Red Post Collection: Update on Preseason Ranked, LCU Open Beta Info, 2016 All-Stars, Meddler Grab Bag, & more

Posted on at 3:58 AM by Moobeat
[UPDATE: Added in a Q&A on LCU's replays and a heads up on the LCU Q&A on 11/17!]

This morning's red post collection includes Socrates with an update on preseason ranked MMR issues, the start of the  LCU Open Beta, Meddler with context on Shyvana PBE changes and more,  info on the 2016 All-Star teams, a reminder IEM Oakland starts this weekend, a new community spotlight comic, and more!
Continue reading for more information!



Table of Contents


Update on Preseason Ranked 

Riot Socrates has posted an update regarding the recent Flex Queue MMR issues, detailing the fix that went out following the Monday's brief server downtime and explaining the problem:
"It’s been a fast-moving week of launches, placements, fixes, and re-launches, so we wanted to take a sec and update you on what’s been going down. 
First, sorry for the really weird week of Ranked. We knew something was up with Ranked Flex when we saw Diamonds landing in Bronze and Silvers in Plat, though it took us a few days to sort exactly what. We’re more confident in matchmaking quality after Monday’s downtime, but there’s still some loose ends that need to be tied off. 
TL;DR: Because we crossed some wires with matchmaking (seriously, Diamonds in Bronze!), your placement was probably inaccurate and match quality wasn’t very good. We’ve rolled everyone’s MMR back to its last-known accurate state (the start of preseason), and anyone who has completed placements will need to play one more game to get re-placed. 
To clarify, this is not a do-or-die placement match. It’s basically just fetching you a ranking based on your updated, not-wrong MMR. Whether this placement is higher or lower, it should be a more accurate reflection of where you’ll start your 2017 climb. 
Your win/loss record remains intact, and will still factor into how you climb during preseason. 
There’s one outstanding bug where if you’ve never played a ranked game of any kind on an account before, there’s a chance that you will be seeded at Bronze V no matter how your placements go. This is being fixed in 6.23, and is unlikely to affect many people, but just wanted to give you a heads up. 
We’re gonna see some bumpiness as if this was the first day of preseason, but if matchmaking feels totally amiss after that, let us know -- we’ll be keeping a close eye on things. As a reminder, there will be a (much) softer reset and new placements at the beginning of the season in December. 
For the curious, here’s a timeline of exactly what happened: 
November 8: Ranked Flex launches globally 
November 10: A number of issues crop up: 
- Some players’ MMR is (obviously incorrectly) set to literally zero, meaning that matchmaking has no hope of accurately making matches for them and their placement was guaranteed to be Bronze V
- Some high-skill players lost a lot of MMR, further disrupting matchmaking quality
- A number of low-skill players are bumped upward in MMR, again ensuring severe mismatches in matchmaking
- The targets for each rank tier and division are recalculated to incorrect values as a result of the above, resulting in many players seeding too high or too low. 
November 12: After two days of isolating the problems, we launched a fix aimed at solving all of the above issues. We immediately started receiving more player reports of poor matchmaking with crazy skill disparities. It was clear within hours that the fix introduced as many problems as it solved. 
November 14: With a better vetted and more substantial fix ready to go, we took down Ranked Flex to implement wider changes to matchmaking. After standing it back up, issues seemed resolved and matches proved fairer across the board. We know some of you have considerably dropped, and we’re sorry for that too - but we made the call to make this reset now to avoid a situation where players get incorrectly placed at the start of the season. This prevents you landing in more unbalanced matches and unfairly climbing or dropping based on which team has more Fakers."
Look for the Solo/Duo queue to also be enabled soon.

