srijeda, 24. lipnja 2015.

RED POST COLLECTION: DEV BLOG ON VFX & TEAM UP WEEK'S A WRAP


Table of Contents


Dev Blog: Visual Effects in League of Legends

First up we have Riot Phoenix with a developer blog on visual effects in League of Legends!
"Hi everyone! We’re the the visual effects team at Riot Games and, with a few of our mini “VFX updates” heading out into the world, we wanted to take this opportunity to talk about what visual effects are in League of Legends. 
When explaining visual effects - or VFX for short - it’s easy to say, “we design the look of champion abilities,” but what does that really mean? 
When you think of your favorite champions in a game of League, you usually include their Q, W, E, and R abilities but, from the VFX perspective, there’s much more that makes up a character. Xerath, for instance, is a being of pure arcane power. Here is what we start with: 
And then we add VFX!
Quite a lot of feeling is portrayed with visual effects!
One of the main goals of visual effects is to convey the fantasy. Imagine you’re a sexy gunner named Miss Fortune. When you press R, you want to be shooting waves of bullets, destroying your enemies while you laugh hysterically. You want those bullets to feel powerful! Now let’s add the Arcade Miss Fortune skin on top of that; the effect still has to read as Bullet Time while also conveying that simple, pixelated theme that classic arcade games are known for. We work closely with the amazing concept department to help us narrow down the shape and color of an effect.
You can see the in-game version is our own interpretation of the desired concept. That’s not to say we are limited as artists to the concept, but it’s a great starting point to have the framework of what shapes and colors you are working toward before you actually dive into production.
Spawning many minions then using an ability will show damage radius, making it easy to identify the range of the visual needed to accurately represent gameplay. 
Along with conveying the fantasy, gameplay clarity plays a key role in VFX. League of Legends, after all, is a competitive game, and ideally no visual should take away from clarity. Clearly designing the visual to fit gameplay space is imperative for a fast paced, competitive game.
Ryze using his Q and R’d Q, side by side. 
It’s important that the elements that make up an effect clearly tell the size and directionality of an ability without being distracting or too subtle. Sometimes maintaining a spell’s clarity can be a difficult task, especially when working with thematics that just don’t work with clear constraints. A Nami Bubble lends itself well as a round, targeted spot on the ground, but what about Mordekaiser’s Siphon of Destruction? There’s a generally accepted ‘cone of fire,’ but the challenge comes in clearly communicating that area of effect while also representing that in an artistically pleasing way.
It’s a Siphon of Destruction! 
When it comes to executing against the above values, there are always opportunities for us to improve. We mentioned this earlier, but the main reason we kicked off this dev blog was because the VFX team, like other parts of the Champion Update team, realized we could add value in our own unique way. As such, several VFX artists have worked tirelessly on updating a few champions to better align them with League’s current art style, champion fantasy, and gameplay clarity. The first four of these champions are: Galio, Nautilus, Corki, and Brand. We’ll soon follow up with Shyvana, Nunu, Mordekaiser, and Rumble!
Obviously the League of Legends Champion Update team is continuing to work hard on full-scale updates but, like how we’ve done with texture updates, we’re always looking for opportunities to add value where we can. This round of VFX updates are the first in our experimental wave and, if we hear good feedback from everyone, maybe we can continue to do work in this space! 
We will be doing a few more in-depth posts on how we actually go about creating visual effects, so stay tuned!"
If you'd like to take a look at the Brand, Corki, Galio, and Nautilus VFX updates that are mentioned above and are coming to live in 5.12, check these videos:

As mentioned above, Mordekaiser, Nunu, Rumble, and Shyvana will soon be receiving updates!

Final Team Up Week Update - June 22nd - Level 5 Unlocked

Team Up Week is now over! Between June 15th and June 21st, the community has been participating in TEAM UP WEEK! During the last week, each server has collectively been earning points by playing matchmade games with five player premade groups and sending gifts to other players to earn various Pool Party that will go out to  all participating players by July 1st.

