Surrender at 20

Red Post Collection: Battle for Baron Merch starting 11/22, Ask Riot, Solo/Duo live on OCE, Meddler on 6.24, & more!

This morning's red post collection includes a look at upcoming Battle for Baron merch that will hit the shop on November 22nd, Meddler on 6.24 and various champions, a new Ask Riot, Solo/Duo queue live on OCE, a VOD for the monthly Ghostcrawler Q&A, Ascension returning in the RGMQ Friday, and more!
Continue reading for more information!




Table of Contents


Battle for Baron - New Merch & Deals  coming 11/22 - 12/8!


The Riot Games merch store is launching the BATTLE FOR BARON promotion from November 22nd through December 8th, including new Blitzcrank, Lux, Poppy, and Dragon Trainer Tristana figures, six new shirt designs, and  exclusive Baron figure pre-order to unlock by completing an in-game quest.  There will also be discounts on shirt/figures, rotating deals, mystery plush discount, and more!

Here's a look at what the rest of the preview  landing page has to offer:
    
STACKS ON STACKS 
Stack savings on tees and Series 1 & 2 figures during the Battle for Baron. Buy any 1 tee or figure for $20, or buy 2 for $30. Deal lasts 11/22-12/8. 
Incoming 11/22
ROTATING DEAL BUFF 
From 11/22 to 12/8, new special deals on select items will spawn here every few days.
First deal spawns 11/22
SUMMON A FRIEND 
Summon a mystery plush ally for $15 chosen randomly from all of the available plush in the store. 
Incoming 11/22
THE BATTLE FOR BARON IS COMING... 
The ultimate battle begins -- kill Baron Nashor and unlock an exclusive pre-order for the Baron figure. Log in, activate the Ultimate Baron Merch Quest under your "Quests" section, and win 2 matchmade games where your team kills Baron. 
Once you've activated, you'll have until 12/8/16 to complete the quest and pre-order the Baron figure in the Ultimate Baron Merch Quest secret store. Price: $30. Estimated ship date: April 2017.

Quest begins 11/22"
Check back on November 22nd for more information!

Ask Riot: League on the Big Screen 

A new ASK RIOT is up, this time answering questions on a movie based on LoL, the preparation  that goes into Worlds, and colorblindness support.

"Welcome to Ask Riot! 
This week, let’s dive into a League movie, Worlds prep, and colorblind development. 
And heads-up: We’re taking next week off! See you again on December 1st. 
Will you ever make a League of Legends movie? Or maybe long cinematic episodes?

We dream of films set in League’s universe and seeing our favorite champions come to life in movie theaters, but the track record on video game movies is a humbling lesson. For the most part, they aren’t great. And while the geek in us would love to rush into moviemaking, it’s definitely not something we should rush into. 
That’s not to say that we aren’t exploring. Cinematic storytelling just requires different muscles than storytelling for games, so we’re working on building those muscles and learning as we go. We have a ton of talented folks actively experimenting with different storytelling formats, and it’s definitely a hope that someday we’ll see the fruits of that experimentation on the big screen (or the small screen, or wherever it makes the most sense). We’re also looking at ways to better share all of the stories we’ve already told and will continue to tell, like with the newly-launched Universe. 
What’s most important to us is that any extension of League into other mediums feels authentic to the source and respectful of the passion we all share for the game and its universe. It’s a big challenge, but we think we can get there if we invest the time in learning how to do it right. 
RYZE, Co-Founder, Riot Games 
How much time does it take to plan Worlds? How far in advance do preparations begin?