Client Update Open Beta

The LCU Open beta is starting!  Here's Cactopus with more details on kicking off the LCU Open Beta:
"Starting today, everyone can join the open beta for the League client update. 
Download it now (estimated 1.5 GB) to transform your client with the power of hextech. You don't need to go through any application process—just launch League and click the pretty download button when the pop-up appears. If you're already in the alpha, your alpha client will automatically update to beta status. 
As we teased last week, the client update open beta is for everybody. The download will appear for everyone launching the game, and if you don't feel like upgrading right away, you'll still have the option to upgrade through your launcher at any point during the beta. Even after you upgrade, you can easily launch the legacy client if you want (see the FAQ for details). 
Before you grab the download, you should understand that this is a beta, which means we're still working out a few kinks. The updated client is still missing a few features (like spectator mode) that we'll be adding over the next few patches. It also doesn't yet have some of the flashy animations from the above video. We'll take a few patches to turn things on and make optimizations, so if you decide to upgrade now we'll need you to be patient with us while we work everything out. 
Replays are also launching on a region-by-region basis with the open beta. Replays are exclusive to the updated client, so we need players who opt into the client update open beta to test out the feature on our live League servers before they go live for everyone. 
The beta period will last until we've successfully integrated and optimized all major features from the legacy client—then it'll simply replace the legacy client for good. In the meantime, we'll keep making tweaks, tuning performance, and polishing visuals.
Finally, as a small thank you for the hard work of alpha testers, we’ve created an exclusive summoner icon for anyone who participated in the alpha. Their feedback and participation really helped us make the client better. If you’ve logged in to the alpha before November 15th, you'll get it! 
UPDATED CLIENT OPEN BETA FAQ"

Here's a trailer to kick off the LCU Open Beta:
Check out [THIS OPEN BETA FAQ] for more information.

For reference: On 11/15 the official messaging went out but was quickly pulled. Cactopus shared on the boards that it would be starting up during 11/16:
"This article went out a little too early because of a scheduling problem :/ It's actually still gonna happen within 24 hours from now, just not yet. Current plan is in the wee hours of tomorrow morning."
Cactopus continued
"Quote:
Will it then be open in all regions, or just NA?
All regions! It's a rolling launch. Only region that may see some delays is Korea."

League client update Q&A coming 11/17 

Speaking of, the LCU team will be headed to reddit for a Q&A on November 17th at 1 PM PST!
"It’s time again for another Q&A with the League client update team. This time we’re answering your questions about the open beta and the future of the updated client! We’ll be taking your questions on the League subreddit tomorrow between tomorrow between 1 PM PST and 3 PM PST.
Learn more about the League client update here."

Replays are Live in the New Client!: FAQ & Pro-Tips 

With the open beta going out and replays soon to follow (already up testing on NA and OCE during 6.22), here's MrBurnaby with an FAQ and tips: 
"Now that you’ve had some time to fiddle with the Open Beta for the updated League Client, we wanted to spin up a post for frequently asked questions & pro tips for using the new Replays feature. 
How do I find & watch a Replay?: 
After you finish playing a match, look for the download button in the upper right of the End of Game screen (next to Advanced Details). 
Replays can also be found on your Match History screen. Once you’ve downloaded a Replay file (.rofl), the button should change to a new “Watch Replay” state . Click there to launch your Replay. 
How long do Replays last?: 
Replays last for the length of a patch cycle, meaning they’ll expire once you patch up. For example, if you played a game on 7.1, you’ll be able to watch that Replay until 7.2 drops. 
How do I share my Replays?: 
We’re actively exploring ways to help players share their Replay files (.rofl) with one another, but that’s not currently supported. At the same time, we’ve excited to see all of the video clips you take using the new Record Button. 
Wait, there’s a built in video recorder?!: 
Yep. Just click the red Record Button on the new Annotated Timeline to start recording, (watch your sick play), then click again to stop. We’re calling these video clips “Highlights” and they’re in the .webm format. Your Highlight will be saved on your computer in the following location: 
C:\Users\<Insert Your User Name Here>\Documents\LeagueofLegends\Highlights 
(This path is also displayed when we confirm the Highlight was captured after you stop your recording). From there, you can upload it wherever you’d like to share with all of your friends. 
What’s a .webm?: 
.webm’s are an open sourced video format that plays nicely with HTML5. That means you can drag and drop those video files into Firefox & Chrome and they’ll automatically play. Additionally, we’ve found that VLC media player http://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html works well for playback. 
Additional Pro Tips: 
The hotkeys I use the most are: 
  • Ctrl + V for starting and stopping recording a Highlight.
  • Hitting [1,2,3,4,5 or Q,W,E,R,T] to move between different champions. (You can also click on a champion on screen or on their portraits on either side of the screen)
  • Hitting [1,2,3,4,5 or Q,W,E,R,T] twice locks the camera on that champ. (You can also double-click on a champion on screen or on their portraits on either side of the screen)
  • When you lock the camera on a specific champ, the marks on the timeline for their kills gets a little brighter, while all the other landmarks fade back. Hopefully this makes it easier to find a specific moment you’re looking for in a match.
  • Holding down on the middle mouse button while panning allows you to move the camera more smoothly. 
Hope this was helpful. We’ll be around to answer additional questions."