The final community point total, as of June 22nd is just over 45 million meaning we've unlocked a Party IP weekend from 6/26 through 6/28!
With the event now over, here's a recap of what rewards we've unlocked:
  • [ACHIEVED 6/17] At 5 million points, we'll unlock Team UP IP rewards, granting +100% bonus IP for playing with a five player premade group.
  • [ACHIEVED 6/19] At 15 million points, we'll earn a ton of sales including the champions, skins, tshirts, ARAM skin boosts, and more! These will start up on 6/26.
  • [ACHIEVED 6/20] At 25 million points, we'll unlock a Pool Party themed summoner icon & a free Mystery Champion for anyone who has connected to the Facebook Friend discovery feature
  • [ACHIEVED 6/21] At 35 million points, we'll have Pool Party themed minions enabled for the duration of patch 5.12
  • [ACHIEVED 6/22] At 45 million points, we'll unlock a Party IP Weekend at the end of June
  • [NOT ACHIEVED] At 55 million points, everyone who contributed during Team Up Week will receive the upcoming Pool Party Mundo skin for free

Be sure to check the Team Up & Pool Party Hub for more information and an FAQ on the all the rewards they community has unlocked over the last week!

As a reminder for when to expect everything - the bundle of sales is set to start on June 26th and run through July 2nd. The pool party summoner icon will be distributed by June 27th. The Mystery Champion will be distributed by July 1st. The Party IP weekend will run between 6/26 & 6/28. Pool Party Minions will be enabled for the duration of patch 5.12.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

With the Team Up Week wrapping up, here's Riot's summary of what the community achieved with their total of 45.3 million points:
"During Team Up Week, the community came together, partying up and giving gifts to hit 45.3 million, good enough to reach level 5. Head below to find a big list of everything you earned, and when you can expect it.

Level 1:
  • Team Up IP rewards were on for most of last week and wrapped at the end of Team Up Week.

Level 2:
  • All sales unlocked from 6/26-7/2.
  • Pool Party Palooza bundle featuring all Pool Party content
  • Frozen Pool Party bundle with Poro Rider Sejuani, Winter Wonder Orianna, and Snow Day Malzahar
  • 50% off the original Pool Party skins & champs (RP price)
  • 25% off ARAM skin boost
  • Team up & Tee up sale: all shirts $17.50 (30% off) at Riot Merch

Level 3:
  • Pool Party Icon
  • Unlocked by 6/27 for all eligible players
  • You must have contributed points during Team Up Week to unlock the icon
  • You must have played positively from February to now to unlock the icon
  • Mystery Champion
  • Mystery Champion unlocked by 7/1 for all eligible players
  • You must link your Facebook and League accounts to unlock the Mystery Champ;Here’s how

Level 4
  • Every lane’s a luau with Pool Party minions; they’ll make a splash for all of patch 5.12

Level 5
  • It’s not just a Pool Party, it’s a Party IP Weekend from 6/26-6/28
That’s it! Thanks so much for teaming up. Enjoy the Pool Party!" 

Following the announcement, Riot NaKyle popped on the boards to reply to feedback about the event's 6 stretch goal was too hard to achieve:
"Quote:
I still get the feeling that the level 6 stretch goal (free Pool Party Mundo) was intentionally impossible to achieve through team play. I also have the strongest feeling that the eCommerce team wanted players to buy and spend RP on the event and didn't explain fully that this was required to reach level 6.
If eCommerce and Riot decide to do this again, this notion that players with means need to spend money so the entire community can get something free needs to be put front and center and not implied through really vague promises and statements. 
Congratulations to the community for reaching stage 5, and shame on Riot for purposefully making a community goal that couldn't be reached without requiring the purchase of RP.
Hey! 
Lots of folks contributed hard work and great ideas for this promo, but I'm the guy who wrote most of the words, so a good chunk of what you're highlighting falls on my side of things. 
We'd never intentionally set you up to fail. The major problem is that we failed to message that later levels were genuine stretch goals, rather than easy mode, feel good point totals the community would rush past. That's on me and other publishing folks who worked on the event. 
On the RP front, it's about balance. When we made the decision to include gifting in the promo, it unlocked the ability to responsibly go bigger with the rewards. We've never done this before, and the tuning here wasn't perfect. I'm not the best guy (just a writer) to detail the decision process here, but that's a basic framework. 
As with everything, we're learning. It's only our second community rewards style event, and our first on a global scale. I hope this helps some.
When asked about the communities awareness of the event going on, particularly in the first few days, Riot NaKyle noted:
To elaborate a bit on awareness issues, we were on the front page of the client, the patcher and the website every day of the event. Surrender@20 and Reddit saw some pretty significant activity around the event too, so I'm not sure I agree that visibility was a huge issue. 
The problem I see was understanding. It wasn't immediately apparent what the event was or how to participate IF you never read the webpage. If we could do it over again, I'd push to find a way, even if it was dumb and non-interactive, to get the community point meter into the client. That would've helped more people understand what was happening.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In case you missed it on the TU & PP page, here's a 1920 x 1080 version of the Pool Party splash.
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CHAMPION REVEAL: TAHM KENCH, THE RIVER KING


