha Zero Sion Teaser on LoL Social Media

[UPDATE: Mecha Zero Sion now on the PBE!]

Following the REACTIVATING... teaser, several of League of Legend's social media accounts have posted a video of Mecha Zero Sion's  R !

Posted by League of Legends - France on Tuesday, March 22, 2016



Check these Social Media Links for the full teaser: TWITTER // FACEBOOK. 

CLAIRVOYANCE BLOG: Bard's Big Birthday Datapalooza 

To celebrate Bard's first birthday in March,  here's Riot Blaustoise with a CLAIRVOYANCE BLOG entry on Bard related data!


A BOY AND HIS BARD
Bard’s one-year birthday is this March. As a Bard main who has spent over 400 games ignoring my lane partners’ screams while I wander off, I felt like I owed the old chimer something for all the journeys we've taken together. But despite the countless jungle runs and Meeps slung, Bard remains something of an enigma to me. Who is he really, and how does he fit in amongst the other support champs in League? Perhaps, I thought, I could dig into some data for some insights that could help me better understand the Cosmic Vagabond. 


COSMIC CARETAKER 
The first thing I wanted to investigate was his identity as a Caretaker. The easiest way to frame this investigation was a simple comparison of healing vs. damage-dealing: Caretaker’s Shrines vs. Cosmic Binds. I needed to place Bard’s healing/damage output in the context of other support champions, so I created the Banana-Burn Index (BBI).

Methodology 
The BBI is a measure of the difference between a support champion’s healing and damage. The shorthand is on a scale of Soraka to Brand, are you slinging bananas or delivering burns? The BBI is calculated by taking the absolute value of a support's damage to enemy champions and subtracting the average healing of allied champions (including the support himself/herself).
On the right side we have champs like Brand, who’s known for tilting his lane partner by stealing kills with tons of damage. On the left we have Soraka, who enrages the entire enemy team with last minute heals on her carries. While it's not the perfect metric for caretaking (utility, CC, and other impactful abilities are not included), the BBI gives us at least a snapshot of a support’s primary output. 
THE BANANA-BURN INDEX

    If we think of a “caretaker” as someone who heals others, Bard is outclassed by Soraka, Taric, and Nami. But Bard is a cosmic caretaker, so perhaps tinkering with the plates of time and space requires a balance of healing and damage. He ranks 9th of 25 in healing, 10th in damage, putting him right in the middle of the BBI. From this perspective, Bard curates whatever output is necessary for the situation. 
    This analysis supports the notion of Bard as a Cosmic Caretaker who doesn’t just save things but also destroys things (like my team’s faith in my ability to land ults). Sometimes champions need a loving shrine, and sometimes they need a reproaching bind.
    WONDERING ABOUT WANDERING
    Bard’s lore tells us that he “travels through realms beyond the imagination of mortal beings,” and in-game he’s described as the “roaming support." Both his passive (Traveler’s Call) and his E (Magical Journey) incentivize quick movement across the map. But does Bard’s lore and kit manifest in-game as a roaming support? More specifically how much does Bard roam compared to other support champions?

    Methodology 
    We need to know the area that a support champion typically covers in laning phase on Summoner’s Rift. To test this I created Rovals, or Roaming Ovals. Rovals represent the average area that a champion moves around in during laning phase. The bigger the Roval, the more likely that champion is roaming out of lane more.
    The Roval is created by:
    1. Knowing this average laning position of a given champion. This is the average of the X and Y positions for a champion during laning phase.
    2. Finding the average x and y distances. These are the average amount of movement on the X and Y axis from the average laning position.
    3. Calculating an area with the average X and Y differences as the height and width of an oval.

