This afternoon's red post collection includes the September sale schedule, a look at the August 17th hotfix to live, Scarizard noting there are Zyra changes coming in 5.17, the NA server moving to Chicago on August 25th, the Riot Games Engineering Tech blog, a fan artist feature on MonoriRogue, and more!

Table of Contents

September sales schedule

The September sales schedule , a list of all champions & skins that will be discounted next month during the weekly sales, has been posted.

"Check out all the champs and skins on sale this September. Like previous sales schedules, we’re not posting the exact dates for each champ and skin, but they’ll all be on sale sometime next month, so keep an eye out.

Just a heads up – since we’re publishing these in advance, we won’t offer partial refunds on content bought before it’s on sale."





August 17th Patch Update

" 8/17/2015

Gangplank

THIEVERY - Gangplank can no longer get Q - Parrrley's bonus gold through normal last hitting via a bug with E - Powder Keg"

Zyra Changes in 5.17

Scarizard

"Debunking this. Zyra will not be receiving a rework (or at least not for quite some time) - though she is getting changes in 5.17. I don't have any details to share with you about those, but they most definitely will not be close to a 'rework'."

Scruffy

"My gut tells me that we would probably target more or less the same. Strong/viable in support role with an option for mid as a not top tier but fun side option. We don't have any specific plans with her right now, but that is how I'd feel when we started that conversation.

Does this sit right with you guys?"

"Cool, glad I asked. IMO we can aim for a good at both option like a lot of our Top/Jung champs or some of the ADC/Mids that work well. If there's strong support for mid Zyra, no reason to not support it."

NA Server Roadmap Update: NA Server Move on 8/25

Riot Ahab

"TL;DR: On August 25, the NA game servers will move to a new, centralized location in Chicago, Illinois. This move, along with other components of the NA Server Roadmap, should improve connection quality for the vast majority of NA players. West Coast players will see an uptick in raw ping numbers, but should also see that uptick mitigated by connection improvements in the form of better overall stability and reduced packet loss. We’ll follow up the server move with a weekend stress test (complete with Party IP) from August 28 - 30. More details below.



Over the last couple weeks, we’ve shared a bunch of the details behind the upcoming move to new game servers in Chicago, Illinois, as well as our latest testing of the new infrastructure. Today, we’re ready to announce both a date - August 25 - and our plan for the day of the server move.



The Plan

Considering the level of activity handled by the NA game servers, our main priority is ensuring maximum safety and minimum disruption. To that end, on the 25th we’ll kick off a phased, zero-downtime transfer of server activity at off-peak hours, with game starts steadily re-allocated to Chicago in escalating fashion over the course of the transfer period. Keep in mind your game starts may hop back and forth between Chicago and Portland if you’re playing during this period. By the end of the day, all games will be supported out of Chicago, with Portland reverting to a disaster-recovery backup while we continue to gather data and make any required adjustments. Tentatively, we’re shooting for around 5 AM PDT to 12 PM (noon) PDT as the transfer window, during which ranked play will be disabled.

Given our extensive preparation and the lack of downtime, the most likely outcome is that you won’t notice any disruption on your end, but we’re also preparing for any and all contingencies. For example, we already know that we’ll very likely have to troubleshoot emergent local routing issues that crop up in the days following the server move. Worst case, we encounter significant issues and temporarily roll back to the current Portland servers so you all encounter minimal downtime or disrupted play as we fix any major problems.

On the 25th, we'll also offer free transfers directly to players located in the US and Canada who are currently playing on other servers - look for a transfer email from us and a free transfer option in the store on your account!

After the move itself has been successfully completed, we want to roll right into a stress test weekend from August 28 - 30 to observe how well the new game servers handle peak traffic. To help make sure we really put the new Chicago infrastructure through its paces, we’re enabling Party IP over the weekend - check out the details below in case you need a refresher.

Number of players in party --> Bonus IP awarded

2 --> 100% bonus

3 --> 150% bonus

4 --> 200% bonus

5 --> 300% bonus You earn rewards win or lose, but only if you’re in a party with at least one other player. Make sure to log in, help us test, and earn extra IP from August 28th, 00:00 PDT through August 30th, 23:59 PDT!



Beyond the Switch

As I mentioned earlier, in the days following the move the Roadmap team will be working to make sure your connections are taking the most efficient possible paths on our dedicated network to the new game servers. As you might imagine, moving the server destination requires quite a bit of recalibration of preexisting network paths. Most will be well-aligned by the time Chicago is live, but internet infrastructure can get pretty complicated and there will likely be some straggling connections that aren’t getting to Chicago as fast as they could be. Next week, look for a support megathread for troubleshooting potential network pathing problems by testing your connection to Chicago and sending us traceroute info from your machines.

While the Chicago move will complete our outlined milestones for the NA Server Roadmap, there will always be more to do on the service front. ISPs will change, routes will merge, and the landscape may shift, so multiple teams here at Riot will remain dedicated to making sure players across the US and Canada experience the best possible connection while playing League. One consistent task will be signing and maintaining peering agreements with ISPs across the US and Canada - check out our latest peering list in this thread.

We’ll be back with final details and reminders over the next week, but in the meantime we’re also happy to address any immediate questions you may have in the comments below!"

Riot Preeti

"In NA, we're running Party IP as part of our stress test weekend, but some other regions are planning their own Party IP events. Stay tuned for news from those regions very soon!