These are questions I get asked a lot, so thought it would be fun to provide a little more context into how we work in some of the world’s most famous arenas and plan our year’s biggest events. First off, planning for events covers multiple teams, hundreds of folks (within Riot and external partners) and begins in earnest about a year ahead. It wasn’t always this way. Each year we have managed to push our planning out further and grow to support these big team efforts better. The last time we were at the Staples Center in 2013, for example, we probably planned the event in under 6 months! 
There are multiple factors that go into narrowing down a venue, including tech capability, availability, location etc. Generally speaking, though, we want to be in great venues that will excite players and teams involved. This can present problems, however, because there tends to be an inverse relationship between the prestige of a venue and the amount of time we are given to load in and rehearse before that show time. This is because they have professional sports teams playing in them multiple times a week, so it’s not like we can say, “Hey, can we have the Lakers and Kings play away games for a week so we can have more time to set up our show?” Booking these venues also means committing to them between 12-18 months in advance and working with their in-house labor and equipment. 
In the case of this year’s Final at Staples, we had 30 hours from the first truck’s arrival to the Opening Ceremony. This only gave us two or three hours of rehearsal time before we had to take it live at 4pm! So with such a small margin of error and complicated effects and choreography, we needed to employ some extreme measures. 
Worlds 2016
If you watched, you hopefully saw the hanging scrim box that enclosed the basketball court. That was a special material that absorbs projected light while looking relatively invisible on camera. To simulate the effects, we worked with a partner to create a video animation that looked 3D from a specific camera location. To get confidence in how it would look and feel on camera, we built a 1/18 scale model at a shop in Burbank and simulated the camera moves of the real show. 
After multiple weeks of testing, we took the entire full scale setup to the Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, California to practice the complicated scrim setup, aligning of 80+ projectors, working on the choreography of the orchestra / Zedd’s arrival and the striking of that enormous 10’x10′ box in 3 minutes! With all that practiced, we were ready to take it back to Staples. 
We hope you all liked the final outcome but even with all that planning and practice, it was still really nerve-wracking and scary until we put it on for real. Without that degree of preparation, there would have been no way to pull it off. By the way, we’re well into planning for 2017 already, so the team keeps moving on. 
BI0MAJOR, Global Head of Esports Content  
What’s up with colorblindness support in League? Some players are having trouble seeing in-game abilities?

As it turns out, this is one of those things we have to solve on a case-by-case basis. 
“The most common types of colorblindness affects red/green perception by different amounts,” says Kam “boourns” Fung, an experience designer. “League’s colorblind mode is designed to improve the experience for red/green colorblind players. Rarer blue/yellow colorblindness should work well with our default color settings.” 
Sometimes we run into problems when using red to represent danger or enemy abilities—so we shift it to orange so it’s easier to differentiate from the green in the Summoner’s Rift. We can do this automatically with a little programmed flag on your video card, but sometimes artists have to make a special version of the asset for colorblind players when they need a higher quality color change. Many artists and visual designers at Riot use colorblindness simulation software to check their work. 
But, sometimes issues can slip through. If there are parts of the client or game that are causing you trouble because of your colorblindness, just tell us! File a player support ticket, or call us out on the boards or the League subreddit. We’ll do what we can to fix it. 
CACTOPUS, Senior Writer

Have a question? Head over to Ask Riot and sign into your League account. Check out the Dos and Don’ts, then ask away. 
We promise to read every question, but we can’t guarantee they’ll all get answers. Some questions may already be answered elsewhere, and some won’t be right for Ask Riot. This isn’t the best place to announce new features, for example, and we might skip conversations on issues we’ve talked about in depth before (though we can clarify individual points). 
We are listening, though, so keep asking. We’ll make sure your questions are heard by the Rioters working on the stuff you’re curious about."

Solo/Duo Queue Live on OCE!

In addition to the Flex queue that has been up all during pre-season, the Solo/Duo queue is now enabled on the OCEANIA server!

Here's Maraudaur on the OCE boards with more information:
"Yo! We've already pushed out Solo/Duo Queue to Garena regions and, as of today, we're releasing it in OCE as well. We’re being cautious with it because we want to make sure we don’t see the same launch issues as Flex. 
Good luck on the climb =D"
When asked about the plan for other regions, Riot Socrates noted:
"Solo/Duo won't be rolling out in other regions for a few days. Given the issues we saw with Flex we want to make sure everything is behaving correctly before releasing it everywhere."

Monthly Q&A with Ghostcrawler 

Riot Scarizard and Ghostcrawler returned to the LoL Twitch channel for the monthly Ghostcrawler Q&A, answering questions on 2017 season, various projects, balance, and more!