    ROVAL AREAS BY SUPPORT TYPES
    BY UNITS SQUARED


    Babysitters are your typical botlane hand-holders. Champions like Soraka, Janna, and Sona have the smallest Rovals as their strength comes from empowering another champion close by with healing, shields, and speed boosts. 
    Caretakers like Lulu and Morgana have similar support abilities but likely roam a bit more because of CC or buffing abilities that enables them to make safe invades with their junglers. 
    Playmakers like Blitzcrank and Thresh have larger Rovals as successfully landing hooks and other hard CC in midlane or the enemy jungle means a surprise kill or two for their team. 
    And then there's Bard. Bard not only has the largest Roval, but compared to Shen, the 2nd “roamiest” support, Bard’s Roval is 400,000 units2 larger despite Shen’s global ultimate that can teleport him to top lane. 
    Another interesting insight about Bard’s roaming is that if we map out the X-Y positions for Bard, he notably spends more time in the jungle and is the only support champion who consistently appears inside walls on Summoner’s Rift. Take a look at Bard’s positioning compared to the least roamy support (Soraka) and a classic playmaking support (Thresh): 
    Bard, Soraka, Thresh
     Red side X-Y positions; minute 01:00 to 12:00
    "During a playtest one of the designers screamed out 'GET IN MY MAGICAL JOURNEY!' And that was it! "
    Loping Cinder, Narrative Designer  
    Q THAT QUINN 
    I still didn’t fully understand Bard. Analytics had only helped me scratch the surface of the Wandering Caretaker, so I decided to take a different approach. Instead of outputs and coordinate positions, I investigated a unique Bard story—a one-in-a-million play that captures the quirkiness and bewilderment that Bard always brings. In the clip below, Bard attempts to catch a fed Quinn on the opposing team with an ultimate. She flashes to avoid it. The story could have ended there, but Bard did Bard things.

    Bard launched a Cosmic Binding (Q) through the minion line caught in the Tempered Fate (R). The binding made it through the entire minion line except for the last caster minion before the Tempered Fate expired. The binding caught the now-targetable minion at the end of the line, activating the secondary range of the Cosmic Binding which snagged the seemingly safe Quinn. With Quinn stunned, the Gangplank on Bard’s team flashed in to finish her off with his own Q. 
    This play is impressive, but it's even better when you analyze the underlying mechanics. So I decided to calculate a single component of this play: the time period that Bard player had to cast the Cosmic Binding to pull off the play. 
    The equation is relatively simple. If we know the distance between two caster minions in a lane and the velocity of a Cosmic Binding, we can calculate the time window that the binding could have spent in that space. We have to first figure out distance d and velocity v and then calculate for time t.

    Minion Distance  
    The distance between minions is not actually hard coded in. Rather, they have a spawn time delay which results in a relatively constant distance between the minions in a wave. Using this time delay in addition to a minion’s base speed we can calculate the distance between them. It’s another simple equation involving distance, time, and velocity, but this time we’re solving for the distance between minions, or d minion (never forget).

    Total Distance 
    The total distance for our final equation is actually slightly more than the distance between minions in a line. It also includes the diameter of one caster minion (the minion hit by the Cosmic Binding at the end of the line). Adding the diameter of a minion and the distance between minions gives us our total distance.
    Cosmic Velocity 
    The velocity of a Cosmic Binding is set at 1,500 units/second until I can convince the Live Balance team to increase it to 1,738 units/second. #RemiBardz.

    Tempered Time 
    So with d total (356 units) and v cosmic binding (1,500 units/s) we can calculate for t—the final time window: 
    0.237 seconds or 237 milliseconds—that doesn’t leave Bard a lot wiggle room. But PGM Vondalv, the Spanish Bard player behind the Cosmic Bind, knew what he was doing. “The play was intuition," he said in an interview with me. "I knew it was possible, and all good Bards know the timing of his ult and that you should throw a Q through it.”  
    TEMPERING FATE 
    When you talk to Bard's creators about his identity in League, a recurring theme emerges. “Bard is a folklore champion.” His existence is a result of designers, artists, fans, and players projecting bits of personality and character onto an enigmatic slate. Both his cosmic and sometimes comic nature are created and expanded upon by players experiencing Bard and sharing stories like Vondalv's insane play. 
    All of this analysis has helped us grasp some elements of Bard's place in League, but it's ultimately limited in power. Maybe understanding Bard isn’t about pulling large data sets, analyzing his movement, his output, and the numerical sum of his impact in games. To understand Bard is to experience him, to be a part of the goofy fan art, dank memes, and game-winning (or losing) plays. So with that I encourage any player who hasn’t heard those cosmic chimes firsthand to experience the Wandering Caretaker and give Bard a play. You never know what magical journeys he’ll take you on. "
    "To understand Bard is to experience him."
    Riot Blaustoise, Bard Lover
    Over on reddit, he continued:
    "Since I've had a few requests on the actual forums and I see a couple popping up here... here's the full data breakdown. Also I included an imgur album with some additional heatmaps for Bard, Soraka, and Thresh
    ROVALS 
    Playmakers: Shen, Blitzcrank, Trundle, Poppy, Brand, Annie, Thresh, Alistar 
    Caretakers: Karma, Nautilus, Zyra, Lux, Zilean, Leona, Morgana, Lulu 
    Babysitters: Malphite (lol), Braum, Tahm Kench, Sona, Nami, Janna, Taric, Soraka 
    BANAN BURN INDEX (BBI) 
    Damage > Healing: Brand, Zyra, Lux, Annie, Karma, Morgana, Malphite, Zilean, Poppy, Lulu, Blitzcrank, Nautilus, Bard, Thresh, Leona, Shen, Braum, Sona, Tahm Kench 
    Healing > Damage: Soraka, Taric, Trundle (dat passive), Alistar, Nami, Janna"