"We’ve almost finished dredging up League’s latest monstrosity! Tahm Kench is a tough solo lane or support tank with a taste for… well, pretty much everything. He’ll happily munch down on an enemy champion once he’s slathered them up, stowing them in his sizeable belly - and out of a fight - while the River King’s allies leverage their advantage. But Tahm Kench’s stomach isn’t reserved solely for his enemies: after swallowing an ally, the tanky fish-man can dive into one of his signature whirlpools before throwing himself towards the enemy team.


Passive: An Acquired Taste

Tahm Kench applies a stack of An Acquired Taste to all enemy champions he hits with basic attacks or damaging abilities. Once he’s applied three stacks, he can interact with them… differently.

Q: Tongue Lash

Tahm Kench roots himself briefly while launching his tongue in a target direction. Tongue Lash stops once it hits a target, damaging and slowing minions and monsters, while damaging and slowing enemy champions unless they have three stacks of An Acquired Taste - then he stuns them instead.

W: Devour

Tahm Kench briefly swallows a nearby targeted unit. Enemies suffer a portion of their max health as magic damage. In addition:

  • Minions and monsters: Once Tahm Kench Devours an enemy minion or monster, he can reactivate the ability to spit them out in a target direction. They deal damage to whoever they hit.
  • Allied Champions: When Tahm Tahm Kench devours an allied champion, he renders his ally immune from damage and gains extra movement speed when he heads toward enemy champions. Both Tahm Kench and his edible ally can choose when the latter leaves.
  • Enemy Champions: Tahm Kench can only Devour enemy champions once he’s applied three stacks of An Acquired Taste to them. His movement speed is drastically reduced while enemy champs - who suffer greatly reduced vision and can only see things immediately around the River King - are in his belly.

E: Thick Skin

Passive: All damage Tahm Kench takes is turned into grey health. Once he leaves combat, the grey health falls off, healing him for a portion of the amount of grey health he’s earned.
Active: Tahm Kench converts his grey health into a shield that quickly falls off.

R: Abyssal Voyage

Passive: All of Tahm Kench’s damage scales with his maximum health.
Active: Tahm Kench opens his maw, offering an ally a spot inside his belly. Once they jump in, or once Tahm Kench decides he’s diving solo, he starts channeling, conjuring a whirlpool beneath him before diving in, reappearing a few seconds later at his target location. Abyssal Voyage has a huge range, but the ability is pretty well telegraphed by its lengthy cast.

Support 
Tahm Kench makes for a fine support thanks to his unrivalled ability to save his marksman from otherwise impending death. Once he’s wobbled into lane, his main role is to stick with his lane buddy, making sure they’re safe and able to farm at will. If the enemy manages to slow or stun his ally, Tahm Kench simply Devours them before heading to safety. The effect lasts longer than most crowd control abilities, so even if the enemy team manages to land a perfect catch on the River King’s marksman, Tahm Kench effectively cleanses it before repositioning somewhere safer. What’s more, should he end up on the receiving end of enemy attacks as he waddles away, Thick Skin’s passive offers the River King plenty of regenerative support. Finally, even if the enemy team commits to trading in lane, Tahm Kench can turn his attention to the enemy damage dealer, slathering them up with his passive before Devouring them to create a super powerful - albeit temporary - two vs one scenario. 
His versatility really shines in ganks, too. Aside from offering his ally the same unmatched protection during enemy ganks, he can get pretty mouthy in allied ganks, too. Meandering out of lane under the pretense of warding, Tahm Kench can meet up with his jungler before using Abyssal Voyage to set up a gank.
"Boy the world's one river, and I'm its king. Ain't no place I ain't been. Ain't no place I can''t go again"

