Surrender at 20

Red Post Collection: Disabling The Chemtech Drake, ARURF, Prime Gaming Loot & More

Today's red post collection includes details on the Chemtech Drake from the SR team, a new Prime Gaming capsule, news on TFT's Double Up, & more!
Continue reading for more information!

Table of Contents



Quick Gameplay Thoughts 1/28

Here's Riot Phlox with this week's QGT - "More context behind the fighter item changes coming in patch 12.3":

OK, we know what you're thinking. Why the heck are we giving fighters EVEN MORE AD next patch?! 
The gist of it is that ever since the Preseason 2021 item overhaul, light fighters like Irelia and Xin Zhao have felt a lot more like unpunishable tanky murderers than they really should. When these kinda champs have too much of their power in health and defensive-skewed items, their high-risk high-reward playstyles get washed out and become reliable/low-risk yet still high-reward. They basically become frontliners that can singlehandedly murder you, rather than risky champions who have to be swift and smart going into fights in order to get their sweet, sweet payoffs. At that point, why would you pick Nasus when Riven feels just as durable and has better damage and mobility? (Okay, we're exaggerating a bit here, but you get what we mean.) 
An interesting issue in the fighter item space is that a lot of the items are pretty similar, yet the champions and classes they’re meant for are quite diverse. What do Illaoi (a juggernaut), Fiora (a light fighter), and Vi (a diver) all have in common? Honestly, not very much, but they use a lot of the same items and are all called fighters. Last season, that problem got even worse as they all consolidated around a handful of powerful items like Goredrinker and Sterak’s Gage. Sterak’s made pretty much all fighters good at teamfighting, while Goredrinker did the same plus gave them all huge heals at low health. These subclasses started blending together rather than distinguishing themselves as three separate archetypes. Not all fighters are supposed to be good at teamfighting, and when Sterak’s is making them that way, it can be kinda f-... messed up. 
To de-homogenize the system, we considered adding new items tailored specifically for each class. We did a bunch of early explorations for new fighter items and even tried overhauling some existing underused ones. (There were some wild ideas like making Silvermere something like the old Sword of the Occult, and a killed-in-the-box version of Maw that would grant invulnerability). These explorations were fun and interesting, but we came to realize that this was like building on a shaky foundation. Before adding anything, we needed to make sure that no item in the current system is a default item of EVERY subclass. Each subclass also needs to have exciting items that reasonably cover their needs. And last but not least, for the long-term health of the fighter class at large, we had to ensure that no items break down their subclass's weaknesses. Once we have those fundamentals down, maybe then we can consider adding new items if necessary. 
With all of this in mind, we determined that the single most impactful thing we could do was to push Sterak's out of being a default option for every fighter everywhere. It should be a strong anti-burst teamfight option for juggernauts like Darius, whereas champions like Viego or Master Yi shouldn't get access to that without some serious tradeoffs. Just like how we weren’t comfortable with juggernauts getting a dash using ol’ dashy Stridebreaker, we aren’t comfortable giving light fighters the durability they’re currently getting with Sterak’s Gage. 
These kinds of characters do need some defensive options though, and for that, we're moving Death’s Dance back toward hybrid physical/magic damage reduction. The reason we chose Death’s Dance is that the item requires fighters to actually deal damage in order to survive the bleed. They can’t just sit on the front line and soak damage, happy as a clam, leisurely waiting for the right opportunity to go in; unless they fight with finesse, Death's Dance won't save them. 
Outside of that, we’ve shifted some other item stats around to make sure that light fighters don’t incidentally stack health just by building their damage items. Risky characters should be building offensive tools that open them to death when they play poorly, so those items have to be powerful and tempting to purchase. Not every fighter should be able to use every fighter item in the shop, but every fighter should feel like they have items built for them. 
I really do want to note that we’ll be watching this closely and following up on outlier champions or items (whether too strong or too weak!). We’re also keeping an eye on other classes who might poach these items as well. Some overlap is fine, but when a choice item overrides one of their class weaknesses, that’s also no good. We still think there are more spots in the system that need work, but we’d rather we take a good step toward making the current system better than wait until we can change it all at once."

 

Disabling the Chemtech Drake

Here's an update from the SR team on the Chemtech Drake which was recently disabled on live servers: 

"When we introduced the Chemtech Drake, Soul, and Terrain in preseason, we shared our intent for it to have a higher impact on games than the original four elemental drakes. Over the past few months, we've heard your feedback across social media and surveys that, even with this goal in mind, the Chemtech addition has just been too frustrating to play with—especially if you're on the losing team. 
Effective today, we're disabling the Chemtech Drake, Soul, and Terrain. 
While the Chemtech Drake and its corresponding systems are disabled, we'll be iterating on design changes to solve the issues with the current versions, while maintaining the spirit of what we were originally trying to achieve. Our primary focus will be on the terrain. This may take time to do right, meaning there's a chance we won't bring the Chemtech Drake back for a while. 
Our goal, as always, is to make Summoner's Rift the best it can be, and it was clear that we missed the mark this time. Thanks for sharing all your feedback and for the patience you afforded us while we gave Chemtech Drake its shot in the wild."

 

Miscellaneous

  • ARURF is back up during the Lunar Revel!

