Reign of Gaming

Bard Voice Volume Changes Incoming

Originally Posted by Riot (View Original Source)

Can you pls make Bard a bit louder( maybe even make him voiceovering almost every movement click)?

Thanks for this feedback eXtreemo! I 100% agree with you on this. I think right before Bard went out I was worried about him being too loud and people thinking the voice would be too weird so I think I brought a few things down a little too low. I have every intention of turning some of his sounds back up. Yay!

Patch Rundown 5.5

Originally Posted by Riot (View Original Source)

SRU Concept Art Gallery

Originally Posted by Riot (View Original Source)

Summoner’s Rift has come a long way since League’s launch in 2009, but our latest update to ol’ trusty was the biggest change in the map’s history.

While all updates go through iterations and testing, Summoner’s Rift required a huge team of artists to concept and sketch out art for months before we started working in 3D. To celebrate the end of SR’s beta run, we’re releasing a few of the concept art pieces the environment team created, complete with notes and insights from the artists themselves.

1/22 Here’s a super late painting we created to hone in on the spawn area’s lighting. The beta launch of Summoner’s Rift actually had zero lighting, but we slowly added elements in as we updated the map.
2/22 We painted this up to study how we could show terrain transitioning from areas near Baron to places way away from him.
3/22 These are some concepts that we sketched out for an asset to replace the small cluster of trees in the original SR bases. We wanted to replace that blocker (the term we use for something you can’t move through) with something a little more visually interesting and architectural.
4/22 Remember the old wraiths? We sketched out a TON of ideas for things that could replace them. After trying a few of these guys out, we started leaning towards some bird-like creatures that eventually evolved into the raptors you see in the rift today. (1. Vulture Monkeys, 2. Dire Porci Rat, 3. Shroom Thugs, 4. Crystaling, 5. Mudworm, 6. Mandrake gone bad, 7. Stummpils, 8. Plant Chomper, 9. Scorpo FIles, 10. Flame Pixie, 11. Not Warrior, 12. Globs)
5/22 Old baron was... well... a bit of a sock puppet. After trying a few ideas out, we ended up using the model that would later be in A Twist of Fate. But we still iterated, making tweaks to his head area, and giving him a huge body that we could really show off in his spawn animation.
6/22 These are a couple of early studies looking at the composition of the north spawning platform and shop. The first is earlier, and from it we refined shape language, values, how busy the area would be, and overall composition.
7/22 These are super early sketches of the northern area, which we wanted to feel more destroyed than the rest of the map to emphasize Baron's catastrophic impact. These drawings pushed really far in that direction.
8/22 We used a sharp shape motif for the Paladin (or south side of the map) that would stand in contrast to the Mages (North side). The Paladin elements in the map are strong squared shapes and motifs that stand out from the sharp, aggressive, and dynamic shapes used by the north side.
9/22 These are some explorations looking at how the rift would infuse one of the more natural creatures on this mountain.
10/22 Back on Howling abyss we designed one of the shopkeepers to have this massive pack-yak. We really loved the idea but we could not get him to work within the constraints of the Freljord. He eventually became a she, and fit perfectly into SR. We always knew that we wanted some type of shipwrecked balloon-riding yordle for the north shopkeeper.
11/22 We knew really early on that wraiths didn't feel indigenous to the rift, but it took a really long time to find a critter that would fill his shoes.
12/22 The team really resonated with the idea that the magic of the rift physically forming into its guardians, and the Brambleback in particular to reflect the raw aggression that you feel when you pick up the red buff.
13/22 There was a lot of focus on how we wanted a unique dragon from other IPs and fantasy games. We tried a grounded dragon, but ended up with a thick, heavily armored guy, so carried on until we gravitated around this study, which put us on the path to finding the unique League take of a dragon.
14/22 We spoke about quadrants during the map update's beta stint, but here's a really clear representation of what we wanted to pull off. It's a really early painting, but even still you can see the redwoods in the north, the cairn-stones in the east, and the overgrowth and vines in the south. We ended up going with a different direction in the west jungle, but its color palate and tone is still pretty similar.
15/22 This concept shows the contrast between the paladins and mages use of magic. In the case of the Paladins, magic is used in a very tightly restrained and controlled way; In the case of the Mages, magic is used in a more organic and chaotic way. This hearkens back to the old map and the Order vs. Chaos sides.
16/22 In this top lane vista sketch, we wanted to explore rock shapes and study the integration of the background elements. This is a more wild version of the area that you see in SR now... and has a lot of eggs.
17/22 Here's an exploration of the architecture we had out in the periphery of Summoner's Rift. We really wanted to use this blocked off space to show structures that the native cultures built, hopefully giving you guys a sense of a consistent and cohesive world.
18/22 Our early minion concepts explored ideas like minions made out of animated magic scrolls, bolts of cloth animated by magic, and even just sound.
19/22 This was actually a very late exploration of Dragon. Many of our earliest ideas for Dragon were not even dragons at all, but ran the creature gamut of what could fill that role on the map before we decided to go back to a more traditional scales and wings creature. The dragon we have in-game is a combination of the proportions of the first dragon, the head and wings of the third dragon, and the tail of the seventh guy!
20/22 This Baron illustration was one of the first images that was created for SR. We heavily referenced him for all of production. The way he is constructed (using stylized but very aggressive shapes) guided how we created everything from creatures to rocks to trees from that point on.
21/22 This concept was an attempt to apply a very heavy and distinct theme on a specific quadrant of the map. The cracks show that you're near Baron, and we created giant trees that were ripped down when Baron spawned, with tons of new life grown back since.
22/22 We explored two opposing animal types as the potential themes for the different sides of the map. Here are some early sketches!