Solo Lane

Tahm Kench is tanky enough to take a licking as well as give one, so he's best positioned amongst his minions when he heads to a solo lane. From there the River King’s free to last hit and trade with his opponent as he sees fit. The thing to remember with Tahm Kench is that even when he goes even in trades, he wins thanks to Thick Skin’s passive, which regenerates enough of the River King’s health to make otherwise questionable trades more palatable. If it looks like the enemy’s trying to all-in him, Tahm Kench can Devour his enemy for a burst of damage and some uninhibited healing, or, if he hasn’t applied enough stacks of his passive, activate Thick Skin for a life-saving shield. 
But how does the velvet-voiced monstrosity actually fight? Well, most of his early poke and harass comes from Tongue Lash. Fishing for direct hits on enemy champions, or better still, pulling off the stun, should give Tahm Kench the edge in most of his tank battles. But once he’s fully applied An Acquired Taste to his snakebit target, he has far more tricks to show them than a measly stun. Devour is a deeply versatile ability that gives the River King options aplenty, even during the early stages of the game. He can munch down on his lane opponent as they push up to the tower, then, with clever timing, spit them out behind his tower just as it obliterates the last of the minions. Better still, Tahm Kench can Devour his enemy as his jungler comes in for a gank. His hapless victim won’t see their approaching death thanks to the greatly reduced vision they suffer from while inside, and once they slip back out of the monster’s maw, they’ll struggle to do anything other than… well, die.
"This hunger's a burden, but it's the last time, I swear. So please, forgive."

Skirmishing
Even as early as level six, Tahm Kench can start freely roaming, using Abyssal Voyage to quite literallydive behind unsuspecting enemies. Thanks to his expansive gut, Abyssal Voyage also gives the River King the option to bring the party with him as he ults around. He can, for instance, buddy up with his nearby jungler and ult over to mid, setting up a quick three versus one scenario. Even if their target flashes to their tower, Tahm Kench can lead the tower diving incursion, using Thick Skin to absorb the tower’s shots while his allies secure the kill. 
These tactics have legs around neutral objectives, too. By ulting with his own jungler, Tahm Kench can quickly reposition to baron or dragon to stall or steal the enemy team’s kill. Once they arrive, the River King’s role is to annoy his enemies with Tongue Lash while keeping Devour at hand if his allies get dangerously low. Thick Skin plays its part here, shielding Tahm Kench’s muculent form from excessive heat should he draw it. When the time comes, all he has to do is Devour the enemy jungler and lurch away from the objective - even though they can still theoretically smite inside the River King’s belly, junglers can’t ever smite the things they can’t see. 
Teamfights

Tahm Kench becomes quite the champion connoisseur as the two teams come together, with a role that revolves around one fundamental culinary question: who does he eat? As the fight starts breaking out, he needs to carefully watch as the health bars begin dropping, smacking approaching enemy damage-dealers with Tongue Lash to slow or, if he’s been busy with his basic attacks, stun them. Positioning’s key here, too: if he situates himself in the enemy team, Tahm Kench is perfectly placed to disrupt and otherwise annoy the enemy team’s most powerful champions. Using Thick Skin’s shield to absorb damage should keep the River King ticking for long enough to fully stack An Acquired Taste, after which he can lunch. Pulling a powerful enemy out of a closely-contested fight, even for a few seconds, will often completely turn the tide, allowing Tahm Kench’s allies to take down - or mop up - the enemy team before the loquacious amphibian vomits out the final vestige of the enemy team. It’s not pretty, but it’s pretty damn effective.