Meddler Grab Bag - Shyvana PBE, Corki, Evelynn Stealth, & more

Next up we have Meddler with posts on Shyvana, Corki's win rate, Evelynn's stealth tint, and more!

On the topic of future Rylai's Crystal Scepter changes, Meddler stated:
"Changes likely in 6.24, need to chat with the team to figure out what their likely form is though."
Meddler hit the boards to provide context on the tentative Shyvana passive changes we saw in the 11/14 PBE Update, noting they hope to return to the now replaced elemental dragon interactions:
"Quote:
Yeah. This new new one is basically the same as her current passive (boring), but unreliable. The proposed elemental buffs were at least interesting.
 We're going to explore the different buffs based off the type of dragon killed again at some point. It hasn't had enough testing, and does have some issues, so at least for now we're pulling it in favor of the Armor/MR version now on the PBE. Might or might not return someday."

Meddler continued:
"Quote:
so have she lost the level scaling? it is not clear from the original post
She did. The reason for that is that we've put a lot of power into other parts of the kit, the ult in particular (bonus health and uninterruptible). We've got a bit of room to buff Shyvana probably (pre-season's a harder time to judge balance). Our conclusion from balance testing though is that we need to remove some power somewhere to partially pay for other buffs though. Conclusion was that the passive was one of the best places to do that."
He added:
"Quote:
I appreciate the effort, but can you clarify why you're making the % damage amp apply to Smites as well? I thought one of the reasons we just didn't have damage amps on true damage was because it messes with the clarity of it?
That's just a bug. Should be fixed tomorrow."
Meddler went on to say:
"Quote:
It's also not entirely clear, does killing elder dragon increment her passive? It would be really weird if it didn't.
It does yes."
When asked about current plans for Assassins following 6.22, Meddler noted:
"Quote:
So, because of #1, are you working on wanting to buff some of the assassins? They're all sitting at pretty pitiful winrates.
We'll be buffing Akali in 6.23. She seems to be struggling too much in situations she should do ok in, given her overall pattern didn't change that much so there shouldn't be as much of a relearning period. For the others we'll be holding off on power changes at least for the next patch until thing settle a bit more. Kat for example's losing a lot of games, but she's also got a much steeper learning curve and a lot of new stuff to master. Don't want to throw buffs at her until it's clearer she actually needs them, rather than just being harder to play than many champs now."
[More on Akali from the 6.23 PBE cycle.]