Champion Mastery Q&A

Originally Posted by Riot (View Original Source)

Hey folks,

We are excited to launch Champion Mastery to PBE!
Announcement: http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/features/champion-mastery-hits-pbe

I am here with the team to answer any questions that you have and listen to your feedback.

Is the announcement spoken by the champion you reach Tier 4 or 5 with?

If you are talking about the in game emote, there is one at Level 4 and at Level 5 for the emotes.

Will there be demotions and decay due to performance or lack of using a champion for an extended period of time or will this system be on par with Honor?

No decay is planned currently.

So there is nothing in place to ensure someone remains skilled at the champion?

Ranked is the only system that gives players explicit feedback that they are improving atm (and sometimes not improving). In reality, every game you play you are typically improving to some degree. We want this system to fill that gap with a combination of the grading system and progression system. The grading system is percentile driven - so earning a high score means you performed in the top x% of players on that champ in that position. The grade governs the point gains. Ultimately we want a feedback loop that feels meaningful and if we don't feel like we've achieved that we will reevaluate.

Does this imply that once Tier 5 has been reached it cannot be lost?

Yes, you cannot lose a level of Champion Mastery after it is earned.

So, achieving rank 5 with a champion and then realizing "welp, I never have to touch them again" is meaningful? What's the point of getting a bragging right with a champion when everyone knows there is no way to lose it?

This is a good point. We know some players just want to go hard and be measured in a hyper competitive environment. This system won't preclude us from doing some kind of champion specific leaderboards in the future. That said, this system is intentionally more accessible than ranked.

When we ran pro players through the grading system, none of them were able to consistently earn S+ grades each game. Getting the point where you can consistently earn high grades would be worth bragging about.

So at the current design, if someone played 1000 games with one single champion, exaggerating of course, he would receive the emotes regardless of how he performed?

That's accurate. If you had 2 players one of which face rolled 1000 games and one of whom played 1000 games at a pro level, the pro level player would have a significantly higher overall point score than the other player (since points continue to accrue after max level) but both would be max level and have the emotes.

The other thing to keep in mind is that you get a performance score each game. Getting to the point where you can consistently earn an S grade requires a very high level of play.

I was under the impression that the points are cumulative over games?

Just to clarify, if reaching S grade needs 100 points, a pro level game play grants 50, and a lower level game play grants 2. In the end if I play at low level for 50 games, I would achieve the same standing as a pro in 2 games?

Each game, based on how well you performed you will earn a grade. These grades don't persist - it basically tells you how good you did in a game.

So imagine you play a game and you pull a Bjergson crushing the enemy team and performing in the highest x% of players in your region. You would earn an S+ for that game.

That S+ would translate into some point score that when added to your teams performance and a few other factors determines the total points for the game. Those points go towards your level, which unlocks the rewards.

Are our previous games going to apply to getting the banner? Cause I want the Jinx banner now!

Previous games will not applied to Champion Mastery. It will be a fresh start from launch of the feature.

What's the difference between awards in Tier 4 and 5?