Alternatively, Tahm Kench can stick to his backline and peel for his allies while aiming his ingestive instincts closer to home. Tongue Lash’s slow will buy his backline seconds against approaching killers, but if even that fails, Tahm Kench still has a trick up his sleeve… scales… whatever. See, once most marksman get caught by the enemy team, it’s curtains for them, but not with the River King on their team. By sidling up and Devouring his ailing ally, Tahm Kench can quickly reposition and deposit them somewhere safer. Immediately back in the fight - and with the enemy assassins and fighters rid of their precious gap closers - Tahm Kench and his ally should be safely squared away to wreak havoc from afar.

Synergy 
Works well with: 
Swain - the Master Tactician
The bird may be the word, but teamfight initiation is the key when Swain and Tahm Kench buddy up for fights. The Master Tactician is an absolute nightmare when he gets into the heart of the enemy team, but traditionally lacks the means to actually get there. That’s where Tahm Kench comes in. By taking an Abyssal Voyage directly behind the enemy team, Swain just has to jump out, hit his buttons, and watch his enemies die.

Kog'Maw - the Mouth of the Abyss
Tahm Kench sloshes around perfectly inside a “Protect The Kog” team comp. As the enemy attacks come pouring in to take down League’s cutest void puppy, Tahm Kench can just Devour the little guy and spit him out at safe distance. Essentially, Tahm Kench has exactly the tool - or mouth - needed to cover Kog’Maw’s glaring lack of escapes.

Sejuani - the Winter's Wrath
Sejuani and Tahm Kench come into their own during the later stages of the game, particularly whenever sieges start forming. If his team’s struggling to defend a tower, the River King can take Sejuani on an Abyssal Voyage behindthe enemy team, instantly flanking them and setting up an easy teamfight for Sejuani to toss a Glacial Prison into.
Struggles against:
Struggles Against: 
Vayne - the Night Hunter
While Tahm Kench’s Devour makes meals out of most marksmen, Vayne’s a slippery old fish thanks to Tumble. Worse still, her silver bolts devastate high health champions like the River King, who struggles to even eat his allies when Vayne’s in the picture. She can condemn Tahm Kench away from his ally, and even if he does manage to Devour his marksman, Vayne can chase with Night Hunter before firing off her low-cooldown abilities once again.

Janna - the Storm's Fury
Flanking the enemy team becomes a lot less enticing when the enemy team boasts Janna among its champions. Cast Abyssal Voyage behind the enemy team and Janna just has to cast Monsoon, turning a favourable five vs five into a tragic two vs five. Even if the remainder of Tahm Kench’s team try to engage, Janna has plenty of speed boosts, slows and knock-ups to ensure the fight stays favorable for her team.

Gnar - the Missing Link
Tahm Kench can take a beating in solo lanes, sure, but not the kind of beating that Gnar dishes out. In mini form, he has all the range, mobility, and percent health damage to boomerang down the River King from range. And once he goes mega, he still brings literal tons of damage while rocking enough health to withstand Tahm Kench’s retaliations.
“Now that meal? It left me satisfied. So cry if you want boy, ‘cause you had a chance to walk away. Instead, you're the fool, the fool who let me in."
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RED POST COLLECTION: TAHM KENCH DISCUSSION, 5.12 PATCH RUNDOW, FIORA UPDATE BEING WORKED ON, BILGEWATER, & MORE



Table of Contents



Tahm Kench Discussion

Following his champion reveal and PBE debut, several Rioters dove on to reddit and the boards to talk about our next champion Tahm Kench, the River King.
To start things off if you were wondering how to pronounce "Tahm Kench", ZenonTheStoic noted:
[1] "Tahm rhymes with mom"
He also tweeted out a link to him pronouncing Tahm Kench .


As for the actual design of the Devour ability, he noted they've been wanting to use it for a while:
"Yeah--devour in any shape or form has been a thing we've been keen to get on a kit for a while. It was on Gnar's kit last year."

Meddler also noted a few specifics relating to Devour and CC effects, explaining:
"Tahm can be CC'd while he's got a unit devoured. 
Tahm can devour units (friend or foe) that are themselves CC'd. 
Units devoured by Tahm are untargetable, so can't be hit by further CC while inside his belly."