As for what they may do following the MR aura removal from Locket/Aegis in 6.22, Meddler noted:
"Quote:
Do you think that there's a chance we could get some real tank MR items to help offset the loss of Aegis? The current tank MR items are kind of garbage.
Figuring out whether we need to make followup changes to compensate for Aegis' removal's something we'll be working, most likely for 6.24. Options there include things like: 
  • Nothing - if there's not actually a problem.
  • Increasing base stats - if magic damage is too high across the board maybe all champs should get some MR/level
  • Nerfing magic damage dealers who are now excessively strong - if more magic damage dealers are in a good place than out of line maybe we should just nerf the outliers
  • Making other MR itemization more powerful - if the issue is lack of itemization responses to magic damage, rather than an issue that should be solved outside of the item system like the above two"
As for why Corki's winrate has jumped so high this patch, Meddler theorized:
"We've seen a couple of things significantly improve the performance of champions who deal significant magic damage and/or primarily play mid.

A lot of players are learning or relearning the changed assassins. That means that, temporarily, they're performing quite a bit weaker than they will long term. That's to the advantage of other champs facing them mid.

The removal of Aegis aura's decreased effective MR across teams pretty noticeable. Magic damage dealers have generally benefited noticeably from that, Corki likely included."
Meddler also noted that Evelynn's in-game screen tint while in camouflage will be removed soon:
"We'll be removing the screen tint while camouflaged for Evelynn, hopefully in the next patch (timing's tight to get the change in before the patch locks though). 
Screen tints can be useful for calling attention to specific state changes, so in a lot of cases they're valuable to reinforce when a champion is/isn't invisible or camouflaged. Given that's such a core part of Eve's play though, something the player's considering constantly, would agree that's not necessary here."

Meet your 2016 All-Stars! 

Voting has concluded for the 2016 All-Star event happening December 8th in Barcelona, Spain! Check out the LoL Esports article below to meet TEAM FIRE and TEAM ICE:
"All-Stars voting has wrapped up thanks to the millions of people who turned out to throw their support behind their favorite players. These are the regions and players which will attend the 2016 All-Stars Event in Barcelona, Spain which begins on December 8th! 
It’s a clash between Team Fire and Team Ice as the elements battle to determine whether it’s hot or it’s cold. This is the exact kind of scenario Katy Perry wrote her song for! Let’s meet the players and see what each region’s representatives brings to the table.
Team Fire 
LCK 
Top: Smeb (56.5%)*
Jungle: Bengi (46.3%)
Mid: Faker (82.6%)
ADC: PraY (51.9%)
Support: Madlife (47.4%) 
At a glance:  
  • Features 3x World Champions Faker and Bengi. They could loan the rest of their team old Champions jackets and still have one to spare. 
  • Between Smeb and PraY, they’ll have plenty of style points, which should prove crucial towards producing mayhem. Here’s to hoping PraY can replicate something like this arrow. 
  • Rounding out the team is Madlife, one of Korea’s most tenured pros. Will we see his Blitzcrank or Thresh? And if we don’t, what wrong did we do to the world!? Who banned him out? 
  • Let’s make no mistake about Korea’s strength. After three consecutive World Championship wins, I can safely predict that at the All-Star Event, they’ll be at the very least, without a shadow of a doubt, decent... We’re all about the chaos mayhem meta this year -- and you can’t strategize against that! Maybe we’ll see them break into special oddball picks.
*This is the percentage of votes the player received.
LMS 
Top: Ziv (66.1%)
Jungle: Karsa (49%)
Mid: Maple (48.6%)
ADC: Bebe (56.1%)
Support: Albis (43.4%) 
At a glance: 
  • It seems like forever ago, but the Taipei Assassins won the 2012 World Championship thanks in large part to Bebe. But more importantly, he helped popularize the Blue Ezreal build, which is super fun if you play Ezreal. And if you don’t, well, what are you waiting for? 
  • Maple and Karsa are part of the Flash Wolves family. Outside of the game, Maple may be clumsy, but inside of it, he’s more like maple syrup, a crucial ingredient to holding his team together in LMS victories, not to mention pancakes and waffles. 
  • Ziv gained international renown for his play in the top lane, and his ability to take over games will be on full display. Alongside teammate Albis, the two help round out a sort of dream team for the region -- one that meshes the older talents with the new. 
  • The LMS has been the kryptonite to the Korean region in the past. But combine them and you get… a dead Superman I guess. Team Fire will bring a lot of heat -- even just between these two regions!