So! The main difference right now is in the banners, emblems, and emotes you get for reaching that tier. All your friends and teammates will see the shiny, glorious red badge instead of the underling "brown/tan" badge. We do plan on adding more rewards other than just cosmetics in the near future.

Does the Tier appear above your head when you're in game like it was shown in the reveal of Champion Mastery?

It's an emote, so you can choose to play if you want to but will never appear by default.

Loading screen borders do automatically appear but only if you are tier 4 or above.

Once you have attained a tier, emote and Loading screen border... do they only appear in normal game mode or can they also be seen on Ranked / other modes?

They appear in all modes. :)

Will it at some time also cover team builder and eventually Co-op vs AI games?
How about dominion and ARAM how the system works there?

Team Builder will be covered for Champion Mastery. Co-Op vs AI, Aram and Dominion are still to be determined.

I have 2 questions, 1 my understanding is that the mastery is JUST for yourself no one else can see it. Do you have any plans on making it so others can see it? and if so what kind of impact do you think it will have on the community and in game play?

Question 2 just a basic one Will the icon floating above your head be a separate input in its own? like /joke or /taunt will this one be like /imbetterthenyou? lol

Currently your whole team can see your loading screen banner and your in-game emote.

The in-game emote default hotkey is ctrl+6

Could we have the option to have the mastered champion's icon as our summoner icon?

Something we will consider but right now it is not planned.

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Hi Just Mid! We have seen many awesome suggestions from the community, and nothing is off the table. We still have a big to do on reward decisions. :-)

Will this effect ranked at all? I know in Smite you can only play Gods you've mastered in ranked, will this be the case in League as well? Or will this be completely cosmetic for showing your appreciation for a champion?

This is purely showing your appreciation for a champion, which you can level up in ranked and normals, as long as it's on SR.

Edit: To clarify, it will start out in normals only for now.

do you plan to give players additional rewards for mastering a wide amount of champions? like getting a mystery gift for at least level 4 masterieng lets say 40 champions? or something else which is limited available without pumping rp into the account?

We have the Mastery Level which is a total number for your mastery progress. We're looking at ways to make that more visible to other players in future. We don't have concrete plans on rewards but we definitely want people to feel value from mastering a wide champion pool.

Will Riot add champions icons as summoner's icons for top mastery reward? (IT WOULD BE EPIC)

Something worth considering but not currently planned.

Is the mastery only going to be for champions, or also for in what lane. for example, if i play Yasuo mid, do i get points for Yasuo mid and different points if i play him top, or will it be the same fore both?

The mastery level is for the champion as whole, but the grade you get after each game is based on the champion in a specific position for that game. I.e. we're grading you against other Lulu supports, not all Lulus.

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The points are only for the champion. We use role and performance data only to determine how many points you earn at the end of a game.

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Mastery per champion not per role per champion.

Have your considered if someone gets a champ to tier 5 they have the option to change the default skin color? Like getting a golden zac or a red evelynn?

We have received a ton of excellent reward ideas from our player base. We are considering a variety of future additions but nothing is current planned.

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Skins won't likely be a part of this system but we do have some other cool rewards in the works. :)

I saw from S@20 some assets for additional tiers not yet announced - are we going to recieve those? If yes, when?

Hey Dimesio! Yes, we are planning on releasing more tiers in the future! Soon™

What is meant by custom emote? How can it be customized? Is there a set release date for Champion Mastery on live?

Hi Toa of Death!

I can see where the confusion comes from, but we just mean it's customized to the current level of mastery you have for that champion.

Not to mention, what is the premade bonus?
As show in the Picture Here

You get bonus points for playing with friends! (I.e. in a premade).

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This will be renamed "Party Bonus" so that it is consistent with other Party Bonuses.

The post introducing it says that grading is based crucially off where you play the champ, but a rioter stated that meta and nonmeta were gonna be treated the same, can you elaborate on this?

We look at lanes and positions. We're comparing you to other people playing the same champion / position combination. So, if you go Jax bot in a kill lane, you're going to be compared to others doing that.

How are grades determined? Say my MMR is 1400. Does that mean that if I perform at a 1400 MMR level with a champion I get a, say, C+ and if I perform at a 1500 I get an S? Or is it like Mastery where you can only go up? In other words, are grades relative to your own MMR or are they absolute (so Challenger players would just have S in everything) or is it something else entirely?

It was also mentioned that these things take individual performance into account. While it's easy to take KDA into account, what about presence in teamfights and other assorted things that a human could look at and know was good/bad but would seem difficult to a computer to determine?