    Other Clairvoyance blogs can be found here:

    Samuel's wish to Design a Champion

    Earlier today John "TotalBiscuit" Bain tweeted out  that he was able to transfer his Design-a-champion (a reward earned by him years ago as a part of the old refer a friend system)  to Samuel, a 17-year old with cystic fibrosis with a wish to visit Riot Games:
    "The saga of the Design-a-Champion reward comes to a happy conclusion - http://akwa.wish.org/wishes/wish-stories/wish-to-go/sam-riotgames …"
    During his visit, Samuel worked with Rioters to design a space bounty hunter champion named Kadarin! The full story on Samuel can be found here via wish.org's article! 

    Daniel "ZenonTheStoic" Klein, designer for Azir, Lucian, and Tahm Kench, jumped on reddit to elaborate on Samuel's visit to Riot Games and set expectations on his champion Kadarin!
    "Hi friends! I was the champion designer who worked with Sam on Kadarin, joined by a small group of QA specialists, 3D artists, animators, concept artists, and writers. We knocked out a pretty cool prototype over the 3 days we had. It was so much fun working with Sam and his dad (who was super involved in ideation) to bring their idea to life!
    However, I should set some context here. Prototypes like Kadarin are made very often, and very few of them ever see the light of day as an actual champion. Rather we pick out bits and pieces we liked that seemed to work and apply these learnings to new champions. So while we made a really cool, fun prototype that Sam got to play against our playtesting team, there really isn't a direct path forward that would guarantee Kadarin will join the league. 
    For those of you wondering: Kadarin was a marksman with a heat system. He could vent heat by attacking, and if he overheated he slowed himself by some ungodly amount but also got a ton of AS to help vent heat. His background was that he was a Noxian gladiator who was denied the honour of a good death in the arena by Draven, who crippled him instead. Kadarin dragged himself over to Zaun, where they rebuilt him into a special life support suit. 
    We learnt a lot of cool fun things about designing ADCs, particularly mana-less ADCs. I personally also learnt something super valuable about a skill I'd been trying to make for years (skillshot that tags an enemy champion; after 1s of priming the tag is armed and you can consume the tag and stun the enemy by touching them). Unfortunately a lot of these learnings were in the vain of "here's why this doesn't work" or "this type of spell probably shouldn't live on a marksman". 
    That said, I just this week pitched one of Kadarin's abilities for an in-development champion. We'll see what happens! 
    Thanks again to Sam and his family for coming out and working with us. We had a blast, and speaking for myself, it felt great to be able to make a playable champion prototype in 3 days. 
    TL;DR: This was a very cool and fun project that taught us a bunch of things, but it's unlikely you'll ever see Kadarin as a full package." 
    ZenonTheStoic continued:
    "Quote:
    So did his make a wish even work. It is sad to think his champ will not be made. Even if it takes a year to make.
    I'd like to think that the wish was more about coming here and working with us, seeing a champ go from concept to prototype. We set this context with him and his parents on day 1: there's no guarantee this champ will be released, and most of our prototypes as a matter of fact aren't released. I'm pretty sure Sam understood this going in."