LoL Socials



TFT Arena

Here's the latest in the TFT Arena:

/Dev: Doubling Down on Double Up


"Double Up is sticking around, and so should you if you wanna learn about Double Up’s future." - Llord Llama
"TL;DR: We’re keeping Double Up, and in doing so we’ll continue improving the mode with improvements to the ranked system, communications, clarity, and more. For the why and how we are doing this, just keep reading! 
Keeping Double Up Around 
When we first released Double Up, we knew we were releasing a game mode that was not complete. We also knew players really, really, really, wanted a way to play with their friends, so we ended up releasing Double Up in Beta. The Lab was 90 percent of the way to Double Up’s final, non-Beta form, but we needed players to give us that final 10 percent—that crucial feedback that could help Double Up become not only the premiere social mode in the autobattler genre, but also a premiere game mode for Teamfight Tactics. So, we released Double Up in beta, knowing that we would eventually be taking it off live servers for improvements around patch 12.2. 
Being the big brain TFT players that we are, we had a couple of flexible strategies on deck for Double Up’s release. If you thought it was a big miss, we’d take it down entirely, but use that opportunity to learn how we’d misjudged what you wanted in a social mode. Another outcome, which we believed unlikely, would be to leave the mode on live servers the entire time—but this would require massive play hours, a dedicated Double Up playerbase, and clear evidence that taking the game mode off of live servers would be a disservice to players. 
Naturally, that’s just what happened. 
Double Up has exceeded all of our expectations. We’re gobsmacked by its success, and now we’re in a world where taking Double Up off of live servers would be a disservice to all of you who not only play lots of Double Up, but also those who play Double Up as their primary game mode.
The Final 10 Percent

Right about now, you’re probably wondering how we’re going to get that final 10 percent of Double Up done without taking it off live servers as originally planned. Well, that’s going to take some time. 
By taking Double Up offline, we would have had a clear window of several patches to implement changes based on the feedback we’ve received from our community. Without a substantial amount of downtime, we’ll still be implementing these changes, but more slowly. We’ll be using the extra time to ensure a stable Double Up experience on live servers, while simultaneously working towards Double Up’s final form. 
Aside from these smaller improvements, we’ll also be prepping large changes to Double Up behind the scenes. Changes that allow players to dive deeper into what makes this mode both social and competitive. These will be released in one thunderous moment when we can declare Double Up is out of its Workshop form and fully evolved. What changes are we hoping to add for that full release? I’m glad you asked, ‘cause it makes the transition to this bulleted list way easier: 
  • Double Up lobbies with more than two players: Double Up is a social game mode, but we’ve also learned it’s very, very competitive. Allowing for lobbies of more than two players creates different complexities for matchmaking and LP gains. Currently we are working on a system where if your Double Up lobby has more than two players, LP gains would be shut off in your queue.
  • A ranked system tailor-made for Double Up: When we first released Double Up, we copied Hyper Roll’s ranked system because building a new ranked system for a Lab we expected to be live for just three patches didn’t seem like a good use of time. Now it’s obvious that we need a ranked system custom made for Double Up—one that lets you play with whoever you want whenever you want, while maintaining competitive integrity.
  • Communications for randomly paired players: While 90 percent of Double Up players play in premade lobbies, we still want to address communications for solo players as well as friends who don’t want to or can’t use voice.
  • Enhanced Double Up clarity: Having your teammate reinforce you at a clutch moment, or you ride in from the east at dawn to save the day is part of what makes Double Up so fun. But sometimes, you don’t quite know if your partner will be able to save the day, so we’ll be adding additional clarity around reinforcements, while also making team colors clearer.
  • Clearer rules for reinforcements: There are some inconsistencies in what reinforcing champions bring with them when they travel to a partner’s board. Why does Cho’Gath keep his health stacks, while Kai’Sa loses her stacking cast count? We’d like to iron out some of these issues so that players know what to expect when they come to their partner’s aid, and what champions and items will be strongest when coming to help.
  • Double Up balancing and healthy metas: We’ll continue to address gameplay balancing in Double Up to create unique metas with larger, more powerful armies. In particular, the Rune of Allegiance is central to the fun of Double Up, but it also adds a lot of reliability and consistency to the game. We want to keep the fun of sharing and working together with your partner to get powerhouse 3-star champions on your board, while preventing the Double Up meta from becoming entirely about whether you’re able to get that online. This, like all gameplay balance, is a process that we’ll continue to work on as Double Up continues to evolve.
Our goal is to have all these changes bundled up and ready for one giant release by the time set seven hits. It’s a lofty goal—but we’ll redouble our efforts to achieve it.
The Future of Double Up 
Our most social mode yet, Double Up promises big armies, hype moments, and clutch teammate saves—what more could you ask for? Well, that’s a question we’ve been asking ourselves. So, in addition to all the improvements listed above, we’re also thinking about improvements for Double Up’s more distant future (long after it leaves Beta). We’re looking at things like improvements to Double Up’s carousel, to make being the first-placed team on the first carousel feel less bad. And we’re thinking about other gameplay additions, like Double Up-exclusive augments. Imagine an augment that leaves a random unit on your board after an allied reinforcement, or one where you and your partner benefit from whomever is making the most gold interest between the two of you. 
There’s lots being discussed in this realm, but these gameplay additions would come after we get Double Up out of Workshop and into its fully realized form. 
Alright, well that’s it from us for now. We hope you’re as excited as we are to keep queuing up for Double Up, and for its full release in the not so distant future."


Lunar Legend Festival 2022 | Tactician Showcase

"Here’s to a year of new adventures! Join Duckbill, Protector, and Chibi Firecracker Jinx at the Golden Tiger Market for a celebration like no other."

TFT Socials


Other Game Socials

Legends of Runeterra


Wild Rift


VALORANT

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