Will the system be retroactive so that those of us with X-thousand games will instantly have max mastery on certain champions?

We're grading you against all other players in that champion and position combo. We're not looking at your MMR. Grades are absolute.

We didn't think we'd be able to do this at first - we assumed (like you) that top tier players would only get the highest grades, but in our testing that hasn't shown to be the case. Bronze players having amazing games can still get the top grades, it's just less common.

Will your team be able to see your points in the post-game screen or are you gonna be the only one who's able to see your own points?

Only the combined score will be seen by all players. Your individual contribution and grade is private.

Do you have to own the champion, or is it possible to master them while they are free?
Not to mention, is climbing similar to ranked, or leveling, or is it purely dependent on results, and not time?

You can level up a champion you don't own (free to play champions), but you won't be able to get them to max until you unlock them.
The current cap for un-owned champions is Level 4.

Do we have to wait til rank 4 for the custom emote, or will it show off our rank 1-3? I'm not sure I like not having anything to show for my champion until I get to rank 4.

Level 4 i'm afraid. But, it makes it cooler when you get there!

Does Draven say anything snazzy in-game whenever you play as him if you get him into S tier on your account?
I mean, he is Draven, and we all know Draven likes to say snazzy things.

Interesting concept. Custom voice emotes at highest level. Will add this for consideration.

Are you gonna be able to see your Tiers when you search for champions like it's shown in the first reveal of Champion Mastery? Like this:

You can sort by Mastery Level!

That's really cool! Are other players going to be able to see your mastery level in Champion Select?

I ask because I know when players choose off-meta champs, it agitates their team-mates and I wonder if being able to show you have mastery of the champion would help reduce the worry (and thereby the heckling/arguing/toxicity) in these situations.

No, we don't want people worrying about things like that in champ select. That's info you could share if you like.

If a champion gets a massive rework (such as Sion's rework), will the champion mastery refresh or stay the same as it was before the rework? For example, if I got to rank 5 champion mastery with Urgot, then he gets a rework that changes him up a ton, will my champion mastery reset?

Champion Mastery will not reset on Champion reworks.

Hey guys, thanks for all the answers.
How long have you guys been working on this? It must have taken some serious thought and effort to get the right balance of making people feel rewarded, without overdoing it, or making people feel bad for having a bad game.

It was a balancing act for sure and will be something we will continue to monitor as the feature rolls out. The feature has been something we have considered for quite a while and developed over the past year to the level you see now.

Will there be a way to check to see somebody's mastery of a champ outside of the game?

For now you will be able to visit their profile page and see their top 3 Champions as well ones they are working towards. Opening up the Champions Page of friends and other summoners is something we are still considering.

Something doesn't settle right about the lack of demotions/point loss.

Take me for example, on average I get about a 30- 40% win rate with Soraka in Team builder. I might get the occasional win streak like everyone else but it's mostly just losses.

My concern is I know I'm not a good player. I'm also not improving with every game as stated in here. The fact that there apparently won't be an option to turn off loading borders worries me.

Why? Because it means that after a certain point, after so many cripplingly horrible losses, I'm going to be considered a max tier Soraka. That means bad times for everyone involved.

My team is going to be expecting a level of play I can't ever hope to achieve. I just want to hide my border and draw as little attention to myself as possible. But this system is just going to give people more of a reason to rage at me than already happens.

Please please please consider the option of hiding any and all aspects of this program that can be seen by others. I get enough abuse ingame as it is, don't add even more to that pile.

This is a great question. I think that you're definitely improving on Soraka as you play more games.

The enemy team won't see your badge, but I understand the concern about setting expectations for your team. We don't currently plan to disable this, but we can look at doing so if it turns out to needed.

PLEASE HAVE BORDERS AND SUMMONER ICONS!!!! I WILL PLAY THIS GAME SO MUCH

Border flair is part of launch. :)

Will the badge in the loading screen be the same as like the Honorable Opponent badge?

Similar treatment style and only your team will see it.

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This actually brings up another point that is worth mentioning... We moved the honor ribbon to the center/top of the frame, and put the champion mastery badge in the top left corner where the honor was.

What kind of announcement will we get if we reach Tier 4 or 5?

Level 5 celebration at end of game will be similar to reaching ranked tiers.

hi im a big fan of quinn and have mained her since season 5, i would like to know if she will also be included in the champion masteries scheme? thanks!