    When asked if they'd ever show some of these prototype kits they've put together over the years, ZenonTheStoic noted:
    "Quote:
    I wonder if you guys will ever release the graveyard of prototype champions
    That would take a lot of effort (prototypes go stale and break very quickly as the game changes) for very little benefit I feel. I'd much rather you all benefit from the polished finished champions who have much better kits because of all the prototyping we do."
    He continued:
    "Yeah, I get that now. See, I still don't think that's a great idea. Whenever the conversation merits it it's cool for people who've played a prototype to bring up a certain thing ("Oh echo slam? Yeah we totally tried that once. People died, man."), but presenting these prototypes outside of context would be misleading at best and highly frustrating at worst ("I want this thing! WHY YOU NO GIEF ME THIS THING! RITO PLOX!") 
    It's also nowhere near as neat and clean as you seem to think. A prototype is a heaving, shifting, constantly mutating mass of half-implemented spells ("the E has no sounds and err pretend you don't see the Khazix isolation particles in fog of war"). There's a few that were VERY cool and show-offable (that's a word, right), but even then, minds would melt and people would be mad with us. Let me demonstrate: 
    While experimenting with prototypes for an Urgot rework (currently iceboxed until we return full force with artists and writers to help out the designer) we had a Jayce-gate type ability that, instead of speeding up allies, MULTIPLIEDallied missiles that passed through it (and slightly adjusted their angles so they didn't hit the same thing). So shoot one Ashe ult through it, get three coming out of it like a volley. 
    It was ABSURD. I mean, beyond broken levels of absurd. Was it cool? Fuck yeah! Was it even remotely, theoretically balanceable and scriptable in a sustainable manner going forward? Fuck no. It broke EVERYTHING. 
    And yet I guarantee you people will be mad at us now for never giving them Urgot's Magical Missile Splitter, and when we do get around to Urgot's update, people will be mad it doesn't include that ability (sorry champion update team! I owe you a beverage of your choice). 
    The only way this could be done I think would be with a TON of context and focusing on just a few examples, including what learnings we took away from them. Sounds like a long and complicated dev blog someone should write! (NOT IT)"

    Hextech Crafting to launch in EU & Other Regions later this week

    In a reddit thread inquiring about the release status of Hextech Crafting for EU, Mirross noted they are still looking to release it later this week after 6.6 goes to live: 
    "We're planning to go this week, hopefully a day or so after this week's patch."
    He continued, noting that this should be for all servers who do not have crafting at the moment:
    "Hopefully all regions, except Korea where we have some additional requirements"

    As for why they chose to do staggered releases for Hextech release, Chager shared:
    "We've been evaluating loot in TR and more recently NA to make sure everything is working correctly and there are no major issues before rolling Hextech crafting out to the other Riot Regions. (We were able to catch a few bugs on NA that we just got fixed that were some major headaches we want other regions to avoid) 
    It's a large system that connects to a lot of other parts within League, and we want to make sure we push it out responsibly. We do have plans to roll out soon (TM). 
    -Chager"
    As for how useless the champion shards from crafting are for players who own all champions, Wingfield reminded they are looking to add additional uses for them in the future:
    "TheNarnold, 
    Totally agree that the experience is sub-optimal for players with all champions. We've got a solution in the works. We're currently trying to get loot out to the other regions and then will be working on this issue."
    Speaking of chests and mastery, Mirross also commented spamming wards at fountain will not increase your score.
    "Quote:
    As soon as the game ends you recall, buy sightstone and spam wards @ fountain.
    Easy S rank every game.
    Can confirm that this doesn't improve your grade.
    That would be very silly."

    As for Key Drops, Wingfield noted:
    "Hey all, 
    Just want to help clarify some things about key drop rates: 
    Key drop rates are NOT linear and only wins have a chance of dropping a key. So you will earn key fragments much faster in your earlier wins than you will in your later wins. Or said another way, each incremental key fragment drop is harder than the last (on average... there is variance). This resets on a monthly basis for each player individually. 
    The goal is to create a nice ebb and flow. 
    Grade does NOT impact key drop chance. 
    Premades DO increase drop chance. 
    Chests earned has no impact on key drop chance. 
    There is variance and randomness (with limits). It's unlikely that what happened to your friend will happen to you. 
    Hope that helps clarify :)"
    For more on Hextech Crafting, check out Riot Support's Hextech Crafting guide!