NA LCS 
Top: Impact (41.7%)
Jungle: Reignover (36%)
Mid: Bjergsen (66%)
ADC: Doublelift (35%)
Support: Aphromoo (55.3%) 
At a glance: 
  • Well, top dies so long as Impact is there. If you can’t get past the meme (and it’s okay if you can’t), you might forget he’s a former World Champion. 
  • TSM’s shotcalling duo, Bjergsen and Doublelift, will play their last matches together for at least half a year, as Doublelift plans to take a break. Doublelift’s whims can lead to a 1v5 pentakill or a farm simulator split push -- either way is a treat. I’m hoping he tries the Tristana initiate-style again. 
  • Joining Doublelift in the bot lane is his old partner, Aphromoo. Do they still have synergy? Are they friends? Can they still finish each other’s sentences? Are they still Rush Hour or are they Rush Hour 3? 
  • Reignover has consistently been one of the best junglers in his region for two years now. He may pull out his pocket pick or something even crazier. Jungle changes are in the air, after all! 
  • NA is the butt of many memes, but they actually had the second highest win percentage at Worlds 2016 -- after Korea. So, if they do well in Barcelona, don’t call it a comeback!
Team Ice
EU LCS 
Top: sOAZ (23.3%)
Jungle: Jankos (38.3%)
Mid: xPeke (35.2%)
ADC: Rekkles (43.1%)
Support: Mithy* (18.1%) 
At a glance: 
  • First off, xPeke being in the mid lane is going to raise some eyebrows. But this event is about stars and there aren’t many stars bigger than xPeke. Few players have a play named after them. That ASE 2016 takes place in his native Spain is just the cherry on top. 
  • In addition to Rekkles and sOAZ, this is a sort of reunion for the three (with xPeke) old Fnatic teammates. The two legends in the EU scene are no strangers to the big stage. Whether they still have the chops to shine through the crazy picks at All-Stars, though, is to be seen. 
  • Jankos helped H2K reach the Worlds Semifinals this year. With the shackles of Worlds off, the first blood king may be even more aggressive. I'm hoping we get some next-level cheese ganks. Maybe even a level 1 bush camp! 
  • Mithy, Europe’s All-Star support, is the only player from G2 to make an appearance this year. While the rest of his team is on vacation, he’ll have a chance to show off why he was so well regarded prior to Worlds. 
  • As the hometown team, they’re sure to receive some of the loudest cheers. Team Fire looks strong, though, so it’ll be on Europe to be a key lynchpin if Team Ice hopes to come out of this event as the cool kids on the block.  
*Mithy replaces Yellowstar (34.7%), who declined to participate.

LPL 
Top: Mouse (24.3%)
Jungle: Clearlove (49.6%)
Mid: We1less (27.4%)
ADC: Uzi (51%)
Support: Mata (34.5%) 
At a glance: 
  • Another year, another Quarterfinals appearance for Clearlove at Worlds. If nothing else, he’s very consistent. The All-Star jungler is a perennial face at international events -- adding a win for China here will help round out his list of accomplishments. 
  • Joining him from EDG is top laner Mouse, who had to withdraw from Worlds due to a personal family tragedy. The former support player’s flexibility may let him shine in odd scenarios. 
  • RNG’s bot lane, Uzi and Mata, was billed as a dream team from the get-go. And they’ve been a nightmare for most opponents. Look no further than these two if you’re into playmakers. 
  • And in the mid lane for China is We1less, formerly known as GODV. An aggressive and confident player -- you’d have to be to call yourself god -- he’ll try to summon the same kind of talent that got him here in the first place. 
  • China is well known for their love of team fighting. All-Stars is well known for its mayhem. When you combine the two, you get a major cluster of what-was-that?! I am so ready.  
IWC 
The International Wildcard regions will determine their participants at the International Wildcard All-Star Event, which takes place from December 1 to December 4. Those five players will round out Team Ice. 
Be sure to keep an eye out for the profiles and content we’ll be releasing ahead of All-Stars, including the 1v1 tournament bracket. Let us know if your vote helped your favorite players win! 
Remember to tune in to the 2016 All-Star Event on December 8 to follow all of the action live from Barcelona."