When asked about the possibility of jungling as Tahm Kench and what exactly he can Devour , fizznchipsnoted:
"He can't eat baron, dragon, blue or red buff. Everything else is on the menu. 
[Blue = Ally currently devoured and within Tahm Kench]

When asked what happens when you Devour an ally Fiddlesticks who has his ultimate going, fizznchips noted:
"Same as Swain - Fiddle will keep on ulting and do his AoE thang."
ZenonTheStoic added in:
"Works with Kennen too! Plus you get movement speed toward the enemy with an ally in you"

When asked about using Devour on Katarina or Nunu while they are using R, ZenonTheStoic clarified:
"That's a channel. Channeling allies are immune to devour."
[Red = Enemy currently devoured and withing Tahm Kench]

As for options to place units you've Devoured , he clarified:
"You can spit allies. Enemies are deposited right in front of you."
As for how long allies can remain in the safety of Tahm Kench's stomach, fizznchips noted:
"Currently allied devour lasts up to 6 seconds at max rank!"
ZenonTheStoic also noted you can not use teleport or flash with a unit Devoured :
"Teleport and flash are disabled with a unit in your belly."
He continued, noting you also can not take a Thresh lantern:
"You can't use lantern with an enemy inside of you :("
Phreak also commented on the similarities between Skarner and Tahm Kench's Devour :
"Keep in mind Tahm Kench is heavily slowed when eating an enemy champion and still has to stack his passive beforehand. He doesn't have NEARLY the same kidnapping potential of Skarner."

ZenonTheStoic also commented on some ridiculous situations you could get into with him eating enemy champions:
"Yes. We're going full clown car! You can Kalista ult a Tahm who has eaten the enemy Kalista who has ulted her support. clown noises"
As for what happens if Tahm Kench Devours a Lucian that is using R, ZenonTheStoic noted:
"He. Continues. Ulting. 
(I'm not even joking) (enemy Lucians stop ulting though; it's a CC for the enemy)"
As for the duration of his passive stacks, fizzandchips explained they are not consumed by Q -
"Nope! They're not consumed by the Q. They're only lost when they time out, or when Tahm Kench eats an enemy champ"
He also clarified you can only apply stacks to enemy champions:
" You can only apply passive stacks to enemy champions."
When asked if Tahm Kench's ult does damage on arrival and how you can get him to drop what he has in his stomach, ZenonTheStoic noted:
"No damage on arrival. It's purely a Taxi skill--think Twisted Fate ult with an ally, but much slower. As for stuns, nope; you cannot make Tahm drop what's in his belly other than by killing him."
As for if Tahm Kench can devour an enemy then use his R to port them away, he clarified:
"No, the ult is disabled while he has a target in his belly. Sorry!"

When asked about his viability in the top lane, ZenonTheStoic noted:
"We initially made him as a top laner, but ally devour was just too good. He WANTS to be a support. 
I still think he works in top lane."
fizznchips added:
"The way designers think of these things, they create champions of a certain role that is, to some degree, position agnostic. I believe Tahm was a tank first and foremost - as it happens, he can be played in the top and support position."

When asked about Tahm Kench's expansive voiceover, RiotUtora noted:
":) Tahm has a ridiculous amount of VO. He also has 46 (i think) enemy specific taunts and 46 ally specific taunts. You're going to want to spam taunt in game to find out who has them! 
Also, Tahm has an unique aggressive mode where he'll play special lines - more aggressive lines when he has at least 2 stacks of his passive on someone or an enemy has been devoured. He has aggressive move, attack, and basic attack efforts for when he's in this frequent, but short lived mode. 
He'll also have some lovely critiques on the flavor of enemies he spits out ;)"
Utora continued:
"I believe we recorded lines for almost everyone, but had to cut down for size and quality...some were better than others."
ZenonTheStoic also commented on the Chinese video leak calling him "Tamm", explaining::
"Nah it's always been Tahm. I believe Tamm was translated back from Mandarin? 
The leak was totally non-malicious, by the way. Just an honest oopsie on our partner's side, and it only made us release the teaser a few hours early. In the grand scheme of things, really really minor. First champion I worked on that didn't get majorly leaked!"

fizznchips also noted they will have a separate insights post in the future:
"Actually, we are doing this for Tahm! Insights used to be a part of the reveal, but for this guy (and potentially all champs in the future) we're separating and making it a longer article you'll see in a couple of days."