Meddler Grab Bag - On 6.24, Vayne, Azir, Kalista, & more

Next up we have a lengthy collection of posts from Meddler on 6.24, specific champion thoughts, and more!
When asked about a champions and plans for 6.23 PBE and the next patch 6.24, Meddler noted they are looking at things like Vayne, Syndra, masteries, and more:
"Patch 6.23 is locked for new changes at this point. A combination of non balance pre-season follow up, MMR issues making balance assessments trickier than usual and shifted patch dev cycles due to Thanksgiving means it's going to be a lighter patch than most balance wise. 
We are talking about whether we should make changes to Vayne in 6.24 (the patch we're working on now), given she does look pretty strong. Twitch isn't currently on our radar, though possible that could change. Other stuff we'll likely be looking at includes Courage of the Colossus, Fervor, overall increase in magic damage from Aegis removal, Syndra, Fiddlesticks and more."
As for Rylai's Crystal Scepter changes in 6.24, Meddler noted:
"Quote:
Rylais is probably also a topic, huh? 
Though it's probably weird to assess during an Assassin "meta" when the extra hp's so useful
Yep, almost certainly Rylai's in 6.24.
On masteries, Meddler commented:
"Quote:
What in particular do you think you're going to change about fervour and colossus?
Gut reaction is Courage is out of line in terms of both shield strength and CD, possible we just adjust one though. 
Less sure on Fervor, does look like it's underperforming relative to Warlord's though. First step's probably to determine if it's too weak or Warlord's too strong as a result."
When asked about the previously mentioned Azir buffs, Meddler noted:
"Quote:
What about our supreme emperor? Anything specific?
Trying to find some small love for him that helps out a little without recreating previous problems. Hopefully for 6.24 or 7.1. Tough to work on without making more fundamental changes."
Meddler continued:
"Quote:
how do you decide how much to buff azir in 6.24 while nerfing one of his core items at the same time? Just genuinely curious, I figured you decided on what numbers are right based partly on live statistics
Azir buffs, at least in 6.24 or 7.1, are likely to be quite small. Azir's proven quite difficult to balance so we're really cautious of overdoing it and a nerf to Rylai's will affect a range of other champions as well. Playing it safe like that could certainly leave Azir in too poor a state still, especially if Rylai's is dramatically more important to him than other champs. If so we'd consider a second set of buffs. 
Again, just to be clear on what we're thinking though, whatever we do for him's almost certainly small stuff, not major power impacting changes."

Meddler also mentioned Kalista buffs planned for next two patches or so:
"Quote:
Kalista?
Buffs targeted for 7.1, possible they end up in 6.24 if they go really smoothly."

When asked to elaborate on Vayne, Meddler shared:
"It currently looks like Vayne's one of, or the strongest, marksmen right now. That means she's worth looking at. Conclusion might be that we should buff weaker marksmen, adjust items or masteries, or that it's just meta that she's strong and that's appropriate. Looking at her in the first place seems pretty important though. 
As a heads up your capslock or shift key seems to be stuck. Makes your words appear angry and less coherent."
As for Twitch, Meddler noted:
"Quote:
why would twitch get nerfed?
Early play suggests he's really strong in the pre-season. Too early to say whether he needs changes though."
When asked specifically about Fiddlesticks, Meddler noted
"Jungle changes have probably hit him too hard - Dark Wind's good at camps of 2-3, much weaker against camps of 1 or 6."
As for thoughts on Ahri,  Meddler noted:
"Quote:
How's Ahri these days?
Quite strong in regular play. Some of that reflects that most mages have become significantly more effective after the Aegis change though and some of it's that a lot of people are still learning the assassin changes so mages often get easy match ups mid right now. Would want to address class as a whole issues/let the meta settle before considering balance changes for most mages as a result. Some outliers we'll touch in the meantime though (e.g. Syndra)"
And on Jayce, Meddler commented:
"Quote:
what about Jayce? He's been out of line statistically for a few patches now
Current thinking is worth watching, but doesn't seem so out of line as to be a priority versus other work. Main thing that's changed with him is a popularity spike based off World's play."
When asked about thoughts on current state of Kindred, Meddler noted:
"Quote:
any thought about Kindred ? (thank's in advance)
Right ballpark power wise. Power drops off too hard over the course of the game though which classes with intended jungle carry playstyle. Might be appropriate to shift power later as a result (get them onto more multiplicative builds with Crit perhaps as another scalar?). 
Edit: Actually, arguably on the soft side in terms of power. Another possible argument for Fervor being undertuned versus Warlords."
Meddler continued, noting no plans for Twisted Fate or Kennen:

"Quote: 
Hey, I was just wondering if any changes were going to be made on Twisted Fate or Kennen? Thanks.
Nothing planned for either in the short term at least."
When asked about Garen, Meddler reminded the previously seen Garen E shredding armor is still testing:
"Quote:
How about Garen? I'm itching for more news.
Potential E armor shred mechanic added in 6.24, still going through testing though."
Meddler continued:
"Quote:
Do you think this will create a bit of an abuse case in his extra synergy with black cleaver, since both will stack to more than what Darius gets for himself where Garen gives it to his whole team, or is that intended to be a new potential niche for him?
That's a niche we're exploring deliberately - seeing whether there's some good distinction in Garen being a juggernaut you bring if you've got heavy physical damage elsewhere on the team you want to amp."