Vi VS Jinx: WHO WOULD WIN? 

Following community voted matchups between Thresh and Lucian, and Leona and Diana, it's now it's time to decide WHO WOULD WIN between Vi and Jinx!
"After Lucian vs Thresh and Leona vs Diana, the next matchup had to involve two champions whose conflict was equally as iconic. 
So, obviously, we're gonna explore Vi vs Jinx! 
Watch the video:

We teamed up with some amazing animators (credits below) to imagine what a hypothetical fight between the Piltover Enforcer and the Loose Cannon might look like. 
At the end of the video, you decide who wins! 
The ending with the most views will determine the winner, so vote with your eyes! 
Also, sound off in the comments below to try and convince your fellow Summoners to make the right choice ;) 
The cutoff is 11:59pm PST Tuesday (Nov 16). 
We'll reveal the winner on Wednesday, so check back!
Credits: 
  • HyperGuage
  • Hyun's Dojo
  • Animation - Mali De'lisser
  • Character Art - JackBowser, xXZackAttackXx & Mali De'lisser
  • Background Art - GabbyBites
  • Music - "Bring the roof down" - Brandon Yates [Ft. Lucy Shen, Maverick & Mason Lieberman]"

[Community Spotlight] Academy Adventures 

Riot has started a new new collab with Gutter Rat that introduces us to the daily lives of champs in the Academy skin line! Below is the first page of the comic with more coming each week.
"What does a day in the life of Academy Ahri, Darius, Ekko, and Vlad look like? Wonder no longer! We collaborated with Gutter Rat, a wickedly talented community creator, to bring the students’ school shenanigans to life. We’ll be updating this page every week as we release more of their adventures so check back every Monday for more Academy fun! 
Chronobroken 
Let us know what you think!"
Tune in each Monday for another page of the comic.

League of Legends Gameplay Trailer by NiceTrylan

Speaking of community collaboration, here's a new LoL gameplay trailer by NiceTrylan! 

"Thanks NiceTryIan for making this new League of Legends gameplay trailer. 
Download League of Legends -- http://riot.com/signup 
See more from NiceTryIan -- https://www.youtube.com/user/ShotsOfLoL"

/ALL Chat | Champion Companions

/ALL Chat is back with another Summoner Showcase!

"On this episode of Summoner Showcase, Sam and Jimmy explore the many relationships between champions and their companions! Baby Bristle with Sejuani, lil’ Valor as a chick, meeps and more! If you’ve got a favorite piece of fanart you’d like to see featured on the show, send it to the hosts on Twitter or leave a comment below!"

Quick Hits - IEM Oakland, Hyena WW, Support Singed, and 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! ]

  • [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.



  • [ESPORTS] The NA Scouting Grounds has kicked off. [Click here] for more information on participating teams,  rosters, and more following the first week of action.

"He will still have a super cool laugh! New Hyena Warwick might go down as my favorite skin champ up has ever created."

  • For fans of Ghostcrawler's ASK.FM responses on everything from game design and balance to future content or directional context, he has started a tumblr focused on answering player questions - The Cave of 10,000 Crabs.

REMINDERS

To round out tonight's red post collection, here are a few reminders on current promotions or limited time events!
  • To go along with Twitch's set of updated skin splash arts in 6.22, a limited time bundle including Twitch &  five skins is available in the shop! The three legacy Twitch skins - Kingpin ,Whistler Village, and Vandal - are also all available individually in the shop through November 16th!

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