ZenonTheStoic also tweeted out a fun tidbit on Tahm Kench's development regarding his coat:
[1] "During concepting, we decided that one coat would never do for a champion as enormous as Tahm." 
[2] "We decided, in his back story, that he sewed two coats together. You can still see this on his model. His code name was "Two-Coats"" 
[3] "And as always, the inimitable @RiotFeralPony made us some placeholder loading screen art: "
As for Tahm Kench's fancy hat, ZenonTheStoic noted:
"It used to be a fez. FEZ TANK!"

In response to someone noting that both Bard and Tahm Kench's splash art feels like Ghibli characters,ZenonTheStoic teased:
"Funny you say that! Chris Campbell was the concept artist on both of these. His next design, though... but we're getting ahead of ourselves."

Patch Rundown 5.12 - Enter the Runeglaive

With 5.12 out on live, Scarizard, Jatt, and Zirene are back for a patch rundown discussing some of the larger changes in the recent patch.

"Join Scarizard, Zirene and Riot Jag as they discuss the upcoming changes to inhib turrets, mage junglers, Elise, and a certain root-tastic blue man."

Fiora update actively being worked on

When asked for an update on Fiora's rework and what it might entail, Meddler commented she's actively being worked on in game play and art:
"Fiora's being actively worked on right now, both in terms of gameplay and art adjustments. She's not one of the next updates out (those'll be GP and MF), but will probably be one of the next updates after them. 
On the gameplay side the guiding pillar's remained 'Grand Duelist', with abilities focused on dueling enemies, with speed and timing emphasized. Single target damage and mobility are likely to remain her strengths. She'll probably end up with a bit of situational CC and a bit more disengage than at present, though in exchange have a somewhat less guaranteed combat pattern (e.g. we've been testing a Q dash that's free targeted, rather than certain to hit once cast). In terms of existing weaknesses we expect she'll continue to lack AOE power and will still be a non tanky melee damage dealer. More details/discussion to follow closer to her release of course."

Champion Changes Relative to AP Itemization Changes

When asked about the fate of champions like Vladimir who seem to come out ahead from Xypherous'tentative set of 5.13 core AP itemization changes, FeralPony noted:
"In a change set like the AP item changes, with so many moving pieces, it's a bit unclear to what extent champions will be buffed/nerfed and more importantly to what degree. While sometimes it's useful to address champion balance preemptively, that can sometimes be a trap - we saw this pretty recently with the DFG removal. We vastly overestimated the effect of removing DFG (which did next to no real change for almost all the champions power levels) - and the compensation buffs we included in that patch (Ex- Ahri) were totally overkill. It's also possible if a specific item is out of whack after the changes we would make a followup change to the item, instead of changing the X champions it impacted. 
That said, there are a few champions we're keeping a close eye on that could be buffed by a good margin after the changes (Vlad and Rumble are among them) which can addressed in the next patch once we as designers, and folks in the community have a better grasp of the impact and adjust to the changes. 
-Feral"
He continued:
"Quote:
Don't you think it's better to preemptively nerf? Since if they wind up overpowered they'll dominate games for the entirety of the patch, but if you accidentally make them underpowered you would still get an above-average amount of data since everyone on day 1 wants to try their "old main" [insert champ here] who got "majorly buffed" by item changes.

Depends there are two basic approaches if you're convinced a champion will get a significant power spike after an indirect change. 
1- You pre-emptively change a character. This can be potentially a perception problem if the community disagrees with the assessment, or a balance problem if you're wrong. 
2- You wait and assess the changes. This runs the risk of not reacting quickly to problematic game balance states, but since we patch often this risk is relatively low, but gives the bonus of being able to learn from the changes and make a more informed decision. 
However, if you're uncertain of the extent of the changes, like in this case, taking action in an uncertain system muddies the waters, making it more difficult to understand what actually happened, and can backfire heavily if you're wrong. As a result we're choosing the wait and see approach, so we get a better understanding of the impact of the changes before taking action."