    Meddler on Marksmen Strong and Weak Points

    In a boards thread asking to outline the general strong and weak points of marksmen are intended to be, Meddler chimed in with a draft from an upcoming dev blog on different classes & sub classes:
    "Good question. Copy/paste from a draft of an upcoming devblog on different classes/subclasses below. Note that this is work in progress, so it's a bit rough still. Also worth noting that every champion will break the rules of their class in at least one way. With marksmen there's a moderate sized group for example that give up tactical mobility in exchange for other non standard strengths (CC for Ashe, Wombo Combo potential for MF, poke for Varus etc). Additionally strengths/weaknesses are described relative to other similar classes, slow marksmen have limited burst relative to other damage dealers for example, not limited burst relative to protective supports or defensive tanks. 
    "Marksman 
    Strengths or unique properties 
    • Reliable ranged sustained damage (most stable among Carries)
    • Primary objective destroyers (turrets)
    • Tactical mobility (reposition / kiting)
    • Late game carry curve (multiplicative)   
    Weaknesses 
    • Extremely squishy
    • Limited burst damage
    • Limited on-demand offensive (AoE?) CC
    • Highly basic attack dependent (constantly skirt the edge of danger to deal damage) 
    Cornerstone champions 
    Vayne
    Caitlyn 
    Other champions 
    Ashe
    Corki
    Draven
    Ezreal
    Graves (hybrid Slayer?)
    Jhin
    Jinx
    Kalista
    Kindred
    Kog’Maw (non AP Kog)
    Lucian
    Miss Fortune
    Quinn
    Sivir
    Tristana
    Twitch
    Varus (hybrid Artillery?)
    Vayne"
    When asked about the name "slayer", Meddler continued:
    "Yeah, that's a class we're having some trouble finding a clear, good name for, Slayer's not necessarily final (as above, this is a draft). It refers to the group we've previously talked about as light fighters (Yasuo, Yi, Trynd etc) with whom Graves shares some characteristics."
    He continued:
    "Skirmisher's another we've been throwing around. It's not quite right either, better fitting more pokey/harass based champs like Teemo or Nidalee than this class of champ that when they go in tend to go in really hard. Can see the argument for it though."

    When asked what "cornerstones" mean on the list, Meddler commented:
    "Cornerstone means that they're the best average representatives of the class. They'll both still have some strengths and weaknesses that fall outside the standard definition though of course. 
    As far as subclasses go we decided our analysis of Marksmen wouldn't benefit from being split into subclasses. We did look at whether caster marksmen were a distinct separate group, but concluded it was more a spectrum than a clear division. Individual marksmen will certainly have some strong off class abilities, Twitch as assassin like being one of the clearest, we do think marksman's a useful umbrella term for him still though."

    When asked where Mordekaiser fits into all this, Meddler noted:
    "Morde's rework was designed to see if we could make him a farming duo laner, not a marksman. Almost all farming duo laners are marksman at present in level 30 games, we'd like to find ways to make that not as universal though and Morde was an attempt to broaden that space."
    He continued, noting Azir had a similar role during development:
    "We did try Azir as a bot laner for a while during development, we weren't successful in pulling it off though. We've tried the same thing with a couple of other mages, sustained damage dealers like Cass in particular. Conclusion we came to was that we'll need to make a number of broader changes to things like items, mage ability to take objectives etc before we can get those characters into botlane in a healthy and functional way (Morde being an example of what happens if you try to accomplish it solely on the kit, ends up feeling too forced)."

    PBE League Client Update pre-Alpha Tech Test ending 3/22 

    CapnBranFlakes has updated the LCU PBE thread to note that the pre-alpha tech test will be ending the morning of Tuesday March 22nd!
    "====UPDATE: 21 March 2016==== 
    Heads up! The temporary client tech test will be ENDING tomorrow morning, Tuesday March 22nd. If there are any bugs you have not yet submitted, please do so ASAP! 
    Thank you to everyone who helped out with the test and reported bugs! We got plenty of useful data that will help us as we get closer to the client update alpha. We're not ready to start the alpha yet, but we'll be back with more info on that within the next few months."

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