All champions will be eligible for Champion Mastery :)

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Every champion will be in Champion Mastery so you can enjoy the system with your favorites. :)

How long do you project mastery will take on average? 50 games? 100 games? 500+ games?

Average is between 15 to 30 games to Level 5.

Yo Riot, first off, this idea looks really sick, huge thumbs up :D. Also, when u have "mastered" a champion, get them to S tier, will u face off against other champs of the same tier? or will it just be random?

S is a grade and that will be determined every game based on performance in that game. Champion Mastery goes from Level 1 to 5 currently. We will not be matching players based on Champion Mastery.

Would it be possible to add a title to your mastered champion. Like : Mastered/Masterful (skin name) Fire fang warwick

Something for us to consider. Thanks for the idea.

I'm sure this will likely get lost in the mess, but will there be a way to disable the badge and banners?
I think this is a really cool system, but sometimes I might not want my own team knowing that I'm TIER 5 with Teemo. Having the option to disable the clear announcements would be a dream.

Hey FSN! We don't currently have a way to turn off loading screen borders, but honestly I think people are reading too much into the "Mastery" part of this. It isn't meant to be a pure representation of skill that is concrete. It's more about showing your affinity for a champion. If this does become a problem in the future we could consider adding some way to hide/show your badges. Thanks for voicing your concern!

Will Champion Mastery decrease if I do badly with a champion, or is it a one-way increase?
eg. If I play 1000 games with Alistar but I do badly in all of them, will I still get Champion Mastery?

There is no decay or loss of Champion Mastery.

If you play a game with a champion and get some points, does that automatically put you into Tier 1 or is there a lower level than that?

You are put straight into Level 1 and immediately make some progress towards Level 2.

What would the rewards be if we get to Tier 5?

When is this actually coming out for everyone?

Hey there Rioters.

Why did you decide to implement this sort of system? I really like the idea of adding some sense of progression and rewards for remaining consistent on a character. However seems to overshadow the dated summoner level mechanic already in place, which doesn't serve much purpose other than gating summoner spells/runes. Is this system a step towards reworking the summoner level system as well? or will they remain separate entities?

These are different systems for sure. We're looking for this to be something that's cool and lets you show the champions you love playing, while not having the pressure that comes with the evaluation of ranked games. You can pick a goal and focus on that, or you can just do your thing, and your champ pool will level up anyway.

When is this actually coming out for everyone?

Hi Vented!

I used my handy dandy copy/paste skills to leech this from our launch page about this feature:

We’re kicking off the rollout with a PBE stint from 3/11. If all goes well, a couple of weeks later we’ll then launch a beta in a single region, focusing on Summoner’s Rift normal queues to make sure the feature’s stable for expanded use. We’ll read through your feedback and keep you updated with our progress, too, so keep an eye out for future posts after the service goes live!

:-)

How will the custom emote work? will we design it ourselves or will we pick?

"Custom" as in Level 1 through 5 Emblem. The word "custom" was a bad choice of wording. It will not be something that is made by individuals. It is custom to each of the 5 levels of Mastery. Sorry for the confusion.

It's been stated that mastery points earned at the end of a match are for your eyes only to give you an idea of your own performance. Will there be a way to reset champion mastery so you can challenge yourself to reach rank 5 a bit faster?

Interesting concept. Thanks for the idea.

Do you guys have any more rewards in mind that you will be adding to Champion Mastery in the future?

We are gathering all the ideas from players and internally to consider.

Do you believe that the incentive to master champions will even out the amount that certain champs are played (in normal games) because people will want to have S tier mastery for unpopular champions? Was part of the reasoning to implement this system to encourage people not to just follow FotM picks? [..]

I think that people will level up their favorite champs, and some will then want to seek out new favorites to level up. That's a pretty typical pattern already.

Just to clarify - there are levels that you progress through (initially 1-5), and the grades (D-S) are per-game feedback.

Champion and skin sale: 17.03 - 20.03

Originally Posted by Riot (View Original Source)

 

Grab these champions and skins on sale for 50% off for a limited time:

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Skin Sales

Give your champions a new look with these skins:

Dreadknight Garen 975 487 RP
Glacial Malphite 1350 675 RP
Giant Enemy Crabgot 520 260 RP

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Champion Sales

Add these champions to your roster:

Lucian 975 487 RP	Shyvana 880 440 RP	Akali 790 395 RP

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