RGMQ - Ascension on Friday + Updated Schedule

Ascension returns this FRIDAY in the rotating game mode queue!

Here's the updated RGMQ schedule - Nexus Siege has been added from December 9th through 12th!
As always, we keep the RGMQ schedule up to date on S@20's right sidebar! 

Reddit League Client Update AMA

With the LCU moving into open beta, the team behind the League Client Update jumped on reddit to host an AMA!  Here's The Cactopus with an introduction:
"Hello challenger players, Singed support mains, and Solo Queue doubters! 
We're the League Client Update dev team and we're here to take your questions. We know you got 'em, because we just launched the client update open beta. 
Rioters joining in the AMA today include: 
/u/riotninjatabby | /u/cCcGrumblescCc | /u/RiotMiniWhiteRabbit | /u/TheYoungD | 
 /u/RiotCredo | /u/elchupaacabra | /u/some__other__guy [+1] | /u/CodeofBear | 
 /u/The_Cactopus | /u/Venia | /u/DontHassleDaHoff | /u/RiotBogden | /u/RiotHark | 
and /u/RiotZwill 
Before posting your questions, here's a quick primer on the client update: 
1) We know the beta client is still missing some features from the legacy client. We'll be adding in these features throughout open beta. This includes things like: 
  • Bots in custom games
  • Account transfers and summoner name changes
  • Gifting - including End-of-game gifting
  • Battle boosts in ARAM
  • Spectate friends (and spectating custom games)
  • Searching for and joining open custom games
  • Ward skins in your Collection
  • The "recently played" menu in lobby
  • The rotating game mode queue 
2) There are also a ton of known issues that we're currently working to solve. This includes stuff like: 
  • Sound issues (need for more and better settings) in champ select
  • Launch problems when using old client desktop shortcuts
  • Laggy input problems with champ select and masteries
  • Various other performance issues, particularly on lower-end machines (but not necessarily limited to those) 
We're keeping track of known issues here. 
3) If you're having serious technical issues with the client, be sure to report them using the cute little bug button in the bottom-right corner! If bugs are preventing you from enjoying the game experience, know that you still have access to your legacy client. Just click "Launch legacy client" before logging into the beta client. We'll also make it easier for players who've upgraded to directly launch the legacy client in patch 6.23. 
4) And finally, if it's a new feature (that wasn't in the legacy client), odds are good we don't have plans to work on it until Open Beta is done. This applies to requests like a "skins collection tab." We're primarily concerned with getting in all of our existing features and making sure they run smoothly for everyone. 
To see other frequently asked questions, check out this page. 
Let's do this thing."
For more on the League Client Update Open Beta, check out this FAQ.

[For now, check out the reddit thread for more info, including questions on upcoming features, context on changes, support, and more. I'll include a wrap up in a future red post collection.]

Quick Hits - Winter SR in 6.24, /remake in ARAM, & more

[Quick hits is our own mini news collection inside a red post collection, often including shorter or easy to digest stories and repeat information you may have missed in other posts! ]




  • When asked about adding the /remake option to the ARAM queue, Riot NeuroCat explained the concern around abuse to dodge unwanted comps.
    "Hey - this will probably get buried since I'm late responding to the thread, but might as well. We'd love to activate remakes on ARAM to help combat early AFKing, but without any ARAM-specific changes, there are some issues. Our primary concern being with the potential use of /remake as a "secondary dodge". In other words, once players are able to view both team comps, there's an opportunity to abuse /remake to end the game early (with little penalty) if a player deems the match not worth playing. We'd rather take the time to find a solution that won't introduce more issues."

REMINDERS

To round out tonight's red post collection, here are a few reminders on current promotions or limited time events!
  • [ESPORTS] IEM Oakland starts this weekend! November 19 - 20  will features teams such as Flash Wolves (LMS), Unicorns of Love (EULCS), INTZ (CBLoL), Chiefs (OPL), TSM (NA LCS), Longzhu Gaming (LCK) - competing for their share of the $100,000 prize pool!Check out [Countdown to IEM Oakland] for more information.

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