New Reform Systems Rolling out to other regions soon

Following launches on NA, EUW, and EUW launches at the end of May, Lyte tweeted out that the new reform system will soon be rolling out to other servers soon:
[1] "We're going to try to get the new Reform Systems out in Turkey, Russia, Latin America, Brazil and Korea this Thursday. #LeagueOfLegends"

[2] "Oceania has a few issues we're working through to launch the new Reform System there, but shouldn't be long. #LeagueOfLegends"

Lyte on the new TB experience

Speaking of the player behavior team, Lyte also jumped on reddit to comment on the upcoming Team Builder changes, giving a few details on how things will work including a new fill option and choosing multiple positions when entering a TB:
"We've changed a couple fundamental things in the new Team Builder experience that addresses this problem too. 
1) Players will only have to choose 2 Positions (i.e = Top or Jungle), and we'll create a team based on players' preferences. We're still playing around with whether 2 positions is the right number. 
2) By popular demand, we're introducing a new "Fill" position for players. 
3) Players will no longer need to choose a Champion before entering the new Champion Select. 
These are just 3 of the tweaks to the new Team Builder experience that make it a much faster, much more streamlined experience (and still fun and understandable to new players in League). We'll be talking about some of the bigger changes to the actual Champion Select in the near future. We hope that players prefer this experience to every other queue when it comes out! 
As a side note, because we're already deep into the new Team Builder experience, we're not going to backwards patch or fix "Team Builder Classic" and will just leave it as-is until we replace some of these older experiences with the new Team Builder."
When asked if this "new Team Builder experience" is the draft version of Team Builder he's been mentioning for the last few months, Lyte noted:
"We're calling it Team Builder Draft right now, and it'll be the new Normal Draft and Ranked experiences in League in the future."
He continued, noting it is the main project of the behavior team at the moment:
"Definitely a thing. We're focused on it as our main project right now."
As for when, what, and how, he continued:
"We're still figuring out the roll-out plans, but the "ranked" version of the Team Builder experience is pretty damn fun."

As for dealing with intentional feeders, Lyte commented:
"The new Instant Feedback System will handle intentional feeders pretty soon. Our goal is to stop intentional feeders by their 2nd or 3rd games."

When asked about a better way to deal with leavers and afk players, Lyte noted:
"Actually, LeaverBuster deals with AFKs and Leavers pretty damn well. You can read about it some more here:[link] 
In the future, we'll do a small update to it so that when players fail to connect to a game and a game starts 4v5, we'll allow players to just reboot the game without penalties."

How to unlock your Mystery Champion

After being unlocked by the community during the Team Up week event, all players are eligible to received a free Mystery champion by July 1st for linking up to the Friend Discovery feature.

Here's Riot NaKyle with a rundown on the reward and how to sign up!
"Ding! The community’s moved past level 3 during last week’s Team Up and Pool Party. That means everyone can nab a Mystery Champion (a random champ you don’t own, unlocked for free) by connecting League and Facebook. Friend discovery’s only function is to surface IRL friends that also play League. Add ‘em or not, it’s up to you. 
You can find the friend discovery feature when you click the “Add Friends” button in the client’s social pane. We expect to ship out the Mystery Champions by July 1. If you’ve already signed up for the feature since it’s launched, you’ll unlock a Mystery Champion too. 
If you’ve got questions about the feature, we’ve got a FAQ for that."

Possible Bilgewater Event coming up soon

Last up we have an rather interesting red post that went up early yesterday but was quickly deleted.
The now deleted thread is titled "Building Buther's Bridge: the Bilgewater Event". This thread linked to an empty new page with the same title. This page popped up in the announcements board and was also visible in the red tracker for a very short time before being removed.

No other information is available, although it certainly does seem like the sails are almost set for Bilgewater fun considering Gangplank and Miss Fortune are also on the champion update schedule.
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