"EUW and EUN will be hosting Party IP weekend. :)"

Draggles

"note: not a tech guy, so bear with me.



A bit of context into that:

I've gotta be honest, we were a little scared. Here's the post we released when Amsterdam came online, and the tl;dr is we were too confident in our ability to switch over quickly. What was a predicted 6 hour downtime turned into 24 hours*, and waiting for that Leagues data to transfer was excruciating for sure. This was the first time that a move of this scale had happened (much more than just EUW's game servers moved with the Amsterdam switchover).

Needless to say since that time our live services and engineering teams learnt a lot on how to tackle these sorts of moves. We will have a ton more information on our improvements to Riot Direct soon (for real, not Soon™), and you can read about our last update here.

However, I can confirm that the party IP weekend described above will be extended to Europe as well!

*23 hours and 57 minutes"

Ahab

"Nope! PBE servers will be staying put for the time being."

"On August 25, the NA game servers are moving to Chicago, IL. We anticipate zero downtime. However, ranked will be disabled from approximately 5:00am PDT to 12:00pm PDT (noon). The migration will take several hours and until it’s complete some games will still be played on the old servers, so you may not immediately see a change in your ping. You may also bounce between Chicago and the old servers from game to game until the migration is complete. Read more about the server move here: http://riot.com/1E3AYXO"

Better name for Darius' Bloodrage

Statikk

"We're currently in the hunt for a better name for the next patch. For the outgoing patch, it will retain its current name Bloodrage, but hopefully we can settle on something we can all agree is better for the next patch.

Thanks for bringing up the concern."

Riot Games launches Engineering Tech Blog



Fan Artist Feature - MonoriRogue Last up we have Jynx with aMonoriRogue!

"Hey Summoners! Next we’re speaking with MonoriRogue, an active community artist from Taiwan who streams regularly, and has a gallery full of awesome champion genderbends.



Follow him on Facebook, DeviantART, and Twitch to see even more of his art!



If you know someone that you'd like to recommend for a future Fan Artist Feature, please let us know here.



How did you get started creating League of Legends fan art? I actually started drawing League stuff before I played the game. Two years ago Garena was holding an art contest for League and I entered, not knowing the characters at the time I didn't even get past the first round! Later on I started receiving more and more commissions for League fan art, that's also the time when I picked up the game, and was drawn in by the diverse and interesting cast of characters. I've been playing and drawing League ever since! What's been your favorite piece to create, and why?



That's a hard one, I like and learn different things from each piece so it's difficult to pick just one! Project: Riven is one that's quite special to me though, it got quite a reaction when it came out and exposed me to a much broader audience! Other than that, I love drawing genderbent champions! Mainly because of the challenge of maintaining the characteristics of a champion even as the opposite sex. The other reason is that I like to draw boobs, and abs. :D Do you have a dream project you’d like to work on?



The dream of genderbending the entire cast of League champs! :D Project: Riven is one that's quite special to me though, it got quite a reaction when it came out and exposed me to a much broader audience!



Other than that, I love drawing genderbent champions! Mainly because of the challenge of maintaining the characteristics of a champion even as the opposite sex. The other reason is that I like to draw boobs, and abs. :D Who’s your inspiration? Do you have any favorite League fan artists?



There's just way too many to fully list! I get inspiration from a wide range of styles; Masamune Shirow, Evan Lee, Rockin Jelly Bean, Zeronis (PK), Krenz, Ryan Church, AMATIZ, Rei Hiroe, toi8, Reiq, Ganassa, Redjuice, Kilart...just to name a few, the list could go on forever! Regarding League of Legends fan artists, I love the work of ptcrow and Nestkeeper , their characters are so vibrant! Loiza for his awesome original skin concepts! And dutomaster for the sexyness! These are just a few off the top of my head, the list could go on and on just like my inspirations! Is there anything else you’d like to share with the community?



I'd like to thank the League community for all the support I've received over the years I've been doing League art! I wouldn't be here without you guys! Your support pushes me to strive to become a better artist! Please don't hesitate to ask me anything, I love discussing art stuff with others and it's a good way to give back something to the community that gave me so much! Finally, let me end with a bit of shameless promotion! I stream most of my League stuff live on Twitch three days a week (Mon/Wed/Fri starting at around 1pm GMT+8), if you're interested in my painting process please feel free to tune in and please don't hesitate to say hi! :)

MonoriRogue’s work was also featured on All Chat recently! Check out the discussion in the episode below." Last up we havewith a fan artist feature on community member

Continue reading for more information!The official 5.15 patch notes have been updated to reflect a Gangplank hotfix that went through late on August 17th.In a reddit thread claimingwas going to be reworked soon, sprouted up to note confirm no Zyra rework is planned but she will have some changes in 5.17On the boards,he continued With the recent news of the NA server move,has posted an update that the NA SERVERS WILL BE MOVING TO CHICAGO ON AUGUST 25th!When asked aboutalso having a bonus IP weekend,On the EU IP weekend and this moves downtime vs the EU Amsterdam server move,also added When asked if the PBE servers would also be moving with NA,The NA service status page also displays this message as reminder of the upcoming move.As part of upcoming rework in 5.16 , his passive has a new effect called "BLOOD RAGE", althoughhas mentioned they are currently looking for a better name for the ability:Riot Games has launched a new engineering tech blog focused on in depth articles on recent projects, ranging from creating a new missile system to building a merch store that can handle LoL's audience!Check out the blog and